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at the date of Junius' letter, was within five days (30th May to 4th of June) of entering his thirtysecond year.

Aiming at every thing, Lord Brougham should feel that he cannot compass all, and must fail in many, which would make the admonition of another overstrained personage well entitled to his observance—

"Disce, meo exemplo, mandato munere fungi,

Et fuge seu pestem τὴν πολυπραγμοσύνην.”

I trust that in reference to the learned lord, one of the most eminent men of our time, I need not attempt an excuse for this length of discussion, dictated and justified by the love of truth, from which the slightest conscious or discoverable deviation is to be deprecated, and which, to use his lordship's own words, (Statesmen, Second Series, page 161,) "never disdains the most trifling details, and holds nothing trivial connected with an important subject." And that the foregoing animadversions, certainly unsought, while urged on my notice by the frequent misstatements which it is their purpose to correct, refer more or less, respectively, to matters of historical interest, will hardly be denied.

PARALLEL OF THE LAW AND PHYSIC.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE.

MR. URBAN-On closing a late address, in which I had occasion to place in contact the names of Lord Brougham and Sir Astley Cooper, it struck me that a parallel view of the special professions, in their various relations, of these eminent men, would not be uninteresting. Indeed, if adequately presented, little doubt could exist of its attractive effect; and, as even an imperfect sketch, or the few detached facts which circumstances have casually brought under my notice, may not appear disentitled to attention, I shall briefly submit them to the reader, together with an incidental allusion to some elevated fortunes derived from literary fame, of contemporaneous or recent notoriety, and, therefore, though in diversified pursuits, equally offering to aspirant emulation the fruits of intellectual culture.

The profits of Sir Astley's practice considerably exceeded, I believe, not only those of the most distinguished in his own art, but those recorded of individual success in any other professional line. I have read, and his secretary confirmed the fact,

that, for two or three years previous to his retiring to St. Albans, his gains were not less than twenty thousand guineas annually; a figure to which Sir Samuel Romilly's, Sir James Scarlet's, and Sir Edward Sugden's emoluments made, respectively, the nearest approach, if they amounted, as appears undoubted, the former's to £17,000, and the two latter's to £18,000 a-year, at least for some time before the death of one, and promotion to the bench of the other two. In no other country could anything similar be obtained in either faculty. The largest continental fortune, as might be expected from his fame, was that realised by Boerhaave, who, at his death, in 1728, left above two millions of florins, not less than £250,000 of actual value, which, considering his frugal habits, and cosmopolite reputation, can excite no surprise, and certainly demanded not the apology with which Fontenelle, (Eloges, tome i., p. 622,) accompanies its mention, as if the produce of accumulating avarice; "Comme les consultations lui venaient de toutes parts, (even from China,) il n'y avait pas de sa faute à devenir si riche." His prescription for Lord Chesterfield, when Ambassador in Holland, was more professional than moral; for it enjoined moderation in, rather than abstinence from, licentious indulgence,-" Venus rarius colatur." See letter of 30th March 1759, from Lord Chesterfield to his son, whose birth was coincident, and, probably, not unconnected in cause with this compromise of christian and medical inculcation; for Mr. Stanhope's mother, French by birth, but then resident in Holland, was his lordship's mistress. The great fortune of Dupuytren, the most eminent of French surgeons, was, at least, as much the fruit of

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stock speculations, in which he obtained a share from Baron Rothschild, his almost constant patient, as the product of his practice. An acquaintance of mine translated a case of consultation to be submitted to Sir Astley, drawn up by Dupuytren for the banker, whose regard for his medical friend, I had reason to know, was, on all occasions, warmly evinced. "The highest sum made by any physician, or surgeon, in Vienna, is from fifty to sixty thousand florins a-year,” or about £5,000 sterling. (Austria, &c., by W. R. Wilde, 1847, page 58.) And, at the French bar, the greatest in repute and retribution, for many years, was Dupin ainé, (his brothers, Charles and the deceased Philip, being his juniors,) Ex-President of the Chamber of Deputies. But, with the exception of the great Stacpole case, in which I happened to have some concern,* and in which, through various channels, his

*Shortly after the peace, M. Clairmont, then charged with the English department of Lafitte's bank, received the visit of an aged person, whose appearance inspired no high idea of his rank-"Sit down until I am disengaged," carelessly said the banker's favorite clerk, while perusing his correspondence. After some not very respectful delay, the visitor displayed a considerable parcel of English bank bills, which, though not without a suspicion that they were flash notes, ensured M. Clairmont's more courteous attention, confirmed, on ascertaining their genuine value. Mr. Stacpole then told his name, and stated his desire to make a funded investment, adding, "When you have counted the little bundle I now hand you, (it contained £100,000,) I shall trouble you with a few more. In fact, bank paper to the amount of £300,000, was thus deposited, to the amazement and increasing respect of M. Clairmont, whose own report of the circumstance, though given by him with infinitely more detail and effect of recital, I repeat. On the source of this amassed sum, by no means destitute of interest, not only personal but historical, I now forbear dilating; but, at the old gentleman's decease, eleven years subsequently, it had more than doubled, in consequence of the intermediate rise in stock, and surplus of dividends over expenditure. Being unmarried, he wished to adopt a natural son, the present Duke (papal) Stacpole; but the legal forms not having been completed, an extensive scene of litigation ensued, which terminated in a general compromise of the next of kin with the son, who came into possession of about £12,000 sterling, it

gains were enormous, his regular professional business was not computed as productive of more than £5,000

was said, clear income, perfectly adequate to the sustainment of the highest foreign rank. In France, the Majorat, or necessary qualification of the ducal title, scarcely exceeds the one third of this revenue. The father had been created a Count by Louis XVIII.; but the Stacpole family, of Strongbonian origin, has long stood in the first line of respectability in the county of Clare. Indeed the Count was usually distinguished as Lord George, having some pretensions to the peerage of La Zouche. My father's maternal descent was from the same stock. The husband of his grand-daughter, Mr. Cornelius O'Brien, was one of the members for the county; and its late High-Sheriff, her son, my great-nephew, Mr. John O'Brien, represents the city of Limerick, succeeding, in that position, my brother, Mr. William Roche. Mr. Staepole had cultivated literature in early life, and published, in 1762, some historical essays in this city, (Cork.)

As the French tribunals will not adjudicate between foreigners, a creditor in pursuit of a fugitive debtor, is obliged to interpose a native claimant. I did so, as I thought, on the occasion to which I have adverted; but, on appearing before the Notary, M. Casimir Noel, Rue de la Paix, No. 13, the name of my substitute struck him as not French, which the gentleman, a respectable banker, confirmed by stating that he was born under the Austrian government at Brussels. "But," said the notary, "you have, of course, made your declaration, that is, declared your election of France as your country, which the natives of all the territories restored to their original rulers, or then disjoined from France, were bound, within twelve months, to do, or otherwise, forfeit their rights of French citizens." My representative acknowledged that he had not taken the precaution, conceiving that a fixed residence of above thirty years, and the incorporation of Belgium with France for two thirds of that period, sufficiently stamped him as a Frenchman. "At all events," added he, "my son, now of full age, born in, and never absent from Paris, cannot be objected to." "You cannot communicate to him what you do not possess; but it is a complicated question, beyond my competence, and I advise you to consult M. Dupin," rejoined M. Noel; though not without an expression of surprise that I, whose name and language seemingly bespoke me French, should employ the agency of any one else. After my personal explanation, we proceeded to M. Dupin's, who observed that a series of successive and conflicting laws, extending, within a narrow interval, to no less than five varying legislative enactments, had so embroiled the subject, that the strict definition of French citizenship was by no means of prompt solution. He found, however, on recurring to his books, that I must change my trustee; and I had, in consequence, to pay an increased premium, the sum of 47,000 francs, to another banker, M. Jacques Javal, a principal proprietor of Lafitte and Caillard's Messageries, for the use of his name, which at once gave legal effect to a claim of indisputable justice. Jacques, or James, I may remark, was not M. Javal's original name; but, according to the imperial decree of the 9th

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