SEVERAL letters have appeared of late in the Spirit of the Times written by a Cornell correspondent, which are full of the most unwarranted attacks on Yale and Harvard. It would, perhaps, be better to treat his remarks with the silent contempt they deserve, but we feel that it is of the utmost importance to preserve kindly feeling between the two colleges, and therefore we cannot let it pass unnoticed. That this gentleman expresses the opinions of his college in the matter we do not believe, and yet it is singular that he should have been allowed to go on writing to the "Spirit" for the last month uncontradicted, if his sentiments were opposed to those of the college. The New York Herald says that the article in our sporting column was instrumental in causing Cornell to withdraw her challenge. The withdrawal of that challenge is a subject of regret; but we must confess that Cornell has availed herself of a poor pretext, if, as is currently reported, she has made use of our sporting column for that purpose. The position of the two colleges is this: if Oxford accepts Harvard's challenge, we must go abroad and row her, and we must go entirely without reference to winning or losing our race or races in this country. With Yale we must row in any case; with Columbia and Cornell probably. Suppose that Yale, Columbia, and Cornell were all to beat us; this would not affect our rowing Oxford, but we could not then go as "champions," on which so many seem to insist. A race for the "championship," while a very desirable thing, is by no means essential, as Oxford was not challenged to row the "champion" American crew, but simply Harvard University. This is the reason of our "indifference" about the Cornell and Columbia race. Cornell has everything to gain and nothing to lose; with us it is just the reverse. We asked her in a gentlemanly way to give us a little time to complete our negotiations with England; she seizes on this as a pretext for withdrawing her challenge. All the "Spirit's" correspondent can say in his accusations of cowardice and unfairness will never convince any one but his sympathizers that Harvard has acted, or desired to act, in other than an open, fair, and manly way in this or any other matter. His accusations of unfairness and faint-heartedness are, in view of Cornell's withdrawal of her challenge, particularly ill-timed.