LORD KENYON. 417 



to be more depraved than other men, have 

 often been known to commit, in bodies, the 

 most detestable' cruelties upon shipwrecked ma- 

 riners ; and the vilest malefactors often meet 

 death at the. gallows with the greatest firmness, 

 if strengthened by the presence and approba- 

 tion of their former companions. If to such 

 considerations we add, that no one is personally 

 answerable for the acts of a corporation, and 

 that these often proceed from a bare majority, 

 or a number even less than a majority of its 

 members, we may possibly obtain from the 

 whole an explanation, why the public conduct 

 of the college of Physicians is frequently so 

 very different from what any one might expect, 

 who has looked only to the private characters 

 of some of those .who compose it. But what- 

 ever opinion may be formed concerning the 

 grounds of explanation which I have offered, 

 the fact, to which they are meant to apply, 

 still rests upon the basis of testimony, and is 

 laterally supported by innumerable other facts 

 of the same kind. "All men," said an author, 

 whose wisdom and eloquence have produced a 

 change in the state of human affairs scarcely 

 inferior to any, that has ever been effected by 

 the arms of a conqueror, but who most un- 

 fortunately does not live to witness the grati- 

 tude of the world, for his noble, energetic, and 



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