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THE VETERINARIAN, JANUARY 1, 1846. 
Ne quid falsi dicere audeat, ne quid veri non audeat. — Cicero. 
CHRONICLERS of veterinary annals, after having paid due 
respect to the “illuminated” year in their Kalendar, 1844, as the 
one in which our Royal Charter of Incorporation was obtained, will 
have to note the year but just past as the one in which the 
Charter underwent its first trial. Diligently careful as the framers 
of the charterial instrument were that every veterinary interest — 
nay, even that every veterinary individual of any weight or con- 
sideration — should be consulted, lest through any inadvertency 
the provisions of the Charter might not turn out such as proved 
the best for the general weal of the profession ; — cautious, we say, 
and slow, and circumspect, as the concoctors and abettors of the 
Charter were in their proceedings, it was hardly in the nature of 
things to be expected that they would or could succeed to the 
satisfaction of all parties concerned. Indeed, it rarely happens 
that any law or rule which works well for the general good, works 
the best that can be for individual advantage : the two interests 
can hardly ever, in all their various bearings, be combined; and 
since one must to a greater or less extent prove a sufferer, the 
matter resolves itself into the question, who or which party ought 
to suffer, the individual or the general, i. e. the professional body. 
There never yet was a law enacted by the legislature of the 
nation — an Act of Parliament passed — but that, howsoever bene- 
ficially it might operate for the public in general, it offended or 
did positive harm to portions or members of society. As loyal 
subjects to the state, however, though the law may pinch us a 
little, it does not become us to murmur and shew discontent : 
pro bono publico must be our national motto; and, a fortiori , 
as men really fond of our profession, desirous to promote its welfare, 
even though it be at some expense to ourselves, 
Pro Bono Veterinario! 
must henceforth be our acting professional principle. We must 
