The Liverpool Standard, and General Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1854-07-11 00:00:00

solace for vacat

acceptan

merely temporary

;eery where

to devote his great talents to rectify the gleanings in our
Oriental empire. Considerate, simple-minded, and self-
aow shall the coalition lamb-fold be corn-

sacrificing ma

Densated for

1 lively song informs us that

es to Irishmen ne'er come alone ;
hrough the medium of the House of

and in like manner, t

Lords, the country was informed on Monday evening that

the appointment of an additional secretary of state in-
volves more than the payment of his salary. It was then
and there made apparent that a set of suitable offices
must be prepared for transmission of the business con-
Lected with the new appointment ; that was foreseen by
one, but it was not so clearly understood, notwith-
i that direction, that the Enclosure

standing rumours

removed to make way for him

Commissione

made to facilitate

asiness of that important depar

meet must be sacrifi

exigencies of the new

Secretaryship. On the same interesting occasion it was
also made obvious that the condition of the Foreign
Office is most wretched, in point of fact it was described
by the Earl of listatEsntruy as being in so frightfully
dilapidated a condition, as to defy parallel, unless, indeed,

the rickety state of the existing government may in some

degree bear its frailties

Lintenanc€

As I mentioned ink_
Arts, Manufactures, ann . held its annual cele-
bration on Monday, in the Crystal Palace. The occasion
wM the centenary anniversary, and the meeting was to
have been presided over by his Grace the Duke of NEW-
CASTLR, but the War-Secretary was prevented from being
present, as he was attending to the embarkation of his
youngest son in the Dauntless, for the Baltic ; which
vessel, so runs the rumour, has been employed to carry
out despatches from the War-office to Sir C. NAPIER,
directing the general arrangements for an attack on
Cronstadt. In the absence of his Grace, the chair was
occupied by the Earl of GRaxvipas. Nearly eight hun-
ired gentlemen sat down to dinner, in the basement of
palace, the same place, in fact, in which the Crystal
so recently entertained the Foreign
The arrangements were in all respects
favourably with the meetings of
- read of wranglings with
,gs with IiOLDSMITII, and even occasional
JoincrsoN ;—on . onaay all was
ler. The enjoyments were not spun
-,us, but were at once. lively and.
• ing. Classification of pur-
-lassification of the pmpany,
'ion was juicious and
-'ss-tables sat Sir C.

ast week, the Society of

Coir

'COMMIS&

admiral

at which we

BARRY, lick,

misunderstan
harmony and

out so as to 15
dignified, gra
snits led to sc
and the spir

attempts at

If that class
ut. At one

EA-8-TL-AS

rround

:rt-ists and men
,s. Dr. FORBES

.eers wer

appropriate

ETniman, M

TENSOR

enviab:

ar amour

royal

several of the departments. This was the firat-oCcasion on
which HES MAJESTY visited the Crystal Palace since her

a honoured its inauguration

and it is worthy of

remark that she chose a shilling day for the purpose, and
notwithstanding the earliness of the hour, a considerable
number of visitors were present, by whom HER MAJESTIC
was welcomed with similar marks of quiet and affectionate
homage and respect as those bestowed on her at the Hyde
Park exhibition.

Le deficiency of nearly half a million on the year's
me has occasioned no small amount of gossip among
lasses in the metropolis, and is keenly discussed in
lost people professing to see, and not a few
Lt any profession at all, that more blame, in
financial difficulties, is charged against the

it is fairly entitled to bear. They cannot see
P war is to cause high prices and heavy taxation,
\ free trade—and that the London season has
expectedly brought to a premature and melancholy
.ion ; yet so it is, and the only answer is " the war."
song the matters which have of late engrossed con-
sation, and given wide scope for conjecture, particu-
zly among professional men, the inquiry relative to the
death of ALFRED RICHARDSON, a child of three

old, which took place some time ago at the Royal-Free
Hospital, stands foremost. The child had been an in-
patient of the hospital, and had been subjected to the
operation of lithotomy, and died within a brief period of
the time at which it had been operated on. Rumours
gained considerable currency at the time to the effect that
the operation had been ill-performed, and that great
impropriety of treatment had taken place, which, it was
alleged, had led to the fatal result. A fatal termination
to so important an operation, performed on so young a
patient, was not in itself calculated to produce great sur-
prise, but circumstances were bruited concerning it which

Faye an unpleasant aspect to the matter. A coroner's
inquest had been at first demanded by the parents, and
conceded by the authorities ; but subsequently the inquest
was abandoned, and here the awkward nature of the
transaction became apparent. The father of the child, it
vas asserted, had been tampered with, and in considera-
__Aatium had agreed to waive his prO-
aemanded right of inquiry; but he had not, it

f a money si

s, withdrawn his allegation as to the improper treat-
of the child ; on the ncotrary, maintaining the
accuracy of this opinion, he deposited the money he had
received in the hands of his employer, and again demanded
the inquiv.

which, however, was not complied with. All
these matters got wind, of course, and formed plentiful
topics of professional small talk, and not unracy surgical
scandal. The names and pretensions of the surgeons

operating or participating in the operation were 'freely
canvassed, those chiefly concerned being Mr. COOKE and
Mr. WAKLEY, jun. On naming the latter, the remark
became imperative that it was a son of the coroner, before
whom, or before whose deputy, the demanded inquiry

should be held ; and, with her customary one-sided
charity, scandal at once attributed to parental tenderness
the denied inquest ; and, with or without rhyme or reason,
the coroner and his son, along with Mr. CooKE, were
mixed up with the unsuccessful operation, and the charge

ie parents of the child having now
iexorable in their demands for investigation, the
as these could be gathered from
to statements, were laid before Lord PALMERSTON,
behalf of the RICHARDSONS, and his lordship ordered
investigation into all its circumstances. On what field
ild professional jealousy expect a richer harvest of gra-
eation than this ?

facts of the case, so far

The courtesies of the elder -Mr.
WAICLEY, it may be remembered, have never raised him
to a high position in the personal esteem of many of the
medical profession, not a few of whom retained a vivid
recollection of the unrelenting spirit and ceaseless assiduity
with which he pursued Mr. BRANSBY COOPER, on a charge

of incompetently performing the same opeiation on in
adult, with a similarity of fatal termination ; and twenty-

five or thirty years expired were as nothing when the oppor-
tunity of seeming retaliation was offered. The chance of
connecting him, even indirectly, with a bungled operation
hotomy, and adding to that a feasible plea on which
him with a suppression of inquiry, was too

to charg

g to be foregone, and all kinds of chit-chat and
gossip were rife in certain circles regarding the

probable issue of the government investigation, which has
now, by adjournments, occupied many days. From that
investigation, on the authority of high surgical testimony,
the operation, if at all necessary in the case, was far from
dextrously performed ; no direct connexion, however, has
been traced between it and the elder WABLEY, at any
stage of the business, and the junior one, it seems, was
only a subordinate operator. That an attempt was made
to evade inquiry seems also indisputable, as a sum of £lOO
was paid in the name of compensation to the parents, and
preliminary expenses, the lion's share of which appears to
have been bagged by a clever attorney, the father having
been paid off with £2O. That such an inquiry should
have been rendered necessary is deeply to be regretted,
and the revelations which have been brought to light by
means of it are infinitely more so. They tend, in a great
degree, to shake public confidence in the conduct of
valuable institutions, and foster prejudices against an
honourable, an arduous, and really benevolent profession.
Great and dangerous improprieties have obviously been
connected with the treatment of the poor child, whose
sufferings were terminated by death, which the disclosures
made in the present instance will, it is hoped, prevent the
recurrence of in all time coming ; yet nothing in the shape
of even carelessness, far less of cruelty, was made ap-
parent. On the contrary, the utmost extent of charge
seems to amount to no more than might arise from inex-

perience on the part of an otherwise able surgeon. Still,
the public mind has been shocked, and the reputation of
seen called in question. Good some-
vil, and in this case it is to be hoped

a vainabl,

times comes out of
the ultimate 1

,nefit achieved will bear some proportion to
the sacrifice by which it has unfortunately been attained.

At the Royal Italian Opera, Madame VIAIDOT continues
her triumphs, Madame Guise's farewell nights are to be
extended to a few more representations, which are to be
posi-tiv-ely her last appearances in England, her departure
for America having been postponed till the end of the
month. The concert-rooms of London, numerous as they
are, seem hardly sufficient to accommodate all the concerts
whose attractions woo the various classes of London
amateurs and auditors: an attempt at enumeration of even
the least of them, far less noticing the whole, would so far
exceed all bounds, that I shall not essay it, but content
myself with saying that, as usual, at this season of the
year, the admirers of every class and grade of musical per-
formance will find ample room and verge enough to employ
all their time, and give scope to more than all their
admiration.