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CHAP. ii.j COLLEGE.

Let us be thankful that it was no worse, and that parti-
cipation in a college riot was after all the highest of his •**•¹⁹-
college crimes. Twice indeed he was cautioned for neglect-
ing even his Greek lecture; but he was also thrice com-
mended for diligence in attending it; and Doctor Kearney
said he once got a prize at a Christmas examination in
classics. The latter seems doubtful; but at any rate the
college riot was the worst to allege against him, and in this
there was no very active sin. A scholar had been arrested,
though the precincts of the university had always been
held privileged from the intrusion of bailiffs, and the
students resolved to take rough revenge. It was in the
summer of 1747. They explored every bailiff's den in
Dublin, found the offender by whom, the arrest was made,
brought him naked to the college pump, washed his delin-
quency thoroughly out of him; and were so elated with the
triumph, and everything that bore affinity to law, restraint,
or authority, looked so ludicrous in the person of this
drenched bailiff's-runner, their miserable representative,
that it was on the spot proposed to crown and consummate
success by breaking open Newgate, and making a general
jail delivery. The Black Dog, as the prison was called,
stood on the feeblest of legs, and with one small piece of
artillery must have gone down for ever; but the cannon
was with the constable, the assailants were repulsed, and
some townsmen attracted by the fray unhappily lost their
lives. Five of the ringleaders were discovered, and expelled
the college; and among five lesser offenders who were
publicly admonished for being present," aiding and a,betting,"*
the name of Oliver G-oldsmith occurs.

* " Quod sedition! favisset et tnmultuantibus opem tulisset." See Percy
Memoir, 16.



	CHAP. ii.j COLLEGE. Let us be thankful that it was no worse, and that parti- cipation in a college riot was after all the highest of his •*•¹⁹- college crimes. Twice indeed he was cautioned for neglect- ing even his Greek lecture; but he was also thrice com- mended for diligence in attending it; and Doctor Kearney said he once got a prize at a Christmas examination in classics. The latter seems doubtful; but at any rate the college riot was the worst to allege against him, and in this there was no very active sin. A scholar had been arrested, though the precincts of the university had always been held privileged from the intrusion of bailiffs, and the students resolved to take rough revenge. It was in the summer of 1747. They explored every bailiff's den in Dublin, found the offender by whom, the arrest was made, brought him naked to the college pump, washed his delin- quency thoroughly out of him; and were so elated with the triumph, and everything that bore affinity to law, restraint, or authority, looked so ludicrous in the person of this drenched bailiff's-runner, their miserable representative, that it was on the spot proposed to crown and consummate success by breaking open Newgate, and making a general jail delivery. The Black Dog, as the prison was called, stood on the feeblest of legs, and with one small piece of artillery must have gone down for ever; but the cannon was with the constable, the assailants were repulsed, and some townsmen attracted by the fray unhappily lost their lives. Five of the ringleaders were discovered, and expelled the college; and among five lesser offenders who were publicly admonished for being present," aiding and a,betting," the name of Oliver G-oldsmith occurs. * " Quod sedition! favisset et tnmultuantibus opem tulisset." See Percy Memoir, 16.