victories over his enemies, of whom he had no lack. Although poor, he would talk of investments in real estate, and foreign travel. He would rise at midnight and order his attendant to take down the pictures from the walls; insisted that his wife was tired of him and conspired with others to poison him; call for his meals to be served in the street, and would discharge his servant for imaginary insults or neglect. His general conversation was always childish and often incoherent. His faithful wife long struggled in her misfortune. At last, wan and pale, this feeble woman, bleached with the vigil of ten long years, sought relief from the burden she could no longer bear, at the hands of the law. When, at at last, he threatened her with violence, and spurned her, this wife, all trembling, and with many tears, prayed that, in charity to both herself and him, this husband should be placed in an asylum, and a commission was ordered to inquire into his mental state. During the examination he was assisted by counsel. The medical witnesses thought him insane, and the two physicians did sign, or were willing to sign, the commitment. The judge did not make the order, for it was stated that if made, a jury would be demanded. The wife had no means to defray such expenses, with the certainty of final defeat. The man was discharged. Section 1766 of the Civil Code was again an economy to the State. The law had thrust a madman back upon that hearthstone, where death was soon to lay its unwelcome tribute, and where the lament of a widow would soon mingle with the wail of her posthumous babe. Mr. President, these are facts. To some of you they are known. The man I speak of is a dangerous lunatic, with whom neither you nor I would sleep beneath the same roof. The law said to that poor wife, you shall take this madman back to your hearth, or I will place you on the witness-stand; I will impugn your motives; I will insinuate a diabolical conspiracy; I will hint at poison; I will wring drops of agony from your pale brow; I will invade the sacred precincts of your domestic temple with court and jury; I will place your demented husband upon the witness-stand, that he may publicly accuse you, under the solemnity of an oath, of conspiracy, of infidelity, of debauchery, and the poisoned draught. All this will I do, in order that the legal fraternity may thrive; that justice may be defeated, and that the absurd and idiotic provisions of that crazy code, number 1766, may be fulfilled.