GENTEEL AND UNGENTEEL PROFESSIONS.
WHEN Mr. Timm, time other night, alluded to his education as a surgeon, saying that he had passed through all his examinations,
and was as fit to dispense medicines as any apothecary in the
country, though prevented by law from doing so, the Members of the House of Commons set up a hearty laugh. Why did they
laugh? There is nothing ludicrous in a man being brought up as a surgeon ; a profession which yields to none in real usefulness ; and the successful practice of which demands an exertion of in-
tellect, and a command of nerve, which perhaps no other profes- sion calls for in so great a degree. But the Members laughed be- cause they deemed time profession of a surgeon ungenteel, and riot over-profitable. It seldom happens that a surgeon amasses a vast fortune, like cotton-spinners, or loan jobbers, or the men of "sugar-hogsheads and tar-barrels." Had Mr. Hums: become a millionaire by any such means as those by which the fortunes of Sir ROBERT PEEL, or Mr. ALEXANDER BARING, or Sir JotaN RAE REID were obtained, there would probably have been no laughter excited when he alluded to them.
We have little doubt that the Naval and Military Members of the House, generally by far the most ignorant and inefficient in the whole mass, were among time loudest laughers at the allusion to a science to which, of all men, they are the most indebted. But when viewed through a rational medium, how much lower ought we to place the profession of a soldier than that of a surgeon! To be even an ordinary surgeon, requires physical and mental quali- ties, which would be quite thrown away upon ninety-nine out of every hundred military men. It is notorious, that when a youth is so incorrigibly idle, or stupid, or dissolute, that it is quite out of the question to push him forward by his talents in law or physic, the Church or the Army is looked to as the last resort. The young blockheads or profligates of the family are thrust into livings and commissions, while the clover and industrious are educated for some profession in which skill and attention are re- quisite to give a chance of success. The Members of the House of Commons may think it a good joke against Mr. Hume that lie had passed through his examina- tions as a surgeon ; but certainly, if personal qualities are of any weight in the choice of a Member of Parliament—if a cultivated understanding be a desirable qualification in a legislator—we should much more readily record our votes in favour of a man who was in early life qualified to make a good surgeon, than one whose habits were formed and whose experience was gained at the mess-table or in the field of battle. For the same reason, although the clatter of spinning-jennies may be very enlivening, and the scent of rum and molasses very spiritualizing, and the calculation of the turn of the Stock-market a very intellectual employment,— though very large fortunes may have been acquired by cotton and flax-spinners, West India merchants, and stockjobbers,—yet upon time whole, we should prefer taking our chance of finding men of enlarged understanding, benevolent views, and real knowledge of the world, among the followers of the professions of ERASMUS or HUNTER.
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