still unsettled West the brains and hands that were needed for its development. Many entered business at home, to apply to all the affairs of mercantile life those habits of perseverance and calm study of details and that strict spirit of integrity which had been fostered by their university life. A cursory glance at the catalogue will show that they succeeded. "Bank president", "president of railroad", "treasurer", and "cashier", are words frequently seen on its pages.

But I promised to explain the significance of the last five heads of the first table. We see that over one-half of the students spent only one year at the University. This means, as I showed before, that these men were enabled to get, not as much education as they needed, but enough to fit them either to practise law, or to teach some special branch, or to pursue their studies without further assistance. Of course it is not claimed that all of these five thousand men made the most of their advantages, but they had them offered, and no other college could do the like. The large number of two-year men shows an appreciation on the part of the students of the work that was being done for them. The fifteen hundred who remained three, four, and five years mean at least a thousand finely educated men; and what a force was here!

As was to be expected, the influence of the University has been larg est upon Virginia; but we must, in this connection, take into account the fact that over five hundred and fifty alumni weut from Virginia to settle in the other Southern States. Virginia of course received contri. butions from her sister States, but not in any considerable numbers.

THE UNIVERSITY AND SOUTHERN LITERATURE.

The excess of the physicians over the lawyers would afford an opportunity for interesting but rather fine-spun reasoning, if I were to forget the impatience of my readers; but I have no such intention, and shall only dwell briefly on one more point,-the paucity of authors among the alumni. I should hardly have been tempted to notice this fact, but for the consideration that it might cause doubt in some minds as to the extent I have claimed for the University's influence, especially upon Southern thought. I do not think that the University can be blamed because her sons have not been foremost in strictly literary work-for where is the literature of the South? The truth seems to be that the University must have instilled a love of literature into the minds of many of its students, but that counter-forces were at work which checked or diverted the faculty of literary expression for the whole South. A diversion of this faculty is seen in the oratory, bad as it too often was, of the hustings and of the court-room. The causes of the repression are far to seek. It will not suffice to lay the charge to slavery. That much enduring institution, to whatever extent it may have retarded the South's industrial development, did not degrade society, nor could it well have checked the growth of a Southern literature.1 Old Greece had her arts and letters in spite of slave labor. We must go deeper if we expect to

See Bagehot's Physics and Politics, II, § 3.

find a solution of the Southern problem. From a study of colonial literature we must endeavor to ascertain how and in what manner a change of environment affects the literary capabilities of a race. Our conclusions may be exceedingly general and imperfect, but I can see no other way worthy of a serious student; and, even after such conscientious study, our results are sure to be worthless, unless we carry with us in our investigations that true literary touchstone which so few possess. How amusing, then, are many of the grave opinions we every day hear advanced with regard to the South's backwardness in literary production! The fact is there, the true explanation of it will long be wanting. There are indications, however, that the season of our barrenness is over and that the spring is at hand. If premature praise, like a March wind, do not blight this promise, we may confidently expect that the University of Virginia will play an important part in that literary development for which we are all watching and praying-many of us as if there were something almost criminal in our not having had a literature before.

CONCLUDING REMARKS.

And now my work is over, but I part from it with reluctance. The words "influence," "alumnus," "University," which the reader is as tired of seeing as I am of trying to find substitutes for them, will occur no more. In this respect I can not even take comfort from the example of the great reiterator, for Matthew Arnold might reiterate till doomsday and still be charming. I have also tried not to assume the attitude of a special pleader (I use the phrase, of course, in its objectionable sense), but it would be too much to hope that I have always succeeded. The labor I have given to the preparation of my statistics has been very tedious, but it has been occasionally lightened in unexpected ways. For instance, it was highly interesting to watch the careers of the "rolling stones" from the University, many of whom, after trying three or more professions, finally wound up as "forty-niners" in California. One got into Garibaldi's service; one was made chief medical inspector of the Egyptian army; one started from Virginia, was a member of the Texas Congress, then treasurer of Texas, then got a diplomatic appointment abroad, and finally settled down as a farmer in Maryland. One student from Peru became a professor of law in the University of Lima, was afterwards Secretary of Foreign Affairs, and then represented his gov ernment in China and Japan. But perhaps the entry which gave me most food for reflection was the following: "Nathaniel Holt Clanton, of Augusta, Ga.; born 1847; student, Paris, France; pressed into serv. ice of Commune, and killed on barricades, 1872."

In conclusion, it may be permitted a loving son to apply to his college mother a verse from a great old poet, whom he learned to love within her walls

"Is she not worthy of gaining golden honor?"1

1Sophocles: Antigone, 699.

CHAPTER XII.

PRESENT ORGANIZATION AND CONDITION OF THE UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA.

BY PROFESSOR JOHN B. MINOR.

The organization of the University, its government, discipline, and methods of instruction were virtually left to be prescribed by Mr. Jef ferson alone; and they still retain, in a great degree, the impression derived from him, and in many respects bear the stamp of his characteristic traits.

ORGANIZATION.

The supreme government of the institution, under the General Assembly, is vested in a rector and visitors, appointed by the Governor, by and with the consent of the Senate, for four years. They are nine in number, three being selected from the Piedmont division of the State, in which the University is situated, and two from each of the other grand divisions. The visitors elect a rector from amongst themselves, and the style of the corporation is declared to be "The Rector and Visitors of the University of Virginia." They are required to meet at the University at least once a year, and as much oftener as circumstances require; and to submit to the General Assembly an annual report setting forth the condition and progress of the institution.

The board of visitors, thus constituted, is declared by law to be charged with the care and preservation of the property belonging to the University; with the appointment of as many professors as it shall deem proper; with the power to prescribe the duties of each professor, and the course and mode of instruction; and, with the assent of twothirds of the whole number of the visitors, may remove any professor. It is also empowered to appoint a bursar and proctor, and to employ any other agents or servants, to regulate the government and discipline of the students, and generally, in respect to the government and management of the University, to make such regulations as it may deem expedient, not being contrary to law.

Under the general direction of this board, and subject to its regulations, the affairs of the institution are administered immediately by the faculty and its chairman. The faculty, as a body, exercises the judicial

functions incident to the administration of the University, in respect to students and the subordinate officers, and is empowered also to make general rules for the government of those persons, provided, of course, they shall be consistent with the regulations prescribed by the board of visitors, and with the laws of the State. The chairman is selected annually, by the board of visitors, from among the professors, and discharges most of the functions usually devolved upon a president, being for the time the chief executive of the University. To this republican feature of rotation in the office of chairman, Mr. Jefferson attached not a little importance. The system is not without its disadvantages, but its benefits decidedly preponderate. The chairman does not monopolize the administration, as a president would do, but each professor, feeling that he is a constituent element of the governing body, with his proper share of influence in shaping its destiny and fortunes, is animated at once by a sense of duty, of responsibility, and of ambition to devote his utmost powers of thought, care, and assiduous effort to augment its usefulness and prosperity.

The professors were at first paid in part by salaries ($1,000 a year each), and in part also by fees of tuition received from each student. who might attend them severally, thus, as Mr. Jefferson conceived, presenting to each at once the most natural and the strongest motive to exert himself with all the strenuousness he could command to promote in all ways the efficiency, and consequently the success, of the institution. But circumstances, in the opinion of the board of visitors, and of most of the professors, were judged to require a departure from this plan, and for some years past each professor has been paid a salary of $3,000 per annum, which, together with an official residence, or a money equivalent therefor, constitutes his sole emolument.

SCHOOLS OF INSTRUCTION.

The scheme of instruction contemplates no fixed and uniform curriculum of study to be pursued by every student alike without discrimination; but each distinct branch of knowledge is assigned to a separate "school" by itself, with its own instructors; and in these several schools, which are exclusively under the control of the instructors therein (subject only to the board of visitors), a separate degree is conferred, denominating the recipient a "graduate" in that school, and in a few cases carrying with it a title, as of doctor of medicine, bachelor of law, civil engineer, mining engineer, or bachelor of scientific agriculture. The University may, therefore, be fairly regarded as a collection of schools, each devoted to a special subject, but under a common government.

This plan gives ample scope to the just ambition of each professor, and affords a strong stimulus to each to advance the standard of attain. ment in his school, in point as well of accuracy as of extent, whilst it holds him, besides, to an undivided responsibility for any neglect or default. It admits also, and contemplates, an indefinite multiplication of 17036-No. 2--12

"schools," so as to keep pace with the progress of knowledge and the demands of society.

Dr. Dunglison, afterwards so distinguished in the medical world as an author, was expected to teach anatomy and medicine merely as a branch of liberal education. But in 1827 the school was enlarged to a department, organized as follows: Robley Dunglison, M. D., professor of physiology, theory and practice of medicine, obstetrics, and medical jurisprudence; John P. Emmet, M. D., professor of chemistry and materia medica; Thomas Johnson, M. D., demonstrator of anatomy and surgery.

Two other schools have since been added to this department; so that its organization at present embraces: (1) A school of the theory and practice of medicine, obstetrics, and medical jurisprudence; (2) a school of physiology and surgery; (3) a school of chemistry and pharmacy; (4) a school of anatomy, materia medica, and therapeutics; and (5) a demonstratorship of anatomy.

In 1851 the school of law was converted into a department, by the creation of an adjunct professorship, which, in 1854, was made a full professorship; so that thenceforward in the department of law there were, and are, two schools, namely, (1) the school of common and statute law and (2) the school of constitutional and international law, equity, evidence, and the law-merchant.

In 1856 the school of ancient languages was divided into two schools, namely, (1) the school of Latin, and (2) the school of Greek and of Hebrew.

In the same year was also established the school of history and general literature, which, however, did not go into operation until the 1st of October, 1857.

In 1867 the school of applied mathematics, with reference especially to engineering, was created as an adjunct to the school of mathematics, and has since (in 1869) been constituted an independent school.

In the same year was instituted, as an adjunct to the school of chemistry, the school of technology and agricultural science, a designation soon after changed to that of analytical, industrial, and agricultural chemistry.

In 1870, by means of a munificent endowment of $100,000, derived from the liberality of Samuel Miller, Esq., of the county of Campbell, the school of scientific, experimental, and practical agriculture was created; since, with some change of subjects, denominated the school of agriculture, zoölogy, and botany.

In 1882, by the extraordinary liberality of Leander J. McCormick, Esq., a native of Virginia but a citizen of Chicago, of William H. Vanderbilt, Esq., of New York, and of a number of other friends of learning and of the University, the means were provided to maintain, and there was instituted, the school of practical astronomy, in connection with the Leander McCormick Observatory.