ANNUAL MEETING. 
774 
amount of leniency shown them, and that they might be allowed to pass the Modified 
examination. The whole of his experience before going into the country was in a first- 
class West-end trade, and he fancied the gentleman who spoke about porter’s work must 
be one of those lucky individuals in that class of trade who was able to make very good 
profits. He should be very glad to delegate a great part of the work he was obliged to 
do to a porter, but his profits would not admit of it. _ 
Mr. Rimmington (Bradford) said this point was a rather delicate one to deal with, for 
justice had to be done on two sides of the question. Every one would be desirous of doing 
justice to those who were excluded from entering the business on account of the Prelimi¬ 
nary examination, but, on the other hand, justice must be done to those who had taken 
the trouble to qualify themselves for such an examination. It was useless to examine a 
difficulty from one side only, and it would not be fair to those who had been at great 
expense and trouble in studying, to admit at the same time others who were not quali¬ 
fied. This was a very spurious sort of liberality; and, therefore, he thought the advo¬ 
cates of a too generous policy should temper their views a little. At the same time he 
believed it was competent to the Examiners to modify the examination according to 
circumstances, and he believed they did so to a certain extent. He thought unless they 
were rigorously to carry out the examination as a general rule, it would be unjust to 
those who did pass, and that the trade which they had been so long striving to elevate 
and improve would remain for fifty years to come in statu quo. 
Mr. L. B. Ross (Driffield) said he had had the honour of appearing before the Examiners 
at each examination, and had not found any great difficulty in passing, though he himself 
had been brought up in the country trade. He had made horse-balls, and powders, 
and ground saltpetre, and done all that sort of thing, but it had never interfered with 
his studies ; he had always found half an hour or an hour in which to improve his mind, 
and after coming up to London and attending the classes for a few months, he was able 
to pass the examination. He should, therefore, be very sorry if they were made less 
stringent than they were at present. 
Mr. Dickinson thought too much time was being spent on this point, and that they 
i9ere really losing sight of the business of the meeting. This educational question was 
no surprise to any one, for it had been talked of ever since the foundation of the So¬ 
ciety ; and hardly a session of Parliament had passed without their being threatened 
with some stringent regulations with regard to the trade of Chemists and Druggists. 
The Chairman had begun by saying that the object of the Society was to ameliorate the 
condition of Chemists and Druggists at large. He did not dwell much upon that word ; 
and he (Mr. Dickinson) was at a loss to understand what he meant by ameliorating 
their position, for it appeared to him, after about thirty-five years’ experience, that the 
condition of Chemists and Druggists was very much what it was before, and that they 
still had to do a vast deal of hard work if they wished to keep their position at all. 
With regard to these scientific qualifications, his experience was, that those gentlemen 
who hacf attained the highest distinction in scientific subjects had very often been the 
first to fail in business. Again, the Chairman had alluded to the Founder s object, and 
the same remarks would apply to that. He said one object was to unite them together, 
and they were probably more united than formerly; but he did not know that they 
were more united for the good of the trade, or that they did themselves much good by 
the unity. However, they were now united, and what had been the result ? The con¬ 
clusion of the Chairman’s remarks was that this Society had made money, that it had 
accumulated a certain amount of money in its coffers, and what a great thing that was; 
and then he proposed the establishment of a College of Pharmacy. He (Mr. Dickin¬ 
son) was pretty nearly going off the stage himself, and that would probably be his last 
appearance there ; but as a man of business, he considered that in elevating the mem¬ 
bers so much, and in establishing this College of Pharmacy, they would be driving the 
b^st part of the trade away from the shops, and after all, it was by that they had to get 
their living. With regard to education, he would repeat it was no surprise at all, and 
if he had been in the ranks of the assistants he should have been prepared for it long 
ao-o; but they might easily evade the trammels of education. He held in his hand 
something emanating from a society, limited, consisting of eight registered members, 
who were trading as chemists and druggists, and taking the best portion of trade of this 
metropolis into their hands. He alluded to the Civil Service Co-operative Sciety. These 
eight gentlemen registered themselves as the proprietors of this Civil Service Co-operative 
