l in Parliament, but
there was so much opposition from those persons who were practising
without the diploma of the Corporation, that the Bill, after passing
safely through the Commons, was thrown out by the Lords. In the following
year attempts were made to come to terms with the opponents of the Bill,
and finally it was agreed to petition for a Charter from the Crown to
establish a Royal College of Surgeons in London. These negotiations were
successfully carried out in 1800, and the old Corporation having disposed
of their Old Bailey property to the City Authorities, the College took
possession of a house in Lincoln's Inn Fields, the site of part of the
present building.

During the debate in the House of Lords on the Bill just mentioned, the
Bishop of Bangor, who had charge of the measure, sent for the Clerk of the
Company, and informed him that a strong opposition was expected to the
Bill, on account of the inconvenience that would arise from the bodies of
murderers being conveyed through the streets from Newgate to Lincoln's Inn
Fields. To remedy this a clause was proposed, giving the College
permission to have a place near to Newgate, where the part of the sentence
which related to the dissection of the bodies might be carried out.

That this difficulty of moving the bodies was not a fancied one, the
following extract from "Alderman Macaulay's Diary" will show: "Dec. 6,
1796. Francis Dunn and Will. Arnold were yesterday executed for murder and
the first malefactors conveyed to the new Surgeons' Hall in the Lincoln's
Inn Fields. They were conveyed in a cart, their heads supported by tea
chests for the public to see: I think contrary to all decency and the laws
of humanity in a country like this. I hope it will not be repeated."[6]

Just at this date the Corporation were removing from their old premises to
Lincoln's Inn Fields; the last Court in the Old Bailey was held on October
6th, 1796, and the first at Lincoln's Inn Fields on January 5th, 1797.

In July, 1797, it was reported to the Court that Mr. Chandler, one of
their members, "had in the most polite and ready manner offered his stable
for the reception of the bodies of the two murderers who were executed
last month." The thanks of the Court were voted to Mr. Chandler "for his
polite attention to the Company upon that occasion."

After the Bill had been lost in the Lords, the following resolution was
passed by the Court in November, 1797: "Resolved that in