Bosquet, mon vieux Bosquet d'Afrique, afterwards surnamed the hero of Inkerman; the illustrious Prince Napoleon, and Canrobert, beloved of the marshal. "Each of you (said the hero-in-chief to those great men, while he showed to them the heights of the Alma), each of you must attack right before you, and each in manoeuvring will follow his own inspirations: you must reach the heights; I have no other instructions to give to men in whom I have every confidence." No one will feel surprise that whole regiments of Moscou should disappear before those paladins, "vanishing, so to speak, into the hollows of the ground." “The ardour, the impulse, the super-excitement of enthusiasm were such that it seemed as though the force of will levelled all obstacles, and bore up horses and warriors upon its invincible wings." Stationing himself upon a hillock, the marshal followed with his eye the movements of his valiant troops, dispersed over the different points, and ascending the cliffs of Alma under a murderous fire. "Oh! brave soldiers!" he cried from time to time. "Oh! worthy sons of Austerlitz and Friedland!" It was a scene that might well justify Commandant Barral in taking off his kepi, and pronouncing with his eyes fixed on the heavens, 'Decidemment Dieu est avec nous.' But what were the unready English doing all this time? They were pottering on in their old stupid way, getting unmercifully mauled, but bearing their fate avec une énergique solidité. Just as the marshal observed that the Russian army was in full retreat, "General Martimprey ran up from the left, bringing intelligence that the English, stopped in their advance by a formidable artillery, decimated by a murderous fire, and menaced by enormous masses, experienced serious difficulties in taking the positions which had been assigned to them. Allons aux Anglais ! cried the marshal, dashing his horse in the direction indicated by General Martimprey," and in the same breath uttering a variety of other orders suitable to the occasion or very nearly so; for it unfortunately happened that when they came to be executed they were useless, the English having in the meantime helped themselves. The victory was gained, and it would have been complete had Lord Lucan's cavalry not impounded itself in the marshes of the Alma. The marshal did the last honour to the spot by bivouacking on the field of battle, and from thence he thus wrote to Madame la Marechale : 66 Victory! Victory! my beloved Louise; yesterday, the 20th of September, I completely beat the Russians; I have taken formidable positions defended by more than 40,000 men, who are well beaten ; but nothing could resist French impetuosity and English order and solidity. Adieu, my Louise, God protect you." The intention of the marshal was to march upon the Katcha on the morning of the 22d, in the hope of again meeting the enemy, and beating him a second time in a handgallop. "But on the morrow our allies were not ready, and they forced us to remain on the field of battle." "The English are not yet ready (wrote the marshal to his brother, and in his private journal), and I am kept here as at Baltschich, as at Old Fort. What slowness in our movements! This is not the way to make war. I have lost less than they, because I was quicker; my soldiers run, theirs march." Thus the 224 was a day lost, and one which it is hinted might have been so used as to have completely routed the Russians. Being thus foiled in his primary design, the marshal, with whom sudden decisions, audacious resolutions, were an instinct, resolved upon the celebrated flank march, in performing their share of which the English were again behind-hand. "They ought to have gone first (the marshal writes in his journal on the 25th), and they did did not stir till nine o'clock." They had immense quantities of baggage, "arabas laden beyond measure, and drawn by oxen or buffaloes." Then they missed their way, and obliged the whole French army to halt until they found it again; so troubling the marshal to the last-for the days of that grand homme, as he pronounces himself to be, were rapidly drawing to a close. Il est perdu I were the terrible words that lacerated the heart of Doctor Cabrol in passing from his lips. Here, we doubt not, we shall lay down our pen with the full approbation of our readers. It would be but to harrow their feelings in vain, were we to recite the particulars of the interview of the marshal with General Bosquet; to tell how General Canrobert made his last adieux; to recount how softly Lord Raglan and Admiral Lyons approached the sick couch, and how the tears rolled down the cheeks of those two old soldiers when they retired from it. The details of the closing scene of the marshal's life occupy some thirty pages of the volume, the remainder of which is given to a narrative of the events of the siege down to the bombardment of the 17th of October. The manner of this narrative does not differ from that of the other parts of the chronicle of which we have in some degree enabled our readers to form a notion; and as to the matter, is it not already before them in the admirable journals of the newspaper correspon dents? M. le Baron de Bazancourt promises to proceed with his exhibition of the most magnificent spectacle that can be imagined. He intends to open a new phase of heroic struggles with men and with the elements; to follow, step by step, combats, enterprizes, incessant watchings. He sees with his mind's eye glorious names arising, written upon the foreheads of the living and on the tombs of the dead-names ineffaceable in history as in the heart of the country! We grudge no man his proper enjoyments, and if this miserable buffoonery be pleasing to the Emperor, to France, and to the army, so be it. For ourselves, and, we doubt not we may say for the English people, we have had enough of the baron and his modest and veracious Chroniques de la Guerre d'Orient. TO THE EDITOR OF THE DUBLIN UNIVERSITY MAGAZINE. SIR,--Will you permit me, as the Editor of "The Dublin Quarterly Journal of Medical Science," to call your attention to the following paragraph which appears in an interesting article entitled "Ancient Physic and Physicians," in the last number of your excellent Magazine. It occurs at page 412:-"Why is it that we never hear of the doctors of our day beautifying or repairing cities, or making any such handsome return to the public as Stertinius and Crinas. Is there any use in suggesting the improvement of Dublin, for instance, to our own medical grandees?" A very short statement as to what has been done by medical men for our city will, I think, convince you that the author penned these observations without due consideration, and that a wrong is thereby done to a profession which has in all ages been admittedly foremost in good works. We have at present, in active operation in Dublin, three hospitals which were founded by members of the medical profession who had practised in Dublin, and which are still chiefly supported by their endowments--namely, Steevens' Hospital, Sir Patrick Dun's Hospital, and the Rotundo Lying-in Hospital. The first of these one of the noblest institutions for the relief of the sick poor which our city possessesbears over its portals the inscription, "Ricardus Steevens, M.D., dotavit : Grisell Steevens, soror ejus, ædificavit, A.D. 1729." The second is at present altogether supported out of the estates of Sir Patrick Dun, President of the College of Physicians, at the close of the seventeenth and beginning of the eighteenth centuries, which were bequeathed by him for that purpose, and for founding a School for Physic in Ireland. The third which was endowed and built by Dr. Bartholomew Moss in 1757, is not alone one of the first hospitals in the world for the purposes to which it is appropriated, but with the adjacent buildings constitutes not the least attractive among the architectural ornaments of Dublin. Although these remarks furnish sufficient evidence in answer to the paragraph to which I have called your attention, I cannot conclude without also recording a still more recent instance of benevolence in the case of one who has only recently been suddenly called from amongst us-the late Richard Carmichael. By his will he bequeathed £2,000 as a premium fund, and £8,000 more, under certain regulations, for the improvement of the School of Medicine, at the north side of the city, which now bears his name; £3,000 to the Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland, to be distributed in prizes to the writers of essays on subjects connected with the improvement of the medical profession in Great Britain and Ireland; and £4,500 to the Medical Benevolent Fund Society of Ireland to which he had previously presented £500 during his life time. I have the honor to be, Sir, Your obedient servant, Merrion-square, Dublin, April, 1856. J. MOORE NELIGAN, M.D. WE readily give insertion to the letter of Dr. Neligan, and thank him for the fair and kindly spirit in which it is written. While we assure him that he cannot be more prompt to claim than we are to concede any thing that is honorable to his profession, we would at the same time observe, that the passage quoted by him neither asserts nor implies that medical men in modern times do not build hospitals, or found and endow medical institutions; it simply states, (whatever be the value of that statement), that they do not beautify or repair cities as Crinas and Stertinius did—that is, in the same extensive and general manner as the one did in rebuilding the walls of Marseilles, and the other in embellishing the city of Naples. That the distinguished and patriotic physicians to whom Dr. Neligan refers, did appropriate large portions of their wealth in the manner he mentions is a subject of too just pride and notoriety to be forgotten; and we are not sorry to have this opportunity to bear our testimony to the truth of his assertion, that "the medical profession has been always prominent in good works." The object of these gentlemen, however, was not the adornment of our city, though, no doubt, that to some extent followed incidentally. Their ob ject was a higher and a nobler one, for which we accord them all honor and gratitude, as philanthropists and patriots; and sure we are that both branches of the medical profession will continue to be found amongst the foremost in the promotion of whatever can ameliorate the condition of humanity, or civilize and adorn life. Editor of Dublin University Magazine. |