time devolved, was elected to supply his place. Dr. Johnson returned to Stratford, where, in the midst of his son's family, surrounded by numerous old friends, he passed the quiet remainder of his days.

At the same meeting at which Dr. Johnson's resignation was announced, a plan was adopted for the establishment of a grammar school in connection with the college, and this was opened not long afterwards under the charge of Mr. Matthew Cushing, of Charlestown, Massachusetts. A librarian also was appointed, and a new body of laws, better adapted, as was thought, to the actual condition of the college, received the assent of the Governors, and on the following day was announced in their presence in the College Hall. Among the changes which it introduced was a great enlargement of the scheme of studies in the classical department.

When Dr. Johnson retired from the college he left there four and twenty students; a very inconsiderable number, it is true, but equivalent, nevertheless, to nine hundred at the present day, if proportionate regard be had to the population of the city at that period and now. Of these twentyfour, and the thirteen admitted during the two following years, only twenty-eight in all completed their college course, and were graduated; but we

find among them a very unusual proportion of distinguished men. The biographer of one of them, Peter Van Schaack, after mentioning that he entered the Freshman class in 1762, remarks, "This was an eventful era in his life. It was here that he formed an interesting and valuable acquaintance with John Jay, Egbert Benson, Richard Harison, Gouverneur Morris, Robert R. Livingston, and many other illustrious men, whose enviable reputations now constitute the richest property of their country."

The first commencement at which Mr. Cooper presided, was held in St. George's Chapel, on the 17th of May, 1763, five weeks after his appointment, when two students were admitted to the degree of Bachelor, and seven alumni of the college to that of Master of Arts.

The commencement of the following year also was held at St. George's Chapel; but all the commencements of King's College subsequent to that were in Trinity Church, except those of 1767 and 1768, which were at St. Paul's Chapel. Respecting that of 1765, in Trinity Church, we find mentioned, as if it were a novelty, that three anthems, and several other pieces of music were performed; and so of the following commencement, also, it is stated that "the exercises were intermixed with music."

For near six months after Mr. Cooper's appointment to the presidency, he had the aid of both Mr. Cutting and Mr. Harpur, as instructors in the college; but on the resignation of the former in October, 1763, he greatly needed the assistance of some other teacher. Negotiations were entered into with Mr. Richardson and other gentlemen of Oxford, and efforts were made in other quarters, but for a long time in vain, to find some suitable person to fill Mr. Cutting's place. At length, on the 24th of October, 1765, Dr. Clossy, a gentleman educated at Trinity College, Dublin, and who, before his emigration to America, had attained a high standing in his profession, by the publication of an able work on Morbid Anatomy, was appointed tutor, with a salary of £144, and a further salary of £36 was assigned to him as Professor of Natural Philosophy; Professor Harpur, to whom this subject had previously belonged, teaching thenceforth only Mathematics.

The affairs of the college seem to have gone on prosperously now for several years. The classes were taught by Mr. Cooper, Mr. Harpur, and Dr. Clossy, and under such able instructors possessed advantages which, perhaps, no seminary of so young a standing in this country had enjoyed.

On the 26th of February, 1767, a committee previously appointed to petition Sir Henry Moore,

Governor of the province, for a grant of land, made report that they had obtained one of 24,000 acres. The same committee was thereupon empowered to view the lands, and, if it was thought fit, to have them surveyed. From subsequent proceedings of the Governors, in relation to these lands, on the 20th of March, 1770, when measures for their more speedy settlement were adopted, it appears that they were situate in the new county of Gloucester, in the province of New-York; that they were not only erected into a township, with the usual privileges, but to the great advantage, as was hoped, of the college, were constituted to become the county town.

All these anticipations, however, were to be disappointed. Unluckily for the college, its township was comprehended within that tract of country which, after being in dispute for six and twenty years between New York and New Hampshire, or settlers claiming under grants from her, was erected into the new State of Vermont, and all grants of lands lying within its limits, made by New York, were, in consideration of thirty thousand dollars, which it paid to New York, declared null and void.

This treaty, which the State of New York, from weighty considerations of public policy, rather than for the paltry sum of money paid, found it

expedient to make, surrendered a property belonging to the college, which would at this day have been of immense value, and in so doing, may be regarded as having given to the college a claim for retribution, which all that the State has since done for it does not fully satisfy.

In February, 1767, Mr. Harpur, the professor of Mathematics, resigned his office, nor does it appear that any person was appointed in his place.

The Grammar School, established in 1763, seems not to have succeeded as was hoped. In August, 1767, it was found that the college had sunk by it about £370. Some reforms were therefore made, and its expenses were reduced by dispensing with one of the teachers until then employed. At the same time the Governors took an important step towards advancing the usefulness and reputation of the college, by their adoption of a scheme proposed by Dr. Clossy, in connection with Drs. Middleton, Jones, Smith, Bard, and Tennent, for the institution of a Medical School within the college.

The Governors having considered the plan submitted by these gentlemen, and their offer to give courses of lectures during the winter, each on some branch of his profession, expressed a high confidence in their merit, learning, and abilities,