OLD AND NEW

Excerpt

In the collegiate churches and cathedrals of England, before the sermon the preacher, in what is known as the "bidding prayer," asks the people, often in very quaint phraseology, to pray, among other things, for the estates of the realm, and then he offers a special prayer of thanks for the liberality of founders and benefactors, "men in their generation famous and in ours never to be forgotten." At Oxford in the university church every Sunday in term, it is interesting to hear recalled the memory of Duke Humphrey, Lady Margaret and other worthies. And whoever the preacher may be he finally mentions the founders and famous men of his particular college.

Following this happy custom, I would ask you in the first place to be profoundly thankful to the men of 1799 who gave this faculty to the country and who made this day possible. Out