hat of the dignified, able, and judicious President Eliot, under whose
fortunate administration, the University has wonderfully increased,
materially and in every way.

The first President was Henry Dunster, a man of learning and
cultivation. He entered upon his office, August 27, 1640, and left it,
October 24, 1654. It was during his administration that most of those
unique rules were established which I have quoted. We can see in them
the evident origin or occasion of hazing the Freshmen, which would
naturally follow such rules. At the present day, be it known, the custom
has entirely ceased. The Freshmen of to-day are treated like gentlemen
by all classes. All the students are placed on their honor, in every
way, save only in some necessary particulars. Hazing has passed into
history as a barbarous custom of the past, and the deportment of the
students to-day is that of gentlemen, with very rare exceptions, such as
might be expected among so large a number. In the great Memorial Hall,
where they eat, the best of deportment is always to be seen, and
everywhere there is now a pride, in all departments of the University,
in observing the proprieties of good conduct. Indeed this has always
been the rule. The hazing has never been so extensively practised as
many have supposed; and no body of men can anywhere be found, in
Congress, legislatures, schools, academies, or colleges, whose
deportment excels in excellence that of the students of Harvard
University. This observation is demanded from the fact that many
parents, some of whom are known the writer, have decided to send sons
to other institutions, on the very ground of the influence of college
customs and habits.

* * * * *

THE DEFENCE OF NEW YORK, 1776.

By Henry B. Carrington, U.S.A., LL.D.

[The siege of Boston gave to the Continental Army that instruction in
military engineering, and that contact with a disciplined foe, which
prepared it for the immediate operations at New York and in New Jersey.
(See The Bay State Monthly, January, 1884, pages 37-44.)

The occupation and defence of New York and Brooklyn, so promptly made,
was a strategic necessity, fully warranted by existing conditions,
although temporary.]

It is not easy to reconcile the views which we take, in turn, through
the eye and object lenses of a field-glass, so that the real subject of
examination will not be distorted by too great nearn