ion of the presidency of the College. Neither institution,
however, was willing to accept his resignation, and each sought to
retain his entire services. After mature deliberation he decided to
accept the invitation of the parish, and his official connection with
the faculty of the College which he had held with distinguished ability
and success for thirteen years was thus permanently severed.

The Hon. Israel Washburn, Jr., the war Governor of Maine, was chosen as
his successor. But he promptly declined the office. The trustees then
determined to make a new departure and place an alumnus of the College
at its head. Accordingly the present incumbent, at that time pastor of
the First Universalist Church of Providence, R. I., and a graduate of
the class of 1860, was elected to the vacant chair in March, 1875, and
was inaugurated on the second day of June following. Whatever may be the
ultimate verdict concerning the wisdom of the trustees in the selection
which was then made, no one will deny that the calling of an alumnus to
the post has had the effect of quickening the interest and securing the
co-operation of the graduates of the institution beyond anything that
could have been done.

I come now to speak briefly of certain changes in the internal life of
the College, many of which have taken place under my own eye, and with
the shaping of which in important respects, during these later years, I
have had something to do. In the matter of development few institutions
in this country have made greater progress. It is a long step from what
the College was when I knew it as a student, to its present condition;
so that those who were only acquainted with its life fifteen or twenty
years ago would scarcely recognize it as the same life to-day. Indeed
the modifications which have been introduced into its discipline and
into its courses of study have aroused an interest in its work outside
of and beyond mere denominational lines, and are beginning to attract to
it students from many miscellaneous sources.

One of the chief difficulties in the way of local patronage has been the
overshadowing influence of Harvard University. It was scarcely to be
expected that an institution planted in such close proximity to that
powerful and venerable seat of learning would, in the beginning, attract
students from its immediate neighborhood. Many persons have thought that
the location of the College is a mistaken one on that account. But
col