Then followed such a rush into the Professions as had never before been witnessed.  Already too full, they became at once absolutely congested and choked.  Every other man was either a doctor or a solicitor.  It was at first thought that by making examinations of the greatest severity possible the rush might be arrested.  But this proved impossible, for the simple reason that an examination for admission, necessarily a mere ‘pass’ examination, must be governed and limited by the intellect of the average candidate.  Moreover, in Medicine, if too severe an examination is proposed, the candidate sacrifices actual practice and observation in the Hospital wards to book-work.  Therefore the examinations remained much as they always had been, and all the clever lads from all the Polytechnics became, in an incredibly short time, members of the Learned Professions.

There can be no doubt that the Bench and the Bar, that Medicine and Surgery, owe to the emancipation of the Professions many of their noblest members.  Great names occur to every one which belong to this and that Polytechnic, and are written on the walls in letters of gold as an encouragement to succeeding generations.  One would not go back to the old state of things.  At the same time there were losses and there are regrets.  So great, for instance, was the competition in Medicine that the sixpenny General Practitioner established himself everywhere, even in the most fashionable quarters; so numerous were solicitors that the old system of a recognised tariff was swept away and gave place to open competition as in trade.  That the two branches of the law should be fused into one was inevitable; that the splendid incomes formerly derived from successful practice should disappear was also a matter of course.  And there were many who regretted not only the loss of the old professional rules and the old incomes, but also the old professional esprit de corps—­the old jealousy for the honour and dignity of the profession:  the old brotherhood.  All this was gone.  Every man’s hand was against his neighbour; advocates sent in contracts for the job; the physicians undertook a case for so much; the surgeon operated for a contract price; the usages of trade were all transferred to the Professions.

As for the Services, the Navy remained an aristocratic body; boys were received too young for the Polytechnic lads to have a chance; also, the pay was too small to tempt them, and the work was too scientific.  In the Army a few appeared from time to time, but it cannot be said that as officers the working-classes made a good figure.  They were not accustomed to command; they were wanting in the manners of the camp as well as those of the court; they were neither polished enough nor rough enough; the influence of the Poly might produce good soldier obedient, high-principled, and brave; but it could not produce good officers, who must be, to begin with, lads born in the atmosphere of authority, the sons of gentlemen or the sons of officers.  Yet even here there were exceptions.  Every one, for instance, will remember the case of the general—­once a Poly boy—­who successfully defended Herat against an overwhelming host of Russians in the year 1935.