S04.- NATURAL AND CIVIL 



colleges, that of prescribiBg and administering 

 oaths. " To prescribe and administer such 



* forniis of oaths, not being contrary to the con- 



* stitution and laws of this state, or of the Uiii- 



* ted States, as they shall think proper to be ad- 



* ministered^ to ^11 those officers and instructors 

 ' of the said college, or to such and so many of 



* them as they shall think proper, for the faithful 



* execution of their, .respective, places, offtceSj 

 ' and trusts."; 



In one article it seemed to differ frorn the gen- 

 eral opinion and practice, which had been 

 adopted in the United States, from the time of 

 the American revolution. From that period, 

 the legislature of almost every state had been 

 careful to insert in the constitution of all such 

 societies; a proviso, that the seminary never 

 .should be under the direction of any one reli- 

 gious sect, party, or denomination ; and that 

 none of them ever should ha\?e the preference 

 in any after regulation, government, instruction, 

 or favors of such a seminary. No proviso of 

 this nature was inserted in the act incorporating 

 Middlebury college : nor is there any clause in 

 it, that appears to be designed to prevent the 

 president and fellows from establishing any 

 opinions, creeds, confessions, or denominations, 

 that they may think propcV. It is therefore with 

 them, to appropriate the college education and 

 honors exclusively, in favor o^' any one of the 

 religious denominations, that they may wish to 

 build up. rhe following proviso \vas inserted 

 in favor of the universit}- at Burlington, " That 

 ^ nothing in this act, or any part thereof, shall 



* be construed to extend to, or give to said cor- 



