The Rev. D. H. Wheeler, D.D., LL.D., of New York, was elected president of Allegheny College, at Meadville, Pa., on the 4th day of April. This action on the part of the authorities will bring into this section a gentleman who has reached a high position as an educator and a religious journalist. In the Northwestern University, at Evanston, Ill., he distinguished himself by his abilities as a teacher, writer, and preacher. He served for five years under President Grant’s administration as United States Consul at Florence, Italy. More recently he made a brilliant periodical of The Methodist, in New York, which, though it died, went down with its colors flying, and because no editor could keep it alive. Dr. Wheeler is a local preacher, and not in the regular order of the ministry. We congratulate the friends of Allegheny College on his election, and predict that under his administration the college will have a new lease of life and be favored with renewed prosperity.
The Longfellow Memorial Association of Cambridge, Mass., has received a letter from Mr. Bennock, in London, which says that all the preliminaries for placing a bust in Westminster Abbey are now arranged, sufficient capital having been subscribed, the sculptor engaged, and the position for the bust selected. The latter is a column standing between the memorial niche of Chaucer and the Independent bust of Dryden, with a full and uninterrupted stream of light falling on the position, so that the bust will occupy a central and conspicuous place in the poet’s corner.
The old school of statesmen are represented at Washington by Senators John Sherman, of Ohio, Anthony, of Rhode Island, and Bayard, of Delaware. Of the more recent and vigorous school since President Garfield’s death, are ex-Senators Blaine, Windom, and Kirkwood, with ex-Senator Conkling, who have retired to private life, while Senator Edmunds is still recognized as a leader in the Senate. A new generation of statesmen is gradually appearing—President Arthur, Secretary W. E. Chandler, Robert Lincoln, Frank Hatton, and others, no one of whom has been tried except in routine duties. The new administration is one of peace and quiet, but it is not vigorous on lines of reform.
President Arthur made a trip to Florida in April. This is the first journey of any extent he has made from Washington since his inauguration, and he is the first President who has visited the Southern States so long and so extensively since the war.
The trial of the Phœnix Park murderers, in Dublin, commenced April 9. The dynamite criminals in London will be tried before a jury, perhaps before these lines go out from the press, while in Washington the Star Route trial drags its length along as a trial to patience, and for the humiliation of every true American citizen.