A POPULAR VERDICT. 553 



authorities, by never charging mo with any offense, gave the only attestation 

 they could that they had nothing to charge me with. But my friends interfered 

 for me. Without consulting me, they directed an agent to institute the most 

 rigid and unsparing examination into the facts. I was totally unacquainted 

 with this gentleman ; but I understood that, in naming Mr. Ellis, they named 

 a person whose character is a sufficient pledge for the propriety of his pro- 

 ceedings. 



" The result of his inquiries was laid before the Dean of Faculty and another 

 counsel, who were asked what ought to be done. These gentlemen gave it as 

 their opinion that the evidence was completely satisfactory, and that there was 

 no want of actionable matter, but that there was one ground on which it was 

 my duty to resist the temptation of going into a court of law. This was, that 

 the disclosures of the most innocent proceedings even of the best-conducted dis- 

 secting-room must always shock the public, and be hurtful to science. But 

 they recommended that a few persons of undoubted weight and character 

 should be asked to investigate the matter, in order that, if I deserved it, an at- 

 testation might be given to me, which would be more satisfactory to my friends 

 than any mere statements of mine could be expected to be. 



" After a severe and laborious investigation of about six weeks, the result is 

 contained in the following report, which was put into my hands last night. . . . 



" Candid men will judge of me according to the situation in which I was 

 placed at the time, and not according to the wisdom which has unexpectedly 

 been acquired since. This is the very first time that I have ever made any 

 statement to the public in my own vindication, and it shall be the last. It 

 would be unjust to the authors of the former calumnies to suppose that they 

 would not renew them now. I can only assure them that, in so far as I am 

 concerned, they will renew them in vain." 



The report here referred to bore the names of Sir John Robinson, 

 chairman ; Mr. M. P. Brown, advocate ; Prof. James Russell, Dr. Ali- 

 son, Sir George Ballingall, Sir George Sinclair, Sir William Hamil- 

 ton, and Mr. Thomas Allen, banker ; and completely and absolutely 

 exonerated Dr. Knox from the charges that had been made against 

 him. The public advocate went to the bottom of the case, and de- 

 clared t])at there was no ground of suspicion ; and one of the ablest 

 representatives of the British bar. Lord Cockburn, who had a personal 

 knowledge of all the facts, wrote in the " Memorials of his Time " as 

 follows : " All our anatomists incurred a most unjust and very alarm- 

 ing though not unnatural odium ; Dr. Knox in particular, against 

 whom not only the anger of the populace, but the condemnation of 

 the more intelligent persons, was specially directed. But, tried in 

 reference to the invariable and the necessary practice of the profes- 

 sion, our anatomists were spotlessly correct, and Knox the most cor- 

 rect of them all." 



Dr. Knox was a man of pluck, and he went along about his busi- 

 ness, paying little attention to the storm of abuse and vituperation 

 that rained upon him. But the savage injustice of Avhich he was a 

 victim was, nevertheless, not without its effect. It clouded his pros- 

 perity, darkened his life, and gave a cynical turn to his disposition. 



