Mr. Carty of University College, and Mr. Meadowcourt of Merton
College, Oxford (says this writer,) were suspended from proceeding to
their next degree, in 1716, the first for a period of one, the second
for a period of two years, the latter further, not to be permitted "to
supplicate for his grace, until he confesses his manifold crimes, and
asks pardon _upon his knees, For breaking out to that degree of
impudence_ (when the Proctor admonished him to go home from the tavern
at an unseasonable hour,) as to command all the company, with a loud
voice, _to drink King_ GEORGE'S _health_." And, strange enough,
persisting in his refusal to ask pardon, as required, he only
ultimately obtained his degree by pleading the _act of grace_ of the
said King George, enacted in favour of those who had been guilty of
treason, &c. These were, it appears, both Fellows of colleges, and
with several others, who were likewise put in the _Black-book_, were
members of a society in Oxford, called
"THE CONSTITUTION CLUB,"
At a meeting of which it was that the king was _toasted_.