Two days afterwards President Holyoke presented a memorial to the General Court on this subject; and on being admitted into the House, he "spoke to his memorial, and then withdrew." In the afternoon of the same day, it was ordered, after a full debate, that "one hundred pounds of the new-tenor bills should be allowed him from the public Treasury, in consideration of his extraordinary expences since the time of his instalment to this day."

In July, 1740, he was allowed £600 in "bills of the old tenor, or bills of the new tenor equivalent thereto." After that we meet with no grant to him till the 9th of January, 1741-2, when was voted "the sum of £150 per annum, for one year and a half (bills to be emitted in the supply bill now before the Court)"; but, upon his application, the sum of £50 of "the last emission " was, in June following, added to his annual

salary.

From that time the allowance annually made to him (which was always "over and above the rents of Massachusetts-Hall") varied for the most part from £200 to £300, Massachusetts currency. The sums generally voted were £250 or £200, which last amount was his allowance during the latter years of his presidency.

February 19th, 1756, immediately after the House had voted to the President the usual annual grant, then £250, it was ordered, that Mr. Speaker [the Hon. Thomas Hubbard], Mr. Gibbs, and Col. Otis, be a committee to confer with the Rev. President of Harvard College, to enquire into the conditions of his settlement in that office, and whether the engagements then made him have been fulfilled; and report thereon." The Committee made their report on the 17th

of April following, in which, after reciting in substance the vote passed June 16th, 1737, previously to the settlement of President Holyoke, they proceed to state, "That the said Edward Holyoke, in expectation and confidence, that this government would afford him a suitable and ample support, accepted that trust, and removed with his family to Cambridge, and has ever since performed the duties of his said office.

"That the grants since made the Reverend the President, together with the perquisites of his said office, have fallen so far short of affording him a suitable and ample support, as that he has been obliged to apply the proceeds of the sale of his mansion-house at Marblehead, and the rents of his own and his present wife's estate, for the support of himself and family.

"That barely the principal sums, he has so expended of his own estate, amount to more than nine hundred and fifty pounds lawful money; and could he have put the same on interest as he received it, and continued it so to this time, only the simple interest thereof would have amounted to above five hundred and ninety pounds more. And that of the proceeds of the sale of his house, which was fifteen hundred pounds old tenor in 1739, his rents, perquisites, gifts, and grants of the Government, he had only one hundred pounds lawful money left, when his salary was granted him this year. Signed, T. HUBBARD per order."

It was then ordered, "That this report be recommitted, and that James Bowdoin, Esq., and Mr. Tyng, be added to the Committee, and that they make enquiry what sums have been received by the Reverend

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.1

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.