The Sun.
London, England, 1842-08-12 00:00:00

THE SUX, LONDON, FRIDAY EyENING, AVGITSt 12, 1842.

MEMOIR OF BARON Do INit;
' JEAN LAtiREY.
SURGEON OF THE ARMIES OF FRANCE.

He then spoke of Larrey. "Larrey," said Napoleln,
" was the most honest man, and the best friend to the
soldier that I ever knew. Vigilant and indefatigable in
his exertions for the wounded, Larrey was soen on the
field of battle, after an action with a train of young
surgeons, endeavouring to discover if any signs of life
remained in the bodies. In the must inclement weather,
and at all times of the night and the dt9 , Larrey was to
be found amongst the wounded."—Burly O'Meara's Con •
virsations with Napoleon, or A Voice from St. Helena.
Vol. 11., p. 251.

To the life of this great man, whose departure
has just been announced as having taken place at
Paris, attaches no small part of the glory of the
French armies, and their actual pieservation.

M. Larrey was a native of the south of Franc( .
At the age of thirteen he began the study of his
profession at Toulouse, and went from thence to
Paris in 1787. Appointed to be surgeon in the
army *of the Rhine in 1792, and being present at
the taking of Spire, under General Custin, he
then had an opportunity of observing for the
first time the defects of the existing French
system of field surgery. Here he observed that
the wounded were left to be collected after
battle, .so that from twenty-four to thirty-six
hours often transpired before surgical assistance
could be supplied them.
LARREY'II NEW SYSTEM OP " AMBULANCES-
VOLANTES."—His active and methodic mind
soon suggested the system denominated by
him as above, and of which he subsequently
made such extensive application. The first time
that he reduced his plan to practice was when
the French were compelled to abandon their
wounded at Limbourg, and he shortly after made
a larger trial of his invention, in a battle which
quickly occurred. These ambulances, in their
most perfect form, consist of a mounted corps of
surgeons and inferior assistants, regularly taught
and practised in the manoeuvres necessary to
enable them to dress the wounded on the field
of battle, and to remove them with expedition to
other ambulances, or temporary hospitals, which
were always prepared in the vicinity, on the
approach of an action—to be transferred from
thence, at leisure, to more permanent establish-
ments. For the conveyance of the wounded
light carriages of a peculiar construction were
provided, which rendered the transport so easy
and expeditious, that the ambulances-volantes
could follow the most rapid movements of the
advanced guard.
Larrey in 1794 returned to Paris. Soon after
he was introduced to Bonaparte, at that time
General of Artillery in an expedition intended
for Corsica, which eventually did not sail. In
1797 he was ordered to join the army of Italy at
Milan, and in the. course of the campaign was
directed by Napoleon himself' to organise a com-
plete corps of ambulances-volantes ; the very
sight of which, at the advanced posts, Larrey
himself informs us (Memoires de Chirurgerie
Militaii'e) gave confidence to the soldiers, who
now telt assured that in case of injury, relief was
always at hand.

EXPEDITION TO EGYPT,.—The next enterprize
that M. Larrey was engaged in was the memor-
able expedition to Egypt. The surgical depart-
ment consisted of a numerous corps of exceilent
officers, all the young men of the schools being
eager to join in this romantic expedition, but
the vessel that contained their stock of instru-
ments and apparatus, which was very complete,
was taken by the English. Upon the more pro-
minent events of that campaign we do not intend
to dwell, except upon the affair of Jaffa, which
has only been fairly cleared up by O'Meara, and
which others have considered to throw great
odium upon Larrey.
THE ALLEGED JAFFA MASSACRE.—It is by
many said, in spite of the known humanity of
Larrey's nature, that Larrey at Jaffa advised the
dispatch of the sick and wounded. He did so.
Napoleon affirmed it to O'Meara. Larrey was
of opinion that these poor wretches could not
exist many hours, and rather than have them to
be horribly tormented by the Turks, it would be
an act of mercy to accelerate their end. Des-
genelles dissented—" his province," he said,
"was to cure the sick, not to kill them."
Napoleon said, perhaps he was right. Larrey
then recommended a rear-guard of cavalry to be
left to protect, which was done, though they all
expired shortly after. • •

PRESENTATION OF A SWORD TO M. LARREY.
—At the battle of Aboukir, General Fugieres
was being operated upon under a dangerous
wound, which he had received in the shoulder,
from a cannon-ball of the eneMy, and believing
that the time of his death drew nigh, he presented
his sword to General Bonaparte, saying,
" General, one day, perhaps, you will envy my
fate." Bonaparte afterwards made this sword a
present to M. Larrey, after having caused to be
engraved on it the name of " Larrey," and that
of the battle " Aboukir." Fugieres, however,
did not die. He was saved by the skilful opera-
tion to which he had submitted, and during a
period of seventeen years, he commanded the in-
valids at Avignon.

Throughout the campaign in Egypt, indeed,
the services of Larrey were inestimable. The
plague which broke out at Danietta was greatly
checked by him, and in the numbers of the best
soldiers who perished, " as it were by extinction,"
in the retreat across the Desert—in the scorching
airs of the Kampsin, and the infestments of the
plague, Larrey was ever present with his kind
hand and soothing anodynes, to relieve, alleviate,
and throw a gentleness into death. Having
arrived in France at the close of 1801, he re-
ceived both from the army of Egypt and the
Government, the most honourable testimonies of
gratitude for his services. In 1802, he published
his " Account of the Egyptian Campaign," and
began to lecture at Paris on military surgery.
As soon as Napolean, after being crowned by
the Pope, repaired to his army in December,
1804, "to avenge the nation upon the English,
for their violation of the treaty of Amiens,"
M. Larrey once more joined the army at
Boulogne, but the speedy disembarkation of
these troops for Ulm and Austerlitz, soon led him
into the midst of those campaigns.
AUSTERLITZ.—Austerlitz gave great scope to
Larrey for the exercise of his talents. It was at
this battle on the preceding night that, as Na-
poleon rode through the lines, the soldiers,
amounting to more than 80,000, suddenly lighted
up as many torches, and celebrated aloud the
anniversary of his coronation. The result of the
battle is known; but a more dreadful picture of
destruction than presented by this field was
never witnessed, says Larrey.
BAUTZEN AND LUTZEN.—M. Larrey was also
present at the memorable battles of Lutzen,
Bautzen, and Wurschen, at which atrocious ca•
bunny found the means of insinuating to the
Emperor, that there had been practised a volun-
tary mutilation by the young conscripts who had
been wounded on those memorable days. Lar-
rey assembled a jury of the superior surgeons,
when it was proved that these young men had
all been wounded on the field of honour. After
hearing the report of the jury, Napoleon said to
Larrey, " It were to be desired that I was sur-
rounded by only such men as you." Larrey re-
ceived on this occasi:an a present of jewellery,
and a pension of 3,000 francs, which the law on,
finances deprived him of in 1817, but which the
special law of the Chamber restored to him in
1818.

In 1802, M. Larrey was named Surgeon-in-
Chief of the guard and hospital of Consuls. In
1804, he received, among the first, the cross of
officer of the Legion of Honour, at the Hotel des
Invalides, from the hand of the First Consul
himself; who said on delivering it to him—
" Larrey, it is a recompense well deserved."
THE WOUNDED AT EYLAU.—At this battle
the troops bivouacked under a temperature of
32 degrees below freezing point.
"I had." says Larrey in his own account, "early in
the morning of tl.e battle, established an ambulance in
some barns, to the left of the road at the entrance of the
town ; but unfortunately they were open on every side,
the straw roofs having been taken for the horses, so that
we were obliged to place our wounded on what was left of
the straw, half covered with snow. The cold was so
severe, that the instruments frequently dropped from the
hands of my assistants, during our operations ; and it
was night before we could take any refreshment. When
all was quiet,•and the men had been attended to, a sudden
movement of the enemy bore down immediately upon the
ambulances—such
_of the wounded men as had the power
of motion, immediately took to flight. M. Larrey
hastened to finish the amputation of a leg which he had
begun ; and the surgeons, with their attendants, as a
last resource, were preparing for defence, when a charge
of the French cavalry, in the midst of a whirlwind of
snow relieved 38.40.
The extreme exhaustion of the country, and
the severity of the weather, determined Larrey
to send them back to Inowracklaw, a distance of
fifty-five French leagues, through miserable
roads and every sort of privation, yet they
arrived in good condition.
BATTLE OF ESsLlNC.l.—During the Austrian
acampaignse v
oluBrol
d9e,dand ,vereettecrrotle
:desdeveiii•let(b) atithlte,
The Island of Lobau,on the bare ground. days
where they lay, for thredwadycis,
without ,
.
were sultry—the nights cold; the high winds
covered them with dust, and the destruction of
the .hri4ges having cut off their supplies, M.
laiFey,*u§, to, make soup tbr them of
whic% he seasoned with gun-
p
iLaving accowpanl.6 Donaparte Liu the pro.

gra=ss of his elevation. he was &stun d to take a
part in still more extraor.linar, occurrences
of his fall. On the expedition into Russia,
Larrey was appointed Surgeon-in-Chief to this
vast army, and completed -his medical and stir•
gical department at Berlin. At Smoleusko, the
French loss was more than 7,200 hors-de-combat.

" And here, having for several days been io
want of linen, we were oblt,.,ed to, dress the
wounded with the records, filch we found in
the archives where we bad established our hos-
pital. The parchments served instead of splints;
tow, and the down of the beech-tree, for lint;
and even the beds of the wounded men were
made of the papers."

LARREY A PUPIL OF SABATIER.—OII his re-
turn to Paris in 1811, he printed three volumes
of his campaigns, in which he has written a just
eulogium on his master, Doctor Sabatier. The
same year, in the public anniversary of the
School of Medicine, he received from Baron
Percy a striking manifestation of the manner in
which his noble conduct, while among the
armies, had been regarded, and also of the par-
ticular acknowledgment which he entertained
for M. Sabatier. " You, Sir," said Baron Percy,
." whom I need not name—you, who are the ho-
nour and example of all military surgeons, who
in all the regions where Napoleon has carried
his triumphant arms, have joined to the usefith
ness of talent the zeal of philanthropy, you have
acquired while yet young the eternally glorious
title of the disciple of Sabatier, and the inappre-
ciable advantage of being counted among his
dearest children." .
THE BATTLE OF MOJOSK On BORODINO.—Of
the two armies in this case, one fought absolutely
for existence, a,nd the other made the last stand
in defence of their metropolis :
" It would be impossible," says M. Larrey, "to describe
the field, where between five and six hundred thousand
men had fought, for more than fifteen hours, within the
space of a square league. The surgeons laboured with-
out ceasing among the wounded in despite of the cold,
and of northerly winds, so strong, that the torch of the
surgeons could scarcely be kept in. The wounds, too,
of this battle, were unusually severe, being principally
from the artillery, and M. Larrey himself, during the
first • twenty-four hours, amputated about two hundred
limbs !"

ESCAPE 'AT THE PASSAGE OF THE BERESINA.
—At Doroghoboi, the hospital of the 'Wounded
took fire, and M. Larrey only just escaped through
the midst of the flames, . while numbers of the
wounded were burned to death. At the memor-
able passage of the Beresina, Larrey again es-
caped with considerable difficulty. He
re-
turned to the east bank of the river, to secure
some cases ofsurgical instruments, and must have
perished, if he had not been recognised by the
soldiers, who lifted him over their heads from
one to the other, and thus enabled him to gain
the bridge, a few hours before it broke down.

THE GREAT RETREAT.—In the retreat from
Russia the disastrous state of the soldiers is well
known. At their entry into Osmiana, Larrey's
thermometer fell to even 47 below the freeziog
point; and the bivouac was terrible. He him-,
self, who, it will be recollected, was a Baron of
the Empire, and at the head of the surgiCal staff,
was only fortunate enough to pass that fatal
tii;tht in a warm chamber, and upon a little straw.
At 11Pednicki the thermometer at his button-
hole was 63 (leg. below freezing, and though one
of the most robust men in the army, it Was with
the greatest difficulty that he arrived at \Vilna ;
hisstrength and courage were almost totally gone;
he was just ready to fall, like the multitudes Of
unfortunate beings who had already perished be-
fore his eyes.
The subsequent campaigns in France, in which
his master fell and lost all that his sword bad
won, were also shared in by Larrey, till the
peace, concluded on the affair of Waterloo,
afforded him at last the prospect of repose, after
30 years of service, during which he had taken a
part in four-and-twenty different campaigns.
From that time to 'his death he enjoyed the
honours ofa well-earned and highly-merited fame.

MONEY MARKET and CITY NEWS.
CITY, THURSDAY EVENING.

SUN.—The accounts from the manufacturing districts
which appeared in The Suh of to-day, have
caused deep regret in the City, and to a certain extent
have suspended basin, ss both in the money and
produce market. The effect upon the prices
of the ' funds has not been material, and al-
though sufficient to have induced purchases at
tha decline, scarcely one of consequence has been
made, or a sale effected. The rate nominally was 91
92 for Money and for the Account. Bank Stock, 170
1711 ; India Stock, 2491 2501 ; Exchequer Bills, Old
50 52, New 48 50 prem.
The prices of Foreign Securities were—Belgian, 1011
1021 ;_ Dutch Two-and-a-Half per Cents., 514 52 ;
the Five per Cents., 1014 102 ; Danish, 82 83 ;
Brazilian, 64 66.

The quotations for Mexican were, 351- 35i.
London and Birmingham Railway Shares were,
180 182 ; Birmingham and Gloucester, 48 49 ; Great
Western, -- 89 90 ; the Half Shares, • 63k 83t ; South
Western, 614 621 ; North Midland, 58 60 ; the New
Shares, 284 291 ; South Eastern and Dover, 22+ 22-1- ;
Eastern Counties, 84 94 ; Northern and Eastern, 40 41 ;
Blackwall, 9 91 ; and Brighton, 34 341 per share.
The quotations of the Bonds were--Colombian, 201 21;
Peruvian, 15 16 ; Portuguese Five per Cents., 334 34 ;
the Three per Cents., 191 201 ; Spanish Five per Cents ,
201 204 ; the Three per Cents., 19i 194. These Call be
considered but as nominal ; a single bargain in Colom-
bian and Spanish Five per Cents. comprising all the
business done to-day.
A careful perusal of the evidence, given before the
Commissioners in the " Exchequer Bills forgeries," leads
to the conclusion that their report savours somewhat of
harshness towards the principal holders. At the same time
a degree of excuse is to be found for it, in the fact that more
extraordinary disclosures were perhaps never made, and the
truth of them could only be understood by parties hav-
ing a practical knowledge of the routine of such trans-
actions. A foreigner without credit, and completely
unknown, except from what he himself was pleased to
state, and subsequently his agent, of whom no
information beyond doubtful reports could be ascertained,
contrived, through " two agents of third-rate credit,"
as stated by one of the witnesses, to put into circulation
forged documents representing nearly three millions
sterling, of which, at the time of the discovery, about
420,0011 were in the hands of parties who had made ad-
vances upon them on the faith that they were genuine.
No possible suspicion could be entertained of the fact,
when some of those having been presented at the office
from which they were issued, were pronounced to be cor-
rect, some proceeding; having led to doubt if they were
so. The bulk of the holders having completely cleared
themselves of the most remote participation of the fraud,
it is thOught to be rather hard upon them, that their cases
have not been adjudicated on before the prorogation of
Parliament, since they are not only suffering from pecu-
niary difficulties, consequent upon their funds being
impounded, but also in credit and in loss of titre ;
being, as the Chairman of Committee of tLe Stock
Exchange declared, " under suspension." A perusal of
the evidence is recommended to all the monied interest,
and the country will have cheaply purchased the expo-
sure at the price of the claims made on the Treasury.
The proceeds were chiefly employed in gambling in fo-
reign bonds, some details of which, as collected from the
evidence, will be noticed.

DECEASE OF LORD BERWICK.—We have the me-
lancholy duty to announce in our obituary this day the
decease of the Right Hon. William Noel Lord Berwick,
of Attingham Hall, which event took place at his estate,
in Hampshire, on Thursday. His Lordship was the se-
cond son of Noel the first Lord Berwick, by Anne,
daughter of Henry Vernon, Esq., of Hilton, in the county
of Stafford. He was born in 1773, in London, educated
at Cambridge, and succeeded his eldest brother, the Right
Hon. Thomas Noel Lord Berwick, in the peerage, Nov.
3, 1832. The late Lord Berwick was elected one of the
representatives for the town of Shrewsbury on the 12th
of July, 1796, having sustained a contest against his re-
lative, John Hill, Esq., of Frees, a brother to Sir Richard
Hill, Bart., of Hawkstone, which stands perhaps un-
paralleled in the annals of electioneering for spirit and
expenditure, having, it is supposed, cost the parties
little short of one hundred thousand pounds—and is
still mentioned as the memorable 96 election. He was
subsequently re-elected on the 16th of November,
1802—December 15th, IFo6—and again, June 22d,
1807. He was afterwardi chosen Envoy at Naples,
and was a member of the Corporation of Shrewsbury
until the passing of the Municipal Act, in 1835. Soon
after the decease of his brother he returned to the
ancestral mansion at Attingham-hall, near Shrews-
bury, where he has since continued to reside.
He was, from early life, attached to antiquities, para.
cularly to those connected with Shropshire, and had
formed a large collection of manuscripts, drawings, and
other works relating to its topograpil. ilis Lordship
was unmarried, ar.d is succeeded in his title and estates
by his youngest brother, the -Hon. and Rev. Richard
Noel Hill, M.A., Rector of Berrington, in this county ;
and it may be remarked as a somewhat uncommon oc-
currence, for three brothers in succession to take the
title of their father. The late Lord will be interred in
the family vault at Atchatu, near Shrewsbury.—Sulopian
Journal.
A person named Tarier, returning, on the 19th,
from person
on horseback, with considerable property in
money and notes, belonging to M. Bedin, a notary, was
fired at from the side of a little wood, and hit in the
head. lie fell immediately lifeless from his horse, and
the animal, frightened at the shot. gallopped off at great
si•eed. A carman, who heard the report, inunediat6)-
bcgan cracking his whip, and the assas6in took to
flight, leaving behind him a double-barrelled gun, of
which one of the barrels Has still loaded, and ft woman's.
dress, with which he intended to disguise himself. Some
other persons coming up, it was determined to surround
the wood and seek for the murderer. This was done,
and a man, named Gardet, only three months out. of
prism., Was arrested.

A dinner was given by several- members of the
House of Commons at the Clarendon Hotel, on Saturday
to Lord Mahon and Mr. Sergeant Tallburd, to ewlebrate
the passing of the Copyright Bill, at which Lord Mont-
eagle (in the absence of the Chancellor, who was pre-
vented by inditposition from attending) presided.
Amongst the company present were Lord (.)ainpbeil,
Lord Lyttelton, Lord Ashley, the Attorney-Qeneral, the
Bight Hun. W.,1:. Cilialbtkaae, awl Sir ituward

EMIGRATION !—Everybody should ask for
.4 AMI'RiCA and ENGLAND; in. the E:,11-
GisANT'S HAND-BOOK and °UWE to ihe UNII J.l)
S FATES ;" compris.ng Information as to the Best Fields for
Agricultural and Manufacturing Employment, Wages,
mate, Ships, Shipping, Far West, with Letters from /Waal
Sailers, &c.
•- This admirable sixpennyworth should be in the hands of
all who desire lull and accurate intelligence of all that regards
a future home. It is compiled with great 'are, and a ill be in-
vAuable to all who seek its ass stance."—Weekly Dispaten,
London: J. Cease, Shoe-lane, Fleet-street ; and all Book.

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