THE ANNUAL MEETING. 
347 
A most unusual length of time was taken up in the reading of 
the “ Report not that it was of itself at all a lengthy production, 
but that the documents necessarily forming part of it were several, 
and were protracted as well. These were — 
1st. The Petition of the Governors of the Royal Veterinary 
College of London, and the Highland Society of Scotland, for a new 
charter. 
2dly. The Abstract of the Charter petitioned for. 
3dly. The reply of the Council why the same should not be 
granted. 
4thly. The counter-report of Council, in the form of “ Memorial.” 
5thly. The Registration Reports. 
Notwithstanding, however, the great length to which the report, 
with the above adjuncts ran, and notwithstanding it was consider- 
ably past, “ precisely one o’clock,” before the President opened the 
meeting, the business of the day was brought to a close sufficiently 
early to enable a score or so of the members present to sit down 
by five o’clock at the tavern (the Freemasons’) where the meeting 
was held, to a dinner good in itself, and rendered better still by 
being ready to be served by the time the meeting was concluded. 
And this finale turned out by no means the least pleasurable 
part of the day’s business ; for, at the table we recognized old 
friends and old faces, and drank “ success to the charter,” and “ con- 
fusion to its enemies,” and so made it a “ feast of fraternity,” and 
withal broke up at an hour early enough to admit of our country 
friends resuming their seats in the “ trains” for home : reluct- 
antly parting with them with reciprocal assurances to meet again 
on the same day next year, in maintenance of the good cause of 
the charter and professional fellowship. 
The Report of Council for the sessional year 1847-8, we have 
said, is by no means, of itself, a lengthy document; on the contrary, 
it is somewhat shorter than usual, and has, as it would seem, judi- 
ciously been made so on account of the important introductions with 
which it had to be charged. It has been penned by our Secretary 
in his usual happy style, and will be found a comprehensive compte - 
rendu of the transactions of Council for the past year ; at the same 
time that it exhibits too faithful a picture of the present position 
and finances of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. For 
how many years longer are we doomed to make the degrading 
