the first body of reformers began to arrive on the scene of action, which was a piece of ground called St. Peter's Field, adjoining a church of that name in the town of Manchester. These persons bore two banners, surmounted with caps of liberty, and bearing the inscriptions: "No Corn Laws," "Annual Parliaments, "Universal Suffrage, ""Vote by Ballot ". Some of these flags, after being paraded round the field, were planted in the cart on which the speakers stood; but others remained in different parts of the crowd. Numerous large bodies of reformers continued to arrive from the towns in the neighbourhood of Manchester till about one o'clock, all preceded by flags, and many of them in regular marching order, five deep. Two clubs of female reformers advanced, one of them numbering more than 150 members, and bearing a white silk banner. One body of reformers timed their steps to the sound of a bugle with much of a disciplined air: another had assumed to itself the motto of the illustrious Wallace, "God armeth the Patriot ". A band of special constables assumed a position on the field without resistance. The congregated multitude now amounted to a number roundly computed at 80,000, and the arrival of the hero of the day was impatiently expected. At length Mr. Hunt made his appearance, and after a rapturous greeting, was invited to preside; he signified his assent, and mounting a scaffolding, began to harangue his admirers. He had not proceeded far, when the appearance of the yeomanry cavalry advancing towards the area in a brisk trot, excited a panic in the outskirts of the meeting. They entered the inclosure, and after pausing a moment to recover their disordered ranks, and breathe their horses, they drew their swords, and brandished them fiercely in the air. The multitude, by the direction of their leaders, gave three cheers, to show that they were undaunted by this intrusion, and the orator had just resumed his speech to assure the people that this was only a trick to disturb the meeting, and to exhort them to stand firm, when the cavalry dashed into the crowd, making for the cart on which the speakers were placed. The multitude offered no resistance, they fell back on all sides. The commanding officer then approaching Mr. Hunt, and brandishing his sword, told him that he was his prisoner. Hunt, after enjoining the people to tranquillity, said, that he would readily surrender to any civil officer on showing his warrant, and Mr. Nadin, the principal police officer, received him in charge. Another person, named Johnson, was likewise apprehended, and a few of the mob; some others against whom there were warrants, escaped in the crowd. A cry now arose

Mr.

among the military of "Have at their flags," and they dashed down not only those in the cart, but the others dispersed in the field; cutting to right and left to get at them. The people began running in all directions; and from this moment the yeomanry lost all command of temper: numbers were trampled under the feet of men and horses; many, both men and women were cut down by sabres; several, and a peace officer and a female in the number, slain on the spot. The whole number of persons injured amounted to between three and four hundred. The populace threw a few stones and brick bats in their retreat; but in less than ten minutes the ground was entirely cleared of its former occupants, and filled by various bodies of military, both horse and foot. Mr. Hunt was led to prison, not without incurring considerable danger, and some injury on his way from the swords of yeomanry and the bludgeons of police officers; the broken staves of two of his banners were carried in mock procession before him. The magistrates directed him to be locked up in a solitary cell, and the other prisoners were confined with the same precaution.

The town was brought into a tolerably quiet state before night, military patrols being stationed at the end of almost every street.

114. "HOLE AND CORNER" SURGERY (1824).

The Lancet was first issued in 1823, and its editor, Thomas Wakley, strenuously advocated the cause of reform in medicine and surgery. One principal feature of the paper was its full report of hospital cases. Publicity was then discouraged in the operating room, and Wakley determined that incompetence where it existed should be brought home to the surgeon. His criticism of the "Hole and Corner" system throws light on the imperfect management of hospitals at a comparatively recent date.

SOURCE.-The Lancet. Thomas Wakley (1795-1862). London, 1824. Vol. iv., p. 77.

"Hole and Corner" Surgery, at St. Thomas's Hospital.

We observed in a former number that the arguments which had been put forth in defence of "Hole and Corner Surgery were not founded on views of public utility, but that they were

addressed almost entirely to the passions and pecuniary interests of the surgeon; and among the pleas which were urged in behalf of the suppression of hospital cases, we took occasion to examine those which were founded on the youth, the ignorance and the misfortunes of operating surgeons. That the surgeon's want of dexterity should ever have been urged as an argument in favour of the suppression of a case, in which the patient has been sacrificed to his ignorance, appears undoubtedly at the first blush, as the lawyers say, incredible; but the vis inertia of human imbecility may afford a lesson to incredulity, and if we should have any readers who may not have seen our former article, we will again cite for their benefit the passage in which this argument is brought forward by Dr James Johnson, the sapient editor of the Medico-Chirurgical Review.

Let us imagine a case in which one of the simplest operations in surgery has been performed by an hospital surgeon, in so bungling, unskilful, and disgraceful a manner, that the patient's life was evidently sacrificed to his want of dexterity. If such a case as this were to occur in private practice, it might be said that it would be desirable to suppress the cause of failure, out of tenderness to the feelings of the relatives and friends of the deceased. This would be at least a plausible ground for concealment; it would be a weak argument indeed, when put in competition with the paramount interests of public utility, but it would be at least an amiable, and an intelligible argument in favour of suppression. But that the expediency of suppressing a case of failure from the surgeon's want of dexterity should be defended—not because the mischief, as it respects the victim and his surviving relatives, is irremediable—not from an amiable, though, on public grounds, an injudicious regard for the feelings of those surviving relatives-but out of tenderness, forsooth, to the ignorant operator! is so monstrous a proposition, that prepared as we were for the imbecilities of the "Hole and Corner" champions, we were somewhat staggered at the impudent absurdity with which it is advanced. We are the more disposed to dwell on this topic, because we know that the diatribe against THE LANCET in Dr. JAMES JOHNSON'S Review was got up with great effort, and we have reason to believe that the Editor was assisted in that part of it, which is more especially devoted to the defence of "Hole and Corner surgery, by one of the individuals who has taken the most active part in the recent attack upon the press. "If a surgeon fail from want of dexterity," we are told, he suffers mortifica

tion enough, heaven knows, in the operation room, without being put to the cruel and demoniacal torture of seeing the failure blazoned forth in the public journals." The writer of this paragraph discovers such a tender sympathy for the operator who fails from want of dexterity, that we cannot help suspecting, that while he is advocating the cause of "Hole and Corner "surgery, he is at the same time vindicating his own claims to commiseration. Not a scintilla of compassion does the "Hole and Corner" advocate suffer to escape him, for the victim of the surgeon's want of dexterity; all his sympathy is reserved for the ignorant operator. The destruction of the patient is a mere cypher in the account; un homme mort n'est qu'un homme mort, as was observed by his prototype in Molière, but a surgeon who makes a cut in the wrong place is a fit object of commiseration, and the mortification to which his want of dexterity has already exposed him in the operation room, is quite a sufficient punishment for the destruction of a fellow creature. In a delicate operation, a few lines more or less in the extent or direction of an incision, may make all the difference between the life and the death of the patient; and even the simplest chirurgical operation may, as we have had occasion to witness, be performed in so unskilful a manner, as to occasion the destruction of life, when its success would have been morally certain in the hands of any surgeon of ordinary dexterity. Let us suppose that of two Hospital Surgeons A is less skilful than B, and that a patient is destroyed, because it is A's turn to operate. Will the public endure to be told in such a case as this that A, and not the unfortunate patient, is the proper object of commiseration, and that the mortification which the surgeon suffers in the operating theatre is a sufficient punishment for his ignorance, without exposing him to the torture of seeing his failure blazoned forth in the public journals? Not only do the public interests imperiously call for the publication of every case of failure on the part of a hospital surgeon, but we maintain that if the failure be clearly and indisputably attributable to want of dexterity, the public interests call imperiously for the surgeon's removal. We could name more than one hospital surgeon whose removal, or resignation (we will not stickle for a verbal distinction), has almost immediately followed the publication of cases in which they had operated; and we have no hesitation in classing these removals, or resignations, among the most useful results of the publicity which has been given to all medical proceedings in THE LANCET. It is idle to talk of the respect due to the feelings or the pockets of

individual surgeons-it is absurd to propose any compromise between the private interests of hospital surgeons and the paramount consideration of the health and safety of the patients entrusted to their care. No surgeon who is well acquainted with his profession, and who is conscious of discharging his professional duties with ability, need fear the publication of the cases in which he operates; but if the surgeon of a public hospital be inadequately acquainted with his profession, or if he be incapable of operating with dexterity and precision, the sooner his removal is effected by giving publicity to his failures, the less will be the amount of injury inflicted on the public.

115. "O'CONNELL'S POLICE" (1829).

Daniel O'Connell, the leading Irish champion of Catholic Emancipation, was at the height of his fame immediately after the Clare election of 1828. His oratorical fire made him a national hero, and it was through him that Irish causes spoke most forcibly at Westminster. Catholic Emancipation is a matter of great consequence both in the history of English legislation and of English thought. With it O'Connell is here connected, and with O'Connell his enormous popularity in Dublin. Steuart Trench, from whom the excerpt is taken, was an able land agent, and during the middle years of this century managed several of the largest estates in southern Ireland. At the time in question he was an undergraduate of Trinity College, Dublin.

SOURCE.-Realities of Irish Life. W. Steuart Trench (1808-1872). London, 1869. P. 38.

These were the days of O'Connell's supremacy; and all Ireland, and England too, rang with his fame. His usual habit at that period, during term time, was, to walk home from the "Four Courts "-the Irish courts of law-with an immense gathering of wild and ragged followers at his back. These he called, in jest, his police; and "O'Connell's police" became, for a short time, one of the institutions of Dublin. But the College young men could never be forced into an acknowledgment of their authority, and the consequence was that repeated rows took place between the parties.

One of the rules this strange police insisted on establishing