AWAITING THE CROWN'S PLEASURE The Case of Daniel M'Naughton

This article seeks to place the Daniel M'Naughton case in its political context: to argue that the court's verdict of insanity cannot be satisfactorily understood unless it is recognized that Daniel M'Naughton was apolitical criminal. The insanity verdict served to discredit M'Naughton and the political ideas he represented by interpreting his act as the product of a diseased mind. The widespread political problems that the Tory government was experiencing throughout Britain were reduced to a personal problem plaguing Daniel M'Naughton. By regarding Daniel M'Naughton as a criminal lunatic incapable of distinguishing right from wrong, the court indicated that the explanation for his behavior would have to be sought in medical or psychiatric terms instead of in political terms.