The National Register.
London, England, 1812-01-19 00:00:00

THE NATIONAL REGISTER.

to is-,v-st me:, were meritorious men ; but what were those belonging
to Shadwell Office, and how had they conducted themselves ? Such
was their zeal, that they seized and put into confinement all persons
who.were rumoured to have either a dirty shirt or a torn coat !
.Was
all this justifiable—was it not indeed an enormous evil ? After instancing
the tre.atment of seven poor Irishmen who were kept 48 hours without
food in the parlour of a public house, and then discharged, the Right
Hon. Gentleman proceeded to make some remarks on the conduct of
the Msigistrates of •Shadwell, with regard to Williams in particular.—
Ile knew he was treading on tender ground, hilt he would not observe in
silence an outrage against the law, eve: though it were offered by Magis-
trates. Neither panic nor necessity could justify in them departure-from
the law; and no departure from the law ought to he countenanced on
any ,consideration whatever. What law justified the exposure of Wil-
liams's hotly in the Nvay in which it had been exposed ? Did it answer
any moral or political end ? Did it not rather set a barbarous example
to the people which might induce them at some future period to wrest
from the Lands of the executioner the carcase of some being who may
have excited popular indignation, to have the pleasurable revenge of
roumbhng his hones and lacerating his remains. fie blamed the Ma-
: -fistrates march for their conduct on that occasion. There was neither
• Justice alor merit in what they did; but it was an effort to sink into ob-
-1 eion•the effect of their own scandalous neglect ! The Hon. Gentle-
. 'MAN COM:hided with some further ceusuratne remarks on the Magis-
trates of
• Mr. STEPHEN. said he did not know one of the Magistrates of Shad-
well, nor had he ever seen one of them ; but this he knew, that they
were placed in a very unpleasant and arduous situation, and were justly
entitled to the candnur and compassion of the Public, rather than to
censure and conJemnatton.
The Motion, with the Amendment, was then agreed to, and a Se-
lect Committee appointed, composed of Mr. Ryder, the several .Mem-
b_trii for London, Westminster, Middlesex, and Surrey, Mr. Sheridan,
Ti...rney, Sir Robert Peel, Mr. Hawkius Browne, Colonel Wood,
and others.
The Sugar Export Bill was read a third time and passel—Adjourned.

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which cases generally are hopeless; it has not so decidedly that fixed
character of insanity to render it hopeless.
Q. Do you expect that his Majesty will recover?—A. No; Ido not
expect that his Majesty will recover.
• Q. When did you leave Windsor ?—A. This morning.
Q. What was his Majesty's state at the time you left Windsor ?—A.
A very indifferent state.
Q. Is it worse than it was last week ?—A. Yes ; I think it is certainly
worse than it was last week.
Q. Has there been any aggravation of symptoms within the last three
days ?—A. I think there has; they have bordered more on the symptoms
of delirium, perhaps not to a greater degree than I have seen since the
9th of October, but, as compared with ten days or a fortnight before,
there was then abetter appearance. From the 9th of October to the 23J
of November, I saw his Majesty only three days.
Q. How often do you visit his Majesty now ?—A. I have been resi-
dent at Windsor ever since the lath of November, with the interval of
the last week ; I returned on Saturday.
Q. There appears, in a Report presented to the House of Commons
from her Majesty's Council, to have been the correction of an opinion
given by one of your Physicians in his first examination; were you the
Physician who so corrected your opinion ? A. I was.
Q. Were there any grounds upon which you could form a different
opinion from that which you gave in your first examination before the
second took piece ?—A. I do not know, with regard to my- own feelings,
that I formed a different opinion ; but I found that I had not used a word
with its proper import, being perhaps in the hahit of using the word
despair in a more light manner than I ought to have been : I did not
mean that I did despair totally ; but one is perhaps apt, when speaking
to the friends of a person who ask whether they shall remain longer or
not, or whether you despair, to say, I conceive a person may recover,
but I cannot be without despair, or I cannot help despairing ; but on
hearing read the words had used, " 1 cannot help despairing," with an
emphasis laid upon the m, I was struck with them as conveying a me:m-
ing much stronger than I intended. I had nut been in the habit of attend-
ing the Queen's Council.
Q. Did yeti mean more by sayiur you despaired of the recovery, than
that you did not expect a recovery ?—A. No, I did not.
9. You attended the King on a former illness ?—A. Yes.
Q. Is his mental state worse now than occurred at any time during three
previeus illnesses when yen saw his Majesty?--A. Very considerably
worse than I had seen his Majesty before.
Q. Do you consider his Majesty's di.order, in general, nearest allied
to deli him or insanity ?—A. For the most part, during the greatest part
o' the time 1 have seen his Majesty in his present indisposition, it has
been nearest allied to insanity.
Dr. RUDER e DARLING WILLIS called in, and eramined.
Q. Ts the state of his'Majesty's health such as to render him incapable
of corning in person to his Parliament, or of attending to any kind of
public business?—A. His Majesty's state is not such as to enable hint
• to come to his Parliament, or to attend to arks, kind of public business.
Q. Wliat is the present state of his Majesty's bodily health ?—A. The
present state of his Majesty's bodily health is by no means good, thoueli
it may be considered, generally sp aking, better than under the chem.
enlaces of want of air and exercise might have been expected. This
morning his Majesty is in an extremely agitated and nervous state, which
has been increasing for sonic time past.
Q. What is the present state of his Majesty's mental health ?—A. The
state of his Majesty's health is worse at present than it has been at any
time since his attack.
Q. Adverting to the state of his Majesty's mental health since your
last examination before a Committee of the House of Commons, are
you auw of opinion that his Majesty's recovery is probable, or improba-
ble ?—A. Extremely improbable.
Q. Are you of opinion that his Majesty's recovery is hopeless ?—A. I
do not think it impossible; but I really hardly know how to apply the
word hopsless in a medical sense, it is only applicable to a state same-.
where between eetreme improbability and impossibility, but that is a
state whit h is so extremely difficult so ascertain, and in the greater num-
ber of instances will be as transient, that I hardly know how to apply the
words. I io not think it impossible, but is in my opinion all but im-
pos-tble.
Q. When did you first form your opinion, that his Majesty's recovery
was extremely improbable ?—A. I began to have a very different opi-
nion of his Majesty's state, soon after the beginning of the paroxysm,
July; in
and as the symptoms have never given way in any respect, my
hopes have continually decreased.
Q. Is there arse thing peculiar in the aggravated symptoms which have
shown themselves within the last three days ?—A. Nothing peculiar;
nothing that we have not seen in several aggravated states before.
Q. Are the symptoms themselves more aegravated than they have
been at any previous time ?—A. No; I have seen his Majesty in the
same state several times.
Q. Are the symptoms which have appeared within the last three clas,
such as to endanger his Majesty's life ?—A. In any other individual I
think they would; hat I have so repeatedly seen the King in the
same state, and !ewe seen them give way afterwards, that I can hardly
say that I consider his Majesty's life as in danger from those symptoms.
Q. Referring to the answer given to the third question, respecting the
state of his .Majesty's mental health, did you mean to convey to the Cum

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