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was practised in Westminster by the mob, and such ribaldry as was exchanged on the hustings by the rival candidates, "men of rank and fashion," might procure from those who write, within the Westminster uproar, some toleration for the occasional animation of our voters, and the rough declamation of our stump orators in the electioneering contests of the southern states.

The condition of things, in Ireland, with regard to the choice of legislators, is truly melancholy, as it is described in a late book of travels, possessing the highest authority.* "So far," says the author, "are the wretched tenants of the cabins from receiving benefit for their inapposite distinction of freeholders, that it operates a contrary way, and puts them to expense and loss of time, without the privilege of having any choice. Ruin would inevitably overtake him who should dare to presume to have any opinion but that dictated to him by his landlord; and the candidate who should solicit, or accept without solicitation, the vote of a tenant, against the will of his landlord, must answer the irregularity with his life, and incur the general odium of his own class of society. Popular opinion has little or no influence in the election of the one hundred Irish members. Election contests with us procure, for a time, some consideration for the lower ranks-what dignifies the English character debases the Irish. The magnitude of the evil is greater than can be conceived by those who have not had an opportunity of witnessing its effects. In the most venal places in England, besides the bribe, some condescension is expected: here the poor voter is only degraded by an additional link to the chain of his dependency. The representation of the town rests mostly in each body corporate, which seldom exceeds twelve members. The selecting for representation by the extent of the population was a farce, in which the people had no assigned part to act. The democratic part of the British constitution, quoad the Irish, had better not exist."

* Observations on the State of Ireland, written in a tour through that coun. try, by J. C. Curwen, Esq. M. P. London. 1818. Vol. II. Letter li.

"In some instances, the very favours granted the Catholics are considered as sources of aggravation, if not of insult--emblazoned badges of slavery! In conferring the elective franchise, they have been denied the exercise of a free choice, the proudest prerogative of Englishmen; and compelled to feel, in the discharge of the granted privilege, their own inferiority."

4. It is not in newspapers, reviews, and parliamentary speeches alone, that the United States are traduced in England. Her writers of formal treatises on subjects connected with general literature, and even with natural science, fall into preposterous digressions about the unworthiness of their "American kinsmen," and are not always inordinately scrupulous as to the accuracy of their disparaging statements. I have an instance at hand in the following passage of a late work, entitled "The History and Practice of Vaccination, by James Moore, Director of the National Vaccine Establishment at London, Member of the Royal College of Surgery, &c."

"The freedom that reigns in the United States of America, is incompatible with unanimity; consequently, the vaccine had to struggle there with a long and violent opposition, which was not much allayed by the exertions of the President, Mr. Jefferson, who patronized the new practice; yet by degrees it spread and was introduced even among the Indian tribes. It was in the year 1799, that this important benefit was conveyed to the United States from Great Britain. Indeed, except the produce of the soil, what that is valuable has not that nation received from us? Certainly their arts, literature, laws, and religion, the model of their political establishments, and even their love of liberty.-Yet when Great Britain was hard pressed by Napoleon, the United States submitted to the threats and depredations of the tyrant, &c. But let England forget this and rejoice in being able to add the vaccine to the other benefits conferred on the Americans. And may our physicians continue to instruct them to cure and prevent the diseases of their country; may our poets soften and delight them; and above all, may our philosophers improve their dispositions, and perhaps, in a future age, their animosity will cease, and there will spring up in that country some filial gratitude!"*

* C. 12.

All this objurgation in a history of the vaccine! The absurdity and malice of deviating into such topics on such an occasion, would be manifest, though the principal accusation should be acknowledged to be sustainable. But what are we to think of the member of the Royal College of Surgeons, when we reflect that it is unjust; that he must have known it to be so; and that it may be retorted upon England with tenfold force? There, had the vaccine to struggle with a longer and more violent opposition, than in any other of the countries into which it has been introduced. No heavier disgrace was ever brought upon the medical faculty, or the human mind in civilized life, than by the prejudices with which it was encountered among a part of the British population, and the pamphlets sent forth against it from the British press, in the names of London physicians eminent in their profession. The opposition to it amounted to phrenzy, even in such quarters; and in the protracted controversy, the foulest scurrility was mixed with the wildest raving. I need but mention Dr. Moseley's Essay on the Lues Bovilla, and the publications of Doctors Rowley, Squirril, Birch, Lipscomb, &c.

In the very book of the director, we have all the evidence we could desire against Great Britain on this head; and in the voluminous publication of Dr. Ring,* there is still more. I refer to this work particularly, because it was well known to our faithful historian, who read in it the reverse of what he has alleged against America. Dr. Waterhouse of Boston, acknowledges, indeed, in one of his essays, which Dr. Ring has quoted, that some incredulity was displayed, and some ridicule indulged, in New England, at the first annunciation of the discovery; but Dr. Ring furnishes the testimony of the same physician, and others of the faculty in the United States, to show with what rapidity it conciliated even

*Treatise on the Cow-Pox, containing the history of Vaccine Inoculation, by John Ring, Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in London. Part 2d, 1803.

VOL. I.-F*

the warmest zeal in its favour, and was carried into general operation. One of Dr. Waterhouse's statements to him, of 1801, says "The arguments thrown out in England against this noble discovery and its application, are detailed here (in Boston,) but a great majority believe and will be saved." Ring writes thus himself" Some unlucky cases, it seems, have damped the ardour of a people (the Americans,) who received the new inoculation with a candour, a liberality, and even generosity much to their credit.". He recites the cases and adds, "This was enough to damp the ardour of any nation." A few pages onward, he mentions its signal progress throughout the United States; compliments the American government for communicating it so promptly to the Indian tribes; and subjoins the following remarks: "In England the public opinion is, at the time of my writing this (1803, five years after Jenner's promulgation of the discovery!) rather wavering. Falsehoods propagated by the most base and despicable characters, have been too successsful."*

It occurred to me to place the extract from surgeon Moore's work, under the eye of Dr. Redman Coxe, the present learned professor of Materia Medica in the University of Pennsylvania; so honourably and deservedly mentioned in Dr. Ring's work as the physician to whom Pennsylvania is primarily indebted for the benefit of vaccination. Dr. Coxe has had the goodness to put into my hands a small paper of notes, which I copy as decisive testimony on the subject, since his knowledge of the progress and establishment of the discovery in the United States, is more direct and minute, than that of any other person.

"I am confident I am correct in asserting, that no novelty of equal importance to mankind, was ever received in any country, with more rapidity-more unanimity, or more extensively. It is true, the same cautious spirit which ought invariably to govern us in concerns of this nature, led many medical men (not to oppose

* P. 760. The controversy raged with unabated violence as late as 1806—7.

its progress, but) merely to await the result of experiments, in order to determine their judgments. What opposition has this Jennerian blessing ever met with in this country, that equals even a tenth part of that which it received in Great Britain? Let Mr. Ring's elaborate production on the subject of vaccination clear us from the reproach thrown on us. In that work, his pen has unfolded the opposition it encountered from almost every quarter of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain; an opposition, the effects of which have scarcely yet subsided there; whilst here, for many years, even a whisper against it has not been raised.-Were it necessary, I could give you perhaps one hundred letters from medical men in all parts of America, received within twelve months after I had introduced it here, earnestly applying for the infection, and requesting information respecting the disease. I saw, in fact, nothing like opposition;-I read of none in our medical journals. An uniform desire was every where evinced to spread the benefit as speedily as possible. A few miserable quacks alone, who depended on the smallpox for their daily bread, protested against it-and even of those, the greater part soon were obliged to yield to the popular opinion in its favour.

"Such are the facts which stifle the inconsiderate assertion of Mr. Moore-I need scarcely add to the number; which if necessary, I could easily do. The disease had fully established its reputation in America within two years from its first introduction here; and long before its claims were admitted freely in Great Britain.”

There are some points at least, as to which "the freedom that reigns in the United States of América,” would not seem to be incompatible with unanimity. If the whole population of those states were canvassed, perhaps not one individual would be found disaffected to the form and constitution of their government. The number malecontent with the system of administration, or distrustful of the ability and integrity of the present executive councils, is certainly so small as to disappear on a glance at the mass of citizens in the opposite temper of mind. FIRMIS

SIMUM IMPERIUM QUO OBEDIENTES GAUDENT.

How far has the freedom which reigns in Great Britain proved effectual to create unanimity as to her political institutions, and the composition and course of her national councils? Is not the monarchy itself odious to a multitude of her subjects? The mechanism of her legislature and cabinet, and the system of administration are matters of disgust and outcry through every rank and class of her

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