procession; or, as in America, before the president, trustees,
faculty, and students of a college, in a procession, at public
commencements.--_Webster_.

In the English universities there are two classes of Bedels,
called the _Esquire_ and the _Yeoman Bedel_.

Of this officer as connected with Yale College, President Woolsey
speaks as follows:--"The beadle or his substitute, the vice-beadle
(for the sheriff of the county came to be invested with the
office), was the master of processions, and a sort of
gentleman-usher to execute the commands of the President. He was a
younger graduate settled at or near the College. There is on
record a diploma of President Clap's, investing with this office a
graduate of three years' standing, and conceding to him 'omnia
jura privilegia et auctoritates ad Bedelli officium, secundum
collegiorum aut universitatum leges et consuetudines usitatas;
spectantia.' The office, as is well known, still exists in the
English institutions of learning, whence it was transferred first
to Harvard and thence to this institution."--_Hist. Disc._, Aug.,
1850, p. 43.

In an account of a Commencement at Williams College, Sept. 8,
1795, the order in which the procession was formed was as follows:
"First, the scholars of the academy; second, students of college;
third, the sheriff of the county acting as _Bedellus_,"
&c.--_Federal Orrery_, Sept. 28, 1795.

The _Beadle_, by order, made the following declaration.--_Clap's
Hist. Yale Coll._, 1766, p. 56.