168 
SELECTED ARTIdLES. 
Society might be compelled to prosecute, when urged to 6.6 
so by persons laying an information. Upon what that opi-* 
nion was founded, not being myself a member of the legal 
profession, I cannot say. If it be so that they have no dis- 
cretion, they have no more right to exercise forbearance in 
one class of cases, when the Act has been contravened, than 
in another ? Certainly not, but then discretion is limited by 
their power, and unfortunately, they cannot prosecute every 
body. But it appears that in the case of Army and Navy 
surgeons, they have exercised a discretion in not prosecuting 
although they were aware that it was an infringement of an 
Act of Parliament. At the time when they determined to 
exercise that forbearance, I was not a member of the Court of 
Examiners; but I have a distinct recollection, from looking at 
the minute-book, that such suspension of the law was in 
consequence of a correspondence that took place between the 
Army and Navy medical boards, the Government and the 
Society of Apothecaries. A letter from the secretary of war^ 
and from the Army and Navy medical boards requesting the 
Society to suspend the law in favour of Army and Navy sur- 
geons, followed by compliance on the part of your Society, 
shows plainly that you did consider yourselves at liberty to 
forbear prosecuting, if you thought proper, and not as wholly 
without the power of exercising any discretion ? That is true, 
provided they believed contrary to the opinion that was given 
that those who were appointed surgeons of the army and 
navy prior to 1st August, 1815, were not practising as apo* 
thecaries prior to August, 1815. If they who were appointed 
Army or Navy surgeons prior to August, 1815, were pro- 
perly considered as apothecaries in practice, prior to that 
date, those who have been appointed since 1st August, 181 5^ 
must be considered as apothecaries in practice, subsequently 
to that date, and in their favour the law has been suspended ? 
Legally speaking, that may be the case ; but we know very 
well that they, every one of them, have undergone a regular 
medical education, independently of the great experience they 
have subsequently acquired." 
According to your last answer, regular medical education 
