The Sun.
London, England, 1841-04-14 00:00:00

MORNING EDITION.

THE RE

F TEXAS.

Texas is larger than France ; its soil is said to be
unsurpassed by any in the world, and its climate admir-
ably adapted to the European constitution. It is ca-
pable of producing more cotton than all the United
States, of a better quality, and at a cheaper rate. Sugar
can also be cultivated to great advantage ; and all the
grains, and fruits, and vegetables of Europe can be
raised in great abundance. It is the only country in
America where cotton and sugar can be extensively
cultivated by white labour. Hides, tallow, beef, furs,
peltries, live oak and cedar timber, can also be exported
to almost any extent. The inhabitants are intelligent,
bold, hardy, enterprising, and industrious, of the Anglo-
American race. They have formed a government mo-
delled after that. of the United States, except that it is
a single sovereignty of similar interests, instead of
a federative system of different interests, which
i' gives it prospects of greater permanency, efficiency, and
simplicity, arid renders it more acceptable to European
tastes and nctions. By the constitution they have de-
clared the African slave-trade piracy ; they have esta-
blished religious toleration, and made all equal before
the law. They have adopted the common law of Eng-
land ; and the laws are promptly and impartially ad-
ministered. Religious and literary institutions are
springing up in all directions, and are liberally endowed
by the Government. Emigration is pouring into the
country, with unprecedented rapidity. Society is im-
proving ; and the English language, literature, and
civilization is spreading, with railroad rapidity, over
scenes which were, five short years ago, a wilderness.
The people of Texas have wisely established a very
cheap government; the debt of the republic amounts
only to about 600,0001., and she has an unappropriated
public domain of 150,000,000 acres, intrinsically as
valuable as any land in the world ; this source, with the
mcst reduced scale of taxes, will support the government
for a century.—Colonial Magazine.

SIR CHARLES BELL ON MEDICAL

REFORM.

(From the Medical Gazelle.)
In times of civil contention, said the ancients, it be-
hoves every citizen to take his side, and 'not affect a
neutrality dangerous to the State ; and now that our
medical republic is so sorely distracted by fears and
jealousies, we hail with pleasure each document which

gives the deliberate opinion of some man of note.
Sir C. Bell, whose pamplet is now lying before us,
comments on the two bills which have attempted to ap-
_

ply a salve to our professional grievances ; and, like all
other persons, he condemns them. When we do agree,
as Sheridan says of stage concord, our unanimity is
wonderful ; and the Bills for improving the medical

profession have reconciled the most violent antagonists,
and, like some great public calamity have made all other
misfortunes appear trifling by comparison.
Sir C. BM, however, though utterly rejecting the
little medical parliaments, and all the cthcr queer de-
vices proposed to make us happy, is by no means per-
ketly satisfied with things as they are. He is a Re-
former, but then it is atter his own fashion ; he does
not come into the field with any well•know uniform on
his back, but fights like a partisan, in plain clothes,
and does not draw up with the regular troops.
The consequence of tl.is is, that he cuts right and
left withot.t inuoh mercy ; old corporations and new

Reformers share his censure, and his motto seems

,o be—

Tres Tsriusve fuat, nullo discrimine agetur.
Sir Charles warns the members to whom his pamphlet
is addressed against the bias arising from local prejudices,
and so far he does well ; but when he begs to reflect
thet in London they arc " exposed to the influence of
men rho form their judgment on very limited expe-
rience," and " who have not hitherto taken an enlarged
view of this matter," we think that, in phrenological
language, his organ of caution is too strongly deve-
loped. Far from London being under the influence of
local prejudices, it seems rather to approach the unde-
fined line where impartiality borders on indifference ;
so that intropolitan sluggishness occasionally forms
a curious contrast with provincial vivacity. In
fact, London, instead of being the heart of
the empire, as it is often called, has sometimes seemed
to us more analogous to the brain—the source of sen-
sation to every other part, but itself almost destitute of

fee hog.
Did we find, for instance, that Mr. 'Warburton's
Bill, that bundle of whims and oddities, was discussed
in the capital with heat and agitation, as a thing likely
to annoy the profession extremely ? or, was it talked of,
like the fortifications of Paris, as a strange freak that
nobody need mind ? Does Mr. Hawes's 1311, again,
fill us all with perplexity and terror ? We can assure Sir
Charles that every one waits for its extinction with the
most philosophic composure, and that scarcely an epi-
gram will be written on the occasion.
Sir Charles tells the story of Walter Scott find-
ing Mungo Park throwing stones into the pools of the
Yarrow, that he might learn to judge of the depth of
the rivers in Africa by the time the bubbles took to
rise from the bottom. Park was at this time a country
surgeon, with a practice of 1501. a year, and " rather
than suffer the privations of his condition, he was con-
templating a perilous adventure." Mungo Park's ta-
lents clearly did nct lie in the country practice line ;
"to sit by the side of a groaning woman till dawn," as
Sir Charles phrases it, was not his forte, and he did
well to give up the Yarrow for the Niger. This anec-
dote scarcely proves, as it is intended to do, that the
income of country surgeons is so small that the Legis-
lature must, at all events, refrain from increasing the
expense of their education. The case is clearly an ex-
ception ; and we have no doubt that Mungo Park's
successors have made larger incomes on the same
ground but non 0711nia possumus omnes ; and the man
who was destined to immortally as a traveller, was
unable to grow popular amongst the farmers' wives on
the Yarrow.
The Legislature, complains Sir Charles, when
they wanted to pass a Medical Act, sent the in-
quiry to a Committee, " and then there is a farce of
taking evidence and receiving the statements of corporate
bodies, all tainted with the imperfections of a rude age."
But surely the Professor would not have rejected all
evidence save that of the malcontents ; and after the
Committee had heard the statements of frail contented
creatures, they must have hastened with a higher zest
to evidence untainted by imperfection ; for none was ex-
cluded—good was allowed admission as well as bad.
Perhaps the following sentence contains a nearer ap-
proach to the marrow of the question The radical
defect being the attempt to legislate for a profession,
to reconcile the interests of medical men, instead of
looking steadily to the interests of society."
In rude ages, or even now in some continental coun-
tries, it may be advisable for the supreme power in the
State to meddle with the details of ordinary life.
Catharine of Russia issued regulations for the conduct
of evening parties ; but though it might be easy to
prove to the satisfaction of a Committee that for want
of an ukase, ices melt,• and lemonade grows lukewarm,
no one has d
yet advised us t copy the Muscovite model.
In Malta, again, our Government has fixed a tariff
for medical and surgical advice, and while venesection
is recompensed by six tads, or lOid., the reduction of
hernia claims six times as much.
In this country, however, we leave the settling of
the tariff to doctor and patient, with probably less
dissatisfaction in the main, than on the straightlaced
system intended to prevent all disputes.
Some few and obvious improvements might be safely
attempted. First, sweep away the minor examining
bodies. Secondly, let each remaining Board qualify
the successful candidate for practice throughout the Bri-
tish empire. Thirdly, on all occasions where the State
cremes in contact with our profession, let a more liberal
scale of remuneration be adopted : it is degrading to the
profession, and therefore injurious to the public, that
the services of an assistant surgeon in the army, or of
the medical officer of a Union, should be rated Lt less
than those of a tolerable clerk in a house of husinesr.
These are points with which the State may advantage-
ously interfere. But we would warn legislators and re-
formers that the customs of a nation cannot be sud-
denly changed by Act of Parliament.
A very delicate point touched upon by Sir Charlesexperience
of
teaching in London, hundreds of young men entered the i s
the
indifference of the College ofl'eSsurbgeef.oonres to the.
moral
But
u
t
influence of the profession. He complains of their re-
ceiving certificates from anatomists of irregular habits,
and observes that during his thirty years'
tpwerhmoarpetts,esvidaounalndwiitnll:qattuheiseibtieloveonnrissntatieod oxatmitiep College,tmbeoralsofrer
lechtaudits, or
, because, though a
awfereemluivsetr have done—at least ?
refused a certificate from a teacher
wanasd
gooodnannmatoormeisptn,illiite,
for the present. Sir Charles Bell complains
of
small rewards bestowed on the exertions t t
practitioners
of physic, compared with those lavished lavishedon
other
learned professions. So far he is right :no medical
practitioner occupies in English society the station of
a Bishop or a Judge. But when he goes on to say
that there is no worthy tribunal to judge the merits, of
our profession, and that all success depends upon igno-
rant rumour, or the prejudice of fashion, we are com-
pel:ed to differ from him. Indeed, we may quote
his own examfle against his own theory. In any
scientific association, from the Neva to the Tagus,
when the nerves become the subject of discussion, the
name of Bell is quoted as an authority. Is not this
fame?

The Earl of Mallncsbory has been suffering
from severe indisposition during the past week, but was
considered much better on Monday. Dr. Ketrison has been
in constant attendance on the Noble Earl. Although at
first his Lordship's disorder caused much alarm, a Lvour-
atlo chan,ge tcck place on Sunday night, which promises
a complete recovery.
His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex has
quite recovered from his illness. His Royal Highness, ac-
companied by the Duchess of Inverness, left Kensington
palace on Saturday, for Wimbledon Park, on a visit to
the Duke and Duchess of Somerset. His Royal High,
ness returns to Kensington Palace on Tuesday next.
The Duke of Northumberland is still suffering
from an attack of gout.