LORD KENYON. 409 



indirectly discourage the practice of virtue. 

 If, therefore, the titles of reproach used by Dr. 

 Latham had been merited, it would have been 

 gallant, it would have been praiseworthy in 

 him to have bestowed them. But to whom 

 were they applied ? To fourteen persons of his 

 own profession, all of whom, except one, were 

 at least equal to himself in every quality and 

 accomplishment, which physicians are required 

 to possess. And upon what occasion ? Because 

 these men had, in a temperate, and even re- 

 spectful address to the college, set forth their 

 claims to admission into the fellowship, and 

 had requested to know, whether they would be 

 allowed to prove their fitness for what they de- 

 sired, by undergoing the examinations which 

 are prescribed for the graduates of Oxford and 

 Cambridge. This was the only measure they 

 had hitherto taken for obtaining their object. 

 Your Lordship will now assuredly conceive, 

 that such expressions were heard with disgust 

 by the other members of the college. I firmly 

 believe, my Lord, that they were heard with 

 great disgust by some of its members. But the 

 body at large hastened to adopt them, by so- 

 liciting their author to print his oration. Happy, 

 however, would it have been for Dr. Latham, 

 if their zeal to injure the moral characters of 

 those, whom they denominated their enemies, had 



