Shortly before three o'clock, 1,200 alumni and invited guests sat down to the collation. Judge Devens, president of the Alumni Association, presided. On his left were seated President Cleveland and his cabinet officers, and on his right President Eliot and the representatives of foreign universities. Dr. McKenzie was requested by Judge Devens to ask the blessing, after which all rose and joined in singing "St. Martin's" hymn. Judge Devens opened the speaking with a long and very able address.

After Judge Devens had ceased speaking, two verses of "Fair Harvard" were sung by the anniversary chorus. Judge Devens then said:-

I give you, brethren, our first sentiment: Our alma mater - In grateful memory of her instructions, her sons come to-day by thousands to do her honor.

As President Eliot arose, three hearty cheers were given.

Mr. President, Graduates of Harvard College: At this high festival, in which tender recollections and hopeful anticipations, thanksgivings for the past and aspirations for the future, are mingling, we all think first of our beloved country -

Old at our birth, new as the springing hours,

Shrine of our weakness, fortress of our powers,

Consoler, kindler, peerless 'mid her peers,

and we salute him who here honorably represents her. [Colonel Lee proposed three cheers for the president, which were heartily given.]

The reply to the toast was the following: -

Next, we give thanks and praises to Massachusetts, colony, province, commonwealth. Hers was the far-seeing and far reaching act we celebrate; hers was the generative deed, done in loneliness and poverty, but in faith. Today 50,000,000 of people in wealth and strength and liberty share its fruits.

Then we greet the representatives of other institutions of learning who have come to rejoice with us, and we welcome the men distinguished in the public service and the professions, in letters, science, or art, whose favoring presence adds lustre to our assembly.

To all these guests you, the graduates of Harvard College, bid hearty welcome. But who shall welcome the welcomers? You need no welcome here. Familiar rooms and paths, hands of comrades and friends, joyous and tender memories, and the visions of your youth have welcomed you.

Why has this throng come up, out of the bustle and strife of the forum and the market place, to our academic seat? What spirit stirs this multitude to-day? You have come to pay homage to the university of your love, and through it to all universities; because in them truth is sought, knowledge increased and stored, literature, science and art are fostered, and honor, duty, and piety are taught. The spirit in which you come is a spirit of profound and well-grounded hopefulness.

And universities are among the most permanent of human institutions; they outlast particular forms of government and even the legal and industrial institutions in which they seem to be embedded. Harvard University already illustrates this transcendant vitality Its charter, granted in 1650, is in force to-day in every line, having survived in perfect integrity the prodigious political, social and commercial changes of more than two centuries. And still, after more than two centuries, do Winthrops, Endicotts, Saltonstalls, Bulkleys, Danforths, Rogerses, Hoars and Wigglesworths represent at these tables the founders of the college and the Commonwealth. Here, too, by our sides sit Adamses, Quincys, Cushings, Paines, Wards, Warrens, Emersons, and Pickerings, recalling the qualities, and even the features of our heroes, of the Revolutionary period. So may our descendants shout in this very hall, when 50 years, hence, the President shall recall heroic names of our day, and shall exhort another generation to be worthy of their father's fame.