In all crimes there must be an evil disposition; a mere mistake is not punishable; and those that are to be esteemed guilty of any offences must have the use of their reason, and be at their own disposal or liberty (Wood’s Inst., 2nd ed., p. 340, 339), for, Actus non facit reum nisi mens sit rea (3 Inst. 107), the act does not make a man guilty unless his intention were guilty. Moreover Hamlet says— Who does it then? His madness: if’t be so, Hamlet is of the faction that is wrong’d; His madness is poor Hamlet’s enemy. And in criminal cases idiots and lunatics are not chargeable for their own acts, if committed at a time when they are non compos mentis, for it is a maxim of the law of England that Furiosus solo furore puniatur, a madman is only punished by his madness (Co. Litt. 247b; Bal. Com., 24, 25). So Hamlet says he is of the faction that is wronged, and he seems to refer, not only to the maxim that the act does not make a man guilty unless his intentions were guilty, but afterwards, in the same passage, to the kind of homicide to which it is applicable— Sir, in this audience, Let my disclaiming from a purpos’d evil Free me so far in your most generous thoughts, That I have shot mine arrow o’er the house, And hurt my brother. viz., homicide per infortunium, or by misadventure,[2] which is, where a man doing a lawful act, without any intention of hurt, by accident kills another; as, for instance, where a man is working with a hatchet, and the head flies off and kills a bystander. So Bracton says, ‘De amputatore arborum, qui cum ramum projiceret, inscius occidit transeuntem, aut cum quis pilam percusserit, &c., ex cujus ictu occisus est, tales de homicidio non tenentur’ (lib. 3, fo. 136b). If a man shooting at butts or a target, by accident kills a bystander, it is misadventure (I. Hale, 472, 475, 380), but this must be understood of cases where a proper precaution to prevent accidents has been taken, for if the target be placed near a highway or path, where persons are in the habit of passing, the killing would probably be deemed manslaughter. _Camillo._ Have you thought on A place whereto you’ll go? _Florizel._ Not any yet: But as th’ _unthought-on accident is guilty_ _To what we wildly do_, so we profess Ourselves to be the slaves of chance, and flies Of every wind that blows. _Winter’s Tale_, Act iv. Scene 4.