It is, in fact, just as if scholarships and fellowships at public schools and universities were conferred without any reference to the proofs which the candidates might have given of their talents or industry; but were distributed to those who had given a certain fee to a particular professor. Would any man in his senses doubt as to the influence of such a plan on the interests of classical literature or mathematical science? It seems to us impossible that men should really differ on that point, or hesitate to admit that, _mutatis mutandis_, whatever the science might be, so far as the cultivation of it could be influenced by system, the result must be alike prejudicial in all cases. We are, however, far from arriving at the end of the System by this general statement. The public and the government, uninformed or unmindful of this "system," wish to consult authorities on professional matters. They not unnaturally look to those who hold public appointments, because these afford the _prestige_ of extensive opportunity, which is supposed to imply, and under a fair system would ensure, skill and experience. Men are apt to look at a man's position, without stopping to inquire _how_ it was obtained; and although position may cut both ways, and in particular instances "throw a cruel sunshine" over incapacity, still amongst gentlemen extreme cases are not to be expected; the rule is much more likely to be a respectable and protected mediocrity, which is just that tone which has rarely done anything to enlarge the boundaries of any kind of knowledge. It happens, however, from the "system," and the position thus given to those who are supposed to profit by it, that the interests of the poor, and, in a considerable degree, those of the rich also, are, in a very large sense, confided to their care. It thus follows that positions, in themselves highly desirable, and which enable men to exert considerable influence on the progress of a science, on the sound condition of which the physical comforts, and in no small degree the moral condition, of mankind depend, are occupied by men who have undergone none of those tests which public competition alone affords, and which the _summi honores_ of almost every other profession either directly or indirectly imply. So far for one mode in which the interests of the public are compromised; but there are many other channels. The government, ignoring the evils of this system, have placed the regulation of the surgical branch of the profession in the hands of a body of men whom, when we examine, we find to be no other than the apprentices we had recognized at the hospital, grown into the full bloom of a legislative body—whence again are chosen Presidents, Vice-Presidents, Examiners, &c., of the Royal College of Surgeons of London!