314 FIRST MEETING UNDER THE CHARTER. 
The members of the profession, convocated in obedience to their 
Charter, have held their first general meeting — the first meeting they 
ever held, as a body, for professional purposes — the Council have 
been chosen — the President confirmed in his seat — the Vice-presi- 
dent elected — Examiners appointed; — great and glorious events, 
in the veterinary world, and happening in the month of April 1844. 
The grand business of the general meeting was to choose the Coun- 
cil; an elect body of twenty-four members, to whom they- — the other 
members — confide their trust, and who, under the provisions of the 
Charter, are invested with great power and authority. They are, in 
fact, the governing body : they have the nomination of the Presi- 
dent and Vice-presidents; “ the entire management and superin- 
tendence over the affairs, concerns, and property, of the body poli- 
tic and corporate ;” the making of all “ orders, rules, and by-laws;” 
and the appointing of “ the times and places and manner of ex- 
amining students,” as well as the fixing on “ the sum or sums of 
money to be paid by such students,” &c. So far as the Charter itself 
goes, after careful and deliberate perusal of it, we hesitate not to say, 
that, taken as a whole, it is calculated to produce a great amount of 
good to the veterinary profession. As in our practice of medicine, 
however, there is nothing capable of doing much good but what 
may, misapplied, do a great deal of harm, so the benefit we de- 
rive from our charter must greatly depend upon the working of it 
— upon those who have the carrying of its good intentions into 
execution — in a word, upon the COUNCIL. This being the state 
of the case, we feel no small pleasure in adding, that we think we 
may with reason congratulate the members of the profession on the 
happy selection they have made in choosing their first councillors. 
The right of election they have exercised on the occasion must 
have made them fully sensible of the value of that glorious prin- 
ciple — the representative — upon which their Charter is founded. 
That great right which the surgeons have been for nearly twenty 
years, and are still at this very moment striving to obtain, the vete- 
rinary surgeons call their own at the commencement of their au- 
thorized professional career. 
