y an act
of Parliament made in the first year of George the First,
entitled, An Act for the further security of his Majesty's person
and government, and the succession of the Crown in the heirs of
the late Princess Sophia, being Protestants, and for extinguishing
the hopes of the pretended Prince of Wales, and his open and
secret abettors.' We cannot find the motive for prescribing this
oath of allegiance and abjuration in the Protestant zeal which was
enkindled by the second Pretender's movements in England,--for,
although belonging to this same year 1745, these movements were
subsequent to the charter,--but rather in the desire of removing
suspicion of disloyalty, and conforming the practice in the
College to that required by the law in the English universities.
This oath was taken until it became an unlawful one, when the
State assumed complete sovereignty at the Revolution. For some
years afterwards, the officers took the oath of fidelity to the
State of Connecticut, and I believe that the last instance of this
occurred at the very end of the eighteenth century."--p. 40.

In the Diary of President Stiles, under the date of July 8, 1778,
is the annexed entry, in which is given the formula of the oath
required by the State:--

"The oath of fidelity administered to me by the Hon. Col. Hamlin,
one of the Council of the State of Connecticut, at my
inauguration.

"'You, Ezra Stiles, do swear by the name of the ever-living God,
that you will be true and faithful to the State of Connecticut, as
a free and independent State, and in all things do your duty as a
good and faithful subject of the said State, in supporting the
rights, liberties, and privileges of the same. So help you God.'

"This oath, substituted instead of that of allegiance to the King
by the Assembly of Connecticut, May, 1777, to be taken by all in
this State; and so it comes into use in Yale College."--_Woolsey's
Hist. Discourse_, Appendix, p. 117.

[Greek: Hoi Aristoi.] Greek; literally, _the bravest_. At
Princeton College, the aristocrats, or would-be aristocrats, are
so called.

[Greek: Hoi Polloi.] Greek; literally, _the many_.

See POLLOI.

OLD BURSCH. A name given in the German universities to a student
during his fourth term. Students of this term are also designated
_Old Ones_.

As they came forward, they were obliged to pass under a pair of
naked swords, held crosswise by two _Old Ones_.--_Longfellow's
Hyperion_, p. 110.

O