its impreſſion, might have been a benefaction of an ineſtimable value to us; but it falling into the hands of a Person oppreſs'd with the want of money, &c. it has come ſhort of its juſt profit and advantage above three thouſand pounds. Indeed, there were ſome laudable efforts made to recover part of this ſum in the vice-chancellorſhip of Dr. Lancaſter, by vertue of a ſequeſtration; but his honeſt endeavours have ſince been render'd vain and fruitleſs, by the baſe ſpirit of one of his ſucceſſors[1].
Three Thousand Pounds is, I think, a pretty handſome ſum to be ſunk at one time, and by one man; for I do not find, that, in this particular depredation, he had any co-partners or accomplices: But ſhould it appear, upon enquiry, (which enquiry it ſhall be my buſineſs to make,) that the very ſame perſon has been guilty of many other ſuch-like fraudulent appropriations, what can be expected in a ſhort time (if ſuch ſcandalous corruptions go unexamin'd and unpuniſh'd) but that moſt of our colleges muſt ſhut up their gates; that the fellows of them muſt turn vagabond mendicants over the earth; and that the univerſity muſt become a den of thieves, inſtead of what it was once called, the ſecond ſchool of the church, and the great ſeminary of letters.
Nay, in ſome colleges, which I could mention, the revenues are already reduced ſo low, by the miſmanagement and colluſion of the governing part of them, that it is with the greateſt difficulty they make up their accounts at their Audits, or times appointed for that purpoſe; inſomuch, that the Burſarſhip which uſed to be canvaſs'd with great application, as the moſt valuable office in college, is now become ſo inconſiderable and contemptible, through the intricacy and confuſion of their finances, that
- ↑ Vol. I. p. 216
