LORD KENYON. 379 



Bench in Dr. Stanger's case, which, if known 

 or minutely considered by you, might have pos- 

 sibly induced an opinion respecting the in- 

 tegrity of their corporate conduct, far different 

 from what you then so warmly expressed. 



In the first place, it will be scarcely denied 

 by any one, in the least acquainted with me- 

 dicine as a practical art in London, that phy- 

 sicians conceive it of much importance to be 

 fellows of the college. This indeed seems suf- 

 ficiently proved, both by the eagerness with 

 which admission into the fellowship has been 

 sought by some of our most celebrated phy- 

 sicians, Hunter, Fothergill, and Fordyce, not 

 to mention other and later names, and by the 

 obstinacy with which their endeavours to gain 

 it have been resisted, by those already in pos- 

 session of the corporation. It will not diminish 

 the force of this argument to assert, that the 

 object in dispute was altogether unworthy of 

 the exertions, to which it gave rise. Men do 

 not always estimate the value of things, either 

 according to the profit they produce, or by the 

 rules which may possibly guide the opinions of 

 superior beings. What more trite, and, at first 

 sight, more just subject of ridicule is there, than 

 the vehement desire which many exhibit, for the 

 possession of a piece of ribbon of a particular 



