184 HISTOEICAL ACCOUNT OF THE VETEEINAEY DEPAKTMENT OF 



one of the most valuable departments of the Society ; continued 

 efforts were, however, still necessary to nmintain and extend its 

 efficiency, and nothing was now more essential for its welfare and 

 for the general improvement of the veterinary art than a well- 

 considered Veterinary Charter for Scotland. The Directors of the 

 Society, and indeed the whole body of agriculturists, were now 

 solicitous to obtain at once such a charter. 



At the close of the examinations, the Lord Provost said he had 

 alluded the day before to the peculiar position of the College in 

 regard to the granting of a Charter. He trusted that the matter 

 would be adjusted in a manner not only satisfactory to them- 

 selves, but also to their friends across the Border. The people of 

 Scotland only wished fair play, and if a Charter was given to a 

 college in England to grant diplomas for the practice of the 

 veterinary art all over the kingdom, they should also have one 

 with similar powers in Scotland. These were the broad catholic 

 grounds on which they put forward their claims, and he was sure 

 their English friends were more generous than to take from this 

 country what it was fairly entitled to. The matter was now 

 under the consideration of Government, and he hoped Ijefore next 

 session the Institution in connection with the Highland Societv 

 would be able to grant diplomas to all who passed the necessary 

 examinations. 



In 1867 a joint application by the Society and the Town 

 Council of Edinburgh for a National Charter for Scotland was 

 forwarded to the Principal Secretary of State for the Home 

 Department, by whom it was referred to the President of the 

 Board of Trade. This application was supported by memorials 

 from the Pioyal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, the Royal 

 College of Physicians of Edinburgh, as well as from the Com- 

 missioners of Supply of nearly every county in Scotland; and a 

 Memorial praying for such a Charter was signed by upwards of 

 two-thirds of the Veterinary profession in Scotland. 



A deputation, consisting of six peers, nearly all the Scotch 

 members of Parliament then in London, the Lord Provost of 

 Edinburgh, a number of the leading veterinarians holding the 

 Society's certificate, besides several other gentlemen, waited, ac- 

 cording to apjDointment, on the Duke of Richmond, the President 

 of the Board of Trade, on the 26th of November, on the subject 

 of a Veterinary Charter for Scotland. 



The object of the deputation was fully stated by the Lord 

 Provost on behalf of the Corporation of Edinburgh, and by Mr 

 Campbell Swinton on the part of the Highland Society. The 

 deputation was very much indebted to Lord Colonsay, who ex- 

 plained that on a proper construction of the Charter of the English 

 College, monopoly was not to be inferred. The Duke of 

 Richmond stated that the subject would receive his best con- 



