518 
THE CHARTER. 
• 
their Charter — after a calm and impartial investigation of the 
principles on which the proposed changes are founded, and a care- 
ful and steady deliberation of the consequences likely to ensue 
from their acceptance or rejection — beg, with all due respect, to 
submit to the Governors of the Royal Veterinary College the 
conclusions at which they have arrived on the same : — 
No. 1, proposing that the Professors of the Veterinary Colleges 
shall be ex officio members of the Council, is objected to, because 
the Professors are already eligible to be elected members of the 
Council; and we are not aware of any well-grounded reason why, 
as teachers only, they should be ex officio entitled to that dis- 
tinction ; all precedent, moreover, being against the same. 
No. 2, proposing that members residing more than twenty miles 
from London be allowed to vote by proxy, we consider open to 
every objection : it is bad in principle, obsolete or nearly so in 
practice, and injurious in operation. 
No. 3. The proposed erasure of the existing clause, that the 
Professors shall not become Examiners, is objected to, both be- 
cause it was a Government introduction into the Charter, and be- 
cause it has been received with very general satisfaction by the 
profession. 
No. 4. The proposed reduction of the fees for examination and 
admission from ten guineas to five, is objected to; because it is 
more desirable that the Council should have the power of charging 
each candidate the former sum, than that the rejected pupils should 
be liable to accumulative fees. 
No. 5, proposing that all acts of the Council be submitted for 
approval to a Veterinary Board, is objected to, as hereinafter ex- 
plained. 
No. 6, proposing the formation of a Veterinary Board, to 
have the entire controul over the actions of the Council, and there- 
fore of the profession at large, is objected to ; because it is not a 
fair representative Board, the President and Members of the Royal 
College of Veterinary Surgeons being excluded from a tribunal 
appointed to decide on matters strictly professional. 
No. 7, proposing that the Veterinary Board may vary, alter, or 
add to the examinations of the pupil, is objected to ; the Council 
considering themselves the best judges of the qualifications required 
of the candidates appearing before their Board of Examiners. 
No. 8, insisting that no bye-law passed by the Council shall be 
of any force unless approved by the Veterinary Board, is objected 
to ; because, the Council being the freely elected representatives of 
the profession, we can see no good reason for or sound policy in 
subjecting their decisions to the supervision of a self-elected and 
irresponsible board, and that the surrendering the final arrangement 
