when firſt his royal pupil determines to engage in this ſtudy. “It will not be neceſſary for a gentleman, as ſuch, to examine with a cloſe application the critical niceties of the law. It will fully be ſufficient, and he may well enough be denominated a lawyer, if under the inſtruction of a maſter he traces up the principles and grounds of the law, even to their original elements. Therefore in a very ſhort period, and with very little labour, he may be ſufficiently informed in the laws of his country, if he will but apply his mind in good earneſt to receive and apprehend them. For, though ſuch knowlege as is neceſſary for a judge is hardly to be acquired by the lucubrations of twenty years, yet with a genius of tolerable perſpicacity, that knowlege which is fit for a perſon of birth or condition may be learned in a ſingle year, without neglecting his other improvements.”
To the few therefore (the very few, I am perſuaded,) that entertain ſuch unworthy notions of an univerſity, as to ſuppoſe it intended for mere diſſipation of thought; to ſuch as mean only to while away the aukward interval from childhood to twenty one, between the reſtraints of the ſchool and the licentiouſneſs of politer life, in a calm middle ſtate of mental and of moral inactivity; to theſe Mr Viner gives no invitation to an entertainment which they never can reliſh. But to the long and illuſtrious train of noble and ingenuous youth, who are not more diſtinguiſhed among us by their birth and poſſeſſions, than by the regularity of their conduct and their thirſt after uſeful knowlege, to theſe our benefactor has conſecrated the fruits of a long and laborious life, worn out in the duties of his calling; and will joyfully reflect (if ſuch reflexions can be now the employment of his thoughts) that he could not more effectually have benefited poſterity, or contributed to the ſervice of the public, than by founding an inſtitution which may inſtruct the riſing generation in the wiſdom of our civil polity, and inform them with a deſire to be ſtill better acquainted with the laws and conſtitution of their country.
