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During the twelve years and a half that I have labored here, I may safely say that I have devoted full as much time to the discharge of my official duties, as is devoted by any of the presidents, professors, or tutors, in our colleges, to the business of their respective institutions, -- and, even much more than this during the early stages of the work. In most of the colleges, there are three months of vacation in each year; and, in addition to this, many of the labors of the president and professors are suspended from the time of the examination of the senior class in July, to the commencement in September. Our vacations are but two months in the year; during some of these, it has fallen to my lot, in common with the other instructors, to remain and take a general oversight of the establishment, and of such of the pupils as did not return home, and during others, and nearly all of the vacations in the spring, I have been detained by the business of the annual meeting happening at that time, and by the preparation of the annual reports, twelve of which I have written, and arranged and prepared the original compositions of the pupils for the press: a labor demanding no small amount of time and care.

The Elementary Book which has been used in the various classes was prepared by me, while teaching a class, and consumed no small portion of my time out of school hours; for this labor I did not receive, nor, indeed, did I expect, any compensation. In the same manner, with the assistance of Mr. W., I also prepared the Catechism of Religious Instruction which has been used.

I have given, out of school hours, much private instruction to the younger teachers, and especially a long and elaborate course of lectures to Mr. P. For such services, from the very commencement of the institution, Mr. Clerc has received a liberal compensation, to which, indeed, he was justly entitled, at first from you, and, afterwards, from the instructors. For similar services, I have never received, nor asked, any compensation.

The correspondence of the institution, more especially that which relates to its external relations, to the many inquiries made from different parts of the country with regard to the terms of admission and to the peculiar circumstances of the pupils as connected with their accounts with the treasurer, has occupied no inconsiderable portion of my time. With regard to the last particular, I may venture to refer to the recollection of the treasurer for the correctness of my statement. The principal degree of responsibility with regard to the admission of new pupils, and the recording of their names, and oft other interesting particulars respecting them, in a book kept for this purpose, has devolved upon me, and, also, their organization into a class, and their getting started in the course of instruction, especially when they have been under the care of a new and inexperienced instructor. One part of my labors, as principal of the institution, which has not, indeed, attracted much observation from those employed more immediately in its concerns, but which has consumed, in the aggregate, a vast amount of time, and been attended, out of school hours, with great additional fatigue, is the attention which I have been obliged to show to visitors. Among these have been the patrons and friends of the school, respectable strangers coming with letters of introduction, and others introduced by some of the directors, or by their friends in the city, and who always expect and are entitled to receive respectful attentions from the principal of a public institution. Such attentions I have always cheerfully rendered, but, it ought to be recollected, that it has more particularly fallen upon me to render them; that they have often made it necessary for me out of school hours, to gratify such visitors by an exhibition of the pupils in the school-room, that I have been liable, from my residing near at hand, to such demand upon my time very frequently, and that such time, after the exhaustion occasioned by the labors of the school-room, I have often needed for relaxation and exercise, and also, to devote to the domestic concerns of my family. It is very important, however, for the interests of an institution depending on public patronage for its character and usefulness, and increasing, too, like ours, in public estimation, that the principal should be at liberty, at almost all times, to exhibit its internal management, and the progress of the pupils, in such a way as to excite a deep and permanent interest in the minds of intelligent visitors.

For a somewhat similar reason, too, I have had peculiar labors to perform and embarrassments to contend with, even during school hours, in advancing the class of which I have most usually had the charge. This class has consisted of those pupils who had made the most progress, and on whose attainments, and especially on their original compositions published in the annual reports, the character of the institution has chiefly depended.