Daniel M'Naghten
Encyclopedia
Daniel M'Naghten (1813–1865) was a Scottish
woodturner
who assassinated
English
civil servant
Edward Drummond
while suffering from paranoid
delusion
s. Through his trial and its aftermath, he has given his name to the legal test of criminal insanity in England
and other common law
jurisdictions known as the M'Naghten Rules
.
this signature was spelt McNaughtun. Since this spelling did not conform to any of those in popular use, it did not help to resolve the controversy.
Moran discovered a second signature during his research. On the front page of the Scotch Reformers Gazette, supplementary edition for March 4, 1843, there appeared an artist's sketch of Daniel M'Naghten standing in the dock at Old Bailey, accompanied by an engraving of his signature. This second signature revealed that the apparent u in the Bow Street signature was actually an a. It also indicated that the apostrophe was used by printers to signify a small letter c placed above the line, since the Scotch Reformers Gazette, in the article accompanying the sketch and signature, was careful enough to use an inverted apostrophe to resemble more closely the letter c. The spelling "McNaughtan" was confirmed again in the Glasgow Postal Directory for the years 1835 to 1844. While the Victorians were not always consistent in the way they spelled their names, even in official documents, several signatures of M'Naghten's father, uncovered while examining financial records at the Bank of Scotland, indicated that the spelling "McNaughtan" was the one used by the M'Naghten family.
(probably Glasgow
) in 1813, the illegitimate son of a Glasgow woodturner and landlord, also called Daniel M'Naghten. After the death of his mother, Ada, M'Naghten went to live with his father's family and became an apprentice
and later a journeyman
at his father's workshop in Stockwell Street, Glasgow. When his father decided not to offer him a partnership, M'Naghten left the business and, after a 3-year career as an actor, returned to Glasgow in 1835 to set up his own woodturning workshop.
For the next five years M'Naghten ran a successful woodturning business, first in Turners Court and then in Stockwell Street. He was sober and industrious, and by living frugally was able to save a considerable sum of money. In his spare time he attended the Glasgow Mechanic's Institute
and the Athenaeum Debating Society, walked and read. He taught himself French so that he could read La Rochefoucauld
. His political views were radical, and he employed the Chartist
Abram Duncan in his workshop.
In December 1840 M'Naghten sold his business and spent the next two years in London and Glasgow, with a brief trip to France. The summer of 1842 saw him attending lectures on anatomy in Glasgow; otherwise it is not known exactly what he did with his time. Whilst in Glasgow in 1841 he complained to various people, including his father, the Glasgow commissioner of police, and an MP
, that he was being persecuted by the Tories
and followed by their spies. No-one took him seriously, believing him to be deluded.
in London. On the afternoon of 20 January the Prime Minister's private secretary, civil servant Edward Drummond
, was walking towards Downing Street
from Charing Cross
when M'Naghten approached him from behind, drew a pistol and fired at point-blank range into his back. M'Naghten was overpowered by a police constable before he could fire a second pistol. It is generally thought, although the evidence is not conclusive, that M'Naghten was under the impression that he had shot the prime minister, Robert Peel
.
At first it was thought that Drummond's wound was not serious. He managed to walk away, the bullet was removed and the first newspaper reports were optimistic: The ball has been extracted. No vital part is injured, and [surgeons] Mr Guthrie and Mr Bransby Cooper have every reason to believe that Mr. Drummond is doing very well. But complications set in and, in spite of (or possibly because of; see below) the surgeons' efforts—bleeding and leeching—Drummond died five days later.
M'Naghten appeared at Bow Street magistrates' court the morning after the assassination attempt. He made a brief statement in which he described how persecution by the Tories had driven him to act: The Tories in my native city have compelled me to do this. They follow, persecute me wherever I go, and have entirely destroyed my peace of mind... It can be proved by evidence. That is all I have to say. It was indeed all he had to say. He never spoke about the assassination again (apart from a dozen words when asked to plead guilty or not guilty at arraignment).
M'Naghten's trial for the "wilful murder of Mr Drummond" took place at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey
, Friday and Saturday, 2–3 March 1843, before Chief Justice Tindal
, Justice Williams and Justice Coleridge. When asked to plead guilty or not guilty, M'Naghten had said "I was driven to desperation by persecution" and, when pressed, "I am guilty of firing", which was taken as a "not guilty" plea. M'Naghten's defence team was led by one of London
's best-known barrister
s, Alexander Cockburn
. The case was prosecuted by the solicitor-general
, Sir William Follett
(the attorney-general
being busy in Lancaster
prosecuting Feargus O'Connor
and 57 other Chartists
following the plug riots
).
Both prosecution and defence based their case on what constituted a legal defence of insanity. Both sides agreed that M'Naghten suffered from delusions of persecution. The prosecution argued that, in spite of his "partial insanity" he was a responsible agent, capable of distinguishing right from wrong, and conscious that he was committing a crime. Witnesses, including his landlady and his anatomy lecturer were produced to testify that M'Naghten appeared generally sane. Cockburn opened his defence by acknowledging that there were difficulties in the practical application of the principle of English law that held an insane person exempt from legal responsibility and legal punishment. He went on to say that M'Naghten's delusions had led to a break down of moral sense and loss of self-control, which, according to medical experts, had left him in a state where he was no longer a "reasonable and responsible being". He quoted extensively from Scottish jurist Baron Hume, and American psychiatrist Isaac Ray
. Witnesses were produced from Glasgow to give evidence about M'Naghten's odd behaviour and complaints of persecution. The defence then called on a number of medical witnesses, including Dr Edward Monro
, Sir Alexander Morison, and Dr Forbes Winslow, who testified that M'Naghten's delusions had deprived him of "all restraint over his actions". When the prosecution declined to produce any medical witnesses to counter this evidence, the trial was halted. Follet then made a brief, apologetic closing speech which he concluded with the words "I cannot press for a verdict against the prisoner...". Chief Justice Tindal, in his summing up, stressed that the medical evidence was all on one side, and reminded the jury that if they found the prisoner not guilty on the ground of insanity, proper care would be taken of him. The jury, without retiring, duly returned a verdict of not guilty on the ground of insanity.
under the 1800 Act for the Safe Custody of Insane Persons charged with Offences
. His admission papers describe him in the following words: "Imagines the Tories are his enemies, shy and retiring in his manner". Apart from one hunger strike which ended with force-feeding, McNaghten's 21 years at Bethlem appear to have been uneventful. Although no regular employment was provided for the men on the criminal wing of Bethlem, they were encouraged to keep themselves occupied with painting, drawing, knitting, board games, reading, musical instruments, etc., and also did carpentry and decorating for the hospital.
In 1864 M'Naghten was transferred to the newly opened Broadmoor Asylum
, where his admission papers describe him as: "A native of Glasgow, an intelligent man" and record how, when asked if he thinks he must have been out of his mind when he shot Edward Drummond, he answers: "Such was the Verdict – the opinion of the Jury after hearing the Evidence". During his later years at Bethlem he had been classified as an "imbecile". M'Naghten had developed diabetes and heart problems in Bethlem; by the time he was transferred to Broadmoor his health was declining and he died 3 May 1865.
In his book Knowing Right From Wrong, Richard Moran, professor of sociology at Mount Holyoke College
argues that there are aspects of M'Naghten's case which have never been fully explained. He doubts that the money found on M'Naghten at the time of his arrest – £750 (currently £) – could have come entirely from his woodturning business, and points out that M'Naghten's political activity and the possibility that there may have been an element of truth to his complaints of persecution were ignored by the court. More recently he has said that new evidence suggests that M'Naghten was a "political activist who was financed to assassinate the prime minister" and who subsequently feigned insanity.
revived an ancient right to put questions to judges. Five questions relating to crimes committed by individuals with delusions were put to the twelve judges of the Court of Common Pleas
. One of the judges – Justice Maule
– declined to answer; Chief Justice Tindal delivered the unanimous answers of the other eleven to the House of Lords 19 June 1843. The answer to one of the questions became enshrined in law as the M'Naghten Rules
and stated:
, and many countries throughout the British Commonwealth
for over 100 years. In England and Wales the defence of insanity to which the rules apply was largely superseded, in cases of murder, by the Scottish concept of diminished responsibility, following the passage of the Homicide Act 1957
.
M'Naghten's defence had successfully argued that he was not legally responsible for an act which arose from a delusion; the rules represented a step backwards to the traditional 'knowing right from wrong' test of criminal insanity. Had the rules been applied in M'Naghten's own case, the verdict might have been different.
One of M'Naghten's younger half-brothers, Thomas McNaughtan, a doctor, became mayor of Blackpool and was a magistrate.
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
woodturner
Woodturning
Woodturning is a form of woodworking that is used to create wooden objects on a lathe . Woodturning differs from most other forms of woodworking in that the wood is moving while a stationary tool is used to cut and shape it...
who assassinated
Assassination
To carry out an assassination is "to murder by a sudden and/or secret attack, often for political reasons." Alternatively, assassination may be defined as "the act of deliberately killing someone, especially a public figure, usually for hire or for political reasons."An assassination may be...
English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
civil servant
Civil service
The term civil service has two distinct meanings:* A branch of governmental service in which individuals are employed on the basis of professional merit as proven by competitive examinations....
Edward Drummond
Edward Drummond
Edward Drummond was a British civil servant, and was Personal Secretary to several British Prime Ministers. He was murdered by Daniel M'Naghten, whose subsequent trial gave rise to the M'Naghten Rules, the legal test of insanity used in many common law jurisdictions.Drummond was a scion of the...
while suffering from paranoid
Paranoia
Paranoia [] is a thought process believed to be heavily influenced by anxiety or fear, often to the point of irrationality and delusion. Paranoid thinking typically includes persecutory beliefs, or beliefs of conspiracy concerning a perceived threat towards oneself...
delusion
Delusion
A delusion is a false belief held with absolute conviction despite superior evidence. Unlike hallucinations, delusions are always pathological...
s. Through his trial and its aftermath, he has given his name to the legal test of criminal insanity in England
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
and other common law
Common law
Common law is law developed by judges through decisions of courts and similar tribunals rather than through legislative statutes or executive branch action...
jurisdictions known as the M'Naghten Rules
M'Naghten Rules
The M'Naghten rules were a reaction to the acquittal of Daniel McNaughton. They arise from the attempted assassination of the British Prime Minister, Robert Peel, in 1843 by Daniel M'Naghten. In fact, M'Naghten fired a pistol at the back of Peel's secretary, Edward Drummond, who died five days later...
.
Spelling of the name
There is disagreement over how M'Naghten's name should be spelt (Mc or M' at the beginning, au or a in the middle, a, e, o or u at the end). M'Naghten is favoured in both English and American law reports, although the original trial report used M'Naughton; Bethlem and Broadmoor records use McNaughton and McNaughten. In a 1981 book about the case, Richard Moran, Professor of Criminology at Mount Holyoke College, uses the spelling McNaughtan, arguing that this was the family spelling. Until 1981, there was only one known signature: that which M'Naghten affixed to a sworn statement given before the magistrate at Bow Street during his arraignment. This signature, preserved in the Metropolitan Police File at the Public Records Office in Chancery Lane, London, first came to the attention of legal scholars in 1956. According to an authority at the British MuseumBritish Museum
The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...
this signature was spelt McNaughtun. Since this spelling did not conform to any of those in popular use, it did not help to resolve the controversy.
Moran discovered a second signature during his research. On the front page of the Scotch Reformers Gazette, supplementary edition for March 4, 1843, there appeared an artist's sketch of Daniel M'Naghten standing in the dock at Old Bailey, accompanied by an engraving of his signature. This second signature revealed that the apparent u in the Bow Street signature was actually an a. It also indicated that the apostrophe was used by printers to signify a small letter c placed above the line, since the Scotch Reformers Gazette, in the article accompanying the sketch and signature, was careful enough to use an inverted apostrophe to resemble more closely the letter c. The spelling "McNaughtan" was confirmed again in the Glasgow Postal Directory for the years 1835 to 1844. While the Victorians were not always consistent in the way they spelled their names, even in official documents, several signatures of M'Naghten's father, uncovered while examining financial records at the Bank of Scotland, indicated that the spelling "McNaughtan" was the one used by the M'Naghten family.
Early life
Most of what is known about M'Naghten comes from evidence given at his trial and newspaper reports that appeared between his arrest and his trial. He was born in ScotlandScotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
(probably Glasgow
Glasgow
Glasgow is the largest city in Scotland and third most populous in the United Kingdom. The city is situated on the River Clyde in the country's west central lowlands...
) in 1813, the illegitimate son of a Glasgow woodturner and landlord, also called Daniel M'Naghten. After the death of his mother, Ada, M'Naghten went to live with his father's family and became an apprentice
Apprenticeship
Apprenticeship is a system of training a new generation of practitioners of a skill. Apprentices or protégés build their careers from apprenticeships...
and later a journeyman
Journeyman
A journeyman is someone who completed an apprenticeship and was fully educated in a trade or craft, but not yet a master. To become a master, a journeyman had to submit a master work piece to a guild for evaluation and be admitted to the guild as a master....
at his father's workshop in Stockwell Street, Glasgow. When his father decided not to offer him a partnership, M'Naghten left the business and, after a 3-year career as an actor, returned to Glasgow in 1835 to set up his own woodturning workshop.
For the next five years M'Naghten ran a successful woodturning business, first in Turners Court and then in Stockwell Street. He was sober and industrious, and by living frugally was able to save a considerable sum of money. In his spare time he attended the Glasgow Mechanic's Institute
Mechanics' Institutes
Historically, Mechanics' Institutes were educational establishments formed to provide adult education, particularly in technical subjects, to working men...
and the Athenaeum Debating Society, walked and read. He taught himself French so that he could read La Rochefoucauld
François de La Rochefoucauld (writer)
François VI, Duc de La Rochefoucauld, Prince de Marcillac was a noted French author of maxims and memoirs. The view of human conduct his writings describe has been summed up by the words "everything is reducible to the motive of self-interest", though the term "gently cynical" has also been applied...
. His political views were radical, and he employed the Chartist
Chartism
Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...
Abram Duncan in his workshop.
In December 1840 M'Naghten sold his business and spent the next two years in London and Glasgow, with a brief trip to France. The summer of 1842 saw him attending lectures on anatomy in Glasgow; otherwise it is not known exactly what he did with his time. Whilst in Glasgow in 1841 he complained to various people, including his father, the Glasgow commissioner of police, and an MP
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
, that he was being persecuted by the Tories
Tories (political faction)
The Tories were members of two political parties which existed, sequentially, in the Kingdom of England, the Kingdom of Great Britain and later the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from the 17th to the early 19th centuries.-Overview:...
and followed by their spies. No-one took him seriously, believing him to be deluded.
Assassination
In January 1843, M'Naghten was noticed acting suspiciously around WhitehallWhitehall
Whitehall is a road in Westminster, in London, England. It is the main artery running north from Parliament Square, towards Charing Cross at the southern end of Trafalgar Square...
in London. On the afternoon of 20 January the Prime Minister's private secretary, civil servant Edward Drummond
Edward Drummond
Edward Drummond was a British civil servant, and was Personal Secretary to several British Prime Ministers. He was murdered by Daniel M'Naghten, whose subsequent trial gave rise to the M'Naghten Rules, the legal test of insanity used in many common law jurisdictions.Drummond was a scion of the...
, was walking towards Downing Street
Downing Street
Downing Street in London, England has for over two hundred years housed the official residences of two of the most senior British cabinet ministers: the First Lord of the Treasury, an office now synonymous with that of Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, and the Second Lord of the Treasury, an...
from Charing Cross
Charing Cross
Charing Cross denotes the junction of Strand, Whitehall and Cockspur Street, just south of Trafalgar Square in central London, England. It is named after the now demolished Eleanor cross that stood there, in what was once the hamlet of Charing. The site of the cross is now occupied by an equestrian...
when M'Naghten approached him from behind, drew a pistol and fired at point-blank range into his back. M'Naghten was overpowered by a police constable before he could fire a second pistol. It is generally thought, although the evidence is not conclusive, that M'Naghten was under the impression that he had shot the prime minister, Robert Peel
Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet was a British Conservative statesman who served as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 December 1834 to 8 April 1835, and again from 30 August 1841 to 29 June 1846...
.
At first it was thought that Drummond's wound was not serious. He managed to walk away, the bullet was removed and the first newspaper reports were optimistic: The ball has been extracted. No vital part is injured, and [surgeons] Mr Guthrie and Mr Bransby Cooper have every reason to believe that Mr. Drummond is doing very well. But complications set in and, in spite of (or possibly because of; see below) the surgeons' efforts—bleeding and leeching—Drummond died five days later.
M'Naghten appeared at Bow Street magistrates' court the morning after the assassination attempt. He made a brief statement in which he described how persecution by the Tories had driven him to act: The Tories in my native city have compelled me to do this. They follow, persecute me wherever I go, and have entirely destroyed my peace of mind... It can be proved by evidence. That is all I have to say. It was indeed all he had to say. He never spoke about the assassination again (apart from a dozen words when asked to plead guilty or not guilty at arraignment).
Trial
When M'Naghten was arrested, a bank receipt for £750 was found on him. His father successfully applied to the court to have the money released to finance his defence, and for the case to be adjourned for evidence relating to M'Naghten's state of mind to be gathered. A date was set for Friday 3 March. The speed and efficiency with which M'Naghten's defence was organized suggests that a number of powerful people in law and medicine were waiting for an opportunity to bring about changes in the law on criminal insanity.M'Naghten's trial for the "wilful murder of Mr Drummond" took place at the Central Criminal Court, Old Bailey
Old Bailey
The Central Criminal Court in England and Wales, commonly known as the Old Bailey from the street in which it stands, is a court building in central London, one of a number of buildings housing the Crown Court...
, Friday and Saturday, 2–3 March 1843, before Chief Justice Tindal
Nicholas Conyngham Tindal
Sir Nicolas Conyngham Tindal was a celebrated English lawyer who successfully defended Queen Caroline at her trial for adultery in 1820...
, Justice Williams and Justice Coleridge. When asked to plead guilty or not guilty, M'Naghten had said "I was driven to desperation by persecution" and, when pressed, "I am guilty of firing", which was taken as a "not guilty" plea. M'Naghten's defence team was led by one of London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
's best-known barrister
Barrister
A barrister is a member of one of the two classes of lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions with split legal professions. Barristers specialise in courtroom advocacy, drafting legal pleadings and giving expert legal opinions...
s, Alexander Cockburn
Sir Alexander Cockburn, 12th Baronet
Sir Alexander James Edmund Cockburn, 12th Baronet Q.C. was a Scottish lawyer, politician and judge. A notorious womaniser and socialite, as Lord Chief Justice he heard some of the leading causes célèbres of the 19th century.-Life:Cockburn was born in Alţâna, in what is now Romania and was then...
. The case was prosecuted by the solicitor-general
Solicitor General for England and Wales
Her Majesty's Solicitor General for England and Wales, often known as the Solicitor General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown, and the deputy of the Attorney General, whose duty is to advise the Crown and Cabinet on the law...
, Sir William Follett
William Webb Follett
Sir William Webb Follett , was an English lawyer and politician.-Background and education:Follett was born at Topsham in Devon, the son of Captain Benjamin Follett, who had retired from the army in 1790 and gone into business, and his wife Ann Webb, daughter of John Webb. His younger brother was...
(the attorney-general
Attorney General for England and Wales
Her Majesty's Attorney General for England and Wales, usually known simply as the Attorney General, is one of the Law Officers of the Crown. Along with the subordinate Solicitor General for England and Wales, the Attorney General serves as the chief legal adviser of the Crown and its government in...
being busy in Lancaster
Lancaster, Lancashire
Lancaster is the county town of Lancashire, England. It is situated on the River Lune and has a population of 45,952. Lancaster is a constituent settlement of the wider City of Lancaster, local government district which has a population of 133,914 and encompasses several outlying towns, including...
prosecuting Feargus O'Connor
Feargus O'Connor
Feargus Edward O'Connor was an Irish Chartist leader and advocate of the Land Plan.- Background :Feargus O'Connor was born into a prominent Irish Protestant family, the son of Irish Nationalist politician Roger O'Connor...
and 57 other Chartists
Chartism
Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...
following the plug riots
1842 General Strike
The 1842 General Strike, also known as the Plug Plot Riots, started among the miners in Staffordshire, England, and soon spread through Britain affecting factories, mills and coal mines from Dundee to South Wales and Cornwall....
).
Both prosecution and defence based their case on what constituted a legal defence of insanity. Both sides agreed that M'Naghten suffered from delusions of persecution. The prosecution argued that, in spite of his "partial insanity" he was a responsible agent, capable of distinguishing right from wrong, and conscious that he was committing a crime. Witnesses, including his landlady and his anatomy lecturer were produced to testify that M'Naghten appeared generally sane. Cockburn opened his defence by acknowledging that there were difficulties in the practical application of the principle of English law that held an insane person exempt from legal responsibility and legal punishment. He went on to say that M'Naghten's delusions had led to a break down of moral sense and loss of self-control, which, according to medical experts, had left him in a state where he was no longer a "reasonable and responsible being". He quoted extensively from Scottish jurist Baron Hume, and American psychiatrist Isaac Ray
Isaac Ray
Isaac Ray was an American psychiatrist, one of the founders of the discipline of forensic psychiatry. In 1838, he published A Treatise on the Medical Jurisprudence of Insanity , which served as an authoritative text for many years....
. Witnesses were produced from Glasgow to give evidence about M'Naghten's odd behaviour and complaints of persecution. The defence then called on a number of medical witnesses, including Dr Edward Monro
Monro Family (Physicians)
The Monro of Fyrish family were a Scottish family and branch of the ancient highland Clan Munro. The family produced a notable dynasty of doctors to London in the 18th and 19th century where they were involved in early work on curing 'insanity'. Four generations occupied successively the position...
, Sir Alexander Morison, and Dr Forbes Winslow, who testified that M'Naghten's delusions had deprived him of "all restraint over his actions". When the prosecution declined to produce any medical witnesses to counter this evidence, the trial was halted. Follet then made a brief, apologetic closing speech which he concluded with the words "I cannot press for a verdict against the prisoner...". Chief Justice Tindal, in his summing up, stressed that the medical evidence was all on one side, and reminded the jury that if they found the prisoner not guilty on the ground of insanity, proper care would be taken of him. The jury, without retiring, duly returned a verdict of not guilty on the ground of insanity.
Bethlem and Broadmoor
After his acquittal on the ground of insanity, M'Naghten was transferred from Newgate Prison to the State Criminal Lunatic Asylum at Bethlem HospitalBethlem Royal Hospital
The Bethlem Royal Hospital is a psychiatric hospital located in London, United Kingdom and part of the South London and Maudsley NHS Foundation Trust. Although no longer based at its original location, it is recognised as the world's first and oldest institution to specialise in mental illnesses....
under the 1800 Act for the Safe Custody of Insane Persons charged with Offences
Criminal Lunatics Act 1800
The Criminal Lunatics Act 1800 was a British Act of Parliament that required and established a set procedure for the indefinite detention of mentally ill offenders...
. His admission papers describe him in the following words: "Imagines the Tories are his enemies, shy and retiring in his manner". Apart from one hunger strike which ended with force-feeding, McNaghten's 21 years at Bethlem appear to have been uneventful. Although no regular employment was provided for the men on the criminal wing of Bethlem, they were encouraged to keep themselves occupied with painting, drawing, knitting, board games, reading, musical instruments, etc., and also did carpentry and decorating for the hospital.
In 1864 M'Naghten was transferred to the newly opened Broadmoor Asylum
Broadmoor Hospital
Broadmoor Hospital is a high-security psychiatric hospital at Crowthorne in the Borough of Bracknell Forest in Berkshire, England. It is the best known of the three high-security psychiatric hospitals in England, the other two being Ashworth and Rampton...
, where his admission papers describe him as: "A native of Glasgow, an intelligent man" and record how, when asked if he thinks he must have been out of his mind when he shot Edward Drummond, he answers: "Such was the Verdict – the opinion of the Jury after hearing the Evidence". During his later years at Bethlem he had been classified as an "imbecile". M'Naghten had developed diabetes and heart problems in Bethlem; by the time he was transferred to Broadmoor his health was declining and he died 3 May 1865.
Alternative theories
In 1843 a surgeon who was opposed to blood-letting published an anonymous pamphlet claiming that Edward Drummond was killed not by M'Naghten's shot, but by the medical treatment he received afterwards. He said that a gunshot wound of the type sustained by Drummond was not necessarily fatal and criticised Drummond's doctors for their hasty removal of the bullet and repeated blood-lettings.In his book Knowing Right From Wrong, Richard Moran, professor of sociology at Mount Holyoke College
Mount Holyoke College
Mount Holyoke College is a liberal arts college for women in South Hadley, Massachusetts. It was the first member of the Seven Sisters colleges, and served as a model for some of the others...
argues that there are aspects of M'Naghten's case which have never been fully explained. He doubts that the money found on M'Naghten at the time of his arrest – £750 (currently £) – could have come entirely from his woodturning business, and points out that M'Naghten's political activity and the possibility that there may have been an element of truth to his complaints of persecution were ignored by the court. More recently he has said that new evidence suggests that M'Naghten was a "political activist who was financed to assassinate the prime minister" and who subsequently feigned insanity.
Significance
The verdict in M'Naghten's trial provoked an outcry in the press and Parliament. Queen Victoria, who had been the target of assassination attempts, wrote to the prime minister expressing her concern at the verdict and the House of LordsHouse of Lords
The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
revived an ancient right to put questions to judges. Five questions relating to crimes committed by individuals with delusions were put to the twelve judges of the Court of Common Pleas
Court of Common Pleas (England)
The Court of Common Pleas, or Common Bench, was a common law court in the English legal system that covered "common pleas"; actions between subject and subject, which did not concern the king. Created in the late 12th to early 13th century after splitting from the Exchequer of Pleas, the Common...
. One of the judges – Justice Maule
William Henry Maule
Sir William Henry Maule PC KC was an English lawyer, member of parliament and judge.- Life :Maule was born in Edmonton, Middlesex. His father, Henry, was a physician and his mother, Hannah née Rawson, a Quaker...
– declined to answer; Chief Justice Tindal delivered the unanimous answers of the other eleven to the House of Lords 19 June 1843. The answer to one of the questions became enshrined in law as the M'Naghten Rules
M'Naghten Rules
The M'Naghten rules were a reaction to the acquittal of Daniel McNaughton. They arise from the attempted assassination of the British Prime Minister, Robert Peel, in 1843 by Daniel M'Naghten. In fact, M'Naghten fired a pistol at the back of Peel's secretary, Edward Drummond, who died five days later...
and stated:
To establish a defence on the ground of insanity it must be clearly proved, that, at the time of committing the act, the party accused was labouring under such a defect of reason from disease of the mind, as not to know the nature and quality of the act he was doing, or if he did know it, that he did not know that what he was doing was wrong.The rules dominated the law on criminal responsibility in England and Wales, the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
, and many countries throughout the British Commonwealth
Commonwealth of Nations
The Commonwealth of Nations, normally referred to as the Commonwealth and formerly known as the British Commonwealth, is an intergovernmental organisation of fifty-four independent member states...
for over 100 years. In England and Wales the defence of insanity to which the rules apply was largely superseded, in cases of murder, by the Scottish concept of diminished responsibility, following the passage of the Homicide Act 1957
Homicide Act 1957
The Homicide Act 1957 is an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It was enacted as a partial reform of the common law offence of murder in English law by abolishing the doctrine of constructive malice , reforming the partial defence of provocation, and by introducing the partial defences...
.
M'Naghten's defence had successfully argued that he was not legally responsible for an act which arose from a delusion; the rules represented a step backwards to the traditional 'knowing right from wrong' test of criminal insanity. Had the rules been applied in M'Naghten's own case, the verdict might have been different.
One of M'Naghten's younger half-brothers, Thomas McNaughtan, a doctor, became mayor of Blackpool and was a magistrate.
Further reading
- Dalby, J.T. (2006) The case of Daniel McNaughton: Let's get the story straight. American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry 27: 17-32.
- Quen, J.M. (1968) An historical view of the M'Naghten Trial. Bulletin of the History of Medicine 42(1): 43-51.
External links
- Transcript of the trial (search terms: M'Naughten or t18430227-874)
- Full text of the rules from BAILII.org