390 LETTER TO 



of a body, which for nearly three hundred years 

 had been almost constantly engaged in law-suits, 

 were not very fit persons to be entrusted with 

 the power of deciding on the claims of those, 

 whom it was their interest to depress. The 

 frequent appearance of men in our courts of 

 law, whether as plaintiffs or defendants, is not, 

 I believe, generally held such a proof of their 

 virtue, that they are hence thought capable of 

 exertions of self-denial, to which others of a 

 more retired life are acknowledged to be un- 

 equal. 



Possibly another source of doubt, respecting 

 the fitness of the college to execute with fidelity 

 so difficult a trust, without the inspection or 

 controul of some superior power, would have 

 been furnished to your Lordship, by a com- 

 parison of the circumstances, which precede and 

 attend the admission among them of the two 

 descriptions of men, who are entitled to apply 

 for it. A physician of Oxford or Cambridge, 

 who possesses a desire to enter the corporation, 

 has no obstacle to fear to its completion, from 

 any general prejudice against him in the minds 

 of those who are already members. He has, 

 on the contrary, reason to expect, that he will 

 be received by the body at large with pleasure, 

 both because he comes from one of their own 

 universities, and has completed there the course 



