under-graduates with a liberal spirit or studious emulation; and I
cannot describe, as I never knew, the discipline of college. Some
duties may possibly have been imposed on the poor scholars, whose
ambition aspired to the peaceful honours of a fellowship (ascribi
quietis ordinibus-- --Deorum); but no independent members were
admitted below the rank of a gentleman commoner, and our velvet cap
was the cap of liberty. A tradition prevailed that some of our
predecessors had spoken Latin declamations in the hall; but of this
ancient custom no vestige remained: the obvious methods of public
exercises and examinations were totally unknown; and I have never
heard that either the president or the society interfered in the
private economy of the tutors and their pupils.

The silence of the Oxford professors, which deprives the youth of
public instruction, is imperfectly supplied by the tutors, as they
are styled, of the several colleges. Instead of confining
themselves to a single science, which had satisfied the ambition of
Burman or Bernoulli, they teach, or promise to teach, either history
or mathematics, or ancient literature, or moral philosophy; and as
it is possible that they may be defective in all, it is highly
probable that of some they will be ignorant. They are paid, indeed,
by voluntary contributions; but their appointment depends on the
head of the house: their diligence is voluntary, and will
consequently be languid, while the pupils themselves, or their
parents, are not indulged in the liberty of choice or change. The
first tutor into whose hands I was resigned appears to have been one
of the best of the tribe: Dr. Waldegrave was a learned and pious
man, of a mild disposition, strict morals, and abstemious life, who
seldom mingled in the politics or the jollity of the college. But
his knowledge of the world was confined to the university; his