Lord Campbellsaid, that he had then to present the petition of which he had given Notice, from the Prison Board of the County of Fife, on the subject of Criminal Lunatics. He hoped that the attention of Her Majesty's Government would be directed to the matter; and he could assure them that the subject-matter of the petition involved no charge against any Member of the Government, but the petition pointed out a serious defect in the law. The petitioners complained that the law made no provision for the support or maintenance of criminal lunatics in Scotland. There was a provision for the maintenance and dealing with poor lunatics, when they had been guilty of no criminal offence, but there was no provision for criminal pauper lunatics—there was no system for their treatment and cure. In consequence of this they were obliged to be kept in gaol, which was as miserable for them as for the other persons in the same prison with them. The only mode in which they could be dealt with in gaol was to keep them in solitary confinement in cells. The petitioners stated an instance of the defective state of the law. It was the case of a man who had been tried for homicide. There was no doubt as to his having committed the act, but he was a lunatic when he did so, and was consequently acquitted on that plea; but was ordered by the Court of Justiciary to be committed to the Fife county prison till further orders. The petitioners state that they were most anxious to do anything which could mitigate the state of this unhappy man; but in the gaol they had no means of doing so. When this man was first committed he was only a monomaniac; except upon one particular subject he was perfectly rational, and was a very intelligent and clever man. The only course the petitioners could adopt under the circumstances of the case was to place him in a cell in solitary confinement. They had appealed to the Court of Justiciary on the subject, but they could obtain no relief, as there was no public establishment for criminal lunatics, while no private lunatic asylum which they could select would receive him. They had appealed to that excellent and humane Gentleman, the Lord Advocate, but he could give them no redress; and they therefore were obliged to continue to keep him in a cell in solitary confinement in the prison at Cupar. He hoped that some clause to make provision for cases of this kind would be introduced 580 into the Poor Law Bill for Scotland.
Lord Wharncliffewas quite satisfied that the subject called for the serious attention of the Government. There could be no doubt but that the law in Scotland was deficient in this respect; but the subject was one that required great consideration as to the best mode of dealing with it. The law of England was equally deficient on the subject until the Act the 39th George III was passed.
§ Petition read, and ordered to lie on the Table.