In 1749, the Corporation strongly recommended to the parents and guardians of such as were to take degrees that year, "considering the awful judgments of God upon the land," to "retrench Commencement expenses, so as may best correspond with the frowns of Divine Providence, and that they take effectual care to have their sons' chambers cleared of company, and their entertainments finished, on the evening of said Commencement Day, or, at furthest, by next morning." In 1755, attempts were made to prevent those "who proceeded Bachelors of Arts from having entertainments of any kind, either in the College or any house in Cambridge, after the Commencement Day." This and several other propositions of the Overseers failing to meet with the approbation of the Corporation, a vote finally passed both boards in 1757, by which it was ordered, that, on account of the "distressing drought upon the land," and "in consideration of the dark state of Providence with respect to the war we are engaged in, which Providences call for humiliation and fasting rather than festival entertainments," the "first and second degrees be given to the several candidates without their personal attendance"; a general diploma was accordingly given, and Commencement was omitted for that year. Three years after, "all unnecessary expenses were forbidden," and also "dancing in any part of Commencement week, in the Hall, or in any College building; nor was any undergraduate allowed to give any entertainment, after dinner, on Thursday of that week, under severe penalties." But the laws were not always so strict, for we find that, on account of a proposition made by the Overseers to the Corporation in 1759, recommending a "repeal of the law prohibiting the drinking of _punch_," the latter board voted, that "it shall be no offence if any scholar shall, at Commencement, make and entertain guests at his chamber with _punch_," which they afterwards declare, "as it is now usually made, is no intoxicating liquor."