THE
UNDER EXISTING CIRCUMSTANCES.
THE
UNDER EXISTING CIRCUMSTANCES.
BEING
AN APOLOGY, &c.,
IN
A LETTER TO THE MAYOR OF EXETER.
BY
“All foreigners express astonishment, when informed, that the teachers of Anatomy,in this country, are obliged to depend, for the power of communicating this most necessaryand important knowledge, upon a precarious supply of bodies, which have beensuffered to become putrid, and afterwards been interred. This is, indeed, a national disgrace;and formerly I would not willingly have acknowledged the fact of the disintermentof bodies, because it tends to disquiet the best feelings of the public. The newspaperwriters, however, have so blazoned it forth, as to render any attempt to conceal itunavailing.”
Mr. Abernethy.
LONDON:
PUBLISHED BY SHERWOOD, GILBERT, AND PIPER,
PATERNOSTER-ROW.
MDCCCXXVII.
Mills, Jowett, and Mills, Bolt-court, Fleet-street.
AN APOLOGY, &c.
SIR,
Actuated by a respectful deference to the chiefmagistrate of the city of Exeter, I venture to addressthat individual, who so ably occupies theplace and station, at the present moment. Afterthe remarks which fell from Mr. Justice Parkupon the subject of local jurisdiction at the latecity assize,—remarks which no one in court, andleast of all yourself, can possibly have forgotten,—therecan be no occasion for my referring to thesubject, for the sake of any explanation of myconduct, in procuring the removal of my pastcause into an adjoining county.
You know, I presume to think, Sir, that it isdifficult for men even of enlarged minds to divestthemselves of opinions once formed,—perhapspublicly declared.—Rumour has a thousandtongues, and prejudice catches every whisper;—isit fair then, that I, or any one else should betried by a jury who could by any possibility prejudgethe question? Otherwise, the amount ofevidence adduced, would be but too frequently asecondary consideration. Jurymen at least mightcome into court with prejudiced minds; andthough magistrates of talent and character, might,undoubtedly, be very far from casting “the trashtheir own suspicion breeds, into the scale theyhold,” yet it would be superfluous to inform you,Sir, that the mischievous operation of bias andprejudice, need not extend further than the jurybox,to annihilate every shadow of fair and impartialjustice.
I do not conceive any farther explanation necessary,Sir, after the forcible remarks of thelearned judge to the same effect; and if any apologyseem to be called for, I beg that it may beconsidered as consisting in that explanation whichwas so appositely provided.
The objects of this letter, Sir, are various: for,after having implored your forbearance, as to theliberty I have taken, in placing your distinguishedname in its title page, I would, with your permission,draw your attention to the cir