HC Deb 04 March 1835 vol 26 cc533-4
Mr. Wakley

wished to ask two questions of the right hon. Baronet at the head of the Government. The first was,—"Have any new regulations been made by the College of Physicians respecting the admission into the college of Scotch graduates in medicine?" And the second was,—"Are the inhabitants of the parish of St. Margaret, Westminster, to have the right of electing their Rector, now that the emoluments of a prebendal stall in Westminster Abbey have been attached to the emoluments of that living?"

The Chancellor of the Exchequer

would endeavour to answer the two questions of the hon. Member, though they must appear to every one who heard them rather unconnected. He did not know whether the new regulations to which the hon. Member referred were the regulations by which it was proposed to admit Dissenters into the College of Physicians; but if they were, he was given to understand that those regulations had met with the approbation of the College. The state of the practice of the College was this:—In order to get a license to practise as a physician, an individual must have resided at an University for a certain number of years. What was now proposed was, to dispense altogether with the necessity of residence at the Universities in persons applying to become licentiates of the College of Physicians, and instead of residence and degrees, a certain form of examination and attendance in medical schools would be required. Persons passing this examination, and complying with the rules of attendance, would be qualified to become licentiates and fellows of the College, so that those individuals who might be educated at the Universities would have no preference over others who had attended the course of study referred to. With respect to the other question, whether the Minister of St. Margaret's should be appointed, he did not exactly know whether the hon. member meant "appointed by ballot." ["No."] Well, then, appointed not by ballot, but by the general election of the inhabitants; with respect to that question, he informed the hon. Gentleman that it was not intended to call on the parishioners to elect the Minister, the Crown would appoint him.