In 1753, a proposal before Parliament to
have a national census was also defeated by public fear of liberty
being curtailed by having to make account of the number and
circumstances of one's family and giving out information that
could be used by enemies both in the realm and abroad.
Though grammar schools were endowed for the education of local
poor boys, they sought fee-paying sons of gentlemen. They now
taught arithmetic as well as reading and writing. Translation and
reading of Latin is still important, e.g. Aesop's Fables, Cicero's
Letters, Caesar's Commentaries, Ovid, Livy, Virgil, Horace, Pliny,
Juvenal, and Plautus. The "Eton Grammar" book replaced the "Royal
Grammar" as the standard for Latin and English grammar. The boys
lived in boarding houses superintended by "dames" or older boys.
There were usually two boys to a bed. There was bullying and
initiation ceremonies such as tossing small boys up from a held
blanket or having younger boys run naked in the snow. There were
occasional rebellions by the boys and fights with the townspeople.
Flogging with a birch or caning with a rod until blood was drawn
from the bare buttocks was the usual punishment. There were some
national boys' boarding schools such as Eton, Winchester, and
Westminster. In these schools, boys could mix with sons of rich
and powerful people, thus establishing important connections for
their adult life.
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