EDITORIAL OBSERVATIONS. 
361 
happening during his tenure of office, save that the members 
now for the first time found themselves assembled in a habi- 
tation of their own, instead of being, as formerly, within the 
“ Freemason’s Tavern/’ The abstract of the proceedings of 
Council was then read, for which see “ Report,’ 5 page 309, et 
sequent . 
In his concluding observations, he expressed his regret at 
the absence of two gentlemen. The first was Professor 
Spooner, whose absence he felt sorry (in which sorrow we 
unite with him) to say was occasioned by ill health ; the 
other gentleman was Mr. Percivall, the editor of the Veteri- 
narian, for the unavoidable absence of whom we will take 
upon ourselves to account, and we shall do so upon grounds 
which will, we trust, prove satisfactorily to our readers, as 
w r ell as to the ex-president, that there was no design or in- 
tention on his part to be an absentee on such an important 
occasion. It is pretty universally known that the civil -legal 
power is, on all occasions and in all situations, paramount to 
military law, and so demands priority of attention. It is 
equally well, or might be equally well, known that civil con- 
cerns must give way to military ones, whenever there happens 
to be no law in the business, as was, in fact, the state of the 
case in the present instance. Such being the facts, it would 
have been wiser and more charitable in our President had 
he attributed Mr. PercivalPs absence to some unavoidable 
hindrance, rather than to have seized on the occasion to 
throw a tilt at him for either unwillingness or “ apathy 55 to 
be present at a meeting which is one of the professional body 
at large, and which takes place but once a year. 
Touching the “ Report, 55 it adds little to a “ relation of 
facts 55 already before us, concerning the house and its ap- 
pendages, with their costs. The “ Bill of Exemptions ” is 
represented as being tantamount to being hopeless in ex- 
pectation. But if the Council could devise, as they have 
already done for their Royal College, some new name for the 
veterinary profession, “ the sole and exclusive use of it could 
be secured to the members of the body corporate. 55 To this 
the same objection would be likely to apply as already ap- 
