Genre:

News-Commentary,

Subjects:

Narcotics, Mental Illness, Government, Crime

    Discussing some of the 'remarkable absurdities' uttered at the 'International Temperance and Prohibition Conference at the Hanover Square Rooms', reports the question posed by a Scottish doctor: whether it was 'not inconsistent with equity and the British law' that 'persons convicted of crime committed whilst they were intoxicated' should be punished and treated just like lunatics. Stresses that drunken people should not be treated as lunatics 'when they get sober' and points out that 'It is not only consistent with British Law, but it is a British law-maxim, that drunkenness is no excuse for a crime, but aggravates the offence', and that drunkards and imbeciles should be treated in the same way.