92 
ARMY VETERINARY DEPARTMENT. 
the commander in chief; and I at the same time gave him to 
understand, that this list was fed from another list kept by Mr. 
Coleman, but by no means regularly fed by the transmission of 
the names of those who, having obtained their certificates, were 
anxious to obtain an army appointment, and to whom no excep¬ 
tion couid be made, but by the insertion of those alone whom 
Mr. Coleman chose to select or favour. Not but that an indi¬ 
vidual may , providing* he has good friends , obtain an appoint¬ 
ment without any interference or participation whatever of 
Professor Coleman: nay, 1 have known the thing to be accom¬ 
plished in direct opposition to the Professor,—a circumstance I 
mentioned for the purpose of shewing that the Principal 
veterinary surgeon h-as not, even at this advanced stage of 
his military career, succeeded in obtaining the exclusive right of 
nominating candidates for the army. 
It may not prove a valueless piece of information to one 
who is solicitous of an army appointment, to be apprised, 
that there are no less than four quarters in w hich he may try his 
interest or influence with hopes of success ; and that two of them 
are entirely unconnected with the College, and the others para¬ 
mount to every authority or recommendation whatever that 
can proceed from it. The two sources of interest, uncon¬ 
nected with Mr. Coleman’s interposition, are, the colonel and 
the lieutenant-colonel of the regiment in which the vacancy 
is likely to fall. The recommendation of either of them will 
weigh more or less at the Horse Guards; that of both of them 
combined, in course, a great deal more. But, if (and at the same 
time) interest can be made with the commander-in-chief, or even 
with his secretary, the appointment may, with all reasonable cer¬ 
tainty, be reckoned upon to the exclusion of all veterinary inter¬ 
ference ; the production of the candidate’s “ diploma” being all 
that is required at the Horse Guards, in a professional point of 
view. 
And, were the diploma (such as it ought to be, and without it 
be which, it is a non-entity) a guarantee for the qualification of 
the applicant, no other attestation of professional abilities would 
or could ever be sought after: for what teacher, or lecturer, or 
professor, I should like to know, can, either in reason or con¬ 
science, pronounce that man to be professionally unfit for a si¬ 
tuation, who, the same Professor has already informed the world, 
upon parchment too, is “ qualified to practise the veterinary art 
in all its branches” ? After such a declaration, there is some¬ 
thing ridiculous in the same Professor pretending to give a se¬ 
cond notice of qualification, and altogether absurd, and unjust, 
and contradictory, in his notifying the contrary . Such acts as 
