( 8 ) 
the abfurdities of our progenitors have been 
abolifhed. But the cruelty and injuftice of 
this cuftom are not the only arguments in 
favour of new regulations. This early fub- 
ferviency and fubfequent defpotifm, muft 
eventually prove infinitely prejudicial to fo- 
ciety. A boy who, from the age of ten to 
fourteen, hath been compelled to fubmit to 
a degree of fervitude more irkfom and hu- 
miliating than that of his father's lowefl 
domeftic; who is taught, by example, that 
he muft fuffer every fpecies of impofition and 
cruelty without complaint; that his books, 
his trinkets, and even his apparel, are the 
property of the boy he calls his mafter: 
fuch debafement, I fay, by thus early bend- 
ing the mind below the dignity of an Eng- 
lifh gentleman, muft infallibly prepare him 
for fubmifiions inimical to the conftitution 
of his country. He gradually rifes to the 
upper fchool. He then becomes a tyrant 
in his turn, and thefe habits of tamely fub- 
mitting to the mandates of his fuperiors, and 
of capricioufly tyrannizing over thofe beneath 
him, can hardly fail to form a truly deteft- 
able character. But it were unjuft hence 
to infer, that every gentleman educated at 
our great public fchools is a compound of 
(lave 
