402 LETTER TO 



delegate the decision upon his merits to five 

 persons, who are solemnly sworn to the faithful 

 discharge of their duty, what notion are we to 

 entertain of the design of the college in com- 

 mitting the decision upon the merits of a licen- 

 tiate to the discretion of a general meeting? We 

 are taught, my Lord, by the slightest experience 

 in the affairs of the world, to seek for the mo- 

 tives of men in their actions, when these are at 

 variance with their words. No credit was ever 

 given by the Romans to the declarations of 

 clemency, with which Domitian used to preface 

 his cruelties, or by ourselves to the robbers and 

 murderers of France, when they pretended, 

 that their conduct towards foreign nations arose 

 from a disinterested desire to give liberty and 

 happiness to mankind. When, therefore, I ob- 

 serve, that the college of Physicians have per- 

 mitted themselves to decide upon the examina- 

 tions of licentiates, without the restraint of an 

 oath, at the same time that they strictly swear 

 those to do justice, who are to decide upon the 

 examinations of the graduates of Oxford and 

 Cambridge, I hold myself fully authorised to 

 infer, notwithstanding any protestation to the 

 contrary, that their design in establishing this 

 difference was, to allow room in the former set 

 pf examinations, if any such should ever take 

 place, for the operation of principles, the most 



