YOUTH 5 



lescribes on his monument in Westminster Abbey as "the 

 voice of England in the East," put his hand on the little 

 fellow's head and gave him the patriarchial blessing. 



His letters to his brother William, who had come to this 

 country to study for his profession and who had begun the 

 practice of medicine, were full of war news and the doings 

 of soldiers. Dec. 19, 1853, he writes from Constantino- 

 ple, giving an account of the beginning of the war: 



MY DEAR BROTHER WILLIAM, May your shadow never 

 be less and may you soon have plenty of patients, not that 

 I wish folks might get sick, but that you might have practice. 



A week or two ago the Turks and the Russians had a 

 naval engagement in which the Turks were utterly defeated. 

 The circumstances were these: 13 of the Turkish fleet, 

 mostly small vessels, went up into the Black Sea for a 

 cruise; they came to Sinopi and anchored there for a few 

 days, and not apprehending any danger they took no pre- 

 cautions in case of a surprise. Well a Russian steamer saw 

 them and went off and brought down upon them eight of 

 the largest-sized Russian vessels. The vessels came in with 

 a strong wind in their favour and immediately opened upon 

 the Turks with red-hot shot. The Turks tried to get out 

 of the way so as to let the battery from the town play on 

 the enemy, but did not succeed, and every one of them ex- 

 cept a steamer was either blown up or sunk. This steamer 

 managed to get up her steam and slipt out in the midst of 

 the action; she was pursued by R. steamers, but she used 

 her stern guns upon them and when they came too near 

 she would turn and give them a broadside, and thus she 

 escaped, but in a somewhat shattered condition. 



