The Boston Latin School Anniversary.

The records of Boston contain the announcement that on the "13th of the 2nd moneth 1635, at a General meeting upon public notice it was generally agreed upon, that our brother Phileman Pormort shall be entreated to become schole-master for the teaching and nourtering of children with us." Last Thursday evening the alumni of the school thus founded and to-day known as the Boston Latin School, assembled in the drill hall of the school building to celebrate the two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the foundation of the oldest school on the continent. The Latin School is one year older than Harvard, and is the staunchest adherent to it among the preparatory schools. The performance of the evening was:- Prayer, Rev. J. F. Clarke, D. D.; Music; Presentation of Portrait of Mr. Epes Jargent Dixwell; Ode, Carmen Seculare, written by Mr. Dixwell; Poem, Mr. Robert Grant; Music; Oration, Rev. Phillips Brooks, D. D.

Mr. Dixwell was master of the school from 1836 to 1851. In 1830, he, as a candidate for the degree of A. M., delivered at commencement at Harvard, a Latin Oration. Mr. Grant, an alumnus of the school, read a poem which, while it abounded in witty allusions to the past history of the school and its masters, had a serious purpose, and embodied the idea of the writer in a most striking manner. The music, which was furnished by a select chorus, under the direction of Mr. Geo. L. Osgood, was of the highest order. A solo sung by Mr. Osgood, was rendered in a most artistic manner, and was one of the most pleasant features of the evening. The Carmen Seculare was in imitation of Horace, and as a Latin poem fairly successful. One of its most characteristic stanzas was, Trans mare et terras vehimur vapore; Frereo filo loquimuriper orbem Gentium; nec est tonitrus domandus; Servit et ipse.

The oration by Dr. Brooks was a striking testimony to the place which the old school has found in the hearts of its graduates and breathed through every word a love and veneration for the famous school. The speaker spoke at some length of the past history of the school from the time when it occupied a shed on Spring Lane to the present time when it occupies the finest public school building in the world.

He spoke of the three great masters in the three great periods of the school's life.- Cheever in the seventeenth century, Lovell in the eighteenth, and Gardner in the nineteenth. The school was the teacher of many of the most prominent men of the country. Within its walls John Hancock learned to trace the name which stands first among the signers of the Declaration of Independence. Here were educated the Adamses, Paul Revere, Charles Sumner, Wendell Phillips, Emerson, Beecher, President Eliot, and a host of men who have stamped themselves on the minds of men. The speaker declared himself in favor of the course of President Eliot on the Greek question, and said that the classics cannot be today what they have been in the past. He believed in making them elective and allowing them a chance to compete on an equal basis with other studies. The oration was in every way worthy of the orator, and evinced a profound sympathy with the school and its workings.

Previous to the oration the Latin School Association was presented through Dr. Reynolds with a full length portrait of Mr. Dixwell, the president of the association.

The anniversary was held in the large drill hall of the school, which had been decorated for the occasion. Long before the hour announced on the programme the hall was filled with an audience composed of the best citizens of Boston. Many students from Harvard were present. The officers of the battalion, in full uniform, acted as ushers. The speaker's desk was draped with the banner which the Latin School company, composed of alumni of the school, carried through the Rebellion. This quarter-millenial celebration of the school will long be remembered as one of the proudest and most successful events in its history.