Obvious typographical errors have been corrected in this text. For acomplete list, please see the bottom of this document.
London:
printed for j. callow, crown court,
princes street, soho.
Gentlemen,
In the course of the present year, one of our friends, distinguished byrank, fortune, and science, came to me upon the following occasion: Inthe country, he said, a young woman was taken up, and committed to jailto take her trial, for the supposed murder of her bastard child.According to the information which he had received, he was inclined tobelieve, from the circumstances, that she was innocent; and yet,understanding that the minds of the people in that part of the countrywere much exasperated against her, by the popular cry of a cruel andunnatural murder, he feared, though innocent, she might fall a victimto prejudice and blind zeal. What he wished, he said, was to procure anunprejudiced[4] enquiry. He had been informed that it was a subject whichI had considered in my lectures, and made some remarks upon it, whichwere not perhaps sufficiently known, or enough attended to; and hisvisit to me was, to know what these remarks were. I told him what I hadcommonly said upon that question. He thought some of the observations somaterial, that he imagined they might sometimes be the means of savingan innocent life: and if they could upon the present occasion do so,which he thought very possible, he was sure I would willingly take thetrouble of putting them upon paper. Next day I sent them to him in aletter, which I said he was at liberty to use as he might think proper.Some time afterwards he told me that he had great pleasure in thankingme for the letter, and telling me that the trial was over; that theunfortunate young woman was acquitted, and that he had reason to believethat my letter had been instrumental. This having been the subject ofsome conversation one evening at our medical meeting, you remember,Gentlemen, [5]that you thought the subject interesting, and desired me togive you a paper upon it. I now obey your command.
In those unhappy cases of the death of bastard children, as in everyaction indeed that is either criminal or suspicious, reason and justicedemand an enquiry into all the circumstances; and particularly to findout from what views and motives the act proceeded. For, as nothing canbe so criminal but that circumstances might be added by the imaginationto make it worse; so nothing can be conceived so wicked and offensive tothe feelings of a good mind, as not to be somewhat softened orextenuated by circumstances and motives. In making up a just estimate ofany human action, much will depend on the state of the agent's mind atthe time; and therefore the laws of all countries make ample allowancefor insanity. The insane are not held to be responsible for theiractions.[6]<