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causes of inflammation of the brain. In truth, no greater torture can well be conceived than a long continued want of that natural and necessary refreshment; and, therefore, the physicians of France, when they were ordered to devise the most cruel method of putting Ravaillac (the assassin of Henry IV.) to death, proposed that he should be placed before a large fire, and never allowed to go to sleep. Observe also, that after Lady Romilly's situation became hopeless, and within two days of her death, Sir Samuel Romilly complains to Mr. Dumont of a most tormenting and burning heat in his head, and of his utter inability to shed tears when the sisters of Lady Romilly arrived. If we were to stop here, I think no medical man that understands his profession could doubt that an inflammation of the brain had taken place. Inflammation of several of the internal organs have been known to take place, and even to have gone on to gangrene, without having been suspected. This, my learned friend Dr. Gregory teaches in every course of his admirable lectures. But how strong is the evidence of inflammation here!

Look now at the state he is proved to have been in " after the death of his wife is communicated to him." Look also at the description of the journey to London-the" repeated tearing of his hands and of his nose till he drew blood"-at the "peculiarly frightful calm," described by Mr. Dumont upon their arrival in Russell Square at the impression which Sir Samuel Romilly's then state made upon the mind of this most intelligent gentleman, namely, that "he appeared in the state of a man dying from some internal wound." -Then again, his wish to consult Dr. Marcet about a shower bath "to relieve the heat of his head, of which he was perpetually complaining.”—Look, last of all, at Dr. Roget's communication to Mr. Dumont, on the very morning of the fatal event. "About seven o'clock in the morning," says Mr. Dumont, " Dr. Roget came to me in a state of extreme anxiety, telling me that his uncle was much worse, with a violent fever, uttering some expressions in a strain of great perturbation, and complaining that he was quite distracted."

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At two o'clock on this very day the fatal catastrophe happens; for it never should be called the deed of Sir Samuel Romilly. Now, what a mass of evidence is here to prove that the brain was in a state of inflammation, which subjected the unfortunate victim at last to a fit of frenzy; and, no doubt, it was in this that the act was done. I shall certainly add my feeble testimony to that of Mr. Dumont (and I am certain it must be the testimony of every man that had the happiness to know Sir Samuel Romilly) that while his mind was unaffected by any disease that could have deprived him of his reason, he was utterly incapable of committing this or any other act that could have added so deeply to the misery of his afflicted

family. His whole life gives a flat negative to such a supposition. Suicide, in the estimation of every well educated man of the present day, is an act of the basest cowardice; and cowardice never formed any part of the character of Sir Samuel Romilly. Having now, as I trust, cleared him from even a scintilla of suspicion of being a moral agent in the perpetration of this frightful act, allow me for a moment to speak of him as he was, such as I have known him for more than twenty years; for I shall never cease to hold him up to the student in every profession as the model of all that was great and good.

He was a man of the highest honour, of the most unshaken virtue and honesty, of the noblest and the most unbending principles, and of the most undaunted courage.

He was a man that, for any of the great principles that he held, would have been burned at the stake.

He was a man of the most indefatigable attention, and of the most laborious habits, of the most extensive knowledge in his profession, and of high accomplishments out of it.

As an orator, from the enlarged and comprehensive view he took of every subject, he was one of those rare instances that have shone equally in the Senate as at the bar. In him every righteous cause had not only an able advocate, but a mc anxious and zealous friend. Amiable and gentle as a lamb towards his friends and generous but terrible as a lion to his enemies.

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With all his great attainments and splendid talents, he was the most modest and unassuming man alive. His manner was most elegant, dignified, and impressive. I have seen him, standing up in Westminster Hall, as manager of the Commons of England, in an impeachment, at one moment with all the calmness and dignity of a public prosecutor, and at another, while the assembled learning and talents of the nation were hanging upon his tongue, I have heard such bursts of indignation from him, that any man in England, however high in station, should have dared to enter the House of Commons, the very sanctuary of liberty, and there refuse to account for the public money, that the accused, as well as his judges, and the whole audience, have been perfectly electrified by his lofty and commanding eloquence.

I have seen him in the House of Commons painting the injustice of the slave trade, and misery of the wretched, unknown, unpitied negro, till the whole House has been not only in tears, but have been actually convulsed and sobbing like children. I think his grand apostrophe to Mr. Wilberforce the night that the abolition of the slave trade was carried, will never be forgotten by those who heard it. These, and such as these, were the public trophies of his splendid fame. But his un

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wearied exertion to obtain justice for the injured creditor, by making the landed property of the gentlemen of England answerable for their tradesmen's bills and other simple contract debts; his bold exposure of the total want of science, and, of course, of the glaring injustice of mitigating our sanguinary penal code, by setting up a vacillating practice in direct opposition to the law; and his exposure of the sophistry of Arch-Deacon Paley, in defending such a system from his moral chair; as if it were better and wiser that the lives of men should depend, not upon the defined and declared law of the land, but upon the undefined and undefinable notions, tempers, prejudices, and opinions of each individual Judge,―are the peculiar traits that distinguish the integrity and public services of this great lawyer. Instead of having the ambition, as too many of his profession had, of fathering new statutes that should add the penalty of death to other offences than those under which our sanguinary code already groans, his ambition has been to bring the law back to something like a science, and to stop the wasteful effusion of human life.

These, and such as these, will be the never-dying memorials of his name. Humanity will hail him as her darling child; and as long as the language and history of England shall endure, so long will the name of Romilly be bedewed with the grateful tears of the wise and good in all ages and in every clime.

To speak of his private character will be, I fear, beyond my powers of utterance on this occasion; for having known his lady, even before he knew her, having known the whole circumstances of his most honourable and most happy marriage, having ten years thereafter spent some time with them under the roof of the very gentleman, in the Isle of Wight, where the first act of this deep tragedy began, and there witnessed their supreme felicity, I can add my testimony to that of the good Dumont, of having seen the most expressive looks of tenderness towards his wife and children from this excellent man-such looks, indeed, as were the guarantees that such a man could never knowingly have cast his children as orphans upon the world.

But orphans they will not be. The universal grief that this event has spread so far and wide, has made them already the children of the nation; and by the nation, as long as they live, will they be cherished, respected, and beloved.

N. B. It is intended that this Institution shall publish the following works in numbers, at one shilling a number, for the use of the different classes, as well as for the use of other seminaries of learning, provided a sufficient number of subscribers shall send their names and address, either to the Institution, or through their book

sellers, to the publishers of this first number, (postage paid,) to indemnify the expence of printing, specifying the work for which they subscribe; any person being at liberty to withdraw his subscription upon giving three months notice before the following number appears.

1. A Gothic Grammar.

2. A Gothic Dictionary.

3. An Anglo-Saxon Grammar. 4. An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary.

5. A summing up of the learning of the first class, from two to three o'clock, with the authorities.

6. A summing up of the learning of the second class, with the authorities.

7. A summing up of the learning of the third class, with the authorities.

8. Report of any extraordinary or anomalous medical cases that shall have occurred to the knowledge of this Institution.

AN

ARGUMENT

ON

MILITARY OBEDIENCE.

BY A HALF-PAY OFFICER.

"A monarch makes such a distribution of his authority, as never to communicate a part of it without reserving a greater share to himself; hence the private officers of military bodies are not so far subject to their general, as not to owe still a greater subjection to their, sovereign."

MONTESQUIEU.

"In England the supreme law, the law of the land, is bounded in its sublime extent only by the light of nature and the commentary of revelation; and this supreme law stands in the place of the sovereign of Montesquieu.' ANON.

ORIGINAL.

LONDON:

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