for depth of learning, and lefs respect for candour of judgment, has gained a popularity by the flippancy of his ftyle, hath thought proper to bring forward a number of what he calls Facts, and to hold them up to the public eye in the most ridiculous and difadvantageous point of view. He has drawn the Discipline of our Universities, both literary and moral, in features the most distorted, and painted the whole academical fcence in the blackest and most offenfive colours.

Whatever might be his defign in prefenting the world with fuch a difplay, that Truth which he pretends, compels me to obferve, that of the Facts which relate to the literary Difcipline, fome are exaggerated, others are fuppreffed, and many falfified.

We are conscious that our's, like every other inftitution, is fubject to abuse from relaxation, and to injury from time and the change of things and we are forry that all abuses cannot be at once corrected, and all injuries immediately repaired. But, to expofe, by a particular exaggerated detail, thofe

Facts

Facts which relate only to the forms of an antiquated difcipline, which it is neceffary to obferve till it can be improved or changed, without either attempting to investigate the caufe of its defects in order to apply a cure, or being able to fucceed if he had attempted, argues no extraordinary fund either of fagacity or learning to fupprefs what has been occafionally and very usefully fubftituted in its place, implies, in the relator, no extraordinary share of ingenuity: and, to misreprefent many facts, no extraordinary degree of justice. He may laugh, indeed, at the ruins of a venerable though antiquated pile, whofe ftructure he never understood; or he may redicule the weakness and infirmities of oldage, the beauty of whofe youth, in whatever it might exift, he is unable to recognize : but he will not, by these exploits, betray any confpicuous marks of wit or wifdóm. Facts and the Commentaries of Judge Blackstone, if he had poffeffed the merit to examine, and the candour to allow them, though not more modefty, would have taught him at least more difcretion.

In regard to the moral Difcipline of that University of which he boasts himself a fon, his ftrictures are not only a mis-statement of facts, but a fcurrilous invective, as falfe as it is virulent.

Whilst we may lament with the moralist that human nature is imperfect, we should remember with the philofopher that we are no more than men, and fometimes recollect that we have been young ourselves. Allowing for the imperfection of all human inftitutions, as well as of all human conduct, the Order and Decorum of this ancient feat of learning are dignified and exemplary in a very high degree and whilft, for want of that Order and Decorum, other feminaries of public inftitution throughout the kingdom are diffolving every day, we fee this and its fifter University existing and flourishing from age to age. So far from exhibiting a scene of that Immorality, Habitual Drunkenness, Debauchery, Ignorance, and Vanity fo repeatedly and elaborately painted by this reformift; it

may

may be truly said (and we could with pleafure challenge him to the teft,) that there does not exist a collection of men of high birth, fpirit, fortune, and expectation, more liberal in their fentiments, more ingenuous in their manners, more generous in their views, more honourable in their actions, and lefs reprehenfible in their conduct, than that illuftrious affemblage of youth, which in this University does honour to the age and nation in which we live; and who would make a more confpicuous figure in the ranks of literature, were it not owing to the ignorance and indolence of the fchool mafters out of whofe hands they come. So far from producing a Race of Profligate and Unprincipled men, we can with the utmost safety and affurance reft the honour of our Universities on the best poffible proof, that of an ample and illuftrious experience to the contrary, both in church and state. So far from being the fource of Vice and Infidelity, a charge on which he dwells with a particular emphasis, inumerable characters, who are paterns of

virtue and religion both in public and private life, and the ableft champions in defence of the Christian Faith, will bear honourable testimony to the Universities of England, And, however ardently a new fyftem of Public Difcipline is in some respects to be defired, there is one virtue of the old, the lofs of which no reform could recompenfe; and which, whatever change take place, we hope will ftill remain: I mean that amiable and refpectful Modefty of manners and demeanour, which shines with fo much approbation in the eyes of all, and which (excepting, perhaps, a fingle inftance or fo,) has always characterized and diftinguished the fons of Oxford.

To fupprefs the effect of fuch unmerited cenfure, the propereft method would be, as the author apprehended with much dread, not to honour it in the notice: and with all who are fufficiently acquainted with the Universities no other efforts need be employed. The main of my APOLOGY is therefore due to my reader for this digreffion,