cere. Acknowledging her own past errors, Harvard has entered the field in defence of pure college games played by college men for fun. She claims no inherent virtue above her opponents, but she asks them to join her in rooting out manifest and growing evils, such as importing athletes under the name of special students, calling back a bearded host of graduates for football material, and buying up stalwart freshmen from the preparatory schools. The feeling of Harvard men, graduates and undergraduates, is well expressed by Mr. H. L. Higginson in his remarks on the presentation of the Soldiers' Field:

"In your games there is just one thing that you cannot do, even to win success. You cannot do one tricky or shabby thing. Translate tricky and shabby-dishonest, ungentlemanlike. Mates, the Princeton and the Yale fellows are our brothers. Let us beat them fairly if we can, and believe that they will play the game just as we do."

The general feeling of the college toward religion has been discussed at length. The great body of the students are receptive, in a place where large opportunities are offered them. Rev. C. F. Thwing wrote in the Congregationalist two years ago:

"It would not have surprised me more when I was in college to see Memorial Hall tower float

ing in the Charles, than to see Harvard students holding public religious services in the Globe the President of the University bestowing the Theatre, with eminent clergymen as preachers, and approbation of his presence."

Certainly, times have changed for the better since his day.

In speaking at the banquet of the Schoolmasters' Club, Professor Peabody said, in substance, that:

"the dangers in college life are not so much from the wickedness of boys whose doings are heralded far and wide, as from the evil that arises from many home habits, school sentiment and overestimate of self. There is little hope for

a boy whose father is a man of the world, and whose mother is engaged otherwise than in home duties, whose older brothers and sisters are already leading lives of gayety if not of dissipation. Some preparatory schools are so un-American, so un-democratic and priggish as to impress upon their students that they are the favored ones on this earth."

This is the true explanation of most that is deplorable in college life. It is only the outgrowth of tendencies planted in the school and the home. Happily, the converse of this is also true; if boys come from sensible homes and democratic schools to Harvard, they will find it a place unexcelled in developing influences and opportunities. In every case the choice of what the man will be must rest with the man himself.

Τ'

Τ'

HE reputation of military commanders, so far as preserved in popular histories, is based on achievements that appeal to the imagination, the fighting of battles, the gallant defence of a forlorn hope, or skilful strategy which results in signal success. Less conspicuous, though often not less important, services are apt to find small place in history. In a recent examination of a volume with the comprehensive title of Washington and the Generals of the Revolution, the writer found that even the name of Major-General William Heath did not appear. Yet General Heath was one of the general officers appointed by the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts before the battle of Lexington, was one of the first brigadier-generals appointed by the Continental Congress, the next year was promoted to the rank of major-general, served faithfully through the whole war, and throughout enjoyed the esteem and confidence of Washington. It is true he was not in any important engagement, but that was not from any lack of personal courage, energy, or want of military knowledge; in respect to the last qualification he was probably the equal of a majority of the generals in the Revolutionary War. He was, however, assigned to some important positions, which it was of the utmost importance to hold, and which the offensive campaigns of the enemy threatened but did not assail. It may not be too late, and it certainly is not too early, in this time of the last centennial celebrations of events connected with the Revolution, to recall his services and recognize their value.

General Heath was a descendant of one of the early settlers of Roxbury, Massachusetts, and his intermediate ancestors were sturdy yoemen who were prominent in the affairs of that ancient town and parish. Though engaged in the peaceful pursuits of a farmer, he had from his early manhood a taste for military affairs, and was a careful reader of such books on military achievements and the art of war as he could then obtain. He early became a member of the Ancient and Honorable Artillery

Company of Boston, which was then considered a school for the soldier, rather than a pleasant refuge for civilians who would avoid a draft for jury duty. He was appointed by Governor Bernard a captain in the first regiment of militia in Suffolk County, and so attracted the notice of the governor that he declared he would make him colonel. But the hostility of the people of Boston to the Stamp Act and other measures of Parliament was such that the royal governor found it necessary to be cautious in his appointments, and as Heath's sympathies were with his countrymen he did not receive the promotion.

Between 1770 and 1775 Heath had published a number of communications in the Boston Gazette, over the signature of "A Military Countryman," in which he had strongly urged military organization and practice in the use of arms as a wise measure of defence against any foreign invader. As he was at that time a member of the Committee of Correspondence, and later of the Committee of Safety, which were organizing resistance to the oppression of the mother country, and was an associate of Adams, Warren, and other leading patriots, there is little doubt as to the foreign invader he had in mind.

In February, 1775, the Provincial Congress appointed Heath and several others general officers to command the militia which might be assembled to resist any attempt to enforce the obnoxious laws of Parliament. On the 19th of April, after meeting with the Committee of Safety, he directed the movements of some of the companies of militia which were hurrying to harass the British troops on their precipitate retreat from Lexington until they reached Charlestown, and he then posted detachments and sentinels to guard against any surprise at night. He thus had the distinction of being the first general officer to exercise command in the long struggle for independence; and he was the last general officer of the day when independence had been achieved and the army was about to be finally disbanded.

When the Continental Congress took

measures to organize an army for the defence of the United Colonies, and with rare good fortune selected Washington for commander-in-chief, Heath was appointed one of the eight brigadier-generals, his commission dating from the 22d of June, 1775. In August, 1776, Heath was promoted to the rank of major-general, and it is probable that this was done with the advice of the commander-in-chief.

Two or three days after the evacuation of Boston by the British troops, General Heath, in command of the advanced brigade of the American army, marched for New York. At the time of the battle of Long Island he was in command of the forces on the upper part of Manhattan Island, and when the American army withdrew from New York his division was moved to the vicinity of White Plains, and a part of it was in the engagement at that place, which was a series of skirmishes rather than a battle. When Washington crossed the Hudson for his memorable campaign in Jersey, Heath was assigned to command in the Highlands, which he was to fortify and hold as a position of the utmost importance to prevent a junction of the British forces in New York with those moving from Canada, by which it was proposed to sever New England from the other colonies and thus render the subjection of all the easier. Heath's characteristics were caution, strict obedience to orders, and thorough loyalty to his chief as well as to the cause of American independence; and Washington, who had doubtless then gauged the character of his prominent subordinates, assigned him to this post because of those qualities. While holding this position Heath administered a rebuke to that pretentious and arrogant soldier of fortune, General Charles Lee, which he well deserved, and by which the loyal obedience of the one is contrasted with the insubordination of the other. Lee had been an officer in the British army, but having retired on halfpay, he had come to America, where he professed an ardent sympathy with the cause of the colonists, and when they were driven to a resort to arms he was naturally suggested for a military command. He was appointed the second major-genral of the continental army; but that did satisfy his ambition or his vanity, for hought that his experience entitled

him to the foremost place, and from the first he was jealous of Washington. At the outset he aspired to the distinction of settling the difficulties between the colonies and the mother country, and though he may not then have contemplated treachery, he began by proposing an unauthorized conference with British officers, his former comrades. Later, when the colonies had entered upon a war for independence, he fancied that he was to be the hero who should secure the glory and honors of victory. When Washington with a part of the army crossed the Hudson, he left Lee with a force nearly as large in a strong position at North Castle, east of the river, with instructions to act as the movements of the enemy should render necessary. Howe with the main body of the British forces having followed Washington into Jersey, Lee was expected to hasten to the support of the latter. But though aware of Howe's movement, he did not march; and repeated and urgent requests for him to use all possible despatch were shamefully disregarded. Washington's army was in great peril, and but for his transcendent energy and skill would have been utterly routed and captured. While making a rapid retreat before the British, his adjutant-general despatched, by an express returning to Heath's headquarters, a message to Lee, partly written in great haste with a pencil that broke in the middle of a sentence, and the messenger was ordered to deliver the remainder orally. Its terms were, "We are flying before the British, I pray you to push and join us." The messenger came to General Heath's headquarters, and the purport of the despatch being made known to him, he hurried the bearer forward to Lee. The message was delivered, and it is to be presumed was as urgent as the adjutant-general had ordered, for the messenger had seen for himself something of the condition of Washington's army. But instead of hastening to join Washington, Lee wrote to Heath saying he had received "a recommendation, not a positive order, to move his corps to the other side of the river," and making excuses for not complying with the "recommendation," he asked Heath to send two thousand men from his own command across the river. This Heath refused to do, as being contrary to his special instructions from the

commander-in-chief. To this refusal, which recited the instructions at length, Lee replied in a brief and arrogant note, saying that Heath's notion of instructions was that "not a tittle must be broke through for the salvation of the general and the army," and adding that he intended to take two thousand of Heath's men into Jersey, and desired him to have that number of men in readiness. Heath again, with a haughtiness equal to Lee's, responded that he should not deviate from his orders until they were countermanded in a proper manner. In this letter he wrote, "I have the salvation of the general and army so much at heart that the least recommendation from him to march my division, or any part of them, over the river, should have been instantly obeyed, without waiting for a positive order," a keen thrust at Lee's mendacious pretence that an urgent appeal was simply a recommendation to be disregarded at pleasure. He then wrote to General Washington explaining the position of his troops, enclosing copies of Lee's letters and his own replies; and before Lee had made any preparations to move he received from the general a complete approval of his action. Ten days after the receipt of the urgent message from the adjutant-general of the army, Lee was ready to cross the river, and then only after receiving explicit orders to march. Coming to Heath's headquarters and announcing that he was "going into the Jerseys for the salvation of America," he requested the general to order two thousand of his men to join him. Heath said he could not spare them, and finally declared that not a single man should march from the post by his order, adding that he knew by letter just received, that Washington did not intend that any troops should be moved from his division. Lee then asserted his seniority in command, and calling for the return book of the division, he selected two of the best regiments and bade Heath's adjutant-general order them ready to march the next morning. But Heath told his subordinate to give such an order at his peril, and requested Lee to give the order through his own adjutant-general and not to involve him or his officers in disobedience to the specific instructions of Washington. Lee complied, but he demurred to Heath's further request that he would

give him a written certificate that he had assumed command and had ordered these regiments to be detached. At last, however, by the advice of his own subordinate, he yielded to this request. Heath's persistence in obeying the orders of Washington probably brought Lee to a sense of his own insubordinate conduct, for the next morning he informed the greatly disturbed general that he had decided not to take the two regiments. He crossed the river into Jersey, where a few days afterwards, by an imprudence that had an appearance of treachery, he was captured by a troop of British cavalry while sleeping at a house several miles from the camp of his force.

Although Washington had not intended. to take any force from the Highlands, the want of more troops compelled him, shortly after Lee crossed the river, to order Heath to move with the division under his command into Jersey. The order was promptly obeyed, but the movement so alarmed the New York Convention that they sent an urgent appeal to Washington for the return of this force, which they considered essential to the safety of the state; and Heath had not advanced far into Jersey when he received orders to return to his former position. Subsequently, by order of the commander-in-chief, he moved a portion of his command, composed of militia, towards New York, in order that by threatening an aggressive movement he might detain the British forces there and possibly create a diversion from Jersey. He had a successful skirmish with the British outposts, which unfortunately was magnified into an important engagement as the news spread through the country. Upon arriving before the fort to which the outposts had retired, Heath summoned the garrison to surrender in a rather grandiose style, which was the most serious mistake of this movement, for he was not prepared to follow up the demand by an assault, and he was not supplied with artillery to reduce the works. He had but two or three cannon, and the only heavy piece was disabled at the third discharge, and his force of militia could not be relied on for an assault. After ineffectual attempts to draw the British out from their works, a storm coming on in which some regiments lost much of their ammunition, it was determined in a council of all