70Q THE PETITIONED-FOR CHARTER. 
heretofore to the Council. It carries the appearance of having to 
boast of divers concoctors, each of whom has been permitted his 
contribution ; but, ultimately, of having experienced the misfortune 
of never having fallen into hands armed with the power, or, if 
invested with the power, possessing the ability, of so shaping and 
modifying the several contributions as to fit them into harmonious 
association one with another, and thus cement them into one 
compact and finished whole. 
The groundwork of the proposed Charter is this : — It is pro- 
vided that there should be a Veterinary Council, which shall con- 
sist of thirty members, to be elected out of the profession, exclu- 
sively of the Professors of the respective Veterinary Colleges of 
London and Edinburgh, who are to be ex officio members thereof ; 
so that the entire number will probably be about thirty-six. The 
Council, thus constituted, are to have, as the present Council have, 
the making of the by-laws and the general management of the 
affairs of the professional body. But, then, according to the new 
scheme, such by-laws and transactions are all to be subject to the 
revisal of a VETERINARY BOARD, sitting dominant in power 
over council and profession altogether : such “ Board” to consist 
of the Secretary of State or his nominee, the President and Vice- 
President, and three nominated Governors from the Royal Vete- 
rinary College ; the President for the time being and three nomi- 
nees from the Highland Society ; the Principal Army Veterinary 
Surgeon; the Veterinary Examiner of the East India Company; 
and the senior Professors of the respective Veterinary Colleges of 
London and Edinburgh. 
Such being the fundamental constitution of the charter petitioned 
for under the title of “ The Royal Veterinary College of London 
and Edinburgh,” surely, those who have had the framing of it 
can never have looked forward to the day when an instrument 
of the kind shall come to be at work. Any one who has ob- 
served how matters have been going on under the present charter 
could have informed them, that, unless some marvellous change 
come over the veterinary body, there will be no more chance of 
the petitioners for the new charter obtaining a majority in their 
new council than they have already experienced in the present 
council. The thirty representative members, echoers of the vox 
