590 
EDITORIAL REMARKS. 
should be valid (or operative) without the sanction of the Secre- 
tary of State, and that the present by-laws should receive his 
approbation, after which no alteration should be made in them 
without his consent.” And it was a question which, added to its 
own intrinsic weight, imposed so much the more responsibility on 
the Council, from the circumstance of an absolute yea or nay 
being demanded upon it. There was no middle, no mediatory 
course to be pursued. 
Such a question comes before us, comprising two highly im- 
portant considerations : — one is, what it is we are asked to sur- 
render ] — the other, to whom, or for whom, are we asked to make 
such surrender] It appeared, we must confess, strange to us 
that, touching the first division of the question, any doubt should 
have been raised as to the nature or amount of the concession of 
our charterial rights which we were asked to make. Strangely — 
most strangely — as it sounded to our ears, in the course of the dis- 
cussion, a query was raised, whether the introduction or addi- 
tion of such a clause “ would interfere with the existing Charter.” 
If for the word “ interfere” destroy had been substituted, we 
should have felt less surprised, and still have entertained little 
doubt concerning any issue to which legal opinion would have 
brought, and subsequently did bring, this question : Mr. Garrard, 
the new Solicitor to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, 
being in attendance on the occasion, and deciding on the spot, that 
such powers as we through our Charter now possess could be set 
aside only by a grant from the Crown of superior powers ; and 
that such clause, as proposed, would embrace and convey such 
“ superior powers.” 
This settled the point of “ interference.” And now, we would 
ask, what really and truly is the “ power” we are required to sur- 
render ] Neither more nor less, it may be answered, than the 
same which, on a former occasion, we were asked to consign into 
the hands of the “ Veterinary Board,” viz. the power of managing 
our own affairs. If we be deprived of the power of making ope- 
rative laws — compelled to submit for approval every law we 
concoct to the Secretary of State — then does the Secretary of State, 
to all practical intents and purposes, rule over the Royal College 
of Veterinary Surgeons. 
