Of the first classes, there were graduated in 1851, three; in 1852, one; in 1853, five; in 1854, four; in 1855, four; in 1856, seven, and, in 1857, eight — thirty-two graduates in the first ten years of the existence of the College. The preparatory department of the College Avas inaugurated in the fall of 1848, and, if the number of attendants upon this department be added to the students in the College proper, the whole number of those connected with the institution during the first ten years will reach very nearly to one thousand. At the close of the first decade of the life of the College, a convention of its friends was held July 8, 1857, of which Hon. L.