MEN,--In arranging the studies for the next year, the Faculty
have voted, as will be seen from the enclosed Tabular view, that "no
student will be allowed to take more than one Modern Language at a
time, except for special reasons assigned, & by express vote of the
Faculty."

You will see that this is the only Department upon which any bar or
prohibition is laid. And when the decision was made, the Latin &
Greek Departments were allowed two votes each, & the Department of
Modern Languages but one vote.

As I foresaw at the time, this arrangement has proved very
disadvantageous to the Department, & has reduced the number of
pupils, at once, more than one half. During this year the whole
number of students in the Department has been 224. The applications
for the next term do not amount to 100; nor, when all have been
received, can it reach 110. I therefore, Gentlemen, appeal to you,
for your interference in this matter, requesting that the
restriction may be removed, & this Department put upon the footing
of the others in this particular. Otherwise, I fear that as at
present organized, it cannot exist another year.

I have the honor to be,
Gentlemen, your ob'd't. servant

HENRY W. LONGFELLOW.{71}

[Addressed externally to the President and Fellows of Harvard
College.]

[REPORT OF COMMITTEE.]

CORPORATION OF HARVARD COLLEGE, July 26, 1845.

The Committee to whom was referred the Memorial of Professor Longfellow
on the subject of the arrangement of the studies of the undergraduates
by the faculty of the College, & desiring that the restriction as to the
number of modern languages that may be studied at once should be
removed, have attended to the subject, & ask leave to report, that they
have, in common with the other members of the Corporation already
considered the general subject of the arrangement of the studies of the
undergraduates, with especial reference to the recommendations of the
board of overseers; & that they were convinced by the examination of the
details they made at that time that the business of ordering the times &
the amount of study & recitation for the young men at Cambridge is not
only a very complicated & difficult affair, but one which is in the
hands of those best qualified, & considering