rigorouſly executed than thoſe which are no ſo; and that errors, of ſome kind or other, either in the laws themſelves, or in the abuſe of them, appear almoſt in every particular.
To give a juſt account of the ſtate of the univerſity of Oxford, I muſt begin where every freſhman begins, with admiſſion and matriculation; for it ſo happens, that the firſt thing a young man has to do there, is to proſtitute his conſcience, and enter himſelf into perjury, at the ſame time that he enters himſelf into the univerſity.
If he comes elected from any publick ſchool, as from Weſtminſter, Wincheſter, or Merchant-Taylors, to be admitted upon the foundation of any colleges he ſwears to a great volume of ſtatutes, which he never read, and to obſerve a thouſand cuſtoms, rights and privileges, which he knows nothing of, and with which, if he did, he could not perhaps honeſtly comply.
He takes one oath, for example, that he has not an eſtate in a land of inheritance, nor a perpetual penſion of five pounds per annum, though perhaps he has an eſtate of ten times that value; being taught that it is mere matter of form, and may be very conſcientiouſly complied with, not withſtanding the ſeeming perjury it includes.
To evade the force of this oath, ſeveral perſons have made their eſtates over in truſt to a friend, and ſometimes to a bed-maker; as a gentleman in Oxford did, who locked her up in his cloſet, till he had taken the oath, and then diſpoſſeſs'd the poor old woman of her imaginary eſtate, and cancell'd the writings.
That moſt excellent caſuiſt, the preſent biſhop of[1] Ely, in a book entitled, Chronicon Precioſum,
- ↑ Dr. Fleetwood.
