112. ENGLISH FEELING TOWARD NAPOLEON AFTER WATERLOO

(1815).

An editorial from the Times is chosen to reuect English feeling towards Napoleon after he had lost his throne, because it represents the opinion of the country's leading newspaper. The article speaks for itself, and no further introduction is needed than the remark that Captain Maitland was just bringing the Bellerophon into Torbay.

SOURCE.-The Times. July 25, 1815.

Our paper of this day will satisfy the sceptics, for such there were beginning to be, as to the capture of that bloody miscreant, who has so long tortured Europe, NAPOLEON BUONAPARTE. Savages are always found to unite the greatest degree of cunning to the ferocious part of their nature. The cruelty of this person is written in characters of blood in almost every country in Europe, and in the contiguous angles of Africa and Asia which he visited; and nothing can more strongly evince the universal conviction of his low, perfidious craft, than the opinion, which was beginning to get abroad, that, even after his capture had been officially announced both in France and England, he might yet have found means to escape.

However all doubts upon this point are at an end, by his arrival off the British coast, and, if he be not now placed beyond the possibility of again outraging the peace of Europe, England will certainly never again deserve to have heroes such as those who have fought, and bled at Waterloo, for this his present overthrow. The lives of the brave men who fell on that memorable day will have been absolutely thrown away by a thoughtless country, the grand object obtained by their valour will have been frustrated, and we shall do little less than insult over their remains, almost before they have ceased to bleed. But Fortune, seconding their undaunted efforts, has put it in our power to do far otherwise.

Captain Sartorius of the Slaney frigate, arrived yesterday with despatches from Captain Maitland of the Bellerophon, confirming all the antecedent accounts of Buonaparte's surrender, with various other details, and closing them by their natural catastrophe-his safe conveyance to England. He is, therefore, what we may call, here. Captain Sartorius delivered his

despatches to Lord Melville, at Wimbledon, by whom their contents were communicated to Lord Liverpool, at his seat at Coombe Wood; summonses were immediately issued for a Cabinet Council to meet at 12 o'clock; what passed there was, of course, not suffered to transpire; our narrative must therefore revert to the Slaney frigate, and the accounts brought by her. She had been sent forward by Captain Maitland, to Plymouth, with the despatches announcing that Buonaparte was on board the Bellerophon, with a numerous suite. But it was the intention of Captain Maitland himself, to proceed to Torbay, and not land his prisoners until he had received orders from Government.

Buonaparte's suite, as it is called, consists of upwards of forty persons, among whom are Bertrand, Savary, Lallemand, Grogau 1 and several women. He has been allowed to take on board carriages and horses, but admission was denied to about fifty calvary, for whom he had the impudence to require accommodation. This wretch has really lived in the commission of every crime, so long, that he has lost all sight and knowledge of the difference that exists between good and evil, and hardly knows when he is doing wrong, except he be taught by proper chastisement. A creature-who ought to be greeted with a gallows as soon as he lands-to think of an attendance of fifty horsemen! He had at first wanted to make conditions with Captain Maitland, as to his treatment, but the British officer very properly declared that he must refer him upon this subject to his Government.

When he had been some time on board, he asked the Captain what chance two large frigates, well manned, would have with a seventy-four. The answer, we understand, which he received to this inquiry, did not give him any cause to regret that he had not risked his fortune in a naval combat with the relative forces in question. By the way, we should not have been surprised if he had come into an action with the two frigates, and then endeavoured to escape in his own, and leave the other to her fate. It has been the constant trick of this villain, whenever he has got his companions into a scrape, to leave them in it and seek his own safety by flight. In Egypt, in the Moscow expedition, and at Waterloo, such was his conduct.

The first procedure, we trust, will be a special Commission, or the appointment of a Court Martial to try him for the

1 Gourgaud.

murder of Captain Wright. It is nonsense to say, as some have, that Courts Martial are instituted only to try offences committed by soldiers of the country to which they belong it was an American Court Martial that tried and shot Major André as a spy; and Buonaparte himself appointed commissions of all kinds, and in all countries, to try offences committed against himself.

113. "THE PETERLOO MASSACRE" (1819).

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The French Revolution is responsible for having postponed in England many reforms which had been rendered necessary by rapid industrial progress. Radicalism was associated in the public mind with a French origin, and that killed it politically. After Waterloo the tide turned and agitators gained a hearing. The landed interest wished to maintain the late war prices, and the artisan population desired cheap bread. Hence discontent, oratory, and riots which resulted in loss of life. The most celebrated disturbance of these years is the "Peterloo Massacre" of 1819. On August 16th a mass meeting was arranged by the Manchester radicals to hear Henry Hunt, a speaker who advocated annual parliaments, universal suffrage and the ballot. crowd gathered in St. Peter's Fields, and trouble arose between it and the Lancashire yeomanry who were present on the plea of preserving order. The troops charged and killed several persons, to the intense indignation of radical sympathisers in every part of the island. The Annual Register contains an impartial story of the affair.

SOURCE.-Annual Register. London, 1819. P. 105.

A

The adjournment of the preceding meeting, the considerable interval of preparation which had been allowed; a vague feeling perhaps, that such assemblages would not much longer be permitted, all conspired to render the concourse great beyond all former example. A little before noon on the 16th of August,

An English naval officer who by shipwreck fell into French hands, and was taken to Paris at the time of Pichegru's conspiracy against Napoleon, 1804. He was examined during Cadoudal's trial, and afterwards killed himself or was murdered in prison at the Temple.

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. Mr. 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

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