LORD KENYON. 389 



unable to judge of the truth of their dogmas, 

 or the propriety of their practices, it is very 

 natural, that a number o them should jointly 

 endeavour to persuade their sovereign, that 

 they are the only fit persons to take care of 

 the health of his subjects ; while in truth, the 

 great object of their combination is to establish 

 a monopoly of medical employment in their own 

 favour. This I believe to be the real origin 

 of our college of Physicians, notwithstanding 

 the praises which have been lavished upon its 

 founders. Its charter was granted in the age 

 of monopolies, when men of much higher rank, 

 and greater private respectability than phy- 

 sicians, were eager to obtain them. Some sur- 

 geons procured, about the same time, a mono- 

 poly of their profession in London ; but being 

 less wary than the physicians, or the operations 

 of their art being more subject to the examina- 

 tion of the external senses, they were shortly 

 after declared by an act of Parliament to have 

 abused their trust most grossly. Though the 

 college have not experienced a similar disgrace, 

 the defence of their monopoly has yet involved 

 them in that constant course of litigation, which 

 has so much excited your Lordship's surprise. 

 But had your Lordship advanced a single step 

 further in this subject, it would certainly, I 

 think, have occurred to you, that the members 



