Columbia College.

The annual report of President Barnard on the condition of Columbia College has just been published. The part referring to the graduate department is of special interest to Harvard, as Columbia, in this branch, is the only American college which can at present compete with our own University. Columbia is now considering the advisibility of raising the whole scheme of education to a higher plane, to give more attention to the advanced students than to those in the other departments.

Professor Barnard says that the work of the graduate department could be made of enough magnitude to give occupation to all professors now engaged in all departments of the college. The undergraduate department could easily be abolished and attention given exclusively to the graduate deparment, too little attention to which is paid in this country. On the other hand, such has been the excessive multiplicity of undergraduate colleges in this country in recent years, that, to quote Professor Barnard, "The business of these colleges is greatly overdone, and it would certainly be a material benefit to the educational interests of the country if a large proportion of the existing colleges could be suppressed. From statistics gathered by the undersigned in former years with great labor it was made manifest that while in the last half century the proportion of students in arts in American colleges has been gradually but steadily diminishing, the number of colleges has on the other hand, more than correspondingly increased.

"Since about 1837 the population of the country has increased four-fold, and the number of colleges three-fold, while the number of students in arts has in the meantime only doubled. In the country generally the number of students under instruction at any given time is in a proportion of about 1 to 2000 or 2,500. In 1830 the average attendance on the existing colleges was sixty-seven each, and in 1880 about forty each. There is not a state in the Union in which the number of colleges is not greatly in excess of the educational needs of the population. It would not be, therefore, educationally a misfortune if Columbia College should cease to exist as a school for undergraduates."

Thus Prof. Barnard proves that his college could be more profitably emplyed by confining itself to the field of superior education. The tendency has been of late to impress upon the directors of Columbia as well as those of Harvard, the importance of providing for the wants of a superior class of students, of those who have finished elsewhere their college career, and who wish to pursue their studies in a higher place. Columbia is especially favored in regard to location, for such an undertaking, situated as it is, in the heart of a great city. Professor Barnard looks forward with pleasure to the time when a sufficiency of funds will enable enable him to carry out this projected design.