Imágenes de página
PDF
ePub

ward William; Ann Brooks, married to Henry Wainwright; Charles Albert, clerk of the Court of Common Pleas for Suffolk; John Brooks; and Emily.

In the 2d volume of Massachusetts Reports is a list of Judges of the Supreme Court since William and Mary's charter. It appears that four, viz. Samuel Sewall from 1695 to 1726; Benjamin Lynde, 1712— 45; Paul Dudley, 1718-50; and Benjamin Lynde, 1745-1771, have been Judges a longer time; but no Chief Justice has had so long a term of service.

[blocks in formation]

ADDRESS.

You have assembled, my friends, at the invitation of the Society for promoting Theological Education, to attend to some exposition of its supposed claims to the favor and patronage of the community. These, without text or preface, I proceed to attempt to lay before you, not intending, as I go on, to avoid any details which may help to put you in better possession of the subject, and altogether passing over some topics forcibly presenting themselves, which might have more of general or of popular interest than what I shall discuss, since I am mainly solicitous to make suggestions to meet the present object.

From the early part of the last century, Harvard College had possessed a professorship in theology; and, in the beginning of the present, by the bounty of a distinguished individual, a lectureship in the same department had been established. The College also held funds for relieving the expenses of students preparing for the ministry. But the means of obtaining a suitable education for the sacred office being manifestly quite inadequate, the government of that institution, in a circular letter, addressed, in the year 1815, to some of its leading friends in different parts of the Commonwealth and elsewhere, called the attention of the community to the subject. Subscriptions were in consequence obtained to the amount of nearly thirty thousand dollars, and the contributors

*The Honorable Samuel Dexter.

formed themselves into a Society for the Promotion, such was its title, of Theological Education in Harvard University, under an agreement with the College that the fund should be in trust with the President and Fellows of that corporation, jointly with five individuals, chosen from year to year by the Society. A new professorship, that of Biblical Literature, was soon instituted, upon the basis of the lectureship previously existing, and the Divinity School assumed a form, and under the able care of the eminent men who filled its offices of instruction, its usefulness and importance rapidly increased. In the year 1824, a change took place in the relation of the Society of which I speak, to the College, by means of an agreement that the Directors of that Society should exercise an immediate control over the Divinity School, prescribing its course of study, and originating rules for its discipline, subject to the revision of the College government in all cases in which the constitution of the College should so require. Under this administration, the number of students was considerably enlarged; the foundation of a separate library was laid; and Divinity Hall was erected for the accommodation of students with apartments for their different exercises and for lodging, and a third professorship, that of Pulpit Eloquence and the Pastoral Care, was established, by means of new funds, obtained by the Directors from some of this community's numerous enlightened friends of piety and learning.

But inconveniences not anticipated manifested themselves under this system. The Directors found, that all the attention they could give to their trust, would but partially compensate the disadvantages under which they labored, in having other cares, to which precedency was due, living apart from the institution, and so wanting that opportunity for personal observation of its state, and acquaintance with its pupils, which were needful to the best administration of its concerns. Their representation to this effect was approved by the Society, who accordingly, last autumn, made a proposal to the government of the College, which was acceded to on its part, that the Society's connexion with the Divinity School, both in respect to right of superintendence through the Directors, and to obligation to contribute to its support, should be dissolved. The present object of the Society is expressed in its altered name. Its relation to the University having ceased, it sub

« AnteriorContinuar »