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SECTION 3. -- Any person now confined in any insane hospital or asylum, and all persons now confined in the hospital for the insane at Jacksonville, who have not been tried and found insane or distracted by the verdict of a jury, as provided in and contemplated by said act of the General Assembly of 1865, shall be permitted to have such trial. All such persons shall be informed by the trustees of said hospital or asylum, in their discretion, of the provisions of this act and of the said act of 1865, and on their request, such person shall be entitled to such trial within a reasonable time thereafter; provided, that such trial may be had in the county where such person is confined or detained, unless such person, his or her friends, shall, within thirty days after any such person may demand a trial under the provisions of said act of 1865, provide for the transportation of such person to, and demand a trial in the county where such insane person resided previous to said detention, in which case such trial shall take place in said last mentioned county.

SECTION 4. -- All persons confined as aforesaid, if not found insane or distracted by a trial and the verdict of a jury as above, and in the said act of 1865 provided, within two months after the passage of this act, shall be set at liberty and discharged.

SECTION 5. -- It shall be the duty of the State's attorneys for the several counties to prosecute any suit arising under the provisions of this act.

SECTION 6. -- This act shall he deemed a public act, and take effect and be in force from and after its passage.

Approved March 5th, 1867.

Thus the public may see that under the humane provisions of this act, all the inmates of every insane asylum in the State of Illinois, whether public or private, who have been incarcerated without the verdict of a jury that they are insane, are now entitled to a jury trial, and unless this trial is granted them within sixty days from the 5th of March, 1867, they are discharged, and can never be incarcerated again without the verdict of a jury that they are insane.

No person can be detained there after sixty days, who has not been declared insane by a jury.

Thus it was that the barbarities of the law of 1851 were wiped out by this act of legislative justice. Now all married women and infants who had been imprisoned "without evidence of insanity," as this unjust law allowed, and who were still living victims of this cruel law, would now be liberated from their false imprisonment. And the great question, who shall be retained as fit subjects for the insane asylum, must hereafter depend in all cases, upon the decision of the jury.

The Law of 1865 Providing a Jury Trial.

SECTION 1. -- Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly: That the circuit judges of this State are hereby vested with power to act under and execute the provisions of the act passed on the 12th of February, 1853, entitled "An act to amend an act entitled 'an act to establish the Illinois State Hospital for the Insane,'" in force March 1st, 1847, in so far as those provisions confer power upon judges of county courts; and no trial shall be had of the question of sanity or insanity before any judge or court, without the presence or in the absence of the person alleged to be insane. And jurors shall be freeholders and heads of families.

SEC. 2. Whenever application is made to a circuit or county judge, under the provisions of this act and the act to which this is an amendment, for proceedings to inquire into and ascertain the insanity or sanity of any person alleged to be insane, the judge shall order the clerk of the court of which he is judge to issue a writ, requiring the person alleged to be insane to be brought before him, at the time and place appointed for the hearing of the matter, which writ may be directed to the sheriff or any constable of the county, or the person having the custody or charge of the person alleged to he insane, and shall be executed and returned, and the person alleged to be insane brought before the said judge before any jury is sworn to inquire into the truth of the matters alleged in the petition on which said writ was issued.

SEC. 3. Persons with reference to whom proceedings may be instituted for the purpose of deciding the question of sanity or insanity, shall have the right to process for witnesses, and to have witnesses examined before the jury; they shall also have the right to employ counsel or any friend to appear in their behalf, so that a fair trial may be had in the premises; and no resident of the State shall hereafter be admitted into the hospital for the insane, except upon the order of a court or judge, or of the production of a warrant issued according to the provisions of the act to which this is an amendment.

SEC. 4. The accounts of said institution shall be so kept and reported to the general assembly, as to show the kind, quantity and cost of any articles purchased for use; and upon quarterly settlements with the auditor, a list of the accounts paid shall be filed, and also the original vouchers, as now required.