Genre:

News-Commentary

Subjects:

Hospitals, Mental Illness, Crime,

    Reports on the recent trials in Derby of a 'rebel army', in which a verdict of high treason was reached. Whilst arguing that the defendants were 'madmen', suggests that '[t]he cells of New Bethlem will next be searched by the spies [... and] should any poor lunatic be found wielding a sceptre of straw, or wearing a crown of paper, he will be arrested forthwith as "levying war against his majesty in his realm"'. Asserts: 'A jury of mad prime ministers picked out of the other cells would think such conduct proof of a most horrible treason; and if an insane judge could be found, he might pronounce sentence of hanging drawing and quartering upon the lunatic' (655).