great, if the saying holds true, that interest will not lye. That of the publisher will be best shown, in remarking what cases came to him from apothecaries, &c., and what from patients; that the readers may judge for themselves which most to rely on as genuine and fairly stated.

'When he has completed this work, he would do well to show his impartiality and public spirit, by collecting in the same manner all cases wherein vomits have proved fatal, and blisters occasioned mortifications, and so on, strictly scrutinising into the good or bad success of many other commonly applied remedies: but this is never to be expected. All fatal miscarriages, purely owing to medicines regularly prescribed, will be for ever valid. Such miscarriages give an offence; it is a discovery how cures may be easily attained without the assistance of doctors, which has gathered a storm just ready to burst on your devoted head.

I hope you may still avert the danger, that these first skirmishes may have abated your courage, and that you will not longer persist in coveting persecution, for the sake of the public, but rather endeavour to mitigate the correction of your adversaries by a silent submissive retreat from the contest. It is prudent to fly with a few wounds from the outlyers only; and, on the contrary, high madness to molest and stand combating with a whole nest of hornets. However you may despise waspish insects, when they are in great numbers, enraged and armed with poisonous weapons, they are no contemptible enemies.

"This letter, already grown long and tedious, I thought to have finished here; but I am willing to say something first of myself. My name you know, and experience has showed you some of my good qualities; but be not vainly inquisitive to know more of me; for my nature and efficacy are incomprehensible to human faculties, and will eternally divide the studious labours of the most curious searchers into mysteries.

If you torture me by fire, and stop my flight, can I do less than resent such cruel usage by griping, rending, and in various ways exciting my just rage on the first object I am let loose to? Whereas, unchanged by art, and in the pure state Providence offers me, I am truly a friend of mankind, affording comfort and relief to most of the miserable, who will have but as much faith and confidence in me, as they blindly repose in many mixtures of poisons.

'When called in aid, and thus in a friendly way admitted, I speedily and insensibly pervade the whole human system in pursuit of all noxious heterogeneous intruders. None can long resist my invincible force, nor avoid the combat by absconding or flight; the most remote and imperceptible recesses in the labyrinths of the nerves, are as accessible to me as the first more obvious passages. Whenever, therefore, they may have become formidable by possessing an important post in collected numthat, bers, I soon reach the place, and as soon disunite them, and drive them without; and, out of the body; gaining a complete victory with so much ease, while this war is waging within, all seems to be at peace when the enemy is dislodged, I repair the damages they may have done, by restoring to all organs sufficient vigour to execute their proper functions.

Nature sends me with her commission and ample powers to enforce in all places a punctual observance of the laws she has imposed; in consequence whereof, when I find the stomach and bowels in a state of rebellion, bringing quick and inevitable destruction upon the whole constitution; I immediately reduce them to obedience and a peaceable state. Whenever any of the great complexuses of the nerves, by intestine jars,

have entangled themselves, at my approach they range into regular order, and give mutual assistance to each other in a friendly embracing intercourse; from whence all hideous and convulsive agonies and tremors cease, giving place to a universal serenity.

I roll on without control, through tubes inconceivably minute; the very avenues to the seat of the rational soul are open to me. I find free ingress and egress, and am always welcome to that noble inhabitant, who is sensible of the service I do her, in rendering this her temporary abode somewhat comfortable. Were it possible for you, with a just concep tion, to follow my track through these almost infinite meanders, your admiration of this wonderful machine would be exceeding great. And how just would be your indignation at the presumption of some weak men, who pretend to have unerring rules for rectifying disorders, the situation of which they cannot possibly know, and philosophically to determine the exact progress of what they send blended into this road of circulation; so numberless and intricately disposed are these channels, and their mutual communications, that the only wonder is, that they should ever make a tolerable guess.

Having thus indulged myself in expatiating on my good and powerful properties, I will now fairly give you an account of some things which are indeed out of my reach. I cannot give eternal duration to a material body liable to daily changes. In my progress through the heart, I cannot correct the vices of it, taken in a figurative sense; it is not in my power to give courage to a coward, to make a knave honest, nor to moderate the raging passions of men of persecuting spirits; I cannot restrain the volubility of a tongue that hath an innate propensity to defamation, nor urge a restive one to a frank declaration of truths.

Real defects in the gifts of nature are not to be supplied but by a creating power; I cannot, therefore, cause a limb that may be wanting to grow forth, nor can I fill an empty cavity in the head with brains; but, should I make a lodgment in so solitary and unfurnished an apartment, the owner need not be under any apprehensions, for fools were never known to go mad; free from all agitating thoughts and doubts, they enjoy a profound tranquillity of mind, and are happy in an undisturbed conceit of being extreinely wise. When you meet with physical philosophers of this class, be not so ill-natured as to attempt to deceive them; fet nothing divert you from your judicious course of exploring my virtues by experience; an uninterrupted prosecution herein will produce authorities sufficient to overcome the most obstinate infidelity or wilful blindness; and then your close attention to my service will be richly rewarded, and gratefully acknowledged by your true friend. 'HYDRARGYRUM.'

The preceding letter contains some deeply philosophical remarks, playfully and gracefully delivered. How often have simple and efficacious remedies been vilified and abandoned, only because they are unprofitable; and complex, and deleterious ones extolled and applied, only because they are profitable-to the craftsmen? It is the singular state of the profession, in England, which is the futile source of this mischief. But medical doctrines are also for a time received or rejected, according to the known or presumed political or religious creed of their authors. The further consideration of these evils, and of the means of removing them, we are obliged to defer to another Number.

PLAN FOR THE HEARING AND DECISION OF. APPEALS

FROM INDIA.

IN a former Number of this Journal, we took occasion to draw the attention of the public to a motion in the House of Peers by Lord Lansdown, relative to appeals against decisions made by the courts of law in India, and promised some details of the mode in which such appeals ought to be prosecuted, heard, and put in a train of final adjudication. We have now the pleasure to redeem our pledge, by giving to our readers the substance of a very able and comprehensive statement, which we understand has been already laid before the authorities to whom the duty of effecting reforms of this nature especially belongs. A copy of this excellent plan having come into our possession thus opportunely, we hasten to lay its substance before our Indian friends, who will readily perceive that it is from the mind of one not less remarkable for his thorough understanding of the question than for his zeal in promoting so useful a reform. We need add no more, than a sincere and ardent hope, that the Noble Lord, who, since our first advertence to his motion, has joined the existing Administration, will embrace the earliest practicable opportunity of following up his original intention, by the adoption of some such plan as that so clearly and temperately detailed in the suggestions which we have now the pleasure to introduce to the readers' attention.

The real object of the British Constitution, in considering the King in Council as a Court of Appeal from the different courts established in all the British Colonies, is to secure through those courts, and their respective judges, for all the inhabitants of those colonies, whether Europeans or Natives, by placing them directly under the protection and the superintendence of his Majesty in Council, the strict observance of those different systems of law, which the legislature has deemed wise to establish amongst them.

As it is, therefore, the duty of the King in Council, as a Court of Appeal, to afford that protection to the inhabitants of those colonies, by affirming all such decisions of the colonial courts, as may be in conformity with those systems of law, and by reversing all such decisions as may be in opposition to the same systems of law,-it is obvious that the King in Council, in order that they may discharge their duty as a Court of Appeal, with the least possible delay, expense, and inconvenience, to the parties who are concerned in appeals, and also in order that they may, at the same time, by the soundness and promptitude of their decisions, encourage those who really believe themselves to be aggrieved, discourage those who put in an appeal merely for the purpose of gaining time, or oppressing their adversary, should themselves not only possess a thorough know

ledge of all the different systems of colonial law, but should always have sufficient leisure to attend to each case of appeal, as soon as it is brought before them.

The King in Council, in addition to the appellate jurisdiction, which they exercised over the British Colonies in the West Indies and in North America, previous to the year 1773, have since been, from time to time, vested by different Acts of Parliament, Royal Charters, and Royal Instructions, with an immense appellate jurisdiction over all the colonies which have, since that period, been acquired by the British arms at the Cape of Good Hope, on the Isle of France, on the island of Ceylon, and in the East India Company's territories in the East Indies.

The appellate jurisdiction with which the King in Council have been vested, since the year 1773, in as far as it relates to the colonies which have just been mentioned, extends over eleven Supreme Courts, viz. eight King's and three Company's Courts, which have been established in the King's possessions; at the Cape of Good Hope, in the Isle of France, in the island of Ceylon, and in the East India Company's possessions at Calcutta, Madras, Bombay, and Prince of Wales's Island. In order to understand thoroughly the nature of these different Courts, as well as the nature of the different systems of law, according to which they are bound to proceed, it may be necessary to consider them in detail.

The following are the different Courts in the colonies, over which the King in Council exercise an appellate jurisdiction:

The following four are established in King's settlements: viz., the King's Court at the Cape of Good Hope, the King's Court at the Isle of France, the King's Supreme Court of Justice, and the King's High Court of Appeal at Ceylon.

The following seven are established in the East India Company's settlements: the King's Supreme Court at Calcutta, the King's Supreme Court at Madras, the King's Supreme Court at Bombay, the King's Recorder's Court in Prince of Wales's Island; the Company's Courts, called the Sudder Dewanee Adawlut, at Calcutta ; the ditto at Madras; the ditto at Bombay.

These three last Courts are established by the East India Company, under the authority of different Acts of Parliament. They are the three High Courts of Appeal, established at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, to which an appeal lies, in certain cases, from every inferior court established by the Company, in every part of their three presidencies of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, consisting in all of upwards of SO separate courts, composed of 120 judges; and from which three Company's High Courts of Appeal, an appeal lies, in cases of a certain amount, to the King in Council.

The jurisdiction of the Court at the Cape of Good Hope extends

over all cases, all civil persons, and all lands in that colony. The jurisdiction of the court at the Isle of France extends over all cases, all persons, and all lands in that colony.

The jurisdiction of the Supreme Court, and that of the High Court of Appeal, in Ceylon, taken together, include every case whatever which can occur on that island.

The jurisdiction of the three King's Supreme Courts at Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay, and that of the three Company's High Courts of Appeal, called Sudder Adawluts, taken together, include every case of a certain amount that can occur within the three jurisdictions of Calcutta, Madras, and Bombay.

The jurisdiction of the King's Recorder's Court on Prince of Wales's Island, and that of the subordinate courts in the settlements of Malacca and Sincapore, include all the cases that can occur of a certain amount within those three settlements.

The system of law which prevails in each of the above colonies is as follows:

CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.-The law in force in this colony is what is called, the Dutch Roman law, modified in some instances by the colonial regulations made by the Dutch and the English Colonial Governments respectively..

ISLE OF FRANCE.-The law in force in the Isle of France is the Roman law, as modified during the French Revolution in France, and still further modified by the colonial regulations made by the French and the English Colonial Governments respectively.

ISLAND OF CEYLON.-1. The law in force in the Island of Ceylon, in as far as it relates to the Dutch, English, and Cingalese inhabitants of the maritime parts of that island, is the Dutch Roman law, modified by the colonial regulations of the Dutch and English Colonial Governments.

2. In as far as it relates to all the Mohammedan inhabitants on the island, the Mohammedan law, as observed amongst the Mohammedans of Arab descent, who inhabit the coasts of Malabar and Coromandel.

3. In as far as it relates to the Cingalese inhabitants of the Kandian country or interior of the island,—the Buddhuist law (with some local modifications,) as observed amongst the Buddhuist inhabitants of the Burman empire and Siam.

4. In as far as it relates to the Hindoo inhabitants of the northwest, north, and north-east parts of the island,—the Hindoo law, (with some local modifications,) as observed amongst the Hindoo inhabitants of the Peninsula of India.

5. In as far it relates to the people called the Mocqasus, who inhabit two considerable provinces on Ceylon, the one on the south