The grant, like most other grants from the Crown, is made by letters patent under the great seal (k).

The issuing the commission of lunacy is under the direction of the great seal, and the care and custody of the persons and estates of lunatics belong to the Crown, to be provided for upon special application for the purpose. This duty of the Crown was to be performed according to the advice upon which the King might constitutionally act, and it has, therefore, long been the practice, from time to time, to authorize, by the King's sign manual, the person holding the great seal to exercise the discretion of the Crown in providing for the care and custody of the persons and estates of lunatics, which has been usually done by grants to committees. But though the discretion of the Crown has thus been delegated to the person holding the great seal, yet the superintendence of the conduct of the committee, in the management both of the property and of the person, originates in the authority of the Court of Chancery, as the Court from which the commission inquiring of the lunacy issues, and into which the inquisition is returned, and which makes the grant founded on the inquisition, for which grant the sign manual is a general warrant (7).

After the custody is granted, the keeper of the great seal acts in matters relative to the lunatic, not under the sign manual, but by virtue of his general power as keeper of the King's conscience; and the orders of the Court of Chancery in matters of lunacy are enforced by attachment, not as being warranted by the sign manual, but by the general power of the Court (m).

There are several instances of orders for committing parties to the Fleet for disobeying orders in lunacy (n).

(k) 1 Coll. on Lun. 97; 2 Bl. Comm. 316. But see statutes 39 & 40 Geo. 3, c. 88, s. 4; 47 Geo. 3, c. 24. (1) In re Fitzgerald, 2 Sch. & Lef. 438.

(m) Ex parte Grimstone, 2 Ambl. 707. See 2 Sch. & Lef. 438; 6 Ves. 783.

(n) In re Lord Wenman, 20 Jan. 1721; In re Pargiter, 18 & 30 July,

C

1744; In re Quick, Dec. 1806; In re Owen, Aug. 1812, & June, 1813; Inre Bennett, March, 1822; In re Turner, Aug. 1828, & March, 1830. In one case a committee of a lunatic and his wife, and the printer, were ordered to be committed to the Fleet prison, for publishing a pamphlet defaming the proceeding of the Court in a lunacy. Ex parte Jones, 13 Ves. 237.

As the King is bound in conscience to execute the trust reposed in him by the statute, and cannot do it otherwise than by bailiff, the Chancellor, or person holding the great seal, is the proper authority to direct and control the authority of the person so appointed bailiff (o).

Upon every change in the persons having the custody of the great seal, a special authority under the sign manual is granted to the person or persons newly appointed, who have jurisdiction to alter or discharge the orders of their predecessors (p). Neither the Master of the Rolls, nor the Vice Chancellor, can sit for the Lord Chancellor, or make any orders in matters of lunacy (q).

The powers conferred by the statutes 11 G. 4 & 1 W. 4, cc. 60 and 65, and the acts thereby repealed, with respect to orders to be made for the conveyance and disposition of estates vested in lunatics, are given only to the Lord Chancellor, Lord Keeper, and Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal, intrusted by the King's sign manual with the care and commitment of the persons and estates of lunatics; and therefore, the orders to be obtained under the former acts must be made by the persons so intrusted; and it is conceived, that any orders made by the Master of the Rolls, or the Vice Chancellor, under those acts, respecting the estates of lunatics, would be invalid.

As it is impossible for the person holding the Great Seal, with the many important duties he has to perform, to examine and decide personally on the evidence of the numerous matters of fact which arise and must necessarily be determined respecting the care and management of the persons and estates of lunatics; after a party has been found a lunatic under a commission, the Lord Chancellor, on petition, refers such inquiries to one of the Masters in Chancery, who examines the matters referred to him, and then reports the result of such inquiries. The Lord Chancellor, on further application by petition, either confirms such report, or directs such further investigation, or makes such (0) 2 Sch. & Lef. 439.

(q) See stat. 53 Geo. 3, c. 24, (p) 4 Bro. C. C. by Eden, 235, in creating the office of Vice Chancellor of England.

note

other order as he thinks proper, and the nature of the case may require. If any parties interested are dissatisfied with the Master's report, they can carry into the Master's office objections in writing to the draft of the report; and after it has been settled by the Master, the parties objecting can bring the matter before the Lord Chancellor for his decision, by petition (supported by affidavits) setting forth the grounds of their objections to such report.

It is not the practice to except to the Master's reports in lunacy, as in causes in Chancery, but to bring the objections before the Court in a summary way by petition.

The appeal against proceedings touching the awarding or refusing commissions of lunacy, or any orders made in lunacy by the Lord Chancellor, does not lie in the ordinary course to the House of Lords, but immediately to the King in Council (r). But it seems to have been the opinion of Lord Hardwicke, that if an inquisition of lunacy was found and returned and afterwards traversed, and an erroneous judgment given on a trial in the Court of King's Bench, that a writ of error in Parliament would lie (s).

Where the persons of idiots or lunatics are amenable to the Chancellor's jurisdiction, the circumstance of their property being out of the jurisdiction is not material (t): nor is the jurisdiction lost merely by their being abroad (u); for the jury may be satisfied of the party's state of mind without an inspection; and a person found a lunatic by a competent jurisdiction abroad was considered a lunatic here, for the purpose of conveying as a mortgagee under 4 Geo. 2, c. 10 (v).

The existence of a commission in any of the colonies is no reason why a commission should not issue here when the

(r) 3 P. Wms. 107 and note (a); Rochfort v. The Earl of Ely, 1 Br. P. C. 450, Toml. ed. ; 2 Ves. jun. 72; 4 Br. C. C. 238, in note; and see 7 Br. P. C. 473, Toml. ed. There is an appeal from an order in lunacy made by Lord Brougham, now (April, 1832) pending before the Privy Council. In re Drax. See post, ch. 5, s. 12.

(s) Hovenden's Suppl. to Ves. jun. Vol. 1, p. 479; 3 Bl. Comm. 49, 427; 1 Cox, 418; but see 1 Vern. 131.

(t) Ex parte Annandale, Ambl. 80; 4 Br. C. C. 236.

(u) Ex parte Southcot, 2 Ves. sen. 401; S. C. Ambl. 109.

(v) Ex parte Otto Lewis, 1 Ves.

sen. 298.

lunatic comes to England; for while the lunatic is here no Court has any authority over him or his property, unless a commission is taken out (v).

By two recent statutes (w), it is expressly provided, that the powers and authorities given by those acts to the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, intrusted with the care and commitment of the custody of the persons and estates of persons found idiots, lunatics, or of unsound mind, shall extend to all land and stock wheresoever, within any of the dominions, plantations, and colonies belonging to his Majesty (except Scotland and Ireland).

Neither the lunatic nor his committee can present to a church; for, where the lunatic is seised of an advowson, the Lord Chancellor, by virtue of the general authority delegated to him, presents to the living, whatever the value of it be, usually, however, giving it to a member of the family. This right seems to have been first exercised by Lord Talbot, whose example has been followed by all his successors (x).

Generally speaking, the English law prevails in Ireland, and it is clear that all statutes made in England before the 10 Hen. 7, were extended to Ireland, and rendered of equal force there by one of Poyning's laws (y). But, before the union of the two kingdoms, acts of Parliament made in England since the 10 Hen. 7, in which Ireland was not expressly named, did not relate to that country. When that important event took place, in the year 1800 (≈), and the two countries were incorporated together, it was expressly provided, that all laws in force in Ireland, at the time of the union, should remain as by law established, but subject to be altered by the united Parliament. Since the union, it should seem, that statutes made by the Parliament of the united kingdom extend to Ireland, though not specifically mentioned, unless expressly excluded; in the same manner and for the same reasons that Scotland is bound by English statutes since her union with England.

(v) In re Houston, 1 Russ. 312.
(w) 11 Geo. 4 & 1 Will. 4, c. 60,

s. 26, and c. 65, s. 39.

(x) 1 Woodd. Lect. p. 409.

(y) See 4 Inst. 351; 1 Bl. Comm. 103; Irish stat. 10 Hen. 7, c. 22.

(≈) 39 & 40 Geo. 3, c. 67.

By the statutes 11 G. 4 & 1 W. 4, c. 60, s. 27, and c. 65, s. 40, it is provided, that the powers and authorities given by those acts to the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain, intrusted as aforesaid, shall be exercised by the Lord Chancellor of Ireland with respect to all land and stock in Ireland.

An inquisition taken in England under a commission of lunacy issued there, finding a person non compos, was held not a sufficient foundation for a grant of lands belonging to the lunatic in Ireland, but that there must be an inquisition. and finding under the great seal in Ireland for that purpose (a).

But now, by statute 11 G. 4 & 1 W. 4, c. 65, s. 41 (b), it is provided, that in all cases where any person has been or shall be found lunatic or of unsound mind, and incapable of managing his or her affairs, by any inquisition of lunacy under the great seal of Great Britain, it shall be lawful for the proper officer, by order of the Lord Chancellor of Great Britain intrusted as aforesaid, to transmit a transcript of the record of such inquisition to the Chancery of Ireland, and such transcript shall thereupon be entered of record there; and in case a writ of supersedeas of any such commission shall issue, the issue of such writ shall be certified and transmitted and recorded in like manner; and the copies of the record of any such inquisition or supersedeas so transmitted and entered of record, shall, if the Lord Chancellor of Ireland shall see fit, be acted upon by him, and be of the same force and validity in Ireland as if such inquisition had been taken on a commission under the great seal of Ireland, and such writ of supersedeas had been issued under the great seal of Ireland; and a transcript of a like inquisition on a commission under the great seal of Ireland, and of a writ of supersedeas of any such commission, may be certified and transmitted to the Chancery of England, and recorded in like manner, and shall have the same force as if such inquisition and supersedeas had been taken and issued under the great seal of Great Britain. Under this statute an order may be obtained, on petition, that the proper officer (a) In re Duchess of Chandois, 1 (b) Re-enacting the 9 Geo. 4, c. Sch. & Lef. 301. 78, s. 3.