398 LETTER TO 



of some of them ; and the disgrace of being 

 rejected at an examination must prove highly 

 injurious, not only to the reputation, but to the 

 fortune also of a physician, who has passed his 

 thirty-sixth year. Such a disgrace may even 

 more readily befal him than a younger man. 

 For many things which he formerly learned, 

 and the knowledge of which is required at the 

 college examinations, are now unknown to him, 

 from never having experienced their use in the 

 exercise of his profession ; and his present oc- 

 cupations may afford little leisure for regaining 

 them. 



But secondly, the application for his examina- 

 tion can be made upon only one day in the year, 

 and it must not even then come directly from 

 himself; he must find some fellow of the col- 

 lege to make it for him. As the number of 

 resident fellows, however, is under thirty, it 

 may surely happen, that they shall all agree to 

 regard it as a point of honour not to propose 

 a licentiate for examination. 



Let it now be granted, that a fellow has pro- 

 posed him ; in this case your Lordship, during 

 the trial of Dr. Stanger's cause, seemed to think, 

 from your acquaintance with the pure and ho- 

 nqurable conduct of the benchers of the inns of 

 court in similar situations, that admission into 

 the college must follow of course. But, in 



