e martë, 3 korrik 2007

'What you have said respecting your father"s condition of mind,' he



observed, 'by no means convinces me that it is so unsound as to render
him irresponsible for his actions
'What you have said respecting your father"s condition of mind,' he
observed, 'by no means convinces me that it is so unsound as to render
him irresponsible for his actions. It were to put a charitable
construction upon his conduct to say that no one but a madman could be
capable of it; but there was too much consistency in what he has said
and done to admit of such an inference. But for the interposition of
another person he owned that he would have killed the King; and the
disappointment he exhibited, and the language he used, prove such to
have been his fixed intention. His mind may have been disturbed; but
what of that? All who meditate great crimes, it is to be hoped, are not
entirely masters of themselves. Yet for that reason they are not to be
exempt from punishment. He who is sane enough to conceive an act of
wickedness, to plan its execution, and to attempt to perpetrate it,
although he may be in other respects of unsettled mind, is equally
amenable to the law, and ought equally to suffer for his criminality
with him who has a wiser and sounder head upon his shoulders.'