had practised visiting the Chambers of the Students according to law and the express injunction of this Board; and it was further enjoined upon them strictly and steadily to practise such visitation, it being in the opinion of the Board a matter of great importance, and which tended much to the good order of this society."

This favorable state of things did not long continue; for at a meeting of the Overseers in the Philosophy Room, April 8th, 1768, it appears by a vote of the Corporation April, 4th, 1764 (doubtless by mistake for 1768), that a combination had been entered into by a great number of the Students against the government; that, in consequence, great excesses had been perpetrated; that on one Saturday night brick-bats were thrown into the windows of Mr. Willard the Tutor's room, endangering the lives of three of the Tutors there assembled, and that for this audacious act four Students, who were discovered to have committed it, were expelled.

This sentence of expulsion being duly confirmed, "the following resolves were unanimously voted by the Board.

"That it too manifestly appears, that a spirit of opposition to Government has prevailed among the greatest part of the Undergraduates for a short time past:

"That there is too great a disposition in the said Undergraduates, for insufficient reason, to absent themselves from prayers and from the ordinary exercises with the Professors and Tutors:

"That the measures which have been taken by the Tutors to oblige the said Undergraduates to a proper application to their studies, and to a regular attendance upon the exercises of the College were wise and proper, and have without grounds been complained c. as illegal and oppressive:

"That, from an unjust resentment and false prejudices against the Governors of the College for the due execution of the laws, great affronts and insults have been offered by most of the Undergraduates, and unwarrantable assemblies have been held and unlawful combinations entered into and executed, repugnant to the fundamental principles of government:

"That the expulsion of some of the immediate and principal actors in these disorders was a just punishment of their offences, and necessary for the preservation of the authority of the College:

"That this Board will support and encourage those in the immediate government of the College in their endeavours to restore and maintain a due subordination in the Society:

"That the President be desired to read these resolves in the College chapel, at such time as he shall think proper."

In the mean time the laws of the College underwent a general revision. A committee had been chosen by the Overseers for this purpose as early as Oct. 6th, 1747; it was afterwards the subject of consideration from time to time; but the business does not seem to have been completed till the year 1767 (1766). The following vote of the Corporation was consented to May 6th, 1767, by the Overseers. "The Scholars being at present unprovided with copies of the College Laws, - Voted, that each of the Tutors shall read the Laws to their respective classes as soon as may be, and that such reading shall be deemed a sufficient promulgation of the Laws; and that an authentic copy of all the Laws be likewise kept in the Buttery, for the inspection of all the Scholars. "

The next things to be considered were, whether the Laws should be printed, and whether they should be translated into Latin.

The first question "was largely debated," at a meeting of the Overseers, Oct. 6th, 1767; and it was voted to be "the opinion of the Board," that neither "the Body of Statutes " should be printed, nor "a select part of the Laws for the use of the Students "; but it was "the opinion of the Board that the College Laws be translated in Latin." 1

The various acts already mentioned were of course embodied in this revised code.

Among the alterations, one of the most remarkable related to the penal laws. At the period when Harvard College was founded, one of the modes of punishment in the great schools of England and other parts of Europe was corporal chastisement. It was accordingly introduced here, and was no doubt frequently put in practice. An instance of its infliction, as part of the sentence upon an offender, is presented in Judge Sewall's MS. diary, with the particulars of a ceremonial, which was reserved probably for special occasions. His account will afford some idea of the manners and

spirit of the age: "June 15, 1674, Thomas Sargeant was examined by the Corporation finally. The advice of Mr. Danforth, Mr. Stoughton, Mr. Thacher, Mr. Mather (the present) was taken. This was his sentence: "That being convicted of speaking blasphemous words concerning the H. G., he should be therefore publickly whipped before all the scholars.

"2. That he should be suspended as to taking his degree of Bachelor. (This sentence read before him twice at the President's before the Committee and in the Library, before execution.)

1 Was this done?

"3. Sit alone by himself in the Hall uncovered at meals, during the pleasure of the President and Fellows, and be in all things obedient, doing what exercise was appointed him by the President, or else be finally expelled the College. The first was presently put in execution in the Library (Mr. Danforth Jr. being present) before the Scholars. He kneeled down, and the instrument, Goodman Hely, attended the President's word as to the performance of his part in the work. Prayer was had before and after by the President. July 1, 1674."

What an exhibition! Men's ideas must have been very different from those of the present day, to have 'olerated a law authorizing so degrading a treatment of the members of such a society. It may easily be imagined what complaints and uneasiness its execution must frequently have occasioned among the friends and connexions of those who were the subjects of it. In one instance it even occasioned the prosecution of a Tutor; but this was as late as the year 1733, when old rudeness had lost much of the people's reverence. The law, however, was suffered, with some modification, to continue more than a century. In the revised body of Laws made in the year 1734, we find this article: "Notwithstanding the preceding pecuniary mulets, it shall be lawful for the President, Tutors, and Professors, to punish Undergraduates by Boxing, when they shall judge the nature or circumstances of the offence call for it." This relic of barbarism, however, was growing more and more repugnant to the general taste and sentiment. The late venerable Dr. Holyoke, who was of the class of 1746, observed, that in his day, "corporal punishment was going out of use"; and at length, it was expunged from the code, never, we trust, to be recalled from the rubbish of past absurdities.

CHAPTER XXIV.

Two new modes of aiding the College funds were introduced by the General Court during this presidency. One of them was such, as we may believe, would not have been adopted by the worthies of that day, had experience of its evils taught them to regard it in the same light that it has since been. This was, by an appeal, not to the charity of men, but to their passions for gain. In June, 1765, the General Court passed "an Act, for raising by Lottery, the sum of three thousand two hundred pounds, for building another Hall for the Students of Harvard College to dwell in"; and it was the first act of the kind passed for the benefit of this institution. In the Preamble to this Act it is stated "that the buildings belonging to Harvard College are greatly insufficient for lodging the Students of the said College, and will become much more so when Stoughton-Hall shall be pulled down, as by its present ruinous state it appears it soon must be. And whereas there is no Fund for erecting such Buildings, and considering the great Expence which the General Court has lately been at in building Hollis-Hall, and also in rebuilding Harvard-College, it cannot be expected that any further provision for the College should be made out of the Public Treasury; so that no other resort is left but to private Benefactions, which it is conceived, will be best excited by means of a Lottery."