different realities and reactions weeks. At the trial she pleaded not guilty and the main question to be decided was her mental health. In the summing-up of the judge, sir James Burrough, he said that it was almost impossible to think that the defendant had had any remaining reason while murdering her brother. ”[E]xcitements”, ”excitations“, and ”phrenzy” – the terms he used indicate that Burrough was not keen on the influence of the revival meetings on her and although he said that he did not want to discuss theology he expressed that ”true religion” and ”the safety of the community” were threatened by whatever she had picked up at the meetings. Therefore, suitable changes should take place. The jury followed the judge and found the defendant not guilty due to insanity.603 603 Burrows 1828 p 33 sqq, The West Briton and Cornwall Advertiser 9 April 1824: ”Mr Justice Burrough said that there was no question but that the young woman at the bar was the cause of her brother’s death, but it would be for the jury maturely to consider, whether when she committed that act she was in a state of mind capable of distinguishing right from wrong, and if they should be of opinion that she did it in a moment when the imbecility of her mind was so great that she could not make the distinction, then the offence did not amount to wilful murder. It would not, however, be sufficient to acquit her of that crime, by supposing that she acted under a momentary religious frenzy that did not totally occasion such a defect in her mind, as to deprive her of all reason. Upon looking at the facts given in evidence, it was almost impossible to conceive that the prisoner could be otherwise than insane when she determined on the murder of her own brother, as the mean of getting to Heaven. The Almighty had expressly declared that murder and suicide were two of the highest crimes that called for His vengeance; but such was the delusion this young woman had laboured under, that she first murdered her brother and the contemplated self-destruction, conceiving that by committing those high offences she should be securing a way to Heaven. It appeared that this young female had been in the habit of attending religious meetings, as they were called, where the wildest and most extravagant excitements were used that could possibly operate on the minds of the weak and lead them from a Just sense of the importance and duties of religion. His Lordship knew nothing about the particular sect of persons that had been spoken of to-day, and God forbid that he should be conceived as wishing to re-train any persons from following those religious customs which were most conformable to their conscience, but he did conceive that the general benefit of society should be attended to, and therefore he could not but consider, that the doctrines and mood of worship, which inculcated the pernicious principles this young woman had acted upon, were injurious to society, and ought to be suppressed. He would therefore warn the pastors of those congregations, against continuing in those practices as being derogatory to true religion, and dangerous to the safety of the community. His Lordship thought there were many circumstances in the case, which decidedly showed the girl to have been of an irregular mind when she did the act. Her mind, from mistaken impressions, produced by religious excitations, had conceived that she must commit a murder before she could get to Heaven, and at one time she had marked out her own mother as the object who was devoted to her phrenzy; at another time, children she had never seen 172
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