The action taken by the overseers in recommending that no degrees be here-after conferred save for merit only, is the direct outcome of the Butler debate of two years ago, and should meet with approval by every one who desires to maintain the dignity and meaning of the higher degrees. Every commencement time has become, under the habit of bestowing honorary degrees, a time not of recognizing merit and rewarding it, but an occasion for an undignified attempt to increase the influence of a college by giving men, eminent in other departments than in learning, titles which are properly the reward of only scholarship and high literary ability. This evil does not exist to as great a degree in our larger colleges that have reputations, and are careful of them, as it does in the smaller institutions of learning, that are eager to claim some great man as an adopted son, and therefore select several promising public men, in the expectation that perchance one of them may hereafter become famous, and aid with his influence and money that college that first recognized and endorsed him.

This recommendation of the overseers should be adopted by all the leading colleges of our land, and in this way, by united action, the tendency to degrade the good old meaning that has been attached to these former exclusive titles of learning can be corrected, and in the end, a standard for conferring the higher degrees established, that will reflect additional honor on the giver, and on the recipient.