regard to professional interests. I would not 

 willingly believe, that the man who has so 

 lately informed us he would " see his gown 

 " stripped off his back," rather than sacrifice 

 his independence, could be terrified by a sus- 

 pension at Bethlehem, or an expulsion from St. 

 Bartholomew's. But whatever may be your 

 private motives for this sudden and unlooked- 

 for change of conduct, permit me to congra- 

 tulate you on behalf of society at large, and 

 your pupils in particular. You have checked, at 

 least for the moment, the torrent of medical infi- 

 delity ; " you have stepped between the dead 

 " and the living, and the plague is stayed." 

 Whatever mortification your feelings of per- 

 sonal pride may have sustained by this retreat, 

 will be amply recompensed by the remem- 

 brance of the benefits which you have conferred 

 on your profession and your country. 



Indeed, Sir, you have taken this important 

 resolve at a most critical moment for your own 

 character, as well as for the interests of others. 

 The advocates of blasphemy and profaneness 

 were already beginning to boast of you as their ac- 

 knowledged Coryphaeus. Your name and talents 

 had conferred that splendor and reputation on an 

 execrable cause, to which it had no pretensions 

 from the ignorance and vulgarity of its ordinary 

 defenders. You have retired, Sir, just in time 

 to decline the compliments of " Do Wylke 

 " Edwinsforde, Esq. of Caermarthenshire," and 



