The committee of overseers to whom was referred the petition of the students that compulsory attendance at prayers should be discontinued have made public their reasons for not granting the petition. It is denied that "compulsory attendance upon prayers is a religious test." It is urged that "in becoming a member of any association, a person resigns a portion of his civil liberty in order to comply with the rules of the association. It is entirely competent for the governing boards to require daily attendance upon recitations and lectures, and this, without any undue encroachment on daily prayers, if deemed expedient, and if required only where there are no conscientious reasons for omitting the service, belongs to the same category with other requisitions made by college authority." This is the principal argument why attendance at prayers can be required. Many reasons are given why it is inexpedient to abolish the attendance. "First and least of all is the reason that the college can ill afford the loss of reputation which would ensue on its being the first of all literary institutions in New England to abandon religious observances." Again many of the real reasons why the students desire the abolition of the attendance are unworthy of attention. Some students do not care to have their morning slumbers interrupted, others wish to be able to reduce their attendance at Cambridge to a minimum. It is advanced in support of retaining the prayers, that they are the only provision in the college for express religious instruction, and the only mode in which it can be obtained, except in the classes of the Divinity School. Moreover, the service is held in "a well warmed chapel," and its duration is from 10 to 14 minutes. In view of the present state of circumstances, the committee give it as their belief that "the only alternative is, either to continue the present system with its generous allowance of absences, or to discontinue the service."

The report states the reasons for and against the petition at some length, and, from their point of view, is a just view of the question.