ROYAL COLLEGE OF VETERINARY SURGEONS. 
345 
During the reading of the Report, 
Mr. Brown rose and said, he feared he was irregular in inter¬ 
rupting the reading of the Report; but having been told that he 
should, after the Report was read, be deprived of the right of re¬ 
marking on any portion of its contents to which he might consider 
it necessary to object, he wished now to do so. 
The President, however, stopped the speaker, by saying that he 
had every reason to believe that the Report would occasion some 
discussion, when the gentleman would have an opportunity of 
speaking on the question afforded to him. 
Mr. Gabriel having concluded the reading of the Report, which 
was received with cheers, mixed with cries of Hear, hear! 
Mr. R. L. Hunt, of Birmingham, said he had felt much pleasure 
at hearing the Report read, and finding the healthy state of the ac¬ 
counts, which he hoped would be found to be always the case. He 
therefore begged to move, That the Report be received and adopted 
by the meeting [Hear, hear /]. 
Mr. Cherry said he had great fault to find with the accuracy of 
the financial accounts, as he found there was a great difference be¬ 
tween the balance in hand inserted in the Report of 1848 and 
the balance in hand of that year brought forward in the present 
accounts. 
Mr. Brown considered it was a right possessed by the members 
of all public bodies to object to any portion of a Report emanating 
from the Council of that body, and he should, therefore, exercise 
his right to do so on the present occasion [Hear, hear /]. He had 
nothing to do with the powers given the Council over the Schools, 
as he supposed they were founded on the laws given by the Char¬ 
ter of the College. He however objected, in the first place, to the 
much-vaunted apprenticeship clause of the by-laws having been 
suspended by the Council in the first year of its existence, in con¬ 
sequence of a memorial from the Schools [cries of Hear, hear ! and 
cheers]. He knew of no power which gave the Council the right 
to suspend the by-laws whenever they pleased, and he asked how 
they had obtained that right ] 
The President said the power was given them to do so by the 
Charter. 
Mr. Brown would ask the meeting whether they were, as a body 
possessing laws to govern their proceedings, to quietly submit to 
have those laws suspended by the Council whenever they choosed 
[hear, hear ! and cries of “ No, no /”]. It seemed to him that the 
time had now come that the system of making and breaking of by¬ 
laws was for ever done away with [hear, hear ! and cheers]. The 
speaker then at some length expressed his opinion that the Charter 
that the College had obtained, instead of conferring privileges upon 
VOL. XXII. Z Z 
