The daily morning journal and courier., 1902-06-21


 Great Interest.
 At the graduating exercises of the
 senior class of the Hopkins Grammai
 School held Thursday afternoon the
 programme was made especially inter
 esting by the able address of Judge
 Simeon E. Baldwin. It was an histori- 4 cal adress of great interest and was as
 follows:
 There are two venerable institutions
 in New Haven, and only two, which ex-
 isted when it was the center of an in-
 dependent Colony.
 Two hundred and forty years ago the
 Colony of New Haven passed away, by
 the common fate of nations, absorbed
 by a neighboring Colony that was
 stronger and more aggressive. But the
 dead colony left here a living church
 and a living school Religion and edu-
 cation survive empire. They are the
 forces out of which all governments
 emerge; all, that is, that are worthy of
 the name.
 The first church of Christ in New Ha- ven was constituted in 1889. The Hop kins Grammar School followed twenty one years later During the intervening period, great events in church and state had changed the whole fabric of society
 
 in Great Britain.
 Men who stood for the opinions that had sent Davenport and Eaton, and Winthrop and Haynes and Hooker across the sea- but had remained at home, were now in control at home. They had beheaded their king and founded free commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell and as his successor. The tide of emigration from England to New England had stopped It had even begun to flow back Whitfield, the first pastor, and Desborough, the first mag istrate had returned from Guilford- Whitfield to resume his work a5 par ish clergyman and become canon of Winchester cathedral Desborough to be made Keeper of the Great Seal of Scot land Hooker, the teacher, or associate pastor of the New Haven church had gone to London to be one of the chap lains of the Lord Protector. Edward Hopkins former governor of Connec- ticut, had proceeded him, and with Samuel Desborough had seat in Crom- wells last parliament To Hopkins who was q man of wealth and com- missioner of the admiralty, John Dav- export had written in 1855 of the deter imitation of the colony of New Haven to establish here a small college, such as the day of small things will permit for the education of youth in good liter ature, to fit them for public service in church and commonwealth. A favor able reply was received in 1856, and the | next year Hopkins, shortly before his | death, made his will, leaving to Daven- port and others in New England as | trustees. sum considerable for those | times, "to give some encouragement in | those foreign plantations for the breed | ing up of hopeful youths, both at the | grammar school and college, for the public service of the country in future | times
 Upon the funds thus bequeathed, the | Hopkins Grammar School of New Ha- ven was established in 1860. Two things | are worth our notice in the terms of this legacy. Hopkins was wiser than Day. export. He foresaw that a college mig11 prove beyond the means of the colony. The money might be used, therefore, should it be thought best, for a grammar school.
 He pointed out, too, the true end of a boys education, as he saw 1t, as hope all see it, namely, to fit him for doing service to his country in future years.
 The country in Hopkins mind, was Great Britain, of which New Haven colony was then part
 He did not anticipate the American Revolution.
 But he did foresee that the country to which the youth educated by his aid would belong, would prosper in direct proportion to the intelligence of it's in- and would be led by those whom education had made fit to lead,
 The exercises of this afternoon bring Q close the two hundred and forty second year of the Hopkins Grammar School. It has been marked by two un- lsual events: the accession of a new 'ector, and the preparation of cata- ( ogue of the Alumni.
 I say unusual and yet review of the ( history of the school shows that during much of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, as the women of Rome under he empire were said to date time, not rom the annual consus, but their an- lual husbands, the Hopkins Grammar school had it's annual or at best it's 4 ,iennial rector It's connection with Yale has always een of the closest, and what the Ger nans have called the pedagogical year, yhich follows the university, was often he occasion for one rector's going out nd another rector's coming in. The nthusiasm of youth; the eagerness to hare fresh requirements, which char cterize all generous minds; the com cling power of ewgained knowledge these, no doubt, were the inspiration H many of these men as they began the gal duties of life by stepping from the z stage to the teachers E esk And on the other hand, the lack E f all experience, and the absence of nv established perspective of vision, - ust often have led to a range of teach ,,- houo tho baa5c of tha p11S that 1