A Statement by Dr. McCosh.

Dr. McCosh has written the following letter under date of "College of New Jersey, Princeton, N. J., Nov. 15, 1886": -

I hasten to express my acceptance of the explanation given by Dr. Holmes. that only two lines of his poem relate to Princeton. As I heard him read, without the pronunciation now in his printed poem, I understood that the following four lines referred to Princeton: -

O'er Princeton's sands the far reflections steal,

Where mighty Edwards stamped his mighty heel.

Nay, on the hill where old beliefs were found,

Fast as if Styx had girt them nine times round.

But he now explains that the two last of these lines relate to Andover. I must therefore leave them with that institution.

I have also to acknowledge the favors shown by Harvard College to me personally in the matter of a degree, and could expect nothing further. But the fact remains that on the occasion of an important anniversary the good-will shown so other institutions all about us was withheld from Princeton, which I was invited to represent. I acknowledge that Harvard had a right to bestow its honors where it choses, but, surrounded as I am by a body of professors carrying on an original research and printing their results for the public in books and periodicles, I thought it strange that no notice was taken of our college. I still feel that I had the right to give expression to my feelings of indignation as Harvard had to withhold the recognition she gave to others.

I wish the public to understand that this is the first communication I have sent to the press on this subject.

JAMES MCCOSH. - Boston Record.