The National Register.
London, England, 1816-06-23 00:00:00

(CIRCULAR)

Whitehall, 'une 17. 1816.
Stn—i am directed by Lord gidmouth to inform you, that his Lord-
ship is aware that considerable inconvenience has arisen in many parts
of the country. from an apprehensinn that the defaced silscr coin now
in circulation will nut be taken in exelange for new coinage, now pre-
rearing: he therefore directs me to apprise you, that the defaced Mg of •
Me realm will be inkcis in rxel,nage for the acme rrinrlge, as soon as the
latter is completed; and lie hopes that the brikers and tradesmen of
---- will condom: to receive such defaced caw in the mean time.
I am, &c. J. BECILLT'I.
To the Worshipful the Mayor of —.

We are happy to state that the Princess Charlotte is
perfectly recovered of her late indisposition, and now
takes daily riles with her illustrious Consort, as licreto-
fore. Thursday and Friday they received numerous
Addresses of congratulation.
Last night the illustrious Pair visited Covent-Garlen
Theatre, to see Mrs. Siddons's exquisite representation of
the character of Lady Macbeth. They cams early to
the Theatre. God tare Me King and Mite Britannia
were sung in aprnirable style, and seemed to interest
much the Royal auditors; but with the performance of
the great actress they sceme4 at all times pleased, and
occasionally almost electrifi. Youiso's Macbeth had
great merit. The house was crowded to excess, and
the performance was enthusiastically applauded.-
-Tom Thumb was the Farce of the Evening, and
"sent its hearers" laughing to their homes. We were
happyto sec that her Royal Highness had scaacely a trace .
of her recent indisposition.
The marriage of the Princess Mary and the Duke of
Gloucester is postponed from Tuesday next; and another
day has not yet been fixed for it. It may be delayed, for
three weeks, or a month. The reason is, that great alter-
ations and improvements are to be made at Bagshot
Park, which must be completed before the marriage: the
mansion there being irtended for the reception of the
Royal couple, immediately after the ceremony.
The Princess of Wales has arrived at Malta, from.
Tunis.

We understand, that early next Session, the attention
of Parliament will be caned to the present miserable
situation of the bays employed in sweeping chimnies.
Their condition is most deplorable ; and the complaints
to which they are liable are of the most distressing na-
ture.

Monday being the anniversary of the day when the
immortal battle of Waterloo commenced, the Office!' •
of the Horse Guards at Windsor gave a grand dinner
at the Cavalry Barracks to those of the Foot Guards -
quartered there ; and nextday the Officers of the Boot
gave an equally splendid dinner in return. At two
o'clock all the privates of the two regiments who were in
the battle had a dinner given them at the Long-walk,
consisting of roasted beef and plum-puddings and a pint
of wine each—the latter presented them by Mr. Carbnell,
wine-merchant of Windsor. The Duke of York was
present at this gratifying sight, and afterward► partook
of the dinner with the Officers at the Barracks. On
this occasion the colours which were in the battle, and
which were in a tattered state, were displayed at the
head of the table, and those new ones granted to the
regiment in lieu, at the foot.
Tuesday the Officers of the three regiments of Foot
Guards who were at the battle of Waterloo gave a din-
ner at the Thatched-house tavern, in commemoration of

that day.
A superb Statue of Mr. Fox been erected in the
upper part of Bloomsbury-square, facing the Statue of
his. Noble Friend, the late Francis, Duke of Bedford.
It is in bronze, the workmanship of Mr. Westmacutt, and.
does him high honour.
Dort.—Sunday morning an hostile meeting took
place between the Marquis of Buckingham and Sir Tho—
mas Hardy at Kilburn Wells. After discharging a
brace of pistols each, without effect, tho .camas inter-
fered, and an amicable adjustment of differences took
place. The quarrel, we understand, originated, from
some misinformation, received by one of the parties, re-
specting an i famous anonymous letter, which some base-
assassin has contrived to circulate ; but of which,. we are
happy to state, it is now satisfactorily ascertained, the
party suspected had not even the remotest knowlsslge.
EATON THE PEDESTRIAN.—Ihis extraordinary inditidual
still continues (notwithstanding his evidant derlideofstr, neth.
lameness,andswelling of the limbs)to strugglein the perhanra ace
'of his task, and is himself still. confident of sneers. Ile ac-
knowledges, however, that heir much distressed. The crowds
who witness his exertions increase, and he has profited not a
little lay their liberality, lie has two additional persons ap-
pointed to attend him, making at present eiVit ;.and bets in-
crease watch him. —Last evening at seven o'clock, he was
cheered by the multitude upon his completins, 432 miles.
" What is life ?" says a celebrated modern [Philosopher, "
Lottery ! 'where those who initial their hits cannot fail of sharing
the Golden Prises which Fortune distribntes among Iter.asrdent
worshippers." This soiled philosophy has already obtained.
for Pftoeessort RISK the highest DFAR 4E. Of Publiesfavour,
which he is determined to maintain by Resin decorating his
'l'empks of Fortune, 4, Corithiti, and 9, Charing-Crime, NI- Xl'
I'UEsDAY, w3en all the numerous Grand Prizes he the Rich
Little Summer Lottery must (to use a fashionable pkasi )rome
ent !—Llicky will those be who secure a portion ot• diets by a
speedy and successful application to HUM ! • Tho:4, who wish
to enrich themselves, (and who dues trot!) should recollect thilk
impressive words of the immortal Poet :
'. There is a tide in the affairs of men.
“ Which alma at the good leal3 on w lame!

1 SS

VIOLATION OF THE DEAD.

THE EDITOR OF TIIE NkTIONAL REGISTER.

Sta.—PROM the tone of the letter signed 3. W iu your
Pieper of the ell natant, professing to be a reply to the one I
lead previously addressed to yen. on the sideteet of the
lion of the Heal.l juilge the write' is attic Estoilapiati Tribe :
and from the flippant .tiel dill timid kind id' style, ill is
deignshtcle ht
to nut .re my argemicuts. would seem to dicers; ittlin.itely
more of seal than judgenent. o speak the a kith, there is su
little of any thine like an apology for, much less a justification
of. the praeliee of digging op the dead in his wild eristie. that
I might well (loafer it du paes unnoticed; midi only that tite-e
js
aw evident view on his part to ousriTreseut the purport ..f in)
letter, eumweted with ;deny of the grosse.4 absurdities I ever
read, which indispensably call for merited espootere. I should
tome tell J. W. and his geattematily defence to that fate the
public, in its impartial judettient, may • otteien them to. It
seeme I have gisen areal orbiter by itsiiig certain warm ex-
pressione applied to the pi esent practice of thasection. 1 grant
I have use.l atroile languale ; het dates hot J. W. know, that.
there is such a feeling as virtnens indignation, and which, it
allowed, I Kuehl ask him, shifty Mid annelidas he is, to 'te-
ther any thing in nature Is more. bkely ae call holt such ex,
presUmes than the violation of our consecrated herial places
I do, however, address myself to those who have pious feel.
ins; : to hypocrites, and the tribe, I disdain snaking :in appeal.
Thronehout his letter there is an evident personal trit ill
Ay Mind wholly turacententable, mikes I may imagine that the
appears liee of my initials ...inlet:slice the painful reeds:intim'
of dine known to him. and who has on a former occasion dealt
rent defeat : if such a reeollectiou hannts him. l ails truly sorry;
for it will prove impossible for ore' to prutit by a discuesion
etmtioned on lii• part in a such a veugs•ful mood.
J. W. will, I hope, esettee me when I -ay that hi% episode of
the history ofanatomy is mite not of piara. Neither son nor
I, Sir, or his headers, required melt a tedious espusition ; nor
have I snit' a ward in idupeaelmient of the pripriety tit jedbeiosis
anatomical ;tractive: the qttection between J. W. awl me, as
toe has chosen to take it up, is this: I deny the nem ssity of dis-
tnrbing the dead; and further, reprehend the practice as wan-
ton and brutal, as ininneal to moral feeling, and at deadly b !fi-
fthly with the &Oates of true religion. and so set b set vise Of
pious delicacy and refinement, consequently brutalizing, that
no plea of necessity set up for it can compensate fen the serious
injury sustained by is ligion and morality thriltigh its eolltillll-
- His letter would insinuate, to meet hien on his owe'
ground, that there is an imperious necessity for it ; but. ale
where are the proofs? Are there no subjects for dieeeetinn sirs e
those who are savagely drae gest horn their last earthly habita-
tions? And does he mean ',rebore!, to say that the practice is
confined to one in ten thousand? If lie does, the world
will tench at hint in the one ease for his ignorant credulity,
and despise him in the oilier for his disregat d of truth. I du
not wish to he harsh oil such a feeble effort in defence of that
which is indefensible ; but, I must say, that he has used Ilia 'ten
with the Paine unfeeling its std. ty, as he would his stergica I
knife, when hacking the flesh from the bones of a slarieel fear
dissection ; for surely tbd re never nas a poor lettri so rot amt
mangled as that of your humble servaii-s. 1 :tin found fault
with for running to antiquity for trete V.M; ; and yet J. W.
fie fore the breath of his repreheasion was eshausted, must
drag op a lone list of venerated names from the earliest lie-
tiods, to sanction the violation of the I omb : this is w retell, .1
inconsistency. As to his remark, that he " never enters a
cathedral, or house appropriated to the dead, without taking
off his hat, with the most profound and reverential awe, %%WI
note veneration, Sc. for the inhabitants of the aileut tomb," it
is the veriest methodistical jargon ever uttered ; true cant ;
yore Chestertieldian Itypncrisy ; fur not one of these faille Ve-
nerated dead amild he spare from the gross contamination of
the dissectine board, if his resurrection agents could safely con-
Vey them to the sporting room for his juvenile surgical opera-
tors to revel over. Away with such miserable whiiiing ; such
rank duplicity. If J. W. is a man and a Christien, as he pro-
fes‘e% to be, let him adduce better proofs in support of his
pretensions than th:.se he has furnished us with. But I wish to
know whether any thing ran justify the practice of theft ? kt ill
he meet this? Why, Sir, what we arc speaking of, is designated
sterling of dead bodies; and the offenders arc liable to the
vengeance of the arm of the law. Then to he sure we have
•• sickbed sensibility, and narrowed views of humanity," ap-
plied to such as myself. I thank my God, that even this is the
ease ; as a sensibility, though not quite healthy, must certainly
be better than total deprivation of feeling; and a narrowed view
ahumanity will doubtless be esteemed preferable to the ab-
sence of ai human sympathy. We have also astrology very
unceremoniously introduced, for is hat suitable purpose I can-
not divine. 35 there never was a question of eomparisoll started
by me ; but even in this the thing is so clumsily done, that the
very men he• quotes as the parents of anatomy, were those who
...titivated a mast consummate knowledge of, and belief in,
the truths of astrology. 'flue first on his long list of aueient
names, Hippocrates, has wrote on the importance of the Miser-
wetien of critical days to patients, as got ernes' by planetary
motion and influx. In the name of common since let tie have
no more of this hat lequinade, this saying a great deal and yet
saying nothing.
If we pursue science, Sir, let tot pursue it legitimately, and by
All prop. r means,- Means compatible with the eultivation of
moral feeling ; for, as to the necessity of the case, it may as well
be nista() 10. expedient to enter into a compact with devils, in
order to compass a knowledge of the world of spit its, as to as-
sert that it is essential to anatomical practice to profane the
sanctity of the grave. J. W.'s letter, displaying as it does a to-
tal absence on his part, of all that can express religious vene-
ration and feeling, is me sad* but notable proof of slle lamenta-
ble ennsegilencesolthis Unchristian and inhuman practice. As
to the scurrility with which I am charges!, I disclaim any thing
like a wish to speak contempttionely of any profession; but I
repeat again, that I know of no language strong enough in the
way of repieliension, to express the abhorrence with which I
view the violation of the dead. Doubtless, there are men in
this profe -Ulm whom I respect ; there are others also whom I
do not hesitate to (my I feel every thing but esteem for ; and as
to nosing in their society, I am free to say I have, hid must add,
from all that I leave seem and heard, notwithstanding their ea- ,
.tersor polish, and apparent equanimity, I have known too many
entirely heartless, absorbed in the contemplation of the most
Sordid pursuit of gain, and besides infected with atheistical
tontine ; 5110.'141J. W. prove angry at this declaration, let it be
remembered, he has extorted it from me. I had no wish, nor
did I speak of the profeeeion, either us au object of perces-tie
or censure; flinch levl, (lid I insiuuate any thing against the
pursuit of anatomical knowledge.
I find also, that my quotation from the Taunton Courier has
displeased this testy opponent of mine ; but, laying aside fur
the moment the antiquity of the tale, surely J.W. has failed
is proving it a joke does he mean to say the story is au imp°.
swum even thong!' It should be twenty years since it Was first
raimmazistesst t it so, let us Lave the proofs of the imposture;

'ME NATIONAL REGISTER.

41;ICrO %sill 61111116 r ACW, that practices adopted by
surgeons, sufficiently dreadful to chill the current of our blood,
have betas suffered bat too lone.
Yosir correspondent can have read very little, and that little
to small purpose, if he has not yet learned, that the Clwyd rites
of the ancients were symholieal of NWt belonged to the soul,
and that t ey considered it impious to disturb the dead busty,
because it prevented its reinaiment parts from sp idi'y and pro•
perfy rettirtalig to their nati%e eieturints. It it is 4 inaracr of
indifference a- to what becomes of the 1.0.1 y or its
lamented lineaments may be disturbed and shiseeteti with im-
punity, why has re.i.,tioL, of whatsorser kind, always made it
her particular pros ince to hallow, with her must solemn rites,
the burial of the dead ? Let J. W. answer this. I refer him to
hoclos as an authority, ,thin, in the Fragments of his Comineo-
tarics on the It/nil/lie sat Plato, will t'iini..h him with the infor-
mation he has been pleased to designate as " too ridiessluus to
notice." As, haws.% er, he seems to be fond of poetry, perhaps
he has read the lliad ; is which ease, he may pmt.'s: tee recut•
sect the following lines—lib. 23
" All night Aeltille.s hails Patroclus' soul
With large libations from the gulden bowl."
The conelmling couplet also, in that di% ism poem, says,—
• Sueb honours Ilion to het hero pail
'Chas slept in p .u.e the tuighty II :etur's shade."
The application of these cannel, I think, c' ets by J. W. be
nsisusole.stood. Nut wislaiag to trespass further 011 %our atten-
tion, tiir, I sla dl take toy lease, for the present, of J. W., with
the hope, that lie will, ir di-vowit to say snore eis this sush
i... 4. nee, t d;redly, and rebut, WM. 4.411, point point. bat
1 Naive advanced. As I have no doubt lie thinks himself com-
petent to such a task, l hats
elide:trotr to preserve his good trowel fur the sake of his
lest he should discover, that the laugh hiia for hip
rain Knit:lst Eriantry, without either the courtesy, tele reli-
gions or the armour of rummies.. 1 mu, bit omit's,
Jour UM, 1016. J. li .

BATTLE OF WATERLOO.

Last Tuesday was the anniversary of the battle of
Waterloo ; an event that stands unrivalled in our mili-
tary annuls. If it ha ye not produced the political results
whieh'were expected, no blame is to be attached to the
great man, by whose genius, or to the warriors, by whose
invincible bravery, this immortal victory was achieved.
They surpassed the sanguine expectations oftheir country—
they did infinitely mere than the rest of Europe, long a
witness of their unrivalled exploits, expected. In one day
they destroyed that military system, which, for more than
twenty years, had been the terror of Europe; and tram-
pled upon the fortunes of a man, whose destinies were
supposed to be superior to the attacks of tbrtune. Let
us recollect, that never did France send forth such an
army, so complete in equipment, so confident in its
strength, so confiding in the genius and fortune of its
Leader. It marched to certaia victory ; and this per-
suasion did not arise from vain glory, or inexperience.
The troops sealed their confidence with glorious death;
and they deserved the crown f.r which they so nobly
struggled. They raised on that immortal day the glory
of the French arms ; and the Chief, who led these men
into battle, had only to complain of fortune, and of the
invincible constancy of his opponents. Any other army he
would have defeated—from any other host he would
have torn the bloody wreath of victory. On the me-
morable days of the 15th and 16th he obtained an almost
bloodless triumph over the brave Prussians ; elated with
the events of those days, he made his preparations to fight
the British army ; and, had he succeeded, to decide the
chances of the war. Our troops had only arrived the
(lay before on the field ; they were unprepared tir being
attacked; they expected to attack; and the most intrepid
of men are affected by a circumstance of this kind. Even
the elements too conspired against them ; for it was after
a night of drenching rain that they were brought up in
the morning of the 18th to maintain the glory of the na-
tional arms, and to decide the greatest interests that were
ever settled by the chances of war. The general results
of that immortal victory are too fresh in recollection to be
forgotten ; but to describe adequately the genius that se-
cured, and the bravery that achieved, these results is a
task that far exceeds our humble powers. It is enough,
for the present purpose, to say, that Wellington foresaw
every combination of the enemy—anticipated every
movement ; his eye overlooked the dreadful field ; his
moral presence was every where ; add he alone, to use
the language of the best judges, could snatch the victory
from such valorous and determined opponents. Never
was a battle so hardly fought—never was such resolution
displayed on all sides to conquer or perish ; and never,
also, was a triumph purchased with so much blood. It
is in proportion to the courage manifested by the conquer-
ed, that victory is valued ; and it was the daring valour
of the French troops, their constancy, their generous
zeal, and noble fortitude, that enhanced the triumph of
our countrymen ; and when the political passions and
prepossessions of our time shall be extinct, the glories of
Waterloo will shine with brighter effulgence than those
of any other military achievement in our own or the an-
nals of any other country. Its anniversary should, there-
fore, be observed by us as a day of national exultation.
That ever-memorable battle decided, in one day, a war,
which the most sanguine calculated would last many
months ; it has thus saved us from an additional burthcn
of debt and taxes—it has moreover placed our national
security beyond the reach of external danger,—it will
have the effect of preventing, for many years, an attack
from foreign Pow*, who will tremble at the idea of
encountering in battle the warriors who achieved it ;
and in a word, it has raised the glory of the British arms
to an unparalleled elevation.