NEW HAVEN, March 2, 1887.

There is no subject capable of arousing as much interest among the Yale students as base-ball. It is consequently not surprising that the proposed changes in the make-up of the base-ball association, extremely radical as they are, should have stirred the college community to its depths. When the proposition was first made it was generally looked upon with favor. The idea of boiling the association down to a triangular one, composed of the three leading base-ball colleges, was attractive. It gave promise of more interesting games, larger gate receipts, and a raising of the standard of the game generally. This feeling did not last until the mass meeting, however. The more men thought over the matter, the greater grew the obstacles. To be sure, several men who had been in base ball and foot-ball conventions (Captains Camp, Walden, Terry, Richards, Peters and Corwin) opposed the plan strongly on the ground that Yale would be one in three. But the cause of the opposition which grew up among the majority of men was both a sympathy for the interests of the smaller colleges and a prevailing opinion that while Yale had little to gain by the change she had all to lose. For these two reasons, then, Yale has acted as she has, and as to whether she is willing to enter any new league, consisting of a larger yet limited number of colleges, as has been suggested, no definite answer can yet be made.

The classes are now all hard at work in the middle of the long term, which has no break till July, save a few days at Easter. The advantages offered to the students in the way of lectures are exceedingly attractive, and are being enjoyed to a greater or less extent by all. The courses are: Mechanics, in Sheffield Hall, a series of fourteen lectures upon subjects of a popular nature; a course under the auspices of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, given on Wednesday evenings from time to time throughout the year; the Dwight Hall lectures on Monday evenings in the new Y. M. C. A. building. given by eminent divines of various denominations; and, finally, the lectures, to graduates which are also open to other members of the University, begin this evening by Gen. Francis A. Walker on the "Source of Business Profits." The Kent Club of the Law School begin their annual course next week. Mark Twain, among others, has promised to address the students. Moreover, every Tuesday, Professor Sumner lectures on Political Economy; every Wednesday, Professor Beers on English Literature, and every Friday, Professor Wheeler on English History.

The spare time, therefore, of the undergraduates may be fully taken up, and it seems to be a fact that the students as a class are improving these opportunities much more than has been usual in past years.