COMMENCEMENT DINNER.

AT about 2.30 P. M. on Commencement Day the august procession of the Alumni entered Memorial Hall to the tune of "Johnny Morgan." The hall was well filled, though most of the recent Alumni had been attracted to the ball-game; and the exercises were undisturbed by any noisy demonstrations, or by any attempts on the part of the Sophomores to obtain a share of the "equal feast." At the close of the dinner, Professor John Langdon Sibley was conducted to the head of the table to lead the singing of the seventy-eighth psalm, after which Dr. Samuel Eliot, the President of the Alumni Association, arose and spoke as follows:-

"BRETHREN: These old familiar strains have set us in easy motion. The Spaniards have a proverb that 'leaving home is half the journey,' so much do they make of the start. But you are already on the threshold, and Harvard pilgrims, like those of Canterbury of long centuries ago, are quick to entertain themselves. Different men find many different attractions in a time like this, but I think we shall all of us agree that one of them, at least, is its evenness. The scales, elsewhere ascending and descending with great abruptness, here come to a quiet poise. We are from all sorts of pursuits, all sorts of hobbies, but here there is only one. We are of all ages, born in different years, graduating in different years; but here we are all of one age, we are all boys."

After some pleasant reminiscences, he introduced President Eliot, who was welcomed with cheers. After speaking of the new Gymnasium and other gifts to the University, which, during the past year, have amounted to over $300,000, the President said:-

"I am not one of those who fear that an unreasonable attention will be given to physical exercises and out-of-door sports at the University. Our four months of winter are a natural defence against exaggeration in this direction. It is much to be wished that our hardest-working students should come to believe, and to practise upon the belief, that a sound and vigorous body is in most cases indispensable to success in any active form of intellectual life.

"In my last annual report I proved by figures that, while we welcome hither alike the sons of the rich and the sons of the poor, the college is mainly recruited from the independent, well-to-do class, who are neither very rich nor very poor. For a poor man with brains Harvard is, I believe, the cheapest college in the country, because of our large scholarship funds. For a poor student without brains it is not to be recommended. I not infrequently have heard apprehension expressed lest, in consequence of the number of our scholarships, good scholarship should come to be associated with poverty, lest the 'digs' should all be poor men. That has not yet happened in this college. Out of the first eighty men in the class which graduated to-day only thirty were applicants for scholarships or beneficiary aid. That is, five eighths of the first half of the class were men whose parents or friends could provide for them. Out of the first fifty twenty-three only were candidates for scholarships. These facts prove that scholarly ambition prevails in good degree among that large majority of our students who do not feel the stimulus of impending want.

. . . . .

"You perhaps imagine that it is the children of men who have been educated here who now fill the college. Far from it. Not one in eight of the students now in college is the son of a man who has received a degree from the University, no matter in what department. It is one of the chief delights of those who have the privilege of devoting their lives to the service of this precious institution, that they work not alone for the generation which is now under their hands, but for the thronging generations of the future."

Dr. Samuel Eliot then alluded to the fact that when Colonel Sever was in college he was only saved from being "rusticated" by the interference of the President, and thus the Sever bequest was insured. He recommended the matter to President Eliot as a good result of easy discipline. Turning to Governor Rice, he said, "I shall enter upon no encomium to Massachusetts. Here she stands, and here she sits."

After a brief speech by Governor Rice, Lord Dufferin was presented, and was greeted with three hearty cheers. He closed as follows:-

"But, gentlemen, it is not alone these considerations which move me to express my gratitude for the honor which you have done me. I have had the extreme honor to have been admitted to the acquaintanceship of some of your most distinguished men, Mr. Longfellow, Mr. Emerson, Mr. Holmes. In my own country I have had even the greater honor of receiving under my roof such men as Prescott, Hawthorne, and Motley. And when I consider that through your grace I have been domiciled, so to speak, within the precincts of that sacred University whence they derived their inspiration, and where, during a youth of high endeavor and unceasing industry and self-sacrifice, they laid sure and deep the foundations of that world-wide fame which now reflects such honor upon the University which sent them forth, I naturally am deeply moved.

"In conclusion, gentlemen, I cannot sit down without expressing to you my warmest admiration of the scene at which I was permitted to assist this morning. The dignity, the solemnity of that performance has made a most profound impression upon my mind. And above all, when I consider the amount of rhetorical ability, of learning, of philosophical acumen, I cannot help saying to myself, if the young America of to-day can produce such evidences of talent what will be the America of the future?"

The Hon. Robert C. Winthrop was next introduced. After complimenting Lord Dufferin, and paying a tribute to the English language, he said:-

"I am here in special trust, charged to represent the class of 1828, and to say such few words as I may be able to say at all, in strict reference to our Golden Wedding, on this fiftieth anniversary of our marriage to the Muses, whom we had courted for four years previously in the shades of Harvard, and from whom we won, after all, only a Bachelor's Degree!"

He then described the Commencement in 1828, and closed as follows:-

"It only remains for us who linger a little longer to remember affectionately those who are gone before, to thank God for sparing our own lives, and to resolve to continue doing whatever it may still be in our power to do, for the honor of our class, for the good of our fellow-man, and for the prosperity and welfare of our beloved Alma Mater. Let us hope that we may never be counted among her unworthy or ungrateful children!"

Other speakers were Colonel Henry Lee, the Treasurer of the Memorial Fund, Hon. Leverett Saltonstall for the Board of Overseers, and Rev. Edward Everett Hale for the class of 1839. The exercises closed at 6.30 P. M., with the singing of "Auld Lang Syne."