competent and learned ministry;" took measures for displaying before the next General Assembly a program of their design, with a view to obtain the approbation of the Supreme Judicatory of our church on their object, and were happily successful; and erected a committee with ample powers and full instructions, to whom it was wholly referred, consisting of three members from each of the Presbyteries of Niagara, Ontario, Bath, Geneva, Cayuga, and Onondaga: of this Committee, the Rev. William Wisner, then of Ithaca, was chairman; ever an influential and useful friend of. the Institution, though lately removed by feeble health from Western New-York, where his labors have been so valuable for many years. The Institution was incorporated, April 14, 1820. The Rev. Dr. Richards, then of Newark, N. J. was unanimously elected to the Professorship of Theology, July 13, 1820, but declined at that time the office. Dr. Perrine, then resident here, and Dr. Mills, then of Woodbridge, N. J. were unanimously elected to their present offices, on Wednesday, May 2, 1821, and Dr. Lansing was unanimously elected, at the same time, to the Professorship of Sacred Rhetoric and Pastoral Theology. They all accepted promptly the appointment, and were regularly inaugurated on the tenth of July following. The professors of the institution were constituted a Faculty, and entrusted with the administration of its concerns, by the Board of Commissioners recognised in the Act of Incorporation; the Board being constituted of two ministers and one elder, annually elected, from each of "the Presbyteries of Niagara, Genesee, Rochester, Bath, Ontario, Geneva, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, St. Lawrence, and such other Presbyteries as shall hereafter associate with the Synod of Geneva, for the purpose aforesaid." On "the second Wednesday of October," 1821, the Seminary was opened for the reception of students. At the last meeting of the Board of Commissioners, other Presbyteries were invited to "associate" with those whose representatives they are, in sending their Commissioners henceforth, and so participating in the government of the Seminary; especially the three Presbyteries in the city of New-York. The Institution looks to the friends of piety in connection with our own church, in that city, for some farther tributes of their generous appreciation of the West; especially to an effort now in progress, to complete its establishment, and supply its mightier wants, in a way adequate comparatively to the largeness and the grandeur of its design. The Rev. Mr. Phelps, who delivered the charge herein contained, has accepted an agency, or rather the agency of this measure; to whom the public are referred, and from whose valuable services are expected results of importance and success. The embarrassments of the Institution were once signally relieved by the generous dona tion of fifteen thousand dollars, endowing the Professorship of Christian Theology. The benevolent individual whose heart is disciplined to devise such liberal things, chose characteristically to be anonymous and invisible in the transaction; in which the services of Eleazer Lord, Esq. acting as his attorney, were generously and memorably rendered to the cause. The grant was dated at New-York, Aug. 15, 1823, and the donor has become known only by public inference. How well it were, and how much better than it is, had the public made inferences, in related cases, always as legitimate, as impartial, and as just! Then had signal worth been unassailed by infidel detraction, by malignant envy, by persecution furious and implacable! Then had posterity less to censure in the censurers, less to praise in the majesty of principle and the manliness of heroic trust in God! But his epitaph is not yet written; nor does it seem that the interests of the church, the rights of man, or the cause of God, can soon spare him for the reward of grace that awaits him in a world of glory, according to the humble but not uncertain hope of the Christian. Serus in coelum redeas, diuque Ocior aura Tollat. Hic magnos potius triumphos The donor named the Professorship in honor of the prospective incumbent; as appears in the sequel of these reminiscences. Dr. Richards was unanimously re-elected to his present office Sept. 10, 1823, and inaugurated on Wednesday, Oct. 29, of the same year. The following obligation is subscribed by every student indispensably; namely, "Deeply impressed with a sense of the importance of improving in knowledge, prudence, and piety, I solemnly promise, in a reliance on divine grace, that I will faithfully and diligently attend to the instructions of this Seminary; and that I will conscientious |