Patronage and purchase in making appointments

Abstract

During the last session, Dr. Mapother read a paper before the Society which attracted a good deal of attention, especially from members of his own profession. The greater part of this communication was devoted to the consideration of the mode of making appointments of medical officers to the hospitals in this city; and I believe I am correct in stating that the general impression which it left on the minds of those who heard it, was that a good deal of what we call "jobbery" goes on with reference to those appointments?an impression, to say the least, not removed by those who took part in the debate. Whether this impression was true or false it is not for me to say. My conviction is that the members of the honorable profession to which I myself belong, are not, upon the whole, less honest than their neighbours, while I freely confess that we share with our legal, clerical, military, and other brethren, a tendency to use, in our struggle for existence (and that not very scrupulously), such weapons as Providence has placed within our reach. The man who engages in this struggle with no other weapons than industry, intelligence, modesty, and integrity, is placed at a disadvantage compared with those possessed of influential friends, political interest, or wealth, or who come into the world armed with what we know as "push," or that higher phase of cunning which is called "knowingness." As naturally as the cat uses its claws, and the fox its cunning, so every man, by such means as best he can, seeks promotion and advancement, and it would be a Utopian idea to expect that the means employed would always bear close examination. It is, indeed, desirable that there should be many and various ways of "getting on" in the world, yet the public interest requires that certain rules, or general principles, shall exist, in order to prevent unfair and dishonourable shortcuts.