who leveled "the lower green," as the lower half of the public square was called, and enclosed the whole square for the first time, cutting off the winding cart path that ran diagonally from the northwestern corner to the southeastern. He brought from a farm of his in Meriden, and set out, partly with his own hands, the elms that now interlock their giant arms over the famous colonnade of Temple street. The once renowned but now half deserted turnpike road from New Haven to Hartford, with its marvelous rectilinearity, was not indeed laid out under his direction (his common sense would have avoided the hills); but after the line had been determined, and the work imperfectly constructed, in his absence, the completion of it was effected by his executive ability.* He formed and carried into effect the plan of the New Haven Cemetery which has now become so honored with historic graves-his own among the most illustrious. That was the earliest attempt anywhere to provide a public cemetery so arranged that every family might have its own family burial place as an inalienable possession like Abraham's burial place at Hebron. The records of the parish of which he was a member testify to his activity and zeal in promoting the interests of that ecclesiastical society. Five successive pastors of the church in which he made his early vows, learned to value his generous friendship; and the last of them, having pronounced the eulogium at his funeral more than a quarter of a century ago, is permitted now, after so long a time, to commend him to the grateful remembrance of another generation. One office Mr. Hillhouse retained to the close of his life. For fifty years he was the Treasurer of Yale College. In all his cares and labors for the town, for the State, and for the Union, he never ceased to care affectionately for the venerable institution in which agreed upon. Mr. H., as a proprietor, had an agency in the opening of some of those streets; and the writer of this note remembers to have heard him express a regret that he did not insist on carrying every street through in a straight line to the water, viz: to the harbor in one direction, and from Mill River to West River in the other. * In connection with Mr. Hillhouse's superintendence of the Hartford and New Haven turnpike road, a story is extant, which if it is only a myth, is nevertheless worth repeating in a Journal of Education. The tradition is that while Mr. H. was making the road, he was visited by Gen. Wade Hampton, of South Carolina, one of his associates in the House of Representatives. Of course it was a part of "the Sachem's" hospitality to show his Southern friend the great work that was in progress. The well trained oxen, as well as other things that he saw, were much admired by the stranger. "See," said he to the negro servant who attended him, "how those oxen work! Tom! they know more than you do." "Ah! Mas'r," said the negro in reply, "Dem ar oxen has had a Yankee bringing up." he had been educated. A special service which he rendered to that institution at the time of its greatest peril, entitles him to be commemorated among its greatest benefactors. The college, founded by the clergy, yet patronized and aided to some extent, in its early days, by the State, had always been under the government of an exclusively clerical corporation. Very naturally, some degree of jealousy had long existed between the corporation of the college and certain leading influences in the government of the State. After the revolutionary war, the college, which had shared deeply in the general impoverishment of the country, had not begun to share in the return of prosperity and the progress of wealth. Its expectations of aid from the State were met with various demands for such a modification of its charter as would at least divide the control of the institution between the clergy and the legislature or the politicians. In some quarters there were plans on foot for another institution to be governed by the State. At last, in the years 1791-2, these difficulties were coming to a crisis. A legislative committee was appointed to inquire into the affairs of the institution. Mr. Hillhouse came home from his place in Congress to attend the corporation in their conference with that committee, which was supposed to be not favorable to the then existing constitution of the college. His advice to the corporation was that they should meet the committee with all frankness and confidence, and with the fullest exposition not only of their finan cial affairs and necessities, but of their policy in the management of the college, and of their hopes and wishes for the future. They adopted his advice, and the result was that the committee made a report highly favorable to the fidelity and ability with which the college had been governed by the corporation. Just at that time Hamilton's great measure for the assumption by the Federal gov. ernment of the debts which the several States had contracted for the common cause in the revolutionary struggle, had been carried through Congress. The State of Connecticut had laid taxes to meet the interest, and, in part, the principal of its revolutionary debt; and large amounts of those taxes, payable in evidences of that debt, were at that moment in the hands of collectors throughout the State. If those amounts were paid over by the collectors to the treasury of the State they would cease to be, what in reality they were, a portion of that revolutionary debt which had been assumed by the Federal government; or, in other words, the State would resume and discharge a portion of the debt which had just been assumed by the Union. Mr. Hillhouse had conceived the idea of ceding to Yale College all those outstanding taxes which were payable in evidences of the revolutionary debt. It was at his advice that the Corporation of the College had presented the plan to the legislature in a memorial. As an inducement to the grant, he proposed, the value of it not being yet ascertained, that one half of the amount which the college might realize in stock of the United States from the cession of those evidences of the State debt, should be transferred by the corporation to the State, for the use and benefit of the State itself. He well knew that there were strong prejudices to be avoided or subdued, and many difficulties to be overcome. Among those members of the legislature who had no prejudices against the college, and whose intelligence recognized the importance of such an institution to the State, there were some who had no faith whatever that the scheme could succeed. But with his characteristic tact and skill, he addressed himself directly to another class of members, the "substantial farmers,” who are even to this day the ruling class in Connecticut. In his plain, honest way, he availed himself of the great confidence which men of that class always had in him. He made them feel that the college was an institution in which the whole State had an interest, and of which the State ought to be proud. He made them see that the State as well as the college had a pecuniary interest in his plan. His perseverance and the strength of his personal influence, at last prevailed; and the measure was carried chiefly by the sympa. thies and the votes of that very class who had no literary or professional interest in the college. An instinctive confidence in the plain good sense and the public spirit of the people, was charac, teristic of Mr. Hillhouse, and was one reason why the people always had confidence in him and were ready to follow him. At the same time a change in the charter of the college was effected partly, at least, by his influence. The legislature was induced to content itself with proposing, and the corporation was persuaded to accept, a modification by which, while the ten clerical "Fellows" who represent the original founders were to retain the right of filling their own vacancies in perpetual succession, the Governor, Lieutenant-Governor, and six senior Assistants (now Senators) of the State government for the time being, were to be also members of the Corporation. By this arrangement many ancient jealousies were removed; and Yale College was not indeed subjected to the State, to be mixed up in all the strifes of politics, but placed in a natural and just connection with the civil govern. ment of the commonwealth, In the language of President Stiles, |