“The Professor of Divinity, two ministers of the town, and another minister, having accompanied me to the Library about 1, P.M., the middle Tutor waited upon me there, and informed me that the examination was finished, and they were ready for the presentation.  I gave leave, being seated in the Library between the above ministers.  Hereupon the examiners, preceded by the Professor of Mathematics, entered the Library, and introduced thirty candidates, a beautiful sight!  The Diploma Examinatorium, with the return and minutes inscribed upon it, was delivered to the President, who gave it to the Vice-Bedellus, directing him to read it.  He read it and returned it to the President, to be deposited among the College archives in perpetuam rei memoriam.  The senior Tutor thereupon made a very eloquent Latin speech, and presented the candidates for the honors of the College.  This presentation the President in a Latin speech accepted, and addressed the gentlemen examiners and the candidates, and gave the latter liberty to return home till Commencement.  Then dismissed.

“At about 3, P.M., the afternoon exercises were appointed to begin.  At 3-1/2, the bell tolled, and the assembly convened in the chapel, ladies and gentlemen.  The President introduced the exercises in a Latin speech, and then delivered the Diploma Examinatorium to the Vice-Bedellus, who, standing on the pulpit stairs, read it publicly.  Then succeeded,—­

  Cliosophic Oration in Latin, by Sir Meigs. 
  Poetical Composition in English, by Sir Barlow. 
  Dialogue, English, by Sir Miller, Sir Chaplin, Sir Ely. 
  Cliosophic Oration, English, by Sir Webster. 
  Disputation, English, by Sir Wolcott, Sir Swift, Sir Smith. 
  Valedictory Oration, English, by Sir Tracy. 
  An Anthem.  Exercises two hours.”—­p. 121.

PRESIDENT.  In the United States, the chief officer of a college or university.  His duties are, to preside at the meetings of the Faculty, at Exhibitions and Commencements, to sign the diplomas or letters of degree, to carry on the official correspondence, to address counsel and instruction to the students, and to exercise a general superintendence in the affairs of the college over which he presides.

At Harvard College it was formerly the duty of the President “to inspect the manners of the students, and unto his morning and evening prayers to join some exposition of the chapters which they read from Hebrew into Greek, from the Old Testament, in the morning, and out of English into Greek, from the New Testament, in the evening.”  At the same College, in the early part of the last century, Mr. Wadsworth, the President, states, “that he expounded the Scriptures, once eleven, and sometimes eight or nine times in the course of a week.”—­Harv.  Reg., p. 249, and Quincy’s Hist.  Harv.  Univ., Vol.  I. p. 440.

Similar duties were formerly required of the President at other American colleges.  In some, at the present day, he performs the duties of a professor in connection with those of his own office, and presides at the daily religious exercises in the Chapel.