five pounds, or had their names put down in that terrible Black Book, or done anything else to, for not capping at a proper distance, or yielding the wall to DR. SAMUEL WARREN, D.C.L., F.R.S., &c. &c., when they met that talented author of _The Lily and the Bee_, (that _sweet, thoughtful_ poem, as MRS. BROWN calls it,) when he promenaded the High Street in all the scarlet glories of his new D.C.L.-ship? For, if the Proctors' Black Book be innocent of names branded therein for the dire offences mentioned, of course there would not be such a Statute for matriculating members to swear to obey. [Illustration: NO ONE SHALL LOITER ABOUT THE STREETS OR THE PUBLIC MARKET-PLACE.] "It is next ordered that nobody should wander idly about the city or its suburbs, or be seen loitering about the streets, or the public market-place; (_neque in Plateis, aut publico Foro, stantes aut commorantes conspiciantur_,) just as though Oxford was always in a state of insurrection, and it was feared that if groups of students lounged in the streets, the Riot Act would have to be read, and the military called out. But, on the whole, I admire this rule also; for I know that when young men hang about in front of attractive shop-windows, the natural result is the running up of bills; and my son, PETERLOO, has rather a pretty taste for jewellery and pictures. I am glad to think, therefore, that the authorities put a stop to these expensive lounges, and even punish them '_pro arbitrio Vice-Cancellarii, vel Procuratorum_.' But I cannot help thinking, _Mr. Punch_, how greatly painters must draw on their own imaginations, when they represent the High Street of Oxford as always enlivened by several of these condemned groups: clearly an artistic license, as the authorities would have immediately dispersed them, in accordance with their Statute. "The next Statute that says nobody must frequent the houses of the townspeople and the workshops of artificers, without reasonable cause, I pass over with the simple remark, that it would have been better to have avoided the gratuitous insult that places respectable houses in the same clause with others that are both shameless and nameless; and I come to the next Statute, which says that Nobody shall frequent the taverns, wine-shops, or places within the city and University precincts, where wine, or any other liquor, or the herb Nicotiana or 'Tobacco,' is commonly sold. ('_Cauponis, Ænopoliis ac domibus_ * * * _in quibus vinum, aut quivis alius potus, aut herba Nicotiana sive_ Tobacco, _ordinarie venditur, abstineant_), and that the townspeople who admit the students to such houses shall be heavily fined, or punished with loss of custom for a certain time. [Illustration: NOBODY SHALL FREQUENT WHERE THE HERB NICOTIANA IS SOLD.]