Page:KIdd 1841 Observations on medical reform.djvu/10

 of that custom on the part of the College, the question of the eligibility of the licentiates was tried in the Court of King's Bench; and repeated litigations took place: of which the most remarkable were decided by lord Mansfield, and by one of his successors, lord Kenyon. And it ought to be particularly noticed, that although each of those judges gave a decision against the licentiates, yet they each observed, that, according both to the spirit and the letter of the original statutes of the College, the licentiates were admissible to the fellowship after due examination: but, inasmuch as the fellows were empowered to make by-laws, and the licentiates had accepted their license under those by-laws, the College could not be compelled to admit those as fellows who had accepted their license under laws which excluded them from the fellowship.

Lord Mansfield, however, publicly found fault with the by-laws in question, on account of their narrowness; and "advised the fellows of the College to amend them inasmuch as, in conformity with their trust, they are obliged to admit into the fellowship all that are duly qualified, even foreigners." Thus, when sitting in judgment in the year 1767, he used the following words: "The main end of the incorporation (of the College) was to keep up the succession; and it was to be kept up by the admission of fellows after examination. The power of examining, and admitting after examination, was not an arbitrary power, but a power coupled with a trust; and they are