November 14th.--At dinner at Mr. Bright's, a week or two ago, Mr.
Robertson Gladstone spoke of a magistrate of Liverpool, many years since,
Sir John ------. Of a morning, sitting on the bench in the police court,
he would take five shillings out of his pocket and say, "Here, Mr. Clerk,
so much for my fine. I was drunk last night!" Mr. Gladstone witnessed
this personally.
November 16th.--I went to the North Hospital yesterday, to take the
deposition of a dying man as to his ill treatment by the second and third
mates of the ship Assyria, on the voyage from New Orleans. This hospital
is a very gloomy place, with its wide bleak entries and staircases, which
may be very good for summer weather, but which are most congenial at this
bleak November season. I found the physicians of the house laughing and
talking very cheerfully with Mr. Wilding, who had preceded me. We went
forthwith, up two or three pairs of stairs, to the ward where the sick
man lay, and where there were six or eight other beds, in almost each of
which was a patient,--narrow beds, shabbily furnished. The man whom I
came to see was the only one who was not perfectly quiet; neither was he
very restless. The doctor, informing him of my presence, intimated that
his disease might be lethal, and that I was come to hear what he had to
say as to the causes of his death. Afterwards, a Testament was sought
for, in order to swear him, and I administered the oath, and made him
kiss the book.
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