COLUMBIA COLLEGE.

AT what period the design of establishing a college in New York was first seriously entertained does not appear. The earliest intimation that has been discovered of any such design "is contained in the records of Trinity Church. From them it appears that as early as the year 1703, the Rector and Wardens were directed to wait upon Lord Cornbury, the Governor, to know what part of the King's Farme, then vested in Trinity Church, had been intended for the college which he designed to have built."—Address delivered before the Alumni of Col. Coll. by C. C. Moore.

Some such plan was thought of again, it seems, in 1729, during Berkeley's residence in this country; and when disappointed as regarded Bermuda, he sought to transfer the establishment which had been intended for that island to place on the American Continent, which would probably have been New York."-Chandler's Life of Johnson.

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But Berkeley's benevolent design having altogether failed, we find no mention of this subject until near twenty years afterwards, when several

laws of the Colony were passed for raising moneys by way of lottery, towards the founding of a college therein; and Bishop Berkeley, in a letter of August 23d, 1749, to Dr. Johnson, who resided then at Hartford, in Connecticut, says: "For the rest, I am glad to find a spirit toward learning prevails in those parts, particularly New York, where you say a college is projected, which has my best wishes.'

The earliest of the laws just now alluded to, received the Governor's assent on the 6th of December, 1746, nnd was entitled "An act for raising the sum of two thousand two hundred and fifty pounds, by a public lottery for this colony, for the encouragement of learning, and towards the founding a college within the same.'

Other similar acts followed, and in November, 1751, the moneys raised by means of them, amounting then to £3,443 18s. od., were vested in trustees. Of these trustees, ten in number, two belonged to the Dutch Reformed Church, one was a Presbyterian, but seven were members of the Church of England, and some of these seven were also vestrymen of Trinity Church. These circumstancesthe known sentiments of this large majority of the trustees-their well understood, and very natural desire, that the proposed college should be connected with their church-might sufficiently

account for the offer made to them by Trinity Church, not long after their appointment, " of any reasonable quantity of the Church farm, (which was not let out) for erecting, and use of a college;" from what has been already stated, however, respecting the first mention of a college in the province-from the inquiry addressed by Trinity Church to Lord Cornbury, in 1703-it may not unreasonably be inferred, that the then recent grant of the King's Farm to that corporation, had been made with a view to the advancement of learning as well as of religion; that some condition to that effect had been at least implied, on occasion of that grant.

If such were the case, the present offer from the church was but the carrying out, after a lapse of fifty years, of this original design.

As regards the offer now made to the Trustees, it seems highly probable that some such conditions as we find afterwards expressed in the conveyance from the Church to the College, when actually made, were, from the first, in contemplation of the parties, and understood between them; but neither in the proposal from the Church, on the 8th of April, 1752, nor in the report made thereof by the Trustees to the Assembly, more than two years afterwards, is there mention of any conditions whatever. The natural inference, however, which

has been suggested, as to their existence, and the jealous apprehensions entertained of any, the smallest, approach to a church-establishment within the province, caused violent opposition to the plan, as soon as it became known, of obtaining a royal charter for the college.

This opposition, and the angry controversy to which it gave rise, delayed the granting of the charter of King's College, which was finally obtained on October 31st, 1754.

Previously, however, to the granting of the charter, the friends of the proposed College had not been inactive. On the 22d of November, 1753, the Trustees, previously designated, determined to invite the Rev. Dr. Samuel Johnson, of Stratford, to accept the presidency of the intended college, with a salary of £250, and Mr. Chauncey Whittlesey, of New Haven, as his assistant, with a salary of £200. They were sensible, they said, that the salary proposed for Dr. Johnson (though as much as they were able to offer) was inadequate to his merit; but they expressed their belief, that the vestry of Trinity Church would readily agree to make a sufficient addition thereto; and such of the Trustees as were also vestrymen, were desired to recommend this measure to the vestry. And that appears to have been done accordingly ; for on the 7th of January, 1754, the Trustees in