FURTHER REMARKS ON REGISTRATION. 617 
I entertained against the old Board vanished, and I felt myself 
bound to appear before the new Board, and I did so. 
It was during the period in which I persisted in not applying 
for a diploma from the old Board of Examination, that my attention 
was more particularly directed towards the consideration of the 
relative position of different classes of practitioners, the estimation 
in which they were held, and, in some measure, an inquiry into the 
practical merits of each. This matter, collecting through so many 
years, I have made use of in the investigation of the subject of 
registration ; and it was the main cause, may be, why I have been 
so particular in my requirements on this head. 
It was this inquiry also which has always led me to be the ad- 
vocate of the country portion of our body ; it has also led me to 
be more lenient towards others in my estimation of their acquire- 
ments. I was not biassed in favour of those who had been taught 
in any particular school, nor bigotted towards those who did not 
happen to be certificated members of either of them. Of the 
schools themselves, I well knew their errors and deficiencies — 
perhaps few persons better : yet I was not their enemy ; I wished 
to see these errors corrected, and the deficiencies removed. For 
this I have striven, and for this, so long as it is called for, will I 
battle. I have never sought to injure, but to uphold; and however 
much many of my actions may at the moment appear to tend to- 
wards opposite points, it is only apparent : the same motive guides 
in all. For more than twenty years have I pursued the same 
course ; and after so long a trial, not to find that I have been in 
error is, I think, sufficient cause for my persistance in the same 
course of policy. 
To all quacks and pretenders, whether without particular desig- 
nations or with high-sounding titles and professions, I am an un- 
compromising opponent ; but I cannot, merely for the sake of a 
form, situated as we are, disparage merit, be it where it may. I 
have, therefore, stood forward as the advocate of the honest, the 
true, and the good ; nor do I care for the praise on the one hand 
or the blame on the other for my having done or still continuing 
to do so. 
There is in your last Number an attempt at description of a new 
plan for hobbles, at which, coming from so good a quarter, I must 
confess that I am surprised. 1 must admit that I do not under- 
stand it ; and I am not alone in this predicament. I have been 
asked by several practitioners the question, if I understood it, as 
they were obliged to admit they did not. I am sure this is only the 
result of hurried writing. There is one word, “ Cottrel,” the mean- 
ing of which I have in vain sought : it is not in any dictionary that 
