LORD KENYON. 301 



wrong, in the June following he presented him- 

 self a second time to them, requesting permis- 

 sion to undergo any examination which might 

 ascertain his fitness to be & fellow of their body. 

 An examination was again refused. Dr. Stanger 

 having made oath of this, a new rule was ob- 

 tained on the 26th of November, from the Court 

 of King's Bench, for the college to show cause 

 why a mandamus should not issue against them. 



may have become jealous of his talents or success. 4. The 

 members of the college are very few in number when com- 

 pared with the barristers belonging to all the different inns 

 of court. In the list for 1798, there are only twenty-seven 

 fellows who exercise their profession in London, and some of 

 these are very aged, and take little concern in practice. Any 

 advantage, therefore, to be derived by a licentiate from being 

 admitted into the college, will probably be regarded by some 

 of the former members as tending to diminish, or prevent 

 the increase of their own emoluments. 5. In the course of 

 seven years passed in the exercise of a profession, in which, 

 above all others, misunderstandings are apt to arise among 

 its different members, it is almost impossible that a licentiate 

 should not have given umbrage to some of those who are to 

 decide upon this application. 6. Physicians in this country 

 are almost universally taken from the middle ranks of men. 

 They cannot therefore be expected to conduct themselves, as 

 a body, in the same liberal manner as the members of a pro- 

 fession, which contains a considerable number of persons of 

 high birth and large hereditary fortunes. Other circum- 

 stances, tending in like manner to produce unfair and partial 

 decisions in the College of Physicians, when licentiates apply 

 to them to be examined, will be mentioned hereafter. 



