History of the Johnstones, 1191-1909, with ... - Electric Scotland

284 THE ADVOCATE-GENERAL OF INDIA
Mrs Johnstone's brothers had been at Shrewsbury School, where they were
badly fed, and several of her relatives were at Eton in the days of Dr Keate.
The tales which reached Edgbaston of that eminent master's liberal use of the
cane prejudiced her against any school for her boys, and they were educated
by private tutors, but in these they were exceptionally fortunate. Mr Thomas
Wright Hill, born at Kidderminster, had remained in Dr Priestley's house when
the owners escaped from it, and the brave young man faced the rioters alone,
but was unable to prevent its destruction. He established a school near Birmingham,
and his third son, Rowland, the future founder of the Penny Post,
was engaged to teach the young Johnstones at Edgbaston Hall. When his
father required his services on the transfer of the school to Hazlewood, the
Rev. James Yates, an eminent classical and linguistic scholar, took Mr Hill's
place, and prepared both boys for Trinity College, Cambridge. The elder,
Edward, matriculated in Oct. 1821, and James in Oct. 1823, both of them at
the age of seventeen, and the younger 1 showed the sense which always dis-
tinguished him by preferring not to be entered as a fellow-commoner, like his
brother, but as an ordinary undergraduate. He would have chosen the army
as his profession, and was very anxious to go to India, but it was settled, with-
out consulting them, that Edward was to be called to the Bar and James to
take up medicine.
Mrs Johnstone's eldest brother, afterwards Advocate-General of India,
acquired so much distinction at the English Bar that, had he remained at
home, the highest honours seemed likely to fall to his lot. He would never
plead a cause as innocent unless he really believed it. His nephews recollected
his arrival late one night from Shrewsbury when the Assizes were on. He had
accepted a brief for a man accused of murder. When he examined the
evidence he felt convinced of his guilt, so he took post horses and came to
Edgbaston to consult Dr Johnstone on the symptoms of insanity, as the only
ground on which he could defend him. Dr Johnstone decided that the man
was certainly out of his mind, and his brother-in-law set off again in time to
attend the Court the next day, and saved the murderer from the gallows by
proving him to be insane.
In 1832 Dr Johnstone was again appointed a magistrate, but declined
to act on account of his age (seventy-five). He was at that time absorbed
in the progress of the Medical School. Its foundation was proposed by
Mr W. Sands Cox, who felt that the usual means of educating a surgeon
was very inefficient, being merely sent as a pupil to some medical practitioner
to be instructed by his conversation and by watching his practice at the
1 Letter from Mrs Pearson in Bath to Dr Johnstone, after a visit from his son James :
" My dear Sir,— I will not encumber you with a letter, dear James is commissioned with
loves, respects, and best wishes, but he would not like to carry what I am anxious to send to
you, the delight we have in seeing in him as excellent a young man as you, his dear mother,
or ourselves could wish. I could fill my sheet in his praise, not only from his grandmother
but all the family, but I will hasten to add the name of your obliged and affectionate friend,
"E. Pearson.
"Bath, 2$ July 1831."