The Yale Presidency.

The recent resignation of President Porter has been the chief topic of conversation among undergraduates and graduates of Yale in this city. No event, it may be said, that has occurred at Yale within the last decade has occasioned such a stir in the college or has called forth so much general discussion from all classes alike.

He who looks back on President Porter's administration will find it one of progress. Every department of the university has been improved, and that too in spite of a scarcity of money; and while no small share of the improvement is due to others than the outgoing president, yet it must all be put down as having been brought about during his fourteen years in the presidency. The two Divinity School buildings, the Farnam and Durfee dormitories, the beautiful Battell Chapel, the Sloane Laboratory, and the initial steps in the erection of Lawrence Hall and the Young Men's Christian Association building - all of these will be recorded by the historian of President Porter's career as head of the college. The remarkable growth and present excellence of the Sheffield Scientific School, the broadening of the elective system, and the endowment of additional professorships in very important studies must also be taken into account. As president he has been ever faithful, as teacher ever kind and sympathetic, and no presiding officer of Yale ever laid down his trust who commanded deeper respect from the young men under him.

Who will be his successor is the question now agitating the college world. Opinion is by no means concentrated on any one choice. Some are in favor of a businessman, a man whose executive abilities and not his deep learning shall recommend him. Others are in favor of a man of recognized ability as an instructor, and one acquainted with all the most approved educational methods, yet not a man of so-called dangerous conservative ideas; he must not be a clergyman, nor must he be prejudiced against the value of classical training. To satisfy this class the next president must be a sort of compromise between the "conservative" and "progressive" elements. A third faction would choose for the office a representative of the conservative school, above all a Congregational minister. This last class, it must be confessed, is the smallest of the trio. The first class is made up of a small minority of the body of alumni, and possibly a professor or two. The second class is the strongest, and if predictions are in order, it is quite safe to say that Yale's next president will be a man of their pattern, though it is likely they will have to yield in their requirement that he must not be a clergyman.

President Porter's own ideas of the sort of man for his successor, although he never before publicly expressed them, have been made known by the article published in the current number of the New Englander.

This parting utterance from the President will not be without its effect. In fact, there is a growing tendency here to coincide with his views. This is especially the case when it is considered that after all the college is not getting along so badly. To be sure the present freshman class is unduly small, but that has been accounted for in more ways than one. In general, then, it may be said Yale is prosperous, turns out creditable graduates, and maintains its usual high standard.

Of candidates for the outgoing President's office there are very many. The charter, so ably defended by President Porter, requires the choice of a clergyman, a consideration which bars out such men as ex-President White of Cornell; President Gilman of Johns Hopkins, General Francis A. Walker, and certain members of the faculty whose names have been proposed. True, it would be easy to ordain either of such men as was done in President Woolsey's case, but it is not likely that such a step will be taken. At present, the indications are that the professor of Sacred Literature, Timothy Dwight, has the inside track. He is said to be a man of liberal views on education, and may be put down as the compromise candidate of the two opposing elements. He is a man of broad learning, a bright and witty talker and writer, and an advocate of the university idea as against the college idea. His selection by the Corporation, would, of course, disappoint many, but on the other hand, it would be applauded by others, among whom are many members of the faculty. - New Haven letter in Evening Post.