caused the boys to murmur, more especially as they came from so despicable a character as Tiptoe, who used to add insult to injury; for, so great was this animal's ignorance of human nature, that he did not know, that though injuries may be forgiven, yet insults can never be forgotten.' The little ........... used to plume himself upon a saying, of which he was delivered, after many a laborious pang, and many a violent struggle, that he would bring all the college-boys under his thumb;' and ever as he uttered this profound and delectable speech, he would shew his short and squat thumb. But did he imagine, that lads trained, as they had been, in the wild aberrations of lawless caprice, and according to the dictates of a romantically honourable, and bold, and daring, and defiance-breathing spirit, could be easily, and instantaneously bound down in the shackles of a dull and systematic servitude, and range themselves under the banner of a petty pedant's thumb? Many were the consultations held among the boys, concerning those grievances; but they all, as yet, ended. in nothing

save noise and declamation. At length, good Mr. Simpkin Snivel informed the erudite Dr. Tiptoe, that very many of the boys were in the habit of visiting the parade, in order to see the Marquis of Buckingham's militia exercise. Immediately, as if from the Vatican, the solemn and large-wigged Tiptoe thundered out a bull of excommunication against any wight who should have the temerity, in future, to look upon men dressed in red, march up and down the parade, and make divers motions, and distortions, and gesticulations of their countenances, and hands, and bodies, and musquets. It so fell out, that some months after the issuing of this terrific edict, one of the præfects was espied on the parade by Snivel, who directly made Tiptoe acquainted with it. The offender was sent for, and, as a gentle punishment, ordered to learn all the Electra of Sophocles by heart, and repeat every morning fifty lines, till the whole, (about fourteen hundred verses, were completed. This enormous castigation, so disproportioned to the crime, roused the indignation of the whole school: but Tiptoe

eared for none of these things; he, like his brother the cobler, saw no difference in crimes, and was so ignorant as to be unacquainted with the doctrine contained in the following lines of one infinitely skilled in investigating characters:

Queis paria esse ferè placuit peccata, laborant 'Cum ventum ad verum est, sensus moresque re pugnant,

Atque ipsa utilitas justi prope mater et æqui; • Nec vincet ratio hoc tantundem peccet idemque Qui teneros caules alieni fregerit horti

Et qui nocturnus divum sacra legerit, adsit Regula peccatis quæ pænas irroget æquas, Ne scuticâ dignum horribili sectere flagello: Nam ut ferula cædas meritum majora subire • Verbera non vereor.'

Which I will english for the benefit of Tiptoe, and others like him, that they may learn, if possible, a little wisdom and justice.

Those who are pleased, in the magnitude of their sapience, to declare that all faults are of equal turpitude, labour against the truth; good sense and sound morality admit not of such pernicious doctrine; and utility herself, almost the mother of what is.

just and right, forbids such abominable dogmas to be broached. Nor will reason allow of this, that the same erime, in mag-. nitude and in iniquity, is committed by him who steals a cabbage; and by him who sacrilegiously plunders the house of God by midnight violence and irruption: by this man who looks upon the empty parade and useless glitter of military machinery; and that wretch who tramples upon the liberties of a brave and a generous people. Let there be established some rule, which may adjust punishments appropriate to crimes; lest you mangle, with the executioner's scourge, him who deserves only a gentle reproof. For, that you should slightly reprehend him who merits a more grievous punishment, I cannot expect or hope from one of your sullen, and morose, and cruel, and bloody, and unrelenting dispo-sition.' In addition to this imposition laidon the præpositor; the gracious ..gave orders, that no boy should be suffered to go out to dinner in the town on the ensuing Sunday, because one lad had been seen on the parade. The boys had been for ages ac

customed to dine with any friend in the city who might invite them, on Sundays, the only day allowed for such recreation, which was limited to two hours and a half, from a quarter after one, till a quarter before three in the afternoon. This mandate ran, like an electric spark, through the whole academy; not that they regarded as a single pinch of snuff the mere going out to dinner, but the flagrant act of injustice blew the latent and almost smothered emJ bers into a flame, fierce, ardent, and destroying, which after having annoyed the tyrants, devoured the luckless sufferers themselves. They sent to Tiptoe a Latin note, couched in the most decent and respectful terms, signifying, that they were well assured that the warden was too great a lover of justice' to punish the many for the fault of an individual, and that he would, upon more mature consideration, recall the edict lately passed, which forbade any boy from visiting his friends on the ensuing Sunday. Their own note was returned, with this line' written at the foot of it:

"Quicquid delirant reges plectuntur Achivi."

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