vin DISCIPLINARY PROCEEDINGS 77 



award should be quashed, and that points of law and of 

 medical ability should be referred to counsel and to physicians 

 respectively yet afterwards agreed to submit the matter to 

 be finally determined by the society. Leeds and his friends, 

 however, stood upon the award, and he even maintained that 

 he had not gone to law with Fothergill, but that the latter 

 had filed affirmations to dispute his right, and he declined to 

 withdraw his plea from the Court. 



Despite therefore all that Friends could do, the cause came 

 on before the Court of King's Bench in May 1772. Leeds was 

 heard, and when his case was finished, the court intervened, 

 and declined calling on FothergilTs counsel, Lord Chief Justice 

 Mansfield stating the unanimous opinion of the judges, that 

 the award must upon Leeds' own evidence be set aside as 

 partial. The judge exposed poor Leeds' ignorance to public 

 derision, and expressed himself strongly, that Fothergill had 

 only done his duty in the remarks that were complained of. 

 This decision seemed to be conclusive. Nevertheless Leeds 

 pursued Fothergill with all the ingenuity of a disappointed 

 plaintiff, and for six months more continued his efforts to 

 stir up Friends in his behalf. They still patiently heard all 

 he had to say, and summoned Fothergill also once more before 

 them, but the final minute of the Quarterly Meeting confirmed 

 the report of a new committee, signed by fourteen Friends, 

 stating their unanimous opinion that Leeds' fresh complaint 

 was groundless and unjustified by evidence. 



The support that Leeds found in this affair showed, much 

 to Fothergill's surprise and grief, that there were a number 

 of persons even in his own community ill disposed towards 

 him. He was wounded in the house of his friends. Perhaps 

 they had grown tired of hearing Aristides called the just. 

 Moreover the habit of mind of a busy physician, quick in his 

 work, and though gentle accustomed to be obeyed, did not 

 always conciliate opposition. It was, they complained, " the 

 Will of the strong Man, armed with Affluence, Reputation 

 and Power. Hoc volo, sic jubeo, sit pro ratione voluntas." The 

 trouble proved a bitter lesson to him, but perhaps a 

 useful one, for he lived to overcome envy by patience, 

 and to keep his temper unsoured. In the words of G. 

 Thompson, " he rose superior to all discouragements, and 

 persisted with unshaken resolution in the kindest acts of 

 humanity." 



As to poor Leeds, he kept an apothecary's shop in Bishops- 

 gate for some time, and afterwards went to Ipswich, where he 

 died in poverty in 1773. During his last illness his necessities 



