LONDON-HOSPITALS. 75 appearance of compassion. They reasoned long on the cause, without adverting to the remedy till after the patient had departed,-when he was called back from the door, and cupping prescribed! The medical men proceeded next to visit the resident patients. I followed. The apartments were clean and spacious, and the sick not crowded, which is no doubt of the greatest importance. I was shocked, however, with the same appearance of insensibility and precipitation. Là le long de ces lits où gémit le malheur, There is, however, more indifference than ignorance here; for in no part of the world is the art of medicine carried farther than in London; and, without being at all qualified to judge, the mere circumstance of this art and those who practice it being so much more respected here than in France, is sufficient to convince me of their superiority. In France, surgery is honoured, while medicine is slighted. Moliere has much to answer for this; and if Shakespeare had taken it into his head to laugh at physicians, there is no knowing how they would fare in England at this day. April 4.-Some military men whom we saw lately spoke unfavourably of Congreve's rockets. They are made like common rockets, only of an enormous size. The cylinder, or case of iron, contains 20 or 30 pounds of powder, rammed hard, and the fore-part loaded with balls. The rocket is impelled by its own recoil. It is held, in the first instance, by a pole 20 or 25 feet long, sloping to the proper angle like a mortar. The pole is carried away by the rocket, and keeps it in its proper direction like the feather of an arrow. But when the wind blows strong with it, or sidewise, the pole or tail is apt to steer the wrong course; and the rockets go right only against the wind, or with no wind. At Flushing, they steered back again upon the British troops, and did more harm than good. At Copenhagen they succeeded perfectly, and then, of course, did more good than harm. They have been used sometimes in Spain with great effect. As a proof of their doubtful utility, these officers remarked that Bonaparte had not as yet adopted them. April 10.-London has been in the greatest ferment for the last four days, in consequence of the vote passed the 5th instant by the House of Commons, for the imprisonment in the Tower of Sir Francis Burdett, one of their own members, for a libel against that House published by him, which is an offence against their privileges. From the morning of the 6th to the morning of the 9th, the sergeant-at-arms, with the order of the House in his hand, and an army of 40,000 or 50,000 men at his heels, hesitated whether he should force open the door of Sir Francis, who sets at defiance the order of his colleagues, and maintains they have no right to invade his house. There are numerous instances of members arrested by orders of the House, a power which seems in fact indispensable to the safety, the tranquillity, and the existence of that Assembly;-but there is none of resistance. The question therefore was, how far the sergeant-at-arms could go in case of resistance; and, if any lives had been lost in forcing the house, whether it would have been murder. Do your duty, he was told by the House through the Speaker. But should I kill any body, rejoined the sergeant, LONDON-SIR FRANCIS BURDETT. 77 may I not be hanged?-We do not know that; but go on, and the law will decide afterwards. The sergeant-at-arms, much puzzled, applied to the attorney-general and other law authorities. Their doubtful answers appeared an acknowledgment that they thought themselves on the very line which separates legitimate from arbitrary power and anarchy. During this interval, the populace, always bold against timidity and indecision, took part for Sir Francis; and, mustering in great force before his house, sent showers of brick-bats upon those passengers, either on foot or in carriages, who neglected to conform to certain patriotic demonstrations. At night they proceeded to the houses of the members whom they supposed inimical to Sir Francis, breaking their windows, and occasionally those of their neighbours; and in the ardour of their zeal, mistaking friends for foes, they broke the windows, and even the stone steps of some members in the opposition. Sir John A-was one of them. The Life Guards were grossly insulted; wounded with stones thrown at them, and by frequent falls of their horses on the smooth pavement. At last the sergeant-at-arms and his assistant, penetrating into the house, partly by force and partly by address, secured their prisoner, and carried him to the Tower in a carriage, escorted by a strong detachment. This detachment was, on its return, saluted with frequent volleys of brick-bats, till at last they were provoked to fire, and a number of individuals were killed and wounded, most of whom were unfortunately innocent spectators. Neither the ministers nor Sir Francis had probably any fixed plan. His resistance probably was not foreseen by them or by himself; it grew out of the forbearance of the officer employed in carrying the order into execution. But it has been of service to the ministers. The broken windows, and other excesses of a senseless rabble, and the deeper views of some few individuals, suspected by the public, have disposed the indifferent, the timid, and all those who have something to lose, to side with that power which can afford immediate protection to the people against the populace. Walcheren and the Parliamentary reform are quite forgotten for the present. If Sir Francis had suffered himself to be carried to prison quietly, he would now be looked upon as a martyr of patriotism, instead of an abettor of insurrection. He very unadvisedly dropped the character of an oppressed man; and, instead of sympathy, chose to inspire fear and mistrust. A person of experience in marine insurances has often assured me, that he found assurers were apt to ask a higher premium for sea risks when the day was stormy than in fine weather, let the locality of the risk be ever so far distant; and that merchants were likewise disposed to pay more. The idea of danger once awakened in the mind, its equivalent is estimated proportionably. The British ministers will find John Bull* less disposed to haggle about the price of personal security, thanks to this litical storm. po Mr. Cobbett, in his Political Register of yesterday, would have us believe that the people were * This nickname which the English have adopted for themselves, seems allusive of a certain ponderousness of body and mind,plainness and stubbornness of character, and courage deemed national; but really that portion of the people I saw lately flying before the charge of a few horse guards, looked more like a flock of sheep, than that fierce animal,--their chosen emblem. Dr. Arbuthnot, I believe, first gave to this nickname its general currency. LONDON-RIGHT OF RESISTANCE. 79 unanimous for Sir Francis ;-but it appeared to me far otherwise. I was much on the spot, and observed more curiosity than earnestness or interest among the crowd; and I think it very probable that the brick-bat men were not many, and that the same individuals acted successively at the different scenes of action. The instigators have, upon the whole, no cause of triumph; they thought the moment was come to effect their purpose; they have tried their strength, and have found it unavailing; put in the scale they have proved too light; and they talk of mental insurrection, now that the material insurrection has failed. This sort of petite guerre between the government and the people, will not be well understood on the continent. Tumult is not necessarily the indication of weakness, and the very struggles of contending powers in the state may rather shew the efficacy of them all. English history furnishes precedents of just and successful resistance to the government on the part of the people; but the present circumstances are far from requiring this dangerous remedy, and it is not called for by public opinion. The doctrine of passive obedience and non-resistance, and its contrary, constitute the most material difference between whigs and tories. This great and delicate question is presented under a simple and luminous point of view, by a modern English writer of much reputation, Paley. The idea of a social compact is, he says, a fiction; such a compact never existed; and supposing the first generation of men to have agreed upon one among themselves, it was not obligatory on the succeeding generation. Every individual comes into this world with all his natural rights unalienated, and, strict |