1877-80, greater than ever before. By a
change in the charter, made in 1883, the election of three of the
trustees was put into the hands of the alumni.

[Illustration: (signature) T. R. Pynchon]

In 1883 the Rev. Dr. George Williamson Smith was elected to the
presidency, and was welcomed to his duties with much enthusiasm. In
the following year considerable changes were made in the course of
instruction, including arrangements for four distinct schemes of study,
introducing elective studies into the work of the junior and senior
years, and providing for practical work in the applied sciences. An
observatory has been built, for which a telescope and other apparatus
have been presented; and the funds have been secured for the erection of
an ample gymnasium, with a theatre or lecture-hall.

Of the nearly nine hundred men who have received the bachelor's degree
from Trinity College no small number have attained eminence in their
respective walks in life. The class of 1829 gave a governor to Michigan
and a judge to Illinois; the class of 1830, a member of Congress to
Tennessee, a judge to Louisiana, and two prominent divines to Ohio; the
class of 1831, a bishop to Kansas; the class of 1832, three members of
Congress, one to North Carolina, one to Missouri (who has also been
governor of the State), and one to New York, a distinguished clergyman
to Connecticut, and a chaplain to West Point; the class of 1835, an
archbishop to the Roman Catholic Church, and a chairman to the house of
bishops of the American Episcopal Church; the class of 1840, a president
to St. Stephen's College and a supreme-court judge to Connecticut; the
class of 1846, a member of Congress to New York, another (also
lieutenant-governor) to Minnesota, and a president to Norwich
University; the class of 1848, a bishop to Massachusetts, a lecturer, a
tutor, and three trustees to the college; and this list seems as a
sample of what the college has done and is doing, in the spirit of her
motto, for the Church and the country. The bishops of Connecticut,
Kansas, Georgia, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Washington
Territory, and Indiana are among her alumni; with them some three
hundred others have entered the ministry of the Christian Church; and
representatives of the college are found holding honored positions in
the State, in institutions of learning, in the professions of law and
medicine, and in the business of life. Her course of instruction un