The Sun.
London, England, 1861-01-24 00:00:00

MEN'

Alison for those noble words—they are among the
brightest upou the luminous Ines of his historic
masterpiece, they are among the most signal vindi-
cations of his great History from the imputation fre-
quently east upon it, of being merely what his illus-
trious contemporary Lord Maeaulay's History indis-
putably is from the first page to the last—a mire
party manifesto ! And now with regard to that
other more requisite, and therefore more enthralling
and attractive vindication with which we have
here more immediately to do—the vindication from
charges far more serious than that of being a mere
partizan writer, the vindication of the lofty
and stainless character of the dauntless
Sailor Earl of Dundonald ! The recapitulation of
the manner in which it has been accomplished by
himself only immediately prior to his demise were
only superfluous, now that the story may be turned
to, as it is here told by his own truth-writing hand,
guiding his historic pen in, the light of his calm
conscience and in the presence of posterity. The
second volume of the deceased Earl's autobiography
will be found to contain a full and complete record
from first to last of the Stock Exchange Trial, and
its lamentable consequences. It will there be seen
how totally innocent of anything worse than indis-
cretion was this Bayard of the Deep in a deplorable
transaction, throughout which he was merely the
victim of the nefarious proceedings of men as base
as his own wretched uncle, Mr. Cochrane John-
stone ! And of that miserable foreign sharper,
Baron (!) Charles Random de Berenger, who,
dressed up in a masquerading uniform, and calling
himself Col. Du Bourg, aide-de-camp to Lord Cath-
cart, presented himself about midnight on Feb. 20
1814, at the Ship Hotel, Dover, representing that
he was the bearer of intelligence from Paris of the
death of Napoleon Bonaparte ! Bane ill lachry-
nue. There was the hoax—in the perpetration
of which the hero of the Basque Roads was wrong-
fully and infamously said to have been implicated.
Enough for us if we here content ourselves with an
extract from the "Historical Sketches of the Bri-
tish Statesmen in the Time of George the Third "
—the literary masterpiece of one of the greatest in-
tellects of this age, Henry Lord Brougham, ex-
Chancellor. Speaking:of the famous Trial of Lord
Cochrane, and we cannot but add its in-famous con-
clusion, Lord Brougham there writes :
"If Lord Cochrane was at all aware of his uncle Mr.
Cochrane Johnstone's proceedings, it was the whole ex-
tent of his privity to the fact. Having been one of the
counsel engaged in the cause 1 can speak with some confi-
dence respecting it, and I take upon me to assert that
Lord Cochrane's conviction was mainly owing to the ex-
treme repugnance which he felt to giving up his uncle, or
taking those precautions for his own salety which would
have operated against that near relation. Even when he,
the real criminal, had confessed his guilt, by taking to
flight, and the other defendants were brought up for judg-
ment, we, the counsel, could not persuade Lord Cochrane
to shake himself loose from the contamination by abandon-
ing him.
" Our only complainst against Lord Ellenborough was
his lordship's refusal to adjourn after the prosecutor's ease
closed, and his requiring us to enter upon our defence at so
late an hour—past nine o'clock—that the adjournment took
place at midnight, and before we called our witnesses. Of
course, I speak of the trial at Guildhall only. Lord Ellen-
borough was equally to blame with his brethren in the
Court of King's Bench for that most cruel and unjustifi-
able sentence, which at once secured Lord Cochrane's re-
election far Westminster when the House of Commons ex-
pelled him upon his conviction.
" In 1833, the Government of which I was a member re-
stored this great warrior to his rank of Adnkiral in our
navy. The country, therefore, in the event of hostilities,
would now have the inestimable benefit of his services,
whom none perhaps ever equalled in heroic courage, and
whose fertility of resources, military as well as naval, place
him high amongst the very first of commanders. That
his honours of knighthood, so gloriously won, should still
be withholden is a stain, not upon him, but upon the
councils of his country; and after his restoration to the
service, it is as inconsistent and incomprehensible as cruel
and unjust." (Lord Brougham's " Historic Sketches.")
Those honours were at length, as we know, but
only after many long years had elapsed, grudgingly
restored to this incomparable Warrior of the Ocean.
Grudgingly we say advisedly, for not until the very
day before the sepulture of the mortal remains of the
grand old earl, at Westminster Abbey, were the in-
signia of his knighthood of the Bath restored to his
stall in Henry the Seventh's Chapel! In obedience
then to the express injunctions of Her Most
Gracious Majesty the Queen and' His Royal High-
ness the Prince Consort. And there he rests at
last, in that the fittest place of all for his burial,
under the roof beams of the glorious old cathedral
—that true hero and true knight—that veteran
man of genius and man of glory, with no sem-
blance of a blot left to blur the splendour of his
historic escutcheon. Yonder he repcses at last, in
his honoured but unmarked grave. His unmarked
grave ! Has England, then, nothing remaining to
•
do—not in his honour, but in vindication of hers ?
Yes—until this last deed in his instance, shall have
been done—a thousand times, yes; England has
yet to raise there, over his venerable dust, a monu-
ment inscribed with her recognition of his match-
less exploits and of his peerless reputation, and
iuscribed, too, with the acknowledgment of her
own tardy repentance for that national ingratitude
by which his long and glorious life was em
bittered.

Lectures on the Surgery of Childhood. Delivered
at the Hospital for Sick Children. By Athol D
W. Johnson, F.R.C.S., Surgeon to the Hospital
Mr. Johnson, the eminent surgeon to the Hos-
pital for Sick Children—that hospital which more
than all others excites the tender sympathies of the
humane—has, in the publication of these lectures,
conferred an inestimable benefit on the numerous
members of the medical profession scattered over
the country to whose care the illnesses and acci
dents of childhood are so constantly confided. By
such this will, we doubt not, be regarded as a boo❑
of no small value. Mr. Johnson says :

It is but a few weeks since a gentleman at this hospital
asked me what work I could recommend him to read upon
this subject ; and it was probably to his surprise, as I con-
fess it had originally been to mine, that he learnt that there
was really no special book of the kind published. The
number of works in various languages devoted to tbis medi-
cal diseases of children is very great, and includes many of
the highest excellence; amongst these, I need scarcely
refer you to the admirable " Lectures" of Dr. West ; but
owing, I suppose, to these works having been written
almost exclusively by physicians, the surgical affections
have received but scanty notice, if any.
After a long search indeed. I found in Frank's " Delec-
tus" a short Latin treatise by Oehme, " De morbis reoens
Natorum Chirurgicis ;" but any author who applies to this in
the hope of pilfering ideas with impunity, will, I believe,
be deservedly disappointed.

The distinction,-it is true, between medical and surgical
affections in early life, as at all other ages, cannot be accu-
rately drawn. In many cases which are strictly medical,
my assistance is occasionally invoked. In croup, for in-
stance, I have been sailed on to perform tracheotomy ; or
for the consequences of pleurisy, to puncture the chest ;
whilst in all my surgical cases I am over most glad to avail
myself of the ready assistance of my colleagues. Without
pretending, however, to logical accuracy,there is practically
little difficulty in effecting the separation, in assigning to
physicians and to surgeons their respective cases.
The surgical affections of children may, I think, be con-
veniently arranged as follows :
I. Those Congenital Malformations—using the term in
a very broad sense, and including arrests of develop-
ment—which require the attention of the surgeon.
11. The direct or immediate consequences of Injuries or
Accidents.
111. Surgical Diseases proper, which may follow one or
other of the previous divisions, or which may arise
from other causes.

The first lecture relates to original imperfections,
the second to accidents, and the third to surgical
diseases proper. The concluding passage of this
lecture we quote with pleasure as an evidence at
once of Mr. Johnson's judiciary skill and tender
thoughtfulness towards the young objects of his
care :

It is in children especially that a cure may be hoped for,
even in most aggravated forms of disease of these parts ;
for in children the plastic powers of nature are so great
that recovery may take place when in the adult any such
hope can scarcely exist. I have no hesitation in owning
that, when I first became surgeon to this hospital (not so
many years since), I was less unwilling to have recourse to
operations than lam now. In recent times, what is called
conservative surgery has made much progress, and a joint
is now excised, where, formally, the extremity would have
been sacrificed. This is, no doubt, a great improvement,
but after all, the most really conservative surgery is to
save the joint as well ; and this, I feel perfectly certain,
can, in early life, with care, time, and perseverance
on the part of the surgeon, be accomplished much
more frequently than is generally supposed. I need
scarcely dwell on the advantages of this preservation,
if it be practic;ible : to say nothing of our avoiding
the risk of an operation, which is always appreciable, and
in the knee is considerable even in children, the length and
proportions of the limbs are preserved, and a considerable
amount of motion in the joint may ultimately, in almost all
cases, be obtained. in
In the adjoining room you may see a few art naPl°'
tuie.
rt o
illustration of this restorative power on tilt
o severe,
parts about the joint was so extensive, the
of time I was on
In one child, Alfred Thistleton, in whom &ILI-II:talon of the
and the health so much impaired,.that aut
will find that the
Ti)tab is a very useful
the very point of proposing excisiotnh,e
child is now stout and well, that
one, and the knee is only partiailliar
4. glad to find my views
Whilst writing this lecture,nd nfirmed by a most emi-
nion might have
neat surgeon in Dublin,
6 differently, for he has been the
one whose, pi
o n this subject corroboratedbl
n differently,
been expected to
successful' advocate of excision ; I mean Mr.
great and -cently published "Third Report on Ope-
rative Butcher states, that it is " impressed
In
ry,
rative Surgehis
ind, nay, that it is his sincere conviction,
Butcher.
strongly on ere operative measures willseldom in-
deedthat these severe very
be either warranted or called for" in children. That
"rep„ it in the young is to be looked forward to, to be de-
pended upon as a certainty," and consequently that there
should be "no hasty removal of diseased joints" in child-
hood.

Among the poorer classes, it is true, we have many dis-
advantages to contend with. Time, good air, and good
living, aro three great requisites in aid of our surgical treat-
ment, but the demand for our beds is so urgent, that the
first can seldom be afforded within the hospital ; and, as an
out-patient,m the child will seldom enjoy the two last,whilst
it. is deprived also, too often, of systematic care and of judi-
ous nursing. Such impediments to success, as we cannot
pretend to ignore them, must bo fairly encountered and
grappled with; difficulties exist in all cases, and in every
sphere of action; it is the part of him who hopes to suc-
ceed in life, or who strives to conscientiously perform his