62 
SELECTED ARTICLES. 
The second complaint was, that there was no superintending 
power to examine into the qualifications of the persons 
entering upon those several branches of the profession; that in 
consequence of this lowering of the character of the general 
practitioner, it was exceedingly difficult to procure apprentices; 
that as the general practitioner had no legal right to charge 
for his attendance on the sick, he was compelled to resort to 
an expedient for remunerating himself, exceedingly revolting 
to the feelings of a liberal mind; that a most cruel system of 
farming the medical attendance upon the parochial poor to 
the lowest bidder, without any regard to the proper qualifi- 
cations of the party tendering, had become general. These 
were the five particular points that the practitioners pressed 
upon the attention of the association," 
The Association began to meet in 1812, and in December 
of that year, petitioned parliament. In March, 1813, a bill 
was introduced into the House of Commons, but, after being 
read a first time, it was withdrawn, in consequence of the 
opposition offered to it, principally, as would appear, by the 
Colleges of Physicians and Surgeons. The Society of Apo- 
thecaries professed to act according to the instructions which 
might be given to them by the College of Physicians, but 
remained to a certain degree neutral. In the following year, 
the bill was again brought in, and several clauses introduced 
into it, of which the members of the association did not ap- 
prove, but to which, finding that they could do no better, 
they were obliged to consent. The opposition of the colleges 
seemed to be withdrawn at the intercession of Mr. George 
Rose, as it was through him that it was communicated to the 
association, that they had agreed to the framing and introduc- 
tion of a bill, and he became the organ of communication 
between the parties. Nine-tenths of the members of the 
association were surgeons, and some of them belonged to the 
Society of Apothecaries. In 1815, a bill was passed, which 
has given rise to so many just complaints, both as to its pro- 
visions, and as to the manner in which it has been carried 
into effect, and which it seems to have been the determination 
