This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1910. Excerpt: ... decided. By the common law of England it is only a person of unsound mind and dangerous to himself or others that may be restrained of his liberty by another. Such is taken to be law from the case in Bro. Abr. down to the last case on the subject. Mr. Bovill has gravely contended that the plea showed that the plaintiff pretended to be a madman expressly that he might be shut up in an asylum; for that is what his argument amounted to. But no such meaning can be put upon it: it merely states that he acted as a person of unsound mind. Then, shall it be said that the fact of any person acting so as to appear of an unsound mind is to be a justification for another locking him up as a lunatic? It would be most dangerous to the liberty of the subject if such a doctrine were to prevail. Ira furor brevis est; and there are many persons of eccentric habits, but still entirely in possession of their faculties, as we know from cases of contested wills, yet they may be said to be of unsound mind; and it would be monstrous to say that, because some persons chose to suppose they were lunatics, they might be locked up as such. The plea goes on to allege that a certificate of two physicians had been obtained. But where is the authority at common law for saying that if one or two men, physicians, if you will, say that another is a lunatic, that will justify a third person in taking him and confining him as a lunatic? On the other hand, the statute, instead of being of any service to the defendant, affords an argument against him; for the protection given by it to persons acting under certain circumstances in pursuance of it in regard to alleged lunatics would be unnecessary if the merely acting as a person of unsound mind would be sufficient to justify another in arresting...

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