President from time to time, in consequence of his being in that place, either by virtue of grants of the General Court, rents or fees, and report thereon." 1

This Committee were directed by the House, Feb. 24th, 1757, to report at the next session. Being informed that they were not ready to do it then, the House voted "that the consideration of that affair be referred to the next May session"; and thus the affair appears to have terminated.

How far the subsequent grants of the Legislature corresponded to its engagements, or at least to the expectations and wants of the President, an opinion may be formed in some measure from the records in the Journals of the House of Representatives. It should, however, be borne in mind, that Massachusetts, while a province of Great Britain, abounded far less in wealth than in virtue, less in gold and silver than in spirit and intelligence; and that, in compliance with circumstances, the salaries of all her officers were adapted to a scale of the most rigid economy; not to mention the exhausted state of her resources, occasioned, particularly, by the wars with the French.

Annual grants were made to other officers of the College besides the President, as will be seen hereafter. The grants were made to them at the same time with those to public functionaries. "The House entered into the consideration of proper grants to civil officers," and then voted, first a sum of money to the Justices of the Superior Court of Judicature, next to the President of the College, the Secretary of the

1 Mass. Journal, 1756, pp. 479, 480.

Province, and so on through a list of persons who rendered services to the public in various capacities, including certain officers of the College. It was commonly in the winter session that this business was done.

24

CHAPTER XX.

THE first important measure, adopted by the College Government after President Holyoke's induction, was one of a very painful nature. It was the dismission of Professor Greenwood. December 7th, 1737, the Corporation voted to remove him from his office. From a spirit, however, of extreme forbearance, the Overseers deferred their decision till July 13th, 1738, when they passed their final vote, confirming the act of the Corporation. He held his office ten years and five months (from the time of his inauguration); and might have continued to hold it, with credit to himself and benefit to the College, had his wisdom and firmness been equal to his acknowledged abilities.'

He published "a philosophical Discourse concerning the Mutability and Changes of the Material World; read to the Students of Harvard College, April 7, 1731, upon the news of the death of Thomas Hollis Esq. of London, the most bountiful Benefactor to that Society." It abounds with marks, not only of a philosophical spirit, but of a lively fancy. With some alterations, principally verbal, it might be rendered, what would now be called, an elegant discourse. The most interesting part of it is that in which, five years before

1 He was elected in May, 1727, not quite six years after he was graduated, which was in 1721. Installed Feb. 13th, 1728. He was a classmate of two persons, who were greatly distinguished in their day, Dr. Charles Chauncy and Chief-Justice Stephen Sewall.

Butler published his celebrated work, he argues from the analogy of nature in favor of man's resurrection.

Little is known of him after his dismission. He went to Charleston, South Carolina, and there he died. October 22d, 1745.2

At the time of this excision of a diseased limb from the venerable trunk of Harvard, a young shoot of extraordinary vigor and promise was fortunately at hand, and ready for insertion into the vacant place.

The Corporation elected Mr. John Winthrop to fill the office, and presented him to the Overseers for their approval. The Overseers, Oct. 3d, 1738, voted "that a Committee be appointed to examine Mr. John Winthrop as to his knowlege in the Mathematicks, and that Col. William Dudley, Mr. President, and Mr. Danforth be the Committee aforesaid. Upon a motion made the question was put whether a Committee be appointed to examine Mr. Winthrop about his principles of religion before the approbation of him by the Overseers, and it passed in the negative."

On the 19th of the same month the Committee reported "that they had examined him as to his skill and knowledge in sundry parts of the Mathematicks and Natural Philosophy, and are of opinion, that he has made very great proficiency therein and is well qualified to sustain the office he is chosen to."

It was than moved that "the vote of the last meeting respecting the examination of Mr. Winthrope as to his principles of religion, be reconsidered;" but it was voted that the further consideration of this subject bè referred to the second Thursday of the next sessions of

Butler's Analogy was first printed in 1736.

2 Winthrop's MS. Catalogue.

the General Court, and that the members of the six towns be notified."

Accordingly, Dec. 7th, 1738, at the fullest meeting on record, excepting that in which the election of Mr. Holyoke was confirmed, "after a long debate the question was put again, whether a Committee be appointed to examine Mr. Winthrope about [his] principles of religion; and it passed in the negative.

It appears to have been thought by the liberal-minded majority, that a particular theological creed would render a man neither a better nor a worse instructer of Philosophy, and accordingly they now confirmed the election of the Corporation; satisfied, it should seem, with knowing, that while the requisite qualifications for discharging the appropriate duties of the office were possessed by Mr. Winthrop in an eminent degree, the young man's deportment was in all respects correct and exemplary.

This immunity, however, seems to have been confined to the Professor of Mathematics. Even the Tutors were examined as to their religious principles; and, no doubt, for this reason, that they, as well as the President and the Professor of Divinity, were at that period required, not only to perform religious services in the chapel, but to give religious instruction to their respective classes.

A few years before this, it appears, that the French instructer had been charged with propagating "dangerous errors among the undergraduates, and examined upon that subject; and the following proceedings took place in the Board of Overseers on that occasion:

"May 13, 1735. The Committee report, that upon discoursing with the Rev'd President and Tutors who had examined Mr. Longloissorie and a number of his