of this order, although I knew by that
time the injustice of my original prejudices, yet, I confess I could
not look at him in the house, without a thought of my childish
fancies, and an endeavour to trace in his comely features some faint
resemblance to the figure of the night-mare.

This strange impression of my infancy recurred strongly to my mind a
few days since, on reading a newspaper account of a sudden death.--The
case was simply that of a gentleman who, in the bosom of his family,
became suddenly seized with illness, and after a few hours expired.
What was their surprise! what their horror! to find, that no sooner
was the circumstance known, than the house was surrounded by a mob,
policemen were stationed at the doors, and twelve of the great
unwashed, with a coroner at their head, forced their entry into the
house of mourning, to deliberate on the cause of death. I can
perfectly understand the value of this practice in cases where either
suspicion has attached, or where the circumstances of the decease, as
to time and place, would indicate a violent death; but where a person,
surrounded by his children, living in all the quiet enjoyment of an
easy and undisturbed existence, drops off by some one of the ills that
flesh is heir to, only a little more rapidly than his neighbour at
next door, why this should be a case for a coroner and his gang, I
cannot, for the life of me, conceive. In the instance I allude to, the
family offered the fullest information: they explained that the
deceased had been liable for years to an infirmity likely to terminate
in this way. The physician who attended him corroborated the
statement; and, in fact, it was clear the case was one of those almost
every-day occurrences where the thread of life is snapped, not
unravelled. This, however, did not satisfy the coroner, who had, as he
expressed it, a "duty to perform," and, who, certainly had five
guineas for his fee: he was a "medical coroner," too, and therefore he
would examine for himself. Thus, in the midst of the affliction and
bereavement of a desolate family, the frightful detail of an inquest,
with all its attendant train of harrowing and heart-rending inquiries,
is carried on, simply because it is permissible by the law, and the
coroner may enter where the king cannot.

We are taught in the litany to pray against sudden death; but up to
this moment I never knew it was illegal. Dreadful afflictions as
apoplexy and aneurism are