614 
THE T\VENTY-THI11D ANNIVERSARY OF 
examination, and they might very reasonably complain, and say “Why should you give- 
a title to certain persons that you refuse to us ? ” That was a principle very well applied 
so long as they remained a voluntary society, but it would not do now that they were 
applying to Parliament for extended powers. It was all very well to say they left the 
outsiders in the same position as before; that was true; but they lifted themselves a 
little higher at the same time, and increased the distance between the two. It had 
been said by a great statesman that preference in some cases was persecution. They 
were creating a preference, and from its being sanctioned by law it would be regarded as 
persecution. In this matter they ought not so much to see what would please themselves, 
but consider how others would view it. There were four classes who would be affected 
by the proposed measure: firstly, the founders of the Society; secondly, the examined 
men ; thirdly, the outsiders; and fourthly, the public. Now with regard to the first, the 
founders of the Society were not examined men, but a body of men who were driven by 
the aggressions from without to associate together for a common object, that of prevent¬ 
ing the public from meddling injuriously with them. Since then several hundreds of 
men had been examined under the constitution by a properly appointed board of examiners. 
Those men possessed a certain intellectual qualification, but the majority of the members 
of the Society had no other claim on the Society than that they had spent so much 
money. He had been a member of the Society from the first, and it had cost him about 
£80, for which they had given him value received by protecting him from the aggression 
of pragmatical medical practitioners and others, by giving him the opportunity of receiving 
instruction in that building, and by supplying him with the Journal, which had given 
him great information on subjects connected with his trade. They also held their annual 
soiree where he might eat any amount of ices, and they gave him the opportunity of 
making occasionally some dull speeches within their walls. He looked upon it as money 
well spent and invested. The founders of the Society were admitted under the bye-laws, 
and he saw no objection to their admitting men equally well qualified with themselves in 
the same manner. With regard to the examined men, they no doubt stood rather higher 
than those he had alluded to. Fortunately for themselves they had attained a higher status, 
but they must not forget that they had been materially assisted to it by the founders of 
the Society, and what had been provided for them had not been provided from their own 
resources, but mainly from those of the Society. It was said that those gentlemen had 
a claim on the Society for protection that their honours should not be bartered or frittered 
away bj r others having some supposed advantage over them. It must, however, be borne 
in mind that there were more than eighty of the examined members who had signed 
a document affirming that broad principle. It was perfectly absurd to suppose that men 
could be kept down to certain standards. Some men possessed higher qualifications 
than others. Some men were and must be greater in intellect than the rest, and thus 
the best men of the Society became their intellectual leaders as a body ; and there¬ 
fore to suppose that by admitting respectable chemists and druggists to a participation 
in the advantages of the Society would be to reduce the value of their position, was 
absurd, because there must always be a difference between the man who became a 
member by examination and him who was simply so by enrolment. He did not consider, 
as many supposed, that the examined members would object to the outsiders stand¬ 
ing between the -wind and their nobility, because he gave them credit for greater liberality 
of feeling and sentiment. "With regard to the public, it might be urged on their part that 
by admitting the outsiders the Society was palming on them an inferior article, that they 
were giving an outside polish, but deceiving them in fact. But if the public made use 
of that argument, the members of the Society should not. They had from time to time 
admitted persons on certificate as duly qualified and entitled to enjoy the privileges of 
the Society, and what he proposed to add to the motion before the Meeting was the same 
as that which was proposed some twelve or thirteen years ago by Mr. Edwards at a special 
meeting of the Society, held for the purpose of considering the provisions of the Phar¬ 
macy Act. By it he did not express more than an abstract-opinion, and he had brought it 
forward on the grounds of policy and expediency. He doubted if the proposed applica¬ 
tion found favour with those unconnected with the Society. The members of the Legis¬ 
lature would be obliged to take a broad view of the question, and he was inclined to think 
the result would be that either they would not get the Bill, or if they did it would be 
with the introduction of a clause more favourable to the outsiders than the Society ap¬ 
peared disposed to accord to them. He therefore proposed the following addition to the 
motion, — 
