292 Notes for the Month. [Suprr. 
a subject. It is a work no less valuable as a production of science, than 
curious from the great mass of singular and striking anecdote that it 
contains: not more grave and instructive with “ wise saws,” than enter- 
taining with modern instances. We restrict our recommendation, how- 
ever, of perusal, to those who can venture to read upon such a subject: 
and a very great many may take our word for it, they cannot. Nervous 
persons, and those of lively imaginations, should eschew the study of 
medical works generally, and especially of those which treat upon insanity. 
We are all of us very much the creatures of sympathy and imitation. 
The impression made by any scene or description of horror, is got over 
for the time: but, in an after hour of sickness or dejection, it is apt to 
return, and sometimes with a vividness, the effect of which it may be 
difficult to calculate upon. 
We copy the following paragraph from a London evening paper :-— 
“Tur Bisuop or Lonnon Execr.—The amount of subscriptions raised in 
the parish of St. Botolph, Bishopsgate, for the piece of plate to be presented to 
the new Bishop of London, on his departure from that parish, is about 500/. 
The amount would have been much greater, but that the meeting on the 
subject was ‘ got up’ by some of his lordship’s indiscreet friends, who, in the 
hurry of their zeal, forgot to consult the proper parochial authorities—the church- 
wardens and others: what was intended to be a general measure, dwindled 
into the act of a few forward individuals. One ot the churchwardens went 
out of town a day or two before the meeting ; and although their names were 
put on the committee, it was without their sanction, and they have not since 
co-operated with any zeal inthe proceedings. A confectioner in Bishopsgate- 
street-Within, in answer to an application by the committee for his subscrip- 
tion, said he had but little to give in charity ; and what he had to bestow he gave to 
the poor—not to a rich bishop, who wanted nothing earthly he could desire. The 
piece of plate is to be a splendid epergne, about two feet high, richly chased. 
Without intending the slightest offence to the noble and reverend 
prelate here particularly in question, it seems to us that the confectioner 
had all the reason in the world. Ninety-nine “ subscription” affairs of 
this kind out of a hundred, are, to say the best of them, very excessive 
impertinencies.. The last of the kind, the “‘ Duke of Clarence’s Medal,” 
is a job offensive to common honesty ; and. one which we are surprised 
the Royal Duke should have been wrought upon even to lend his name 
to. It must require a vanity beyond the vanity of princes, that should 
induce his Royal Highness to believe, that there is any thing in his per- 
sonal pretensions, or connexion with the navy, which should dispose a 
long list of junior officers, cramped upon the narrow allowance of half- 
pay, to give a guinea for a copper medal—a pocket-piece—bearing his 
likeness ; and if this be not the case, what is the whole proceeding 
but an indirect extortion? a legal forcible obtaining of so many guineas 
from a number of men who can very ill indeed afford to part with them, 
and who submit to.the demand absolutely from no other cause than 
dread that refusal may “injure them in the course of their profession ?” 
The Bishop of London’s collection is of a less offensive character than 
this ; because the object is one which lays no compulsion upon the con- 
tributors ; but still it challenges a number of men (under no sort of 
authority), to publish their private opinions of a particular individual ; 
and moreover, to pay a fine of twenty shillings, if the judgment be a 
favourable one. A tradesman may be perfectly well satisfied with the 
conduct of the clergyman of his parish, without being induced to place 
a silver epergne upon the reverend gentleman’s table—while, perhaps, 
he finds a difficulty in putting a joint of mutton upon his own. It is 
