HARVARD'S POSITION.

AS several college papers and public periodicals have misconstrued the action taken by Harvard with reference to sending a crew to England, and have placed the college in a false light, it may be well to state the position Captain Bancroft has taken.

Captain Bancroft does not regard the University eight as the champion college crew of America, neither does he wish the English colleges to look upon us as champions. Cornell now holds the championship, though her present crew is by no means identical with the crew that won in 1876. On the other hand Harvard has good reason to believe that her crew of 1878 would make a good race with any college eight that can be got together and trained before next summer. It is the desire of our crew to row against Cornell and any other colleges that are willing to pull in eight-oars, and to beat them, if possible, before going to England. In fact, Captain Bancroft is in favor of making our race with Oxford conditional on our beating the college eights in America. If Harvard should be so fortunate as to win the races she enters in this country, she would not go to Putney as the "champion American college crew," but as Harvard, backed by an indisputable prestige.

The following extract from the Spirit of the Times states very plainly the relation of Cornell to Harvard:-

"Harvard was beaten by Cornell, both Freshman and University, in 1875 and 1876, and in the Fresh man match of 1878. But her present crew has never been beaten. They defeated Yale and Columbia in 1877, and Yale in 1878, and are acknowledged by all judges of rowing to be one of the best collegiate crews ever seen in America. The history of the crew is unparalleled in the annals of University oarsmen. Bancroft rowed in the Freshman crew of 1875, Bancroft and Jacobs in the University crew of 1876 and in the match with Yale; seven of the eight were in the Harvard-Yale match of 1877, and all eight in this year's race with Yale. The greatest trouble with collegiate crews is their annual breaking up usually from one third to one half of the oarsmen leaving college or declining to row. But the men now taking their daily exercise on the Charles River have rowed in the same seats for two ydnears, a are now really a crew, instead of merely an agglomeration of oarsmen. Cornell wraps her as yet unselected men in the glory of her history, and claims that they will be worthy successors to the winners of 1875 and 1876, while Harvard proudly points to the record and experience and actual ability of her veteran crew. This difference of opinion can be settled in one way, and in one way only, - by a race."

In connection with boating matters, it is only just to state that the criticism, in our last issue, of a certain gentleman's language was based on a comparatively wide-spread misunderstanding of the import of his words. He has pointed out to us the misconstruction placed upon his remarks and the mistake is willingly corrected.

D