Page:KIdd 1841 Observations on medical reform.djvu/11

 bound to admit every person whom upon examination they think fit to be admitted, within the description of the charter, and the act of parliament which confirms it. The person who comes within that description has a right to be admitted into the fellowship: he has a claim to several exemptions, privileges, and advantages, attendant upon admission into the fellowship. And not only the candidate himself, if found fit, has a personal right, but the public has also a right to his service; and that, not only as a physician, but as an officer in the College in the offices to which he will upon admission become eligible."

Lord Mansfield, having expressed his opinion on the same occasion, that the practice of establishing licentiates probably grew out of what he denominates an "illegal by-law, which formerly had restrained the number of the fellows to twenty," allowed that "the College, as now constituted, is at present to be considered as the body corporate." But he added the following advice to the College: "I have a great respect for this learned body; and if they should think proper to hearken to my advice, I would wish them to consider whether this may not be a proper opportunity for them to review their statutes. And I would recommend it to them to take the best advice in doing it; and to attend to the design and intention of the crown and parliament in their institution. I see a source of great dispute and litigation in them, as they now stand. There has not, as it should seem, been due