ItOYAL V KTKRINAUY COLLKGK. 
453 
racter of a rejected, but certainly not a disappointed candidate, 
for reasons which will appear in the course of this letter. 
I do not pretend to quarrel with your perfect right to give the 
situation in question to Mr. Simonds; but I contend that it was 
unjust and ungenerous to make us — the unsuccessful candidates — 
the victims to your heartless mockery of a competition among 
graduated veterinary surgeons for the professorship, simply to give 
the colouring of fairness to your proceedings among those who 
are not aware of the pleasant farce enacted in the appointment. 
I have called it a farce : I will give you my reasons for doing so. 
In the first place, the advertisement was such, that l am per- 
suaded that not one veterinary surgeon in twenty whose attention 
was not immediately directed to it would ever have known of it 
at all in time to apply. 
1 take it for granted, that if it had been meant in reality to be, 
as it professes to be, open to competition to all regularly gradu- 
ated in the profession, means would have been taken effectually 
to make them aware of this fact. The advertisement in question 
most decidedly, and I cannot help believing most designedly, did 
not do this. I, for one, should have known nothing of it, if a 
gentleman in London had not written to me to direct my atten- 
tion to it. When the authorities of the College have had any real 
intention to apply to the graduates of that Institution generally, 
they have usually done this by circulars addressed individually. 
Why was it not done on this occasion ? or, if this had been 
thought too much trouble, why was not the advertisement inserted 
in The Veterinarian, the only professional periodical among 
us. Was it of such stringent necessity that this important 
office, which has bee'n so long in consideration, should be adver- 
tised and filled up in less than one month ? or was it, as I 
shrewdly suspect, designedly hurried over, that The Veteri- 
narian might not give it that publicity which the affair really 
merited ? Your advertisement coming out immediately after 
its publication on the 1st of June, and the election taking place 
before it could again appear, seems to me strongly to favour this 
opinion. 
This, the first act of the farce, speaks for itself. 
I went up to London with my credentials, and, on my arrival 
there, I learned from every quarter that the appointment was most 
certainly intended Jo?' Mr. Simonds ; and my reception by the 
Professor, when I presented my testimonials, most fully confirmed 
this report ; and 1 can prove that, on my return home before the 
day of election, I told my friends that such was the case. 
I do hot know the nature or extent of the testimonials presented 
by the other unsuccessful candidates, nor should I take the 
VOL. xv. 3 P 
