Alleged Evasion of Justice, by the Reception of a Criminal into an Asylum

Extract

Towards the close of the late Parliamentary Session Lord Dudley Stuart piqued the curiosity of all persons interested in asylum matters by enquiring of the Secretary for the Home Department, whether he could afford information respecting an evasion of justice by the admission of a criminal into the Norwich Lunatic Asylum. Lord Palmerston replied that the fullest investigation should be made. We have hitherto refrained from referring to the circumstances thus alluded to, because only partial information has until recently been attainable, and even that has been obscured by the expression of much personal feeling. A long and earnest discussion at the Norwich City Sessions on the 24th ult., puts us in possession of all the details, and of the minutes of the Visiting Justices, before whom a full and careful investigation took place. Reduced to their briefest expression, the circumstances appear to be as follow.