which would be affected by the passage of the law prayed for, or or that the terms of the treaty will in the least degree change the relations heretofore existing between them and the government of this state, until the happening of the event provided for. The committee have therefore deemed it unwise to recommend the alteration of the law of the last session, as requested by the petitioners, and have instructed their chairman to ask leave to introduce the following resolution :

ed.

Resolved, That the prayer of the petitioners ought not to be grant

IN SENATE,

March 19, 1830.

MEMORIAL

Of the Professors of Rutgers Medical Faculty (Manhattan College) in the city of New-York, in refutation of an attack upon them by the College of Physicians and Surgeons in the city of New-York.

To the Honorable the Legislature of the State of New-York, in Senate and Assembly convened.

The College of Physicians and Surgeons of this city apply to your honorable body, against granting a charter to the undersigned; and our opponents allege against us in substance, that if we obtain a charter, we will break down their institution. It is is clear however, that we can not effect this result, unless by evincing greater merit; and shall the Legislature discourage the greater for the sake of favoring the less. Such is not the course of the enlightened patrons of science or industry in any thing else; it is also at variance with the justice which the free citizens of this community have a right to expect from their representatives.

We have no compulsory process to bring students to our lectures; we have no bonus to offer them of degrees from the Regents, which shall be a license to practice. One thing only have we to offer them for their fees and attendance; it is knowledge, which under every disadvantage, they come to find in our institution. The complainants against us, also make it an accusation that we put the expenses of education at our institution, as high as at their own; which shews, at least, that we do not seek to take a mean advantage, or

to found success upon aught but merit. In those circumstances we humbly submit that impartiality is most becoming the Legislature, and that it should not raise impediments to the free choice of students, assailing their rights and our industry together, with the intent of constraining scholars, against their judgment, to resort to teachers, whom they do not voluntarily prefer. If we have committed a fault, our opponents are unable to profit by it; so they pray the Legislature to punish us for our prosperous attainments.

Say they "the number of students in this city is not adequate to support two schools," but we would remind those gentlemen, that a faculty of physic existed formerly in Columbia college, and that for a great number of years it monopolized the whole medical education of the city; yet it never flourished. We know that one of its most important and popular courses, had at one time, but seven students; that the whole number never exceeded sixty-four, and never reached so high but onee. During the existence of this faculty, and in despite of its opposition, the College of Physicians was chartered, and the new school in no very long time, counted two hundred.

The number of medical students resorting to a seminary of medical education, is not founded on the population of the place, but on the reputation of the school and the liberal principles by which it is governed. Edinburgh has from seven to eight hundred students of medicine, and a population less than that of New-York; but it has celebrated professors, none are oppressed by superior authority, and they draw students from all parts of Europe and America. Within four hour's ride, is the University of Glasgow, and they both prosper, notwithstanding their proximity; but Glasgow has renowned professors likewise, and a class of between three and four hundred students of medicine; nor is there any attempt made in Scotland to depress one school in order to elevate the other. They are left to prosecute their separate interests, as is the case in other pursuits, by serviceable exertion and superiority of talent.

In Paris there are several schools of medicine: every hospital ís one, provided with a set of professors. They teach, and such students attend them as please. The professor of greatest reputation has the largest class; the dull or incompetent would have few hear

ers.

When the student has completed his studies he gets an examination before a body of physicians, called the Faculty of Paris, and a diploma is the reward of his proficiency.

Similar to this, is the practice of the most celebrated school of medicine in Germany, that of Berlin. It has more than twenty professors of medicine, any of whom, the student may attend at his pleasure, and with the certificates of those attended, he obtains an examination from the faculty of Berlin, and a diploma or not, according to his deserts. Thus there is emulation between the professors, but no hostility between the schools. In Philadelphia, with a smaller population than New-York, there are near six hundred students of medicine attending its two schools, the University and Jefferson College; but the constituted authorities do not oppress one to favor the other.

When Jefferson college applied for a charter, it was violently op posed by the University, as we are here, and through the same selfish motive; but the Legislature of Pennsylvania granted the charter notwithstanding, and medical education in Philadelphia has been the better for it.

Our opponents complain that their incomes are small, and ask the Legislature to act against our institution, that they may be enabled to make larger profits. They must have great reliance upon their influence in the legislature, when they hope to enlist it as a party to their personal interests. In default of this measure they threaten your honorable body, with a demand for legislative aid to make up deficiencies. Happy they who have such excellent friends and bountiful patrons! As for us, we assure you we shall make no call for pecuniary assistance, satisfied that upon an equal footing, we and they would have precisely all the remuneration we deserved.

The effects of a fair competition between the colleges in this city has not yet been tried. One of them has been fostered indeed, by the Regents and the Legislature, and yet with all this nursing, it does not greatly thrive. The other has suffered under the heavy hands of both; but yet there is someting within it which maintains it still. With only a clear stage and no favor, it might yet entitle itself to the approbation of those eminent bodies. After four years of exclusive favor to the College of Physicians and Surgeons, of Barclay-street, it comes forward now, for an increase of the tariff. Such are the blessings which the exclusive system showers upon its supporters, and we trust your honorable body will entertain a just sense of their value and importance.

Our opponents object to us that we fill the office of professors, in the schools which we established. Would they have us erect it at our expense to hand it to them for their emoluments. We were professors in the College of Physicians, and give lectures now, as when we were members of that body. We began by investing twenty-five thousand dollars in a college edifice, and, acting like other discreet persons, we keep the control of our own estate; although we devote it to public use. In this manner banks, turnpikes, insurance companies, &c. are private property and public benefits.

They require that the offices in the Rutgers Medical Faculty shall be open to the competition of all the scientific men of the country: so they are, as often as there are vacancies; but we do not suffer favoritism to fill them.

Trustees of a college may, from private friendship, appoint mediocrity to professorships, and seek to enrich it by monopolies; but individual interest is not so generous. When your memorialists had first a vacancy in their body, they appointed to it the most able professor they could find; for they well knew that their individual interest was increased or lessened by the reputation of their school and the ability of its teachers. No trustees could say as much. When a vacancy occurred a second time in their body, they followed the same course. To the most worthy, was their rule of selection, without distinction of place or country, justly considering the republic of letters as extending to and embracing all enlightened nations.

The last effort of our opponents, is to bring up the futile and often confuted accusation concerning the debts of the College of Physicians and Surgeons, in the hope, perhaps, that as the members of the Legislature often change, there may be found some one among them unacquainted with that matter, and who may be deluded by the hardihood of the charge. To this we simply say at present, that any inculpation of the former professors, is unfounded, is un;

And to prove this, our task is easy: we refer to the journals of the House, where will be found, the report of Messrs. S. Van Rensselaer, general Tallmadge, and Mr. Marcy, who investigated the subject, and attest that no charge could be brought against those professors.* In its necessities they lent money to the college, * See further, the reports of the Regents themselves, besides the lucid document of their committee.