receive. We have however been pressed with the authority of those who have preceded us here: no person can have a greater veneration for those characters than I have, and if this point had been decided by them, I should have thought myself bound by their decision. But the cases are unlike. The principal ground on which it was said in 4 Burr. 2199. that the bye-laws of the college were bad was, that "they interfered with their exercising their own judgment, and prevented them from receiving into their body persons known or thought by them to be really fit and qualified;" and if I had found that objection existed in this case, I should have thought it fatal: but in the very sentence in which Lord Mansfield expressed himself as above, he added "such of them indeed as only require a proper education and a sufficient degree of skill and qualification may be still retained." Two universities have been founded in this country, amply endowed and furnished with professors in the different sciences; and I should be sorry that those who have been educated at either of them should undervalue the benefits of such an education.
In this case it is admitted that a licentiate does not de facto become a fellow of the college: it is admitted that he must be first examined, and that those who are called the College of Physicians are to judge of his fitness. It seems that the appeal here is rather made ad verecundiam, and that Dr. Stanger could not be rejected if he were examined. If the college are not judges of the fitness of the person examined, I do not know who is. Then is this a reasonable test of the fitness of the party? possibly they might have framed a better, though I do not say that they could; but the question here is whether this is a reasonable bye-law? According to the concurrent opinions of all mankind it is. The Legislature have considered that persons who have taken their degrees in our universities are entitled to certain privileges in the church. So if we look into our own profession, those who have been educated at our universities have particular privileges; and though the inns of court are not
