The deep interest which the students take in the recently adopted requirements for admission to Harvard College was shown by the large number who attended the debate of the Harvard Union last night. The first business before the meeting was the adoption of an amendment to the constitution by which the number of the executive committee is increased to five, the vice-president, ex-officio, and one member from each class. This committee will be announced to-morrow.

The vote on the merits of the question, Resolved: that the alterations in the requirements for admission into Harvard College are desirable, resulted in 45 votes for the affirmative, and 25 for the negative. J. H. Huddleston, '86 opened the debate for the affirmative, and G. P. Furber, '87, for the negative, followed by G. F. Davidson, '85, aff., and by H. M. Williams, '85, neg. On the secret ballot on the merits of arguments of principal disputants, the affirmative received 19 votes, and the negative 51.

When the debate was thrown open to the house, a very large number of gentlemen spoke from the floor, more than have ever before spoken at a Union debate. The following are the names of these gentlemen: affirmative, Messrs. Stedman, '87, Davis, '85, Robinson, '87, Hamilton, '87, McAfee, '87, Webster, '85, Hobson, '86, Rich, '87, Whittemore, '85, Griffin, '88. Negative, Garrison, '88, Hobbs, '85, Loeb, '88, Robinson, '85, Morrison, '87, Bliss, '88, Halbert, '85, Richardson, '86, Knapp, '87, Lloyd, '86, Sternberg, '87, and Truslow, '87. The vote on the merits of the debate as a whole stood, affirmative, 13; negative, 14.

It will be seen by the results of the several votes taken during the debate that the sentiment of the students was quite decidedly in favor of the innovation, but that the arguments were much stronger on the side of the classicists. The scholarship of the college was well represented among the speakers by the men who hold the first rank in the senior, junior and sophomore classes, two of these speaking in favor of, and one against the alterations in admission requirements. The speakers were nearly equally divided among the several classes, eighty-seven predominating for the first time this year at the Union debates.

Of the several questions submitted by the executive committee, the following was chosen for the next debate, which will probably be held on March 19: Resolved, That members of the President's Cabinet should be allowed on the floor of Congress with full powers to speak and vote.