The Lieutenant-Governor did not deem it wise, in face of the hostile feelings that had arisen, to deliver the charter as soon as signed; and it was not received by the Governors until the May following, at which time they were sworn in by Mr. Daniel Horsmanden, one of the Justices of the Supreme Court of the Colony. On the 17th day of that month, in the year 1755, they held their first meeting; and on June 3rd following, the seal of the college was adopted.

Some of the gentlemen named as Governors, among them of course William Livingston, refused to qualify or to serve, and obloquy continued to be heaped upon the young institution that was finding it so hard to draw its infant breath in the heated atmosphere of religious and political controversy. The charter,-although it retained the disliked provisions that the President must be in communion with the Church of England and that the "Book of Common Prayer" should be used in the devotional exercises of the college,-was liberal in other respects. The ministers of the different denominations of the colony were placed among the original Governors and the charter further provided that no laws should be made "to exclude any Person of any religious Denomination whatever from equal Liberty and Advantages, or from any of the Degrees, Liberties, Privileges, Benefits, or Immunities of the said college, on account of his particular Tenets in Matters of Religion." Moreover, one of the first acts of the Governors after qualifying in May, 1755, was to ask, at the suggestion of the Rev. Mr. Ritzema,

senior minister of the Reformed Dutch Church, for an additional charter. This charter was immediately granted and contained provisions insuring, to the Dutch, liberty of conscience "in Divine Worship and Church Discipline" and establishing a professorship of divinity according to the doctrines of Mr. Ritzema's church, the Ministers, Elders and Deacons whereof to appoint the said professor, "provided always, such professor so to be chosen by them, be a Member of, and in Communion with the said Reformed Protestant Dutch Church." No advantage, however, of this provision seems to have been taken.

It was natural that it should have been feared lest the college become a subservient abetter and encourager of the royal prerogative. Later, events proved the fear to have been ill-founded. Whether the restraining influence of Livingston and his friends was the cause or whether the result would have been attained in any event, it is hard to say.

(To be continued.)

RUFORD FRANKLIN.

Adelbert College and The Western Reserve University.

WHEN the announcement was made in the papers a few years ago that the Rev. Charles F. Thwing, D. D., of Minneapolis, had accepted the presidency of Adelbert College and of The Western Reserve University, probably but few readers outside of Ohio recognized, under the disguise of the new title, an institution which is one of the oldest colleges in the West and the oldest college in Northern Ohio. The accession of Dr. Thwing to the presidency marks a fitting occasion for a brief review of the history of the college and for a statement of its present condition and of the outlook for the future.

The inception of this college may be traced back to the year 1801, when Joseph Bradger, "the apostle of Northern Ohio," was petitioning the General Assembly of the Territory for a college charter. His petition was not granted, however, and this broad-minded and liberally ed

ucated home missionary and his friends were obliged to content themselves with an academy for a quarter of a century. Their hopes were not realized until in 1826. Western Reserve College secured from the Legislature of Ohio its liberal charter. The college was located at Hudson. Its founders were men with large views and high aims, and from the first the college enjoyed the reputation of being the foremost college of the West for broad and thorough scholarship. The story of its early achievements may be merely hinted at by quoting briefly from a recent address on the early days of the college, by N. P. Seymour, L. L. D., Professor of Greek and Latin from 1840-1870. "If science and learning are the true tests of the rank of a college, then this collegemay claim to have more than fulfilled the high hopes of its founders, for science and learning were here. Among its professors were the foremost men of science in America; perhaps the most distinguished meterologist in the land, Professor Loomis, afterwards of Yale; and the man esteemed by many the most profound of our philosophers, Dr. Hickok, afterwards of Union College; the leading astronomer of America, Professor Young, now of Princeton; one of the foremost Hebraists, Dr.