“Good. Friend of mine. I'll write to him. Names and addresses of your trustees?”
Alfred gave them.
“You have brought the order on which you were confined, and the two certificates?”
“Not I,” said Alfred. “I have begged and prayed for a sight of them, and never could get one. That is one of the galling iniquities of the system; I call it 'THE DOUBLE SHUFFLE.' Just bring your mind to bear on this, sir: The prisoner whose wits and liberty have been signed away behind his back is not allowed to see the order and certificate on which he is confined—until after his release: that release he is to obtain by combating the statements in the order and certificates. So to get out he must first see and contradict the lies that put him in; but to see the lies that put him in, he must first get out. So runs the circle of Iniquity. Now, is that the injustice of Earth, or the injustice of Hell?”
Mr. Compton asked a moment to consider: “Well, I think is of the earth, earthy. There's a mixture of idiocy in it the Devil might fairly repudiate. Young gentleman, the English Statutes of Lunacy are famous monuments of legislatorial incapacity: and indeed, as a general rule, if you want justice and wisdom, don't you go to Acts of Parliament, but to the Common Law of England.”
Alfred did not appreciate this observation: he made no reply to it, but inquired, with some heat, “what he could do to punish the whole gang; his father, the certifying doctors, and the madhouse keepers?”
“Humph! You might indict them all for a conspiracy,” said Mr. Compton; “but you would be defeated. As a rule, avoid criminal proceedings where you have a civil remedy. A jury will give a verdict and damages where they would not convict on the same evidence. Yours is just one of those cases where Temper says, 'indict!' but Prudence says, 'sue!' and Law, through John Compton, its oracle in this square, says, sue the defendant and no other. Now, who is the true defendant here, or party liable in law?”
“The keeper of the asylum, for one.”
“No. If I remember right, all proceedings against him are expressly barred by a provision in the last statute. Let us see.”
He took down the statutes of the realm, and showed Alfred the clause which raises the proprietor of a madhouse above the civic level of Prince Royal. “Curse the law,” said Alfred bitterly.