died, the same Law would have rendered a verdict
of temporary insanity.

Now, considering the case of Ellen Hughes Hunt,
it is as fair and logical to say that her husband was
suffering from temporary insanity when he went
into the Islington Workhouse, as it is to say that
she was suffering from temporary insanity when
she went into the Regent s Canal. As to which
is the preferable sojourning place is a matter of
opinion, of intellectual judgment. I, for one, from
what I know of canals and workhouses, should
choose the canal, were I in a similar position.
And I make bold to contend that I am no more
insane than Ellen Hughes Hunt, her husband, and
the rest of the human herd.

Man no longer follows instinct with the old natu
ral fidelity. He has developed into a reasoning
creature, and can intellectually cling to life or dis
card life just as life happens to promise great pleas
ure or pain. I dare to assert that Ellen Hughes
Hunt, defrauded and bilked of all the joys of life
which fifty-two years service in the world had
earned, with nothing but the horrors of the work
house before her, was very rational and level-headed
when she elected to jump into the canal. And I
dare to assert, further, that the jury had done a
wiser thing to bring in a verdict charging society
with temporary insanity for allowing Ellen Hughes

[[268]]

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v?