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M. CHABERT AND HIS PERSECUTORS.
"Dilly, dilly, dilly, come and be killed; The gentlemen are vacant, and want their noddles 'filled."
STItANGE to-say, it would seem that in all respects we are not wiser than our forefathers. du the olden time, when ingenious .persons promised to jr,pap iisto q1r&74ttles, and:disnpoint*d the reasonable public expectation, our ancestors did not insist on forcing them into the impracticable vessels. When they engaged to fly from steeple to steeple, and only fled from the folks they had gulled, our fathers did not think it quite right to insist on their springing from the top of St. Paul's or the Monument. But things are now changed, and charlatans are required to perform according to the letter of their pretences. A gentleman who rejoices in the pleasing name of FuLvoys, writes a letter to the Times, in discharge, as he avers, of " a duty he owes to the public," concerning M. CHABERT'S breach of promise of poison. What duty this Mr. FULVOYE can owe to the public, but the stamp- duty for advertising his own well-fashioned name, it is not easy to perceive. Suppose a man were to give out that he would cut off his head at Hyde Park Corner, and kick it before him to Temple Bar,— what should be thought of the intellects of the people who raged be- cause lie refused to put the razor to his throat, and called it a public duty to rail against him as an impostor? M. CHAHERT professed to take prussic acid. The ignorant persons who did not know whe- ther it was possible or not, have waxed extremely wroth against a pretence which their slender knowledge was unable to deal with. Hine ilk) lachryme. M. FULVOYE declares the Fire King promised to take for his bene- fit any poisons he would offer him, on (riving due notice of the enter- tainment. This intelligent correspondent of the Times declares, in accordance with his aforesaid public duty, "I did assure him, that, whenever he should take his benefit, I would pro- vide him with doses of various poisons, which he promised he would take. However, on the 4th instant, when I offered him some morpha' arsenic, and oxalic acid, he, in a most ungentlemanly manner, desired me to take them myself."
How extremely ungrateful! Such a handsome offer,—morpha, arsenic, oxalic acid, and other sweetmeats ! The persecution of the poor exhibitor is a disgrace to the itrofession of the persons principally engaged in it. As fair would it be to mal- treat and drive from the stage a harlequin for not breaking his neck in the leaps he appears to take. But it is the ignorance of physics which is at the root of all the rage against the ingenious charlatan. Sir HENRY HALFORD asserts that dying people have the gift of prophecy. On Sir HENRY we now earnestly recommend M. CHA- BERT'S foes to turn their powers of investigation. The pretended antidote for prussic acid is a bagatelle compared with the discovered receipt for prophecy, which physicians know how to bring about by the mortal rules of their art.
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