For some time the authorities of Yale college have been considering a change in the appointment of commencement speakers. It is intended to abolish the ancient institutions of salutatory and valedictory addresses. The first step has already been taken in the abolition of the Latin salutatory. This is again an advance in the direction of progress. An institution which has long ceased to be useful, except in these colleges which still retain the old prescribed system can hardly be necessary and should at once give way before the new order of college study. In a system which has abolished that course of instruction of which the valedictory is, the index and highest honor, such an honor is not only useless, but calculated to raise censure upon the system itself. The day of the valedictorian who stands up as an exponent of the system in which he has been trained, has, at least, among those colleges which pretend to a university training, passed away, and it is fitting that the institution itself should follow.

The number of students who pass a portion of the loug vacation at Cambridge is increasing yearly. At first the only students who devoted the summer months to study at Harvard were those who elected the summer courses in chemistry, either for the purpose of doing up their work for the coming year, or because they desired to offer the work thus performed as a substitute for the chemistry courses required in the Medical School. Of these summer students, however, the larger number were students from other colleges, or persons not other-wise connected with the university. This, year, however, a large number of the regular undergraduates of the college will remain in residence. Of these the greater part will study chemistry, but many will devote their time to Political Economy and to other subjects in which the library affords facilities for research.