6

curious to read his mention of the frequent execution of witches, too common among us,' and his blame of the 'ignorance of the judges, malice of the witnesses, and stupidity of the poor parties accused.' He goes on:

Be therefore not hasty to register all you understand not in the black calendar of Hell, as some have done by the weapon salve, passing by the cure of the King's evil, altogether as improbable to the sense. Neither rashly condemn all you meet with that contradicts the common received opinion, lest you remain a fool upon record, as the Pope doth that anathematised the Bishop of Salzburg for maintaining Antipodes, since the branding of one truth contains more disrepute than the broaching of ten errors.

The spirit of worldly prudence, the fear of disrepute, is still his motive at bottom, and the same appears in his advice (strange from a son of the owner of Chicksands Priory) not to let the cheapness or convenviency of Church lands tempt you to their purchase; for tho' I have not observed vengeance so nimble in this world as divines pretend,' yet the enmity of the clergy, supported as they are by prayers or policy,' is not to be lightly encountered, and there is also the danger and shame of refunding in case a contrary zeal should possess the people.'

The last paragraph in the section on Religion seems to hint that grave and learned Mr. Osborne' once yielded to the Puritan failing of preaching sermons at inopportune moments, and suffered in consequence. He is wiser now, for he writes: Do not use funereous discourses before Princes or men in power, who hate nothing so much as the thought of their own mortality, and, therefore, are unlike to be pleased with the messengers of it.'

Though princes and men in power may hate the thought of their own mortality, the prospect of death has no terrors for Francis Osborne. To him it is but a haven of rest, almost ardently desired after long tossing on the waters of affliction. Nothing can be more touching and pathetic than the change which comes over him as he contemplates his approaching end. Standing in the presence of the Veiled Figure, with the shadows fast deepening around him, the crust of cynicism and worldly prudence crumbles away, the mistaken wisdom of experience turns suddenly to nothingness, the scoffing voice is hushed, and out of the depth of his heart he speaks the truth at last. He seems to forget all that he has written in the bitterness of his soul; after all, he, too, has had a wife and children, he knows the feelings of a husband and a father, nature is too strong for him, and his final maxims are of the old-fashioned type, more profitable and more true than the new-fangled systems of a thousand cynical philosophers.

'Bear always,' he says, 'a filial reverence to your dear mother, and let not her old age, if she attain it, seem tedious unto you.'

'Therefore, in case of my death (which weariness of the world will not suffer me to adjourn so much as by a wish), do not proportion your respect by the mode of other sons, but to the greatness of her desert, beyond requital in relation to us both.' 'Continue in love and amity with your sister, and help her when you are able.'

It may be silly to wish for children to immortalise your name, but yet our stern critic is found exclaiming, 'Let no time expunge his memory, that gave you the first tincture of erudition, to which he was more invited by love than profit, no less than his incomparable wife.' He turns to directions for his funeral.

Bury me simply, for he that lies under the Herse of Heaven is convertible into sweet herbs and flowers, that may rest in such bosoms as would shriek at the Ugly Buggs may possibly be found crawling in the magnificent tomb of Henry the Seventh. That man were better forgotten that hath nothing of greater moment to register his name by than a grave.

Neither can I apprehend such horror in Death as some do that render their lives miserable to avoid it, meeting it oftentimes by the same way they take to shun it. Death, if he may be guesst at by his elder brother Sleep (borne before he was thought of, and fell upon Adam, ere he fell from his Maker), cannot be so terrible a messenger, being not without much ease, if not some voluptuousness. Besides, nothing in this world is worth coming from the house-top to fetch it, much less from the deep Grave, furnished with all things because empty of desires.

Empty of desires, yes, but empty too, as far as Osborne was concerned, of hopes and beliefs, and possibly the feeling that life as well as death was no less empty, was no small factor in the gloom that overshadowed him. How sadly he writes, If a stronger propensity to Religion resides in Age than Youth (which I wish I had no cause to doubt of), it relates more to the Temperature of the Body, than any Improvement of the mind;' and his creed, as he sums it up, is but cold and comfortless. To conclude, let us serve God with what reverence we are able, and do all the good we can, making as little unnecessary work for repentance as is possible.'

An elastic formula, serving equally for the saint and the sinner, good, perhaps, in practice with some great principle as a motive behind it, but bad as an ideal.

Francis Osborne was not and could not be a preacher of high ideals; his advice is a true reflex of himself, with all his frailties and failings. No one is more aware of these than himself; conceit was certainly not among his faults, and after travelling so long in his company we cannot but feel some affection and pity for him as he concludes:

Thus I have left you finished, dear son, a Picture of the World; in this at least like it, that it is frail and confused, being an original and not a copy, no more foreign help having been employed in it than what my own miserable experience had imprinted in my memory. Ard as you have by trial already found the

truth of some of these, so I must earnestly beg of you to trust the rest, without thrusting your fingers, like a child, into those flames in which your father hath formerly been burnt, and so add to the multitude of inconveniences he is forced to leave you by inheritance.

Now you are taught to Live; there's nothing I
Esteem worth learning, but the way to Die.

There let us leave him; he has long been resting in the haven he desired, but he ought not to be wholly forgotten, for though his other merits may be disputed, at least he can express himself in good English. Peace be to his ashes; he had but little ease in life.

SIDNEY PEEL.

THE

SUPERFLUOUS VACCINATION COMMISSION

In its

THE Report of the Royal Commission on Vaccination can hardly be said to have justified its existence. It is, indeed, in more senses than one, a weighty document, and it embodies the results of a most painstaking inquiry, in the course of which an enormous mass of evidence from almost every witness who had a fact, or an opinion however foolish, to communicate was sifted with the most scrupulous care. And what is the outcome of all this labour? scientific aspect vaccination is left precisely as it was. The medical profession, which alone is competent to judge in the matter, is practically unanimous in looking upon the question as absolutely settled; as far as it is concerned, therefore, nothing is changed by the Report; it is but one blue-book the more. The opponents of vaccination, who are, for the most part, incapable of appreciating scientific evidence, will certainly not be converted by the Report; it gives them, indeed, arguments of the most convincing nature, but it cannot give them understanding. As regards the political aspect of the question the Report is a compromise, and as such pleases no one. The tenderness shown for conscientious objectors is not enough for the stalwarts who denounce vaccination as an unclean thing, and appears mere weakness to the advocates of a policy of Thorough in its enforcement. The majority of the Commissioners evidently thought that it would be impolitic to carry their conclusions on the scientific reference to their logical issue, and they seem, if I may use a metaphor appropriate to the subject, to have attenuated their recommendations to a degree which they considered adapted to the tolerance of their recalcitrant colleagues. The virus was made as benign as possible, but Dr. Collins and Mr. Picton showed themselves naturally insusceptible.'

To my mind the appointment of the Commission was a mistake. It was not needed; it was badly constituted for the purpose in view; and its deliberations were protracted to a degree that deprived the ultimate findings of much of the value that would have been attached to them had they been arrived at with less apparent doubt and hesitancy. In saying that it was badly constituted, I mean that although

the members were undoubtedly most capable men in their several spheres, they did not collectively form a body particularly well fitted to deal with the question submitted to them. The medical members were, with one or two exceptions, chosen rather on the ground of general eminence than of any special knowledge of the subject. In particular there was not a single one who could be regarded as a representative of pathology. It has been said that this is the day of old men. However this may be in politics and in other departments of intellectual activity, it is emphatically not the case in medicine. Hence 'general eminence' is an inadequate equipment for the solution of problems of pathology-a science which in its modern form has grown up within the last twenty years. Fortunately in so plain a case as that submitted to the Commission it was impossible for any body of men trained in scientific methods and in the weighing of evidence to come to any but one conclusion. Their outrageously protracted deliberations, however, not unnaturally unsettled people's faith in vaccination, and kept the law in a state of suspended animation; and the evil they have thus done lives after them. It now rests with the Legislature to decide whether the law shall be quickened anew into vigorous life or become practically a dead letter. My own view as to the duty of the Government in the matter is clear, and will be frankly stated later. But something must first be said about the Report and the conclusions to be drawn therefrom.

After so unconscionable a length of incubation, there was reason to fear that the Report might prove to be an addled egg. This, however, is not the case as far as facts and deductions are concerned. The case for vaccination has been reinforced by modern instances; some doubtful points have been elucidated; and, above all, the antivacks,' if I may be allowed to use a word which has the sanction of Edward Jenner himself, have been allowed to have their say to an extent which testifies to the almost superhuman power of endurance of the Commissioners. The case for anti-vaccination was, in fact, presented as it never has been before, and the presence upon the Commission of an advocatus diaboli of such knowledge and ability as my friend Dr. W. J. Collins ensured that every scrap of evidence against vaccination should be given its full weight. These circumstances make the fact that eleven out of thirteen Commissioners including men accustomed to sift and weigh evidence, like Lord Herschell, Mr. Dugdale, and Mr. MeadowsWhite-gave their decision unequivocally in its favour of special significance.

It is important that this point should be set in the clearest possible light. The antivaccinists profess to see in the Report a victory for their cause. One is not surprised to read this kind of stuff in certain inconsiderable quarters; but one did not expect to find it in respectable newspapers. Yet the chief organ of Radicalism