“21.  Whatsoever Freshman shall break any of these customs, he shall be severely punished.”

A written copy of these regulations in Latin, of a very early date, is still extant.  They appear first in English, in the fourth volume of the Immediate Government Books, 1781, p. 257.  The two following laws—­one of which was passed soon after the establishment of the College, the other in the year 1734—­seem to have been the foundation of these rules.  “Nulli ex scholaribus senioribus, solis tutoribus et collegii sociis exceptis, recentem sive juniorem, ad itinerandum, aut ad aliud quodvis faciendum, minis, verberibus, vel aliis modis impellere licebit.  Et siquis non gradatus in hanc legem peccaverit, castigatione corporali, expulsione, vel aliter, prout praesidi cum sociis visum fuerit punietur.”—­Mather’s Magnalia, B. IV. p. 133.

“None belonging to the College, except the President, Fellows, Professors, and Tutors, shall by threats or blows compel a Freshman or any Undergraduate to any duty or obedience; and if any Undergraduate shall offend against this law, he shall be liable to have the privilege of sending Freshmen taken from him by the President and Tutors, or be degraded or expelled, according to the aggravation of the offence.  Neither shall any Senior scholars, Graduates or Undergraduates, send any Freshman on errands in studying hours, without leave from one of the Tutors, his own Tutor if in College.”—­Peirce’s Hist.  Harv.  Univ., App., p. 141.

That this privilege of sending Freshmen on errands was abused in some cases, we see from an account of “a meeting of the Corporation in Cambridge, March 27th, 1682,” at which time notice was given that “great complaints have been made and proved against ——­, for his abusive carriage, in requiring some of the Freshmen to go upon his private errands, and in striking the said Freshmen.”

In the year 1772, “the Overseers having repeatedly recommended abolishing the custom of allowing the upper classes to send Freshmen on errands, and the making of a law exempting them from such services, the Corporation voted, that, ’after deliberate consideration and weighing all circumstances, they are not able to project any plan in the room of this long and ancient custom, that will not, in their opinion, be attended with equal, if not greater, inconveniences.’” It seems, however, to have fallen into disuse, for a time at least, after this period; for in June, 1786, “the retaining men or boys to perform the services for which Freshmen had been heretofore employed,” was declared to be a growing evil, and was prohibited by the Corporation.—­Quincy’s Hist.  Harv.  Univ., Vol.  I. p. 515; Vol.  II. pp. 274, 277.

The upper classes being thus forbidden to employ persons not connected with the College to wait upon them, the services of Freshmen were again brought into requisition, and they were not wholly exempted from menial labor until after the year 1800.