said. "You were shut up just then because it was just during that
month that the Master was bringing off his big scheme. He was
getting his bill through Parliament, and organizing the new
medical police. But of course you haven't heard of all that; in
fact, you weren't meant to."

"Heard of all what?" asked the impatient inquirer.

"There's a new law now, and the asylum powers are greatly
extended. Even if you did escape now, any policeman would take
you up in the next town if you couldn't show a certificate of
sanity from us."

"Well," continued Dr. Hutton, "the Master described before both
Houses of Parliament the real scientific objection to all
existing legislation about lunacy. As he very truly said, the
mistake was in supposing insanity to be merely an exception or an
extreme. Insanity, like forgetfulness, is simply a quality which
enters more or less into all human beings; and for practical
purposes it is more necessary to know whose mind is really
trustworthy than whose has some accidental taint. We have
therefore reversed the existing method, and people now have to
prove that they are sane. In the first village you entered, the
village constable would notice that you were not wearing on the
left lapel of your coat the small pewter S which is now necessary
to any one who walks about beyond asylum bounds or outside asylum
hours."

"You mean to say," said Turnbull, "that this was what the Master
of the asylum urged before the House of Commons?"