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THOMAS WAKLEY,THE FOUNDER OF " THE LANCET."

A BIOGRAPHY.1

CHAPTER XXVIII. IABird’s-eye T7ieiv of Innperial Politics.-National Pm’e’l’ty

and Hunger.-The Iltforrn Bill and the Bise of Ohartisln.-The Poor-law Amendment Act ard its Influence on theRepeal of the Corn Larvs.-Tlw Irish Qttestzon in 1835.-Wakley’s Attitttde tOJvards the T1l7’ee .Agitations.--TheSpirit of the Times.IT is not within the scope of this biography to enter at

length into constitutional history, save where constitutionalhistory and the history of medical reform are identical, buta few words on the political state of the country at the timeof Wakley’s election to Parliament, on the aims of politicalleaders and the general feeling of the people, are necessaryto the complete understanding of his career. These words

will form only the briefest summary of their subjects andmay be open to the reproach that it is impertinent to thereaders’ intelligence to recall such elementary historical

facts. That, however, is a risk which must be run with

the good object of telling a clear story.At the close of the war with Napoleon as marked by the

Battle of Waterloo, Great Britain was weighed down bytaxation enforced to meet the colossal expenses which she

had incurred in behalf of the peace of Europe. In that very

year-the year, by-the-bye, when Wakley came to London-the land-owners, from which class both temporal estates of

Parliament were drawn, passed an Act having for its objectthe aggrandisement of their own pecuniary position. The

high price of corn, which was one of the direct consequencesof the war, pleased their pockets. With a perfectly honestas well as traditional belief that the benefits derived fromthe soil of the country should be confined by State inter-ference to the possessors of that soil, there being no justnecessity that the other fifteen-sixteenths of the populationshould take aught from the land which did not belong tothem, the landlords of Great Britain secured the passage ofa measure prohibiting the introduction into the land of

foreign corn until wheat had reached the astounding priceof eighty shillings a quarter. Speaking sweepingly, but notat random, this meant that the poor were kept permanentlyhungry. Hence when other circumstances-wars andrumours of wars, bad harvests, fiscal blunders, and blundersin colonial policy-combined to make the whole nation feelthe stress of living beyond their income, the poor becameparticularly hungry. The result of these exacerbations ojtheir misery was such explosions as culminated in thEPeterloo "massacre or the Cato-street "conspiracy," t(

take two examples of widespread and serious disaffectionThis background of poverty, of real and abiding miserymust not be overlooked, for all the political events of thereigns of George IV. and William IV. take their tint to someextent from it.

Wakley arrived in Parliament at the time of the greabloodless revolution, at the time which the most powerfuand popular Conservative leader of the century denominated the collapse of Dukism. The iniquitous corn-ta:

remained, although its oppressiveness had been recognise’and attempts made to relieve it by a little botching aiiitinkering with sliding scales. But the franchise had bee:

1 Chapters I., II., III., IV., V., VI., VII., VIII., IX., X., XI., XII.,XIII., XIV., XV., XVI., XVII., XVIII.. XIX., XX., XXI., XXII.,XXIII., XXIV., XXV., XXVI., and XXVII. were published in THELANCET, Jan. 4th, 11th, 18th, and 25th, Feb. 1st, 8th, 15th, 22nd,and 29th, March 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th, April 4th, 11th, 18th,and 25th, May 2nd. 16th. 23rd. 30th, June 6th, 13th, 20th, 27th,July 4th, and July 11th respectively,

liberally lowered by the Reform Bill, and with the repre-sentation of the people more fairly distributed towns like-Manchester, Leeds, and Birmingham, having immenseesteem for the commercial position of the country and noparticular respect for the peer or the land-owner, had avoice in the government. Surely, thought the poor, some-thing will be done for us now. Yet within a year it became

only too clear that this great measure had not satisfiedthe people. They might have seen that the repeal of theCorn Laws would almost certainly follow, but they did notdesire to wait, and they wanted other things, the hungrystomach not generally accompanying either the far-seeingeye or the patient spirit. In truth, the great Reform Billat the moment of becoming law pleased few people. Itwas a curtailment of the privileges of the land-owners

that they could not be expected to welcome in their

hearts, even though a land-owning legislature had

approved it, and Lord Grey was looked upon by manyof his order-the politicians of the Carlton, Brookes’s

and Booclles’s-as little better than a traitor. On the

other hand, the measure was not sweeping enough to

benefit the working-man directly. In the form in which it

finally received the’sanction of the Crown it admitted themiddle and lower middle classes to the suffrage, but so farfrom conferring the same upon the working man it actuallydeprived certain tillers of the soil, already enjoying a voteunder the peculiar circumstances of some of the ancient

boroughs, of their time-honoured and illogical privileges.Out of this natural and widespread discontent arose themovement known as Chartism, a movement which aimedat the following radical changes in the Constitution :-(1)universal suffrage ; (2) annual Parliaments ; (3) payment ofmembers ; (4) abolition of property qualification for par-liamentary candidates ; and (5) vote by ballot. To three ofthese innovations Wakley was already, to a certain extent,pledged by his answers to his constituents when he enteredthe House, while Chartism did not exist as an entitywith a formulated programme, a policy, and an acceptedappellative until two years later. With regard to paymentof members Wakley never expressed any definite opinion;he disapproved of anything that was likely to interfere withthe independence of a member’s vote, but he stronglyobjected also to poverty forming an invincible barrier

between an able man and parliamentary service. He was,as a matter of fact, content that members should not be paidunder an invariable rule, seeing that in those exceptionalcases where a large number of his fellow-citizens desired

a man to represent them in Parliament they generally com-bined to secure their candidate against grave pecuniary loss.Wakley firmly believed in the ballot and supported its in-1irOaUC1ilOn into parliamentary elections a1i all times ana Wl1in

unbounded enthusiasm. His constituents at Finsbury didnot make this a test question when bargaining with him for-their suffrages ; he voluntarily added it to his programme.Chartism formed only one of the three great agitations

which were imminent in 1835, and the attendant storms ofwhich convulsed the unrestful times in which Wakley’spolitical career was run. The other two were the agitationfor the establishment of Free Trade, and that for the

Repeal of the Act of Union in Ireland; but it was

the permanent misery of the people and their bitter dis-appointment at the result of the Reform Bill which made allthree movements so notorious for the spirit of open rebellionwith which they were conducted. Dissatisfaction was not, itmust be remembered, confined to the agricultural labourer.Many manufacturing firms were discharging large numbersof their handj, improvements in machinery assisting them intheir economy. while stagnation in the markets rreventedthem from quickly disposing of their goods and justified them

-

in a course of retrenchment. So that the distress in the rural

districts owing to the price of corn and the pitiful wages.

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current became shared in the manufacturing districts, andthe factory hand " out at play," as he euphemisticallytermed both going on strike and being without a job, was amuch nastier and more dangerous person to deal with thanhis bucolic fellow sufferer.A union between the ill-treated agricultural labourer

and his better educated and worse mannered companionin misery, the factory hand, was brought about un-

designedly by the new Poor-law Amendment Act. Pre-

viously to the passing of this Act in 1834 the managementof the pauper was vested entirely in the hands r thelocal vestry, each parish looking after the pooi itsown district. The result of this arrangement was

that in-door relief was hopelessly mismanaged, scatteredrural districts being unable to support the poor in an

adequate workhouse. Out-door relief, on the other hand,was more spontaneous and better directed, the recipients ofassistance being personally known to the distributor of thecharity, very generally the squire or the rector. But it was

to be urged against this that able-bodied men out of workgot relief without doing anything in return for it, and in1832 it was thought necessary to appoint a Royal Commis-sion to look into the matter and advise a remedy. The out-

come of this Commission was the Act of 1834, which wasframed with philanthropic intent, but which was too muchdirected towards relieving the owners of land and houses ofthe burden of their responsibility to be fair or satisfactoryto the community. Before the passage of the Act of 1834it was possible for a pauper to become entitled to relief

simply by being hired or employed in a, parish, or by rentinga tenement therein, or by apprenticeship, as well as by ibirth. The amended law laid down that birth should be the,

only means of obtaining settlement for purposes of relief,unless other means were agreed to by the guardians underthe Act in any particular case. This rule bore exceedinglyhardly upon the labouring classes. In certain districtswhere the landlords were selfish or recklessly cruel the

cottages on their estates were destroyed in order that theterritorial magnates might become exempt from the main-tenance of the population. Such was the extreme value of

the land that was under tillage that in many places theowners could afford to allow large tracts to go out of culti-vation, and they preferred to do this rather than make them-selves responsible for the relief of the peasants who shouldhave been resident on the soil and employed in its culti-vation. We can imagine the plight of these poor labourers.Their claim to relief from starvation was only to be madegood by journeying back from the place to which starvationhad already driven them, to a place where there was no

roof to shelter them, no work to sustain them, and where therulers of the district would consider their reappearance anintolerable intrusion. Wherever they went all who availedthemselves of their labour were solicitous that they shouldnot become dwellers on the soil, and consequently thefilthiest corners in the cities became their necessary refuge.Here they foregathered with their companions in misfortune,the superseded manufacturing hands, as well as with thefrankly vagrant and criminal classes, and out of this ill-

omened amalgamation was formed a body of desperatemen who were at once the objects of the fear and thehate of the legislative classes of all creeds. The selfishand the ignorant saw in these unfortunate people onlyimpudent rebels trying to emulate in their occasionaloutbursts of riot and incendiarism the excesses of the

followers of Robespierre. The kindly-hearted and thewell-informed saw in them the main obstacle to the practicaltreatment of all the great questions in philanthropy andeconomics, inasmuch as every movement for the popular goodwas certain to receive their baneful support and so to be atonce unfairly discredited by its involuntary association withthem. The Chartists failed to secure any of their objects at

the time of demanding them only because of the unbridledviolence of the rabble hanging on to the fringe of the move-ment. And the repeal of the Corn Laws, which proved animmediate relief of the pitiful condition of things that hasbeen briefly sketched above, would not have been securedwithout even fiercer fighting had it not been that theleaders were determined and patient men, men strong toresist the forcing of their hands by turbulent supporters.The Irish Question in 1835 was almost at its acutest

stage. The Catholic Emancipation Act of 1829 had been

granted gradgingly-many thought in fear-and the valueof the concession had been ruined because of the wide-

spread feeling that justice had only been done under

compulsion. At the same time the mental descendantsof Lord George Gordon found the Catholic EmancipationAct unpardonable and dangerous, and dangerous certainlyit was in that it made of the Repeal demonstrationsthat are associated with O’Connell’s name a hopefuleffort. The Irish peasant knew that O’Connell haddemanded Catholic Emancipation, and that having beenrefused at first, so far from being abashed, had said that hewould compel the English to grant the concession. In theend Emancipation was conceded, and when O’Connell

promised later that he would compel the English to givehim Repeal of the Union he was naturally and implicitlybelieved. Wakley could not do other than favour the

Repeal party. It was in no way linked to the Liberal

interests, O’Connell, as is well known, being equallyready to accept help from Sir Robert Peel as from Lord

John Russell, from Lord Melbourne as from the Duke of

Wellington, but the election addresses of both Wakley andDuncombe had committed them to the support of theLiberator in his demands, as all genuine promoters of thereform cause, afterwards named Chartists, were bound todo. The reformers, apart from refinements, really desiredgovernment for the people by the people. Their great ideawas that the predominant will of the people should form thedetermining factor in making the laws of the country. Thiswas O’Connell’s own rough and ready argument for theRepeal of the Union. He had nothing to say against theunion as evidencing the wish of the majority at the time,but he had a great deal to say against the corrupt way inwhich the majority had been persuaded to wish for whatwas bad for them. His great point was that the generationwhich he represented had no part in what their fathers haddone, and that the majority of them were distinctly in favourof Repeal Such reasoning was convincing to Wakley, whoentered Parliament ready to consider O’Connell, and, there-fore, the more violent followers of O’Connell, his colleaguesin thought.

Wakley’s attitude towards the three great movementswhich were engaging the attention of Parliament at the timeof his election, and which have been thus cursorily broughtbefore the reader, was simple and consistent. Firstly, hewas pledged to the main doctrines of Chartism before theChartists had actually defined their demands. Secondly, hewas strenuously in favour of Free Trade, as the misery thatwas entailed upon the poor both agricultural and urban bythe high price of food was well known to him. His relationsand the friends of his childhood kept him posted in the con-dition of the labourer on the land, and it chanced that theplight of the west country labourers was especially cruel.His constituency of Finsbury comprised an enormous area ofslums in addition to the wealthy and respectable vicinage ofBedford-square, and the appalling condition of want in

which many of the dwellers in Seven Dials were forcedto abide had roused in him a generous indignation.He was unable to look upon the question of feeding the pooras a party one, openly declaring in his election speeches thatwhichever leader would annul the working of the Corn Lawsand make it possible for the poor to escape from compulsory

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starvation would be the proper leader for the reformers to

place at their head. These tenets, it may here be said,roused the greatest indignation in the breast of Wakley’sfather, Mr. Henry Wakley of Membury. This gentleman wasa Tory and a Protectionist as became a landowner and apractical agriculturalist, and although proud of his son’ssuccess he made no secret that he considered his son’sdoctrines in the matter of Free Trade pernicious. Thirdly,Wakley supported O’Connell in his demands for revocationof the Irish Act of Union, both for party reasons and

by conviction. He was not prepared to endorse O’Connell’sviolent denunciations of all opponents or to believe un-

hesitatingly in the impassioned scenes from Paradise whichthat masterly orator was wont to paint for the encourage-ment of his Celtic audiences, but with the attempt to securethe repeal of an Act, the national majority in favour ofwhich had been dishonestly secured, and the national

majority against which was in the next generation over-whelmingly large, Wakley was in full accord.One thing may be pleaded as an excuse for this obtrusion

of a chapter upon elementary politics, and it is this : Partyspirit ran so high in the thirties and forties that con-

temporary literature is more than occasionally an untrust-worthy guide to the truth. The times were transitional-

they were really times of revolution-and various classes of

men were so straightly set against each other in politics thatthey had not time to consider each other’s claims to a

hearing. To an Irish Catholic whoever was not a Repealerwas a traitor ; to an Orangeman whoever was a Papist wasa Jesuit spy and a political intriguer; to a land-owner aFree-Trader appeared as a thief ; to many Free-Traders a

land-owner was the same; to the extreme Tories thE

"People" appeared as savage brutes intent on obtain.

ing for themselves a universal and furious misrule; whilfto the extreme Radicals the Tory was not only 2

person by temperament opposed to every movement tha1

should sweeten life for the poor, but he was a dark intrigue:against the Crown, a person with a plot up his sleeve fo:the abduction of Princess Victoria of Kent or-to plumlthe very depths of absurdity-for the establishment of tbDuke of Wellington on the throne of England. Th

refuting of these ridiculous accusations and counter-accusations encroached so much on the leisure of the various part,leaders that they often missed opportunities of comparin,views and so ascertaining that in very truth they had mansentiments in common; while the air was rent with simultaneous shrill cries from such separate quarters that thpolitical health of the country was made to appear pitiftand desperate, whereas it was in fact fairly good animproving by great strides.

(To be continued.)

ROYAL COLLEGE OF SURGEONSOF ENGLAND.

ELECTION OF PRESIDENT.

A QUARTERLY IEETmG of the Council was held on

July 9th, the 1’resident, Mr. CHRISTOPHER HEATH, being inthe chair.

The PRESIDENT reported the result of the election to theCouncil, as already published in THE 1,A.NCET.

Mr. Bryant, Mr. Davies-Colley, and Mr. Pick were intro-duced and made a declaration m the terms of the oath pre-scribed by the Charter of 1800, and took their seats as

members of the Council.The third, and final, report of the Committee on the

Dental Surgery Regulations was presented and approved.The report recommended the adoption of the followingreulatior., and that they should he made applicable to allcandidates who may register as dental students on or afterJan. 1st, 1897.

REGULATIONS.1. There shall be a Preliminary Science Examination and two Pro-

fessional Examinations for the Licence. The Preliminary ScienceExamination shall consist of chemistry, physics, and practicalChemistry. The First Professional Examination for the Licence shallconsist of mechanical dentistry and dental metallurgy ; and the secondof denfal anatomy and physiology, dental pathology and surgeryincluding operative work, human anatcmy and physiology, andsurgery including pathology. (Candidates will be required to show ageneral knowledge of the anatomy of the whole human body.)

II. Candidates will be required to produce certificates of havingreceived instruction at an institution recognised for the purpose inchemistry, physics, and practical chemistry before entering for thePreliminary Science Examination. (This instruction may be takenprior to the date of registration as a dental student.)

III Candidates will be required to produce the following certificatesbefore entering for the First Professional Examination-viz.: 1. OFhaving been engaged, during a period of not less than three years,in acquiring a practical familiarily with the details of mechanicaldentistry under the instruction of a competent practitioner or under thedirection of the superintendent of the mechanical department of a reco-gnised dental hospital where the arrangements for teaching mechnicaldentistry are satisfactory to to the Board of Examiners in dentalsurgery. In the case of qualified surgeons evidence of a period of notless than two instead of three years of such instruction will be sufficient.(This instruction may be taken prior to the date of registration as adental student). 2. Of having attended at a recognised dental hospitaland school: (a) a course of lectures on dental metallurgy; (b) a courseof practical dental metallurgy; (c) a course of lectures on dentalmechanics; (d) a course of practical dental mechanics including themanufacture and adjustment of six dentures and six crowns.

IV. Candidates will be required to produce the following cer-tificates before entering for the Second Professional Examination,viz.:-I. Of having attended at a recogaised dental hospital andschool: (a) a course of dental anatomy and physiology; (6) a

separate course of dental histology, including the preparationof microscopical sections ; (c) a course of dental surgery; (d) aseparate course of practical dental surgery ; (e) a course of notless than five lectures on the surgery of the mouth. (These lecturesmay be given either at a recognised dental hospital and school, in whichcase the lecturer must be a qualified surgeon practising surgery, or theymay be given at a recognised medical school and may form part of thecourse required by Section IV , Clause 3 (d) 2. Of having attended ata recognised dental hospital or in the dental department of a recognisedgeneral hospital the practice of dental surgery during two years. 3. Ofhaving attended at a recognised medical school-(a) a course of lectureson anatomy; (b) a course of lectures on physiology; (c) a separatepractical course of physiology; (d) a course of lectures on surgery;(e) a course of lectures on medicine. 4. Of having performed dissec-tions at a recognised medical school during not less than twelve months.5. Of having attended, at a recognised hospital or hospitals, the practiceof surgery and clinical lectures on surgery during two winter sessions.6. Of being twenty-one years of age. (The certificates of professionalstudy will be required to show that students have attended the coursesof professional study to the satisfaction of their teachers.)

V. Candidates may present themselves for the Preliminary ScienceExamination before entering at a dental school on production of the

. certificates required under Section II. This examination will be

identical with Part I. of the First Examination of the ExaminingBoard in England.

3 VI. Candidates may present themselves for the First ProfessionalExamination for the Licence after the completion of six months’

Fez attendance at a recognised dental hospital and school, on production. of the certificates required under Section III.

VII. Candidates may present themselves for the Second ProfessionalExamination on production of the certificates required under Sectiony IV., after the completion of four years’ professional study from the

date of registration as a dental student and after the lapse of not lessthan six months from the date of passing the First Professional

Examination.VIII. Synopses of the examination in chemistry, physics, and

e practical chemistry, and dental metallurgy will be issued with the.. rnanlatinnc_

FEES TO I3E PAID BY CANDIDATES.

The fee for the diploma of the licence in Dental Surgery is twentyguineas, and must be paid in the following manner:-

Preliminary Science Examination, each admission ... ;E3 3 0 0First Professional " " " ... 2 2 0Second Professional " ., " ... 5 5 0

The balance, if any, of the total fee of twenty guineas to be paid on thecompletion of the examinations.

The following appointments were made :-Hunterian Pro-fessors : A. W. Mayo Robson, F.R.C.S., D’Arcy Power,F.R.C S., and Charles Stewart, M.R.C.S. Arris and GaleLecturer : Ernest H. Starling, M.R.C.S. Erasmus WilsonLecturer : Walter George Spencer, F.R.C.S.The President reported that the half-yearly meeting of the

Fellows had been held on the 2nd inst. and that the follow-ing resolution had been carried nem. corn.—viz. : " That theCouncil be requested to instruct its representative on theGeneral Medical Council to forward in every way whichseems feasible the objects of the Civil Rights Defence Com-mittee in the case of Alr. R. B. Anderson."The Council then resolved that their representative on

the General Medical Council be instructed to act as

requested.The Committee on the circular to be sent to the Fellows

on the question of the representation of the Members Gn theCourcil presented a report, which was approved after

’ certain alterations, and the Committee was reappointed tosupervise the sending out of the circular.1 A letter was read from Mr. Bryant, as representative of