The Sun.
London, England, 1848-02-03 00:00:00

THE SUN, LONDON,

efforts of this energetic Governor gain all hearts, and
he will succeed, not only in re-establishing the peace
of the province, but also in maintaining it for a per
manency. The judicious measures adopted by the
Governor are much blamed by the bureau of autocrats;
nevertheless they consolidate the confidence of the
Galicians, and will eventually crown his difficult
mission with great honour. The brother of the Count
has again left Vienna, to proceed from Bremen to
his own post in Prague. Count Monteculoli, it is
said, has declined the appointment of Governor of
Lombardy. The Archduke Palatine will, probably,
remain here sometime.—Prussian State Gazette, Jan.
30th.
DECREASE OE MARRIAGES IN VlENNA.—During
the year 1347 the number of births in Vienna
amounted to 19,019 ; that of deaths to 18,947. Only
2,730 couples were married, being 915 less than in
1845. If the number of marriages continues to de-
crease in the same ratio, in the course of four years
the sacred institution will be antiquated in the
capital of the Austrian empire.—Hamburgh Corre•
spondent.
RUSSIAN POLAND.—ST. PETERSUURGH, AN. 21.
A general meeting of the shareholders of the Tale-
mend Assurance Company took place on the 16th,
when a statement was made of the unfaithfulness of
Mr. Plitt, the Frankfort consul, and a commission
appointed to investigate the state of affairs. The
commission have had several meetings, but as yet
nothing has transpired, nor yet respecting the exa-
mination of Mr. Plitt. The latter is said to be quite
at his ease, and has engaged counsel for defence. It
is much feared that the co-directors of the company
will have to be responsible for Mr. Plitt's defalca-
tions, and that the shareholders will have to suffer
much loss.

MAGAZINES-(CONTINUED).
BLACK IV 001).

Schnitzler's " Secret History of the Court and
Government of Russia, under the Emperors Alex-
ander and Nicholas," is elaborately reviewed in the
opening article of Blackwood for this month. The
reviewer does not, however, confine himself to the
consideration of the reigns of Alexander and Nicholas,
but gives a rapid resume of the history of Russia
from the days of Rufic. We shall not attempt to
follow the writer through the course of his narrative,
but we cannot resist the temptation of extracting
some of his reflections, which appear to us to be
not only original, but sound and philosophical. The
permission on the part of the Deity of wars and per-
secutions has been at all times a favourite argument
with those who are inclined to doubt the existence of
a Providential government of the world. The writer
in Blackwood thus " vindicates the ways of God to
man:

"Without touching on topics exclusively religious, it
becomes a matter of high interest to mark the venge-
ances, furies, and massacres, of heathenism, In every age
of the world. Yet while we believe, and have such
resistless reason to believe, in the Providential govern-
ment, what grounds can be discovered for this sufferance
of perpetual horrors ? For this we have one solution,
and but one : stern as the inflictions are, may they not
be in mercy? may not the struggles of barbarian life be
permitted, simply to retard the headlong course of bar-
barian corruption? may there not be excesses of wicked-
ness, extremes of national vice, an accumulation of
offences against the laws of moral nature, (which are the
original laws of heaven,) actually incompatible with
the Divine mercy? Nothing can be clearer to the un-
derstanding, than that there are limits which the Divine
Being has prescribed to his endurance of the guilt of
man, and prescribed doubtless for the highest objects of
general mercy; as there are offences which, by human
laws, are incompatible with the existence of society.
" The crimes of the world before the flood were evi-
dently of an intense iniquity, which precluded the possi-
bility of purification; and thus it became necessary to
extinguish a race, whose continueed existence could only
have corrupted every future generation of mankind.
" War, savage feuds, famines and pestilences may
have been only Divine expedients to save the world from
another accumulation of intolerable iniquity, by depriv
ing nations of the power of utter self-destruction, by
thinning their numbers, by compelling them to feel
the miseries of mutual aggression, and even by reducing
them to that degree of poverty which supplied the most
effective antidote to their total corruption. . .

FloM THE CIUCLSES.—Tirms, Dzc. 31.—1 n the
hope that the approaching winter would prevent our
troops from assembling in Middle Daghestan,
Schamiel collected a considerable force in No-
vember at Zudacbar and the neighbourhood.
The inhabitants of Zudacbar, however, protected
them, and attacked and put the enemy to flight. On
the receipt of this intelligence General Prince Argus-
nike Dolgoraki ordered two columns to be dispatched,
one consisting of three, and the other of six battalions
of infantry, twelve pieces of artillery, and a division
of dragoons and militia, to be assembled at Zyudachir
on the 4th of December. Regardless of the difficulties
of a winter campaign in these mountains, our troops
advanced with speed to the villages of Hutschugatu of
Mukorklu, which the enemy had fortified, forced them
from their position, and, after the re-establishment of
quiet in this neighbourhood, returned on the 11th to
their quarters at Temir Chan Schurz and Kumah.
About the same time Lieutenant- General Freitag
undertook to march to the northern declivity
of the mountain- chain, with the view of clearing
a passage in the dense woods of Tschetschno, a plan
which has been adopted with success during several
years. On the 30th of November he left the fort of
Wosdwischenski, and took up his position at the
river Girth with this detachment, consisting of nine
battalions of infantry, 450 cossacks, and sixteen
pieces of artillery. From the I] th to the 22d of
December detachments of troops were sent daily to
fell the trees to seek for booty, and to make hostile
skirmishes into the ,neighbourhood, and among the
farms and hamlets. Hamburgh Borsen-
Jan. 29.

`• Still those sufferings were punishments, but punish-
ments fully earned by their fierce passions, savage pro-
pensities, remorseless cruelties, and general disobedience
of that natural law of virtue, which earlier, even than
Judaism or Christianity, the Eternal had implanted in
the heart of his creatures."

We are rejoiced to find in such a magazine as
Blackwood, and from the pen of such a writer as the
author of this article, the following •indication of the
great French philosophers of the last century, who
have been most unjustly stigmatised as the enemies of
Christianity. The author, in speaking of La Harpe,
who, in common with Toltaire, and the other philo-
sophers of the middle of the last century, has been
stigmatised as a scoffer, says—
" But the English reader should be reminded, that
when men of this rank of ability are pronounced hostile
to religion, their hostility was not to the principles of
Christianity, but to the religion of France; to the per-
formances of the national worship, to the burlesque
miracles wrought at the tomb of the Abbe Paris, and to
that whole system of human inventions and monkish
follies which was as much disbelieved in France as it
was disdained in England.
" In fact, the religion of the Gospel had never come
into their though's; and when they talked of revelation
they thought, only of the breviary."
This is perfectly true, and it is much to be regretted
that Protestant ministers, adopting the interested cry
of blasphemy which the Catholic priests had raised
against these men, should have suffered their esprit de
corps as priests to overcome their fidelity to the
tundamental doctrine of Protestantism, the right
of private judgments, and should have been in-
duced to adopt a cuckoo cry against these men
without examining their works, and have thus de-
prived pure Christianity of the benefit of the advo-
cacy of those who would have been its most efficient
champions, had those Protestant ministers, instead of
abusing, instructed them and shown them that the
Christianity of the Gospel was very different from
that of the breviary. M. Schnitzler has given it as
his opinion that the direction of Russian conquest
will be for the future towards Germany. The
writer in Blachwaod, however, differs from him, and
imagines that Asia Minor and Syria will be a lovelier
and more lucrative prey, and that Egypt will be the
prize, which will draw to the waters of the Medi-
terranean the maritime force of the world. " Our
West Indian Colonies " is the title of an article which
contains much to admire, and much of which to
disapprove ; but, as we have treated of this
subject in another part of this day's paper, we will
content ourselves in this place with merely referring
to it. "My English Acquaintance" is an amusing
account of the adventures of an English scapegrace,
who, having squandered a handsome fortune,
enlists in the French army, and performs a campaign
in Algiers. The story is admirably told, and the
interest is well kept up to the end. We do not
quite agree with the author of the paper entitled
" Subjects for Pictures," in his reprobation:of some of
the subjects chosen by Wilkie and Landseer. For
instance, he talks of the " debasing cruelty of the
otter hunt," because it puts human nature in the
very worst position ; and yet this very writer is warm
in his eulogium on Wouvermans' pictures of hawking
parties, because in them the death of the heron is the
accessory, not the subject. This is mere sentimental
cant—cruelty is cruelty, disguise it as you
may—and to an honestly constituted, truth-
loving, hypocrisy-hating mind, the otter hunt
of Landseer would not be one whit more disgusting
than the " Hawking Party" of Wouvermanns.
"'The Autobiography of a German Headsman" is
an interesting review of a recently published work
by M. Chezy—a sort of German causes celebres.
An elaborate and most laudatory notice of Mr. War-
ren's novel of " Now and Then" concludes the
present number of Blackwood.

ILA.MBURGE BMW:NH.I.ILE, JAW. 29.
Rills. Money.
tinstrian 5 per Cents 102%
Bank Shares • ... 1580
Anglo-Russian Loan •.•• • • ......... 104%
Russian 5 per Cent., Hamb. Certificate. 101%
Ditto let serieslnscription. • • • • • ...... 102
Ditto,Pleps and Co., 3d and 4th series.. 96
Ditto, in Certificate • • • • • • • • • 95
New 4 per Cent., Ilepe and Co. •• 36
Ditto Stleglitz .. • . ........ .........
Spanish New S per Cent.. • • •• • .
Ditto 3 per Cent •••• • • • •
Anglo-Portuguese Loan, 2% per Cent •
Dutch Actual Debt, 2% per Cent......
Ditto 3 per Cent. .. •.•••.•• • • .• • •
Polish New 4 per Cent. Loan, 1644.... 80
Anglo-Danish Loan, 3 per Cent 12
National Bank 5hare5................
DUTCH FUNDS.—AMSTERDAM, FEB. I.
Money. Bills
Actual Debt, 2% per Cent........... 64 64%
Date, 3 per Cent • • • • . • • • 66% 66%
Ditto, 4 per Cent.• • • • • • • • • • 14 84%
Amort !Syndic, 34 per Cent..........
Commercial Company, 4% per Cent .. 166% 162%
East India Loan, 4 per Cent ••••• • •• • • --
Exchange on London, at sight ...... 12 2
Two months... .......... 11 61
On Hahtbargh, at sight • . 34 07
Two menthe. •••• • •• •• • • 11 9i
On Paris • • • •• • • .• •• 56 76
Twomenths... •• •• • ..... 66 26
AUSTRIAN FUNDS.—VinnNA, JAN. 25.
I per Cent. Metalliques• ••• • . ...... 101%
4 per Cent. ditto • • • • • • • • • • • • • . 85
3 per Cent. ditto• • . • • • •• • • •• • . G 3
Loan, 1834 .• • • • • • • • • • • • • 156
Ditto, 1839 ...... • . •. • • • ............. 101%
Bank Shares • .• • .
Ester-hazy'. Loan •••• • • •• • •..••.. • • • • 57%
RAILWAYS.
The Northern, or Ferdinand .......... . 130%
Gloggnitz ........ .........., .. 100
Vienna—Milan .. •• . • .• . • . 85%
BELGIAN FUNDS.—Baussims, Flat. 1.
Actual Debt, 2% per Cent ... • • ...
Rothschild's Loan, Flee per Cent ........
Loan of Thirty Millions, Four porCent .•
Ditto Three per Cent.. • • • . • • •
Ditto Thirty-seen Millions, ditto
Ditto,ditte,lB46 ........ 98
Ditto, ditto, 1842 OS %
Ditto, ... 01%
Ditto, 1838 .............. • ... •• • •• 67
Ditto of the City, 1132 .• •• .• ••• • • • •
Ditto, 1843 •• • 65%
Bank of Belgium-- •••••• •• •• 71%
—Brussels Papers. Feb. 1.

We understand that the sentence of death passed
on Michael M'Cube, as being an accomplice in the
murder of Mr. and Mrs. Wraith and their servant, at
'Airfield, has been commuted into one of transportation
for life.

---
SOUTHAMPTON, FEE. 2.—The Royal Mail Steam-
Packet Company's ship Great Western, C. M. Chapman
commander, sailed to-day, taking the mails for the
British and foreign West Indies and Mexico. Her route
is via Bermuda, Nassau, Havannah, New Orleans, Tam-
pico, and Vera Cruz, returning by the same ports. The
Great Western has 45 passengers, amongst whom is M.
Chaney, the new French Consul-General for Honduras,
and a full general cargo, including 1,000 bottles of
quicksilver, ♦alue 17,900/. sterling, and specie value
43,0001. sterling. The Peninsular and Oriental Steam
Navigation Company's ship Sultan, Captain Brooks, will
leave to-morrow for Gibraltar, Malta, Constantinople,
the Black Sea, &c.

MILITARY INSUBORDINATION IN INDIA.—The ge•
neral orders of the Commander-in-Chief in India record
three more courts-martial on European soldiers for the
offence, till recently so prevalent, of striking a superior
officer in the execution of his duty. The crimes for
which the men were tried, however, wore all committed
a few days prior to the Meerut executions. As regards
punishment, extreme mildness would seem to have suc-
ceeded extreme severity. A few weeks ago a man was
shot for throwing his cap at a commissioned officer ; we
now see a prisoner sentenced to but two years' impri-
sonment for throwing his musket and drawing and
throwing his bayonet against a sergeant-major ; while
another, a corporal of her Majesty's vBth, convicted of
drunkenness, of beating and kicking and drawing his
bayonet against a couple of sergeants, and of violently
resisting the men of the guard when attempting to take
him into custody, is simply punished with reduction to
the rank and pay of a private—the Commander-in-Chief,
remitting corporal punishment, which the Court had
awarded him, on the ground of " previous very good
character." In the first case, the Court originally ad-
judged the culprit to fourteen years' transportation; but
a revision of the sentence was directed, when two years'
imprisonment was awarded. We cannot perceive, in
the brief official notice of the proceedings, the slightest
ground for this exercise of lenity. The case seems to
have been a very bad one—infinitely worse than at least
one of those punished with the extreme penalty of the
law. From the nature of the recent sentences, however,
we suspect that transportation is intended to be resorted
to as seldom as possible, and that imprisonment with
solitary confinement, and the much dreaded lash, arc
now considered the most appropriate and effectual pun-
ishments for insubordinate conduct.— Bombay Telegraph.
Emuu BURRITT.—This talented individual read his
lecture on the Philosophy of Labour before a crowded
audience, at the Hull Mechanics' Institution, on Monday
evening last.
AN EVENING WITH CHLORO6OII34 AND " MY BE-
LOVED CHARLES."—A practice has assumed the form of
a mania in Edinburgh, certainly not less exciting than
the railway mania. It consists in converting fashionable
evening parties into a species of pharmaceutical associa-
tion for experimenting on the effects of chloroform and
other substances of similar properties. Ono of these
exhibitions is worthy of notice. A number of ladies and
gentlemen were invited to an evening party in the house
of a respectable medical practitioner. At ten, instead of
music and dancing, the !earned doctor entered with a
flask and sponge, and every guest was treated to a (rip
to the realms of insensibility. Some of the ladies were
foolish enough, while there, to utter such speeches as
4, Oh 1 my beloved Charles, come to my arms l" at the
same time unwittingly extending them to receive the
dear creature. Some of the gentlemen, not having taken
the precaution to swallow a seidlitz or a carminative pre-
vious to their first appearance, committed slight breaches
of etiquette not very amieole.—Correspondent of the
Medical Times.
EQUALIZATION Pe LAX. TAX. A meeting of
the committee of deputies from the various parishes
aggrieved by the unequal pressure of the land-tax, took
place last evening at liastey's Hotel, Southampton
street, Strand, Mr. Ewen in the chair. The Secretary,
Mr. Daniel, having read the minutes of the last in!eting
reported that a considerable balance was remaining of
the funds formerly collected. The Chairman reported
subscriptions from three wards in the City of London.
Mr. S. Millar, Lincoln's Inn, moved, and Mr. Yoang,
Common Councilman, seconded, and it was unanimously
agreed to, that the present moment is favourable for a
movement in favour of the object of the committee, and
that a public meeting be convened to petition for an
equalisation of the land-tax throughout England and
Wales. Mr. Walker moved, and Mr. Emmorson so
con ded, a resolution to 'the effect, that a deputation be
appointed to wait on and invite Members of Parliament
favourable to this object to attend the meeting, and that
the committee do adjourn till Monday next to receive
the report of the deputation.

THURSDAY EVEN!, NCf9 FEBRUARY 3, iB4B.

THE ANTI-GOLD-LAW LEAGUE.
MR. COBDEN AND MR. BENNOCII.

"We find in Douglas Jo rold's Weekly Newspaper of
Saturday the following answer to the question asked by
Mr. Dickinson in his letter of the 25th of January,
which appeared in The Sun of Thursday evening last.
Mr. Dickinson asked—' Why did Mr. l3ennoch disguise
from Mr. Cobden, that one of the objects of the Anti
Gold-law League is to substitute a silver standard, at
the fixed price of ss. 6d. per ounce, far the pr, sent
gold standard, at 31. 17s. loid. per ounce ?' To which
the editor of Douglas Jerrold replies—' Mr. Dickinson is
completely in error. The League utterly repudiate the
silver standard, as well as the gold standard. They in-
sist on a paper pound, based on the whole wealth of the
nation, and convertible into taxes, as the standard of
value. It is to be hoped that Mr. Dickinson will make
himself master of facts before he again appears before
the public as a censor.' "—The Slat, Jan. 31, 1848.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

Sin,—" The Anti-Gold-law League repudiates a
silver standard as well as a gold standard," so saes
the editor of Douglas Jerrold's Weekly Newspaper—
this is an admission that the League are ignorant of
the effect of carrying out their own propositions.
One proposition is, to abolish the present gold
standard ; another is, that the present silver coin shall
be allowed to circulate as the small change of com-
merce. What is this but substituting a silver
standard for the gold standard ? The instant the
gold standard was abolished, and the silver coin
allowed to circulate as small change, the silver coin,
to all intents and purposes, as a natural consequence,
without any Legislative enactment whatsoever, would
become the standard measure of value, not only of
gold and silver bullion, but also of all our transactions
of trade and commerce at home and abroad—our
shillings would as effectually become measures of
value as the franc pieces of }ranee. Thus, as long
as the silver coin should be maintained at the legal
current weight, should we have a silver standard at
the fixed price of ss. 6d. per ounce.—l am, Sir, your
obedient servant, R. W. DICKINSON.
Ilfracombe, Feb. 2, 1848.

THE CURRENCY.
TO THE EDITOR OF THE SUN.

SIR,—In Francis's " History of the Bank" (page
237) I find the following passage:—
"Wherever there is a deficient capital at home for
the purchase of silver, the Bank may, with advantage
to the country, preserve the gold by the exportation
of silver, and by purchasing with it the excess of
bills upon England in the foreign market; the opera-
tion is conducted with secrecy, but with the full con-
currence of the whole court of directors, and in
making such a use of their silver, their sole object is
to protect the gold, which in times of an unfavourable
exchange has a tendency to leave the country."
The London bankers usually receive a much larger
quantity of silver than they find employment for, and
the surplus of that, as well as of their gold, is paid
over to the Bank of England; that establishment has,
however (no new thing by the way), thought proper
to refuse reception to the silver for the last week
or more, and, in consequence, the accumulation
in the bankers' hands has reached an extent that
compels them to curtail the usual accommodation to
their customers, a restriction that seriously affects
the smaller tradesman, and presses heavily upon the
salesmen, especially of Billingsgate and other mar-
kets, a great proportion of whose receipts are in the
rejected coinage. It is true the Bank profess to
receive any amount above 201. from private indivi-
duals, but as any operation of that sort consumes the
entire morning of the unhappy money-changer, the
reluctance to prqfit by the proffered facility renders
it almost nugatory. Could not the Directors have
recourse to some modus operandi, similar to that
detailed by their talented historian, and by so doing
advance their own interests and minister to the con-
venience of their best friends, the public ?
I remain, your obedient servant,
A BANKER'S CLERK.

IRELAND.

D [AMIN, Fan. I.—INCREASE 01' DESTITUTION.—
Disease, the inevitable result of destitution, is ra-
pidly extending in the western counties. Applications
have been made for increased hospital accommodation
in Ballina and other parts of Mayo. Typhus fever
and dysentery prevail to a lamentable extent. The
Sligo Champion states that the mortality in the union
workhouse of that town is very great. The condition
of the poor outside is most wretched ; there is little
or no employment, and thousands are in a state bor-
dering on starvation. The district of Sligo, however,
is tranquil.
REPRESENTATION or TILE UNITERSITY.—Mr. John
Richardson, of Summerhill House, county of Fer-
managh, has issued an address to the electers, de-
claring that he is a supporter of national education,
tenant right, and emigration. Regarding the Esta-
blished Church, he " disapproves of any interference
with existing rights." It is likely that there will be
several other candidates; but few of them will appear
at the poll.

REPRESENTATION Op WATERPORD.—The intention
of Mr. Daniel O'Connell to retire from the repre-
sentation was known in Waterford yesterday. The
Repealers were preparing to select a candidate. But
there was a rumour that the former representative,
Mr. Wyse, would again be called upon by an influen-
tial portion of the constituency.
REPRESENTATION OF SLIGO.—The Sligo Champion
says :—" A paragraph lately appeared in the Sligo
Journal, stating that Mr. Stoner, an English gentle-
man, had visited Sligo, for the purpose of preparing a
petition against Mr. Somers. We have been authorised
to state that Mr. Stoner came here more with the in-
tention of securing the promises of the electors in
favour of Mr. Townley, of Townley-hall, than to
prosecute the petition."
CAPITAL PONISLIIIENTS.—The Lord Mayor has
called a meeting of the citizens for Thursday next,
" for the purpose of taking the question of punish-
ment by death into consideration, and discussing the
propriety of presenting a memorial to the Lord-
Lieutenant, praying him to alter the sentence of death
passed on convicts at the present Special Commission
to some other punishment."

DEPUTATION TO THE LORD-LIEUTEN-
ANT FROM THE CORPORATION OF

DUBLIN.

This day the Lord Mayor and Corporation of the
City of Dubliu Nsaitcd ou his Excellency the Lord-
Lieutenant, at the Castle, for the purpose of presenting
a memorial which had been agreed to at a late meet-
ing of the Council, praying his Excellency would use
his high authority in sanctioning the zeal with which
the Corporation persevered in pressing their own Bill
for the improvement of the city of Dublin, in prefer-
ence to that commonly called " Jackson's Bill."
When the memorial had been read,
Mr. JOHN BATNOLDS, M.P., entered into an expla-
nation of the defects which exist in the Dublin Muni-
cipal Act, as compared with similar measures passed
by the Imperial Parliament for the benefit of the
English and Scotch people, and relied on his Excel-
lency's wisdom and sense of justice for the promotion
of those rights and privileges which the Corporation
was entitled to enjoy, according to the same measure
of freedom and independence which had been so libe-
rally extended to municipal bodies at the other side of
the Channel.

His EXCELLENCY, who received the deputation in
the most gracious manner, said he would feel most
happy in forwarding their intentions by every means
in his power, with a view of reconciling the interest
of all parties, not merely as a member of the Govern-
ment, but as an arnicus curia. lle would, however,
await the decision of the public meeting which is to
be held for considering the subject, as he considered
that the opinions of the great majority of the
rate-payers should be consulted in all matters of the
kind. He would communicate his impressions on the
subject to the Government at the other side, and, as
far as in his power would lie, he would do everything
to forward the interests of the people of Dublin by
promoting any measure the object of which would be
to reduce taxation on the citizens generally.
The deputation then withdrew.

SPORTING INTELLIGENCE
BETTING AT MANCHESTER.—TUESDAY.
CHESTER CIIP.-25 to I offered on the field, 300 to 10
agst Keleshea (taken), 400 to 10 agst War Eagle (taken),
1,000 to 25 agst Queen Mary(taken), 1,000 to 15 sgst
Maid of My Soul (taken), 1,000 to 15 agst Pantomime
(offers to take).
DERBY.-9 to 1 agst Surplice, 13 to 1 agst Glendower,
18 to 1 agst Springy Jack, 20 to 1 agst Assault, 250
to 10 agst Loadstone (taken), 30 to 1 agst CerTus, 1,000
to 30 agst any other.
LEAMINGTON AND SOUTHAM STEEPLE-

FATAL APPLICATION OF
CHLOROFORM.

An inquest was held on Tuesday last, by adjourn-
ment from Saturday, at Winlaton, about five miles
from Newcastle-upon-Tyne, before Mr. Pavel', the
coroner for the county of Durham, on view of the
body of Hannah Greener, aged 15.
John Rayne said the deceased was his niece. She
suffered a good deal in her feet, and about four months
ago she became an inmate of the infirmary at New-
castle-upon-Tyne, where she had one of her toe-nails
taken off. After she left the infirmary her toes still
continued bad. Mr. Meggison, surgeon, of Whick•
ham, was called in to attend her, and it was considered
advisable to remove the nail from the great toe of her
right foot. Mr. Meggison and his assistant attended
about one o'clock on Friday afternoon last to
perform that operation. No one was present when
the operation was performed but Mr. Meggison, his
assistant, and witness. The deceased was seated on a
chair near the fire, and Mr. Meggison having put
something on a pocket handkerchief, held it to her
mouth and nose, at the same time looking at is
watch and feeling her pulse. She appeared to fain.,
when Mr. Meggison told his assistant to take the nail
off, and witness held her leg to steady her foot. He
took it off quickly. When he was taking it off de-
ceased shook her leg, but did not speak. She moaned
after the nail was off, on which Mr. Meggison
dashed water in her face, when her eyes moved. He
afterwards put some brandy into her mouth, and she
rattled in her throat. He also bled her in the arm
and neck, but very little blood flowed. She never
recovered. When she had the nail taken off in the
infirmary, some stuff was given to her, as she told
witness, which caused her not to feel any pain.
Thomas Nathaniel Meggison, surgeon, having been
duly cautioned, and asked if he wished to make any
statement, said—Hannah Greener died under my
hands on Friday, while under the influence of chloro-
form, which I had given her for the purpose of pro-
ducing insensibility during the operation of removing
the toe-nail. She was suffering from oynchia. She
never complained of pain in the chest to me. The
pain in her toes might cause her to become thinner.
I seated her in a chair, and put about a teaspoonful
of chloroform into a tablecloth, and held it to her nose.
After she had drawn her breath twice she pulled my
hand down. I told her to draw her breath naturally
which she did, and in about half a minute I observed
the muscle of the arm become rigid, and her breath-
ing a little quickened, but not stertorous. I had my
hand on her pulse which was natural until the
muscles became rigid. It then appeared somewhat
weaker—not altered in frequency. I then told Mr.
Lloyd, my assistant, to begin the operation, which
he did, and took the nail off. When the semicircular
insertion was made she gave a struggle, or jerk,
which I thought was from the chloroform
not having taken sufficient effect. I did not
apply any more. Her eyes were closed, and I
opened them, and they remained open. Her mouth
was open, and her face and lips blanched. When I
opened her eyes they were congested. I called for
water when I saw her face was blanched, and dashed
some of it in her face. It had no effect. I then
gave her some brandy, a little of which she swal-
lowed with difficulty. I then laid her down on the
floor, and attempted to bleed her in the arm and
jugular vein, but only obtained about a spoonful.
She was dead, I believe, at the time I attempted to
bleed her. The last time I felt her pulse was imme-
diately previous to the blanched appearance coming
on, and when she gave the jerk. The time would not
be more than three minutes from her first inhaling
the chloroform till her death. I purchased the
chloroform from Messrs. Dagleish and Isntay, or
Newcastle. I have used chloroform from the same
place before with good effect, and with no ill
consequences. I did not apply more than a drachm
to the deceased—probably less. One person I gave
it to required upwards of half an ounce, at four re-
petitions, before she became insensible, and she com-
pletely recovered afterwards. I have used it to a
person who was very drunk, and had dislocated and
fractured his uncle. Two spoonsful were given in
that case, and they had the desired effect, as he would
not lie still without it. Mr. Lloyd, who was present
with me in the case of the deceased, is a regularly
educated medical man, and he also has been in the
habit of using chloroform.

Mr. Lloyd, assistant to Mr. Meggison, confirmed
that gentleman's statement.

At this point the inquiry was adjourned, and on
the jury re-assembling on Tuesday, the Coroner
stated that be had called it Sir John Fife and Dr.
Glove; of Newcastle, to make a post mortem exami-
nation of the deceased. Sir John Fife was a medical
practitioner of extensive practice and long standing,
on whose judgment great reliance might be
placed ; and Dr. Glover had paid great attention to
the nature of chloroform, and had written several
articles on the subject. One of these articles appeared
in the Medical Gazette of December 3, 1847, in which
he referred to the recent application of chloroform in
surgical cases by Dr. Simpson, of Edinburgh ; and he
stated that the effect of chloroform on the animal
system had been known for some wears; and he re-
marked, that unless its effect on the human being was
different from what it was on animals, as proved by
experiments he had himself made, there was danger to
be apprehended from its indiscriminate use. As the
subject was of great importance to the medical pro-
fession and the public, he corsidered it proper to have
the opinion of Dr. Glover on this case, conceiving
that from the attention he had paid to the subject, it
would be of great weight.
Sir John Fife said—l made a post mortem exami-
nation along with Dr. Glover. In my opinion the
cause of death was congestion of the lungs, and that
congestion I ascribe to the inhalation of chloroform.
Of the power of chloroform to occasion such conges-
tion no doubt can be entertained, after the experi-
ments of Mr. Wakley, jun., and Dr. Glover on ani-
mals. There does not seem to have been anything in
the previous condition of the young woman to have
prevented the surgeon from having recourse to chloro-
form as a means of allaying pain in one of the most
painful operations of surgery. Such is my opinion
of the effect of chloroform in lessening human suffer-
ing, and the small degree of danger attending its
application in the cases that I have seen, that if I
were myself required to undergo an operation I
would have no hesitation whatever in taking it.
I have been using chloroform three or four times a
week ever since its efficacy in relieving pain was
published, and I have never seen bad effects from it.
In one instance, that of a woman who had to submit
to the removal of a tumour, weighing about Slbs., and
distributed over a surface a foot square, Dr. Glover
and I administered about eight times the quantity of
chloroform that was used in the case of the deceased.
She recovered quickly, and was not worse after the
operation than might have been expected from its
formidable character. I have used it frequently in
amputations, lithotomy, and a great many severe
surgical operations, and never knew any bad conse-
quence to arise from it. I attribute the fatal effect
of the chloroform in the present instance to pecu-
liarity in the constitution of the young wo-
man. I am doubtful whether it arose from
the state of the longs or the peculiar susceptibility
of the nervous system. No effect could arise in the
present instance from the ether she took on the 26th
of October in the infirmary. 1 have no hesitation in
saying that the fatal issue of this case might have
occurred in the hands of the most prudent and skil-
ful surgeon that ever lived. It sometimes happens
that a person will die from the shock of the operation,
within a very few minutes after, and with nothing to
show the cause, merely from the shock it gives the
system. These cases are rare. I think in such cases
the same individuals would be influenced in a similar
way with chloroform. The same susceptibility of
nerve that would render the shock fatal would render the
chloroform fatal. No human foresight, no human
knowledge, no degree of science, could have fore-
warned any man against the use of chloroform in this
case. I have refused to apply it in some cases where
the operation could be done in a moment, and was
not attended with severe pain ; but in every painful
case I use it, and unless it produced insensibility I
would go on repeating it to double the quantity used
in this case, and more if it were necessary. A case
occurred lately in the infirmary where a great deal
of blood flowed during the operation, which was a
very tedious one, and chloroforms was repeated during
the operation without any bad result afterwards.
Robert Mortimer Glover—l am a surgeon, but
practise as a physician, and was formerlyleectial have
raet
the Medical School in Newcastle-upon-Tyn .
heard the evidence of Sir John Fife, and fully agree
with it. Having heard the evidence of Mr. Meggissm,
and the parties who were present when the operation
was performed under which the deceased died, I am
of opinion that the after-treatment to restore life
was proper under the circumstances, and in 71A3.•
cordance with the views of the highest medicil
writers. I think chloroform is safer in larger
operations, where there is great loss of blood, than
in smaller operations. I have examined the chloro-
form, and find it pure. I consider chloroform more
dangerous than ether, and that has been my opinion
from the first. The effect of the chloroform will
depend much on the constitution. There is a case
reported in the Medical Journal of last Friday, in
which half the quantity of chloroform employed in
this case was, used, and produced very serious affects.
Previous to the present case I should hare had no,
hesitation in using it ; chloroform is in use all over
the kingdom.
The CORONER then addressed the jury, briefly- ex-
plaining the law of the case.
The jury then retired, and, after a few minutes'
absence, returned with the following verdict :—" We
are unanimously of opinion that the deceased, Hannah
Greener, died from congestion of the lungs, from the
effect of chloroform, and that no blame can be at-
tached to Mr. Meggison, surgeon, or to his assistant,
Mr. Lloyd."