But the times, the morals, the masters, the scholars, have
all undergone a thorough revolution. It is a vile, illiberal school,
this new French academy of the _sans-culottes_. There is nothing in it
that is fit for a gentleman to learn.
Whatever its vogue may be, I still flatter myself that the parents of
the growing generation will be satisfied with what is to be taught to
their children in Westminster, in Eton, or in Winchester; I still
indulge the hope that no _grown_ gentleman or nobleman of our time will
think of finishing at Mr. Thelwall's lecture whatever may have been left
incomplete at the old universities of his country. I would give to Lord
Grenville and Mr. Pitt for a motto what was said of a Roman censor or
praetor (or what was he?) who in virtue of a _Senatusconsultum_ shut up
certain academies,--"_Cludere ludum impudentiae jussit_." Every honest
father of a family in the kingdom will rejoice at the breaking-up for
the holidays, and will pray that there may be a very long vacation, in
all such schools.
The awful state of the time, and not myself, or my own justification, is
my true object in what I now write, or in what I shall ever write or
say. It little signifies to the world what becomes of such things as me,
or even as the Duke of Bedford. What I say about either of us is nothing
more than a vehicle, as you, my Lord, will easily perceive, to convey my
sentiments on matters far more worthy of your attention.
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