Secondly, if he be then in a lucid interval, and therefore fit to be tried, whether he was so at the time of the act committed, and this must be tried according to the whole evidence both of the fact and the lunacy, on a plea of not guilty.[97] For criminal purposes it is not sufficient that a prisoner have been previously found idiot or lunatic, or the contrary, by inquisition in chancery, _1 H. P. C._ _p._ 33, though the circumstance may create a strong presumption. For there may be a partial insanity which may disqualify a man from the management of his estate, and therefore render him a fit subject for the equitable protection, although he may have a perfect sense of right and wrong in criminal matters, and ought therefore to be responsible for his acts. Personal antipathies and fancied injury are constant subjects of limited insanity; but these ought not to excuse murder; for such a doctrine, by removing the restraints of fear, would constantly convert the passions of hatred and revenge, in themselves limited madness, into absolute insanity. “He that is _non compos mentis_ and _totally_ deprived of all compassings and imaginations, cannot commit high treason by compassing or imagining the death of the king; for _furiosus solo furore punitur_; but it must be an _absolute_ madness, and a total deprivation of memory.” _Coke_, _P. C._ _p._ 3; but in _Beverly’s_ case, _4 Rep._ 124, he says “_Mes in ascun cases non compos mentis poit committe haut treason, comme si il tua, ou offer a tuer le roy_.” “This,” says _Sir Mathew Hale_, “is a safe exception, and I shall not question it, because it tends so much to the safety of the king’s person: but yet the same author (_Coke_ _P. C._ _p._ 6) tells us, that though this was anciently thought to be law, yet it is not so now; for such a person as cannot compass the death of the king by reason of his insanity, cannot be guilty of treason within the statute of _25 Ed._ 3.” Nothing can be more honourable to the independent impartiality of the English law than such an interpretation, amply illustrated in the cases of _Hatfield_ (_27 How. St. Tri._) and others, who had attempted the life of his late Majesty _George_ the 3d; and this more especially, as the king must at all times be more exposed to this species of attack than any other person; for beside the sense of supposed wrong, delay or perversion of justice, exaggerated political feeling,[98] or other causes all pointing the maniac to the same object, there is no madness more frequent than fancied greatness; lunatic asylums are filled with imaginary emperors, kings, princes, and nobles, whose only glimmering of reason is to direct their vengeance against the supposed usurpers of their dignities.