selling them, the rentals going to the available university fund whereas if sold the proceeds become a part of the permanent fund, of which only the interest can be used for the needs of the institution. Though leased at but 3 cents an acre, results are more satisfactory than heretofore, because they are more actively managed by the regents than they were by the State and are consequently producing better revenue for the university.

Of the lands finally remaining to the university (some 2,221,400 acres, including the original 50 league grant), much, excepting the 50 leagues, was badly located by the State's appointed agents not personally inspecting all the land. As a consequence of the poor selections for the university Land Commissioner Walsh substituted for some of the locations what is known as the "San Elizario grant," on the Rio Grande, in El Paso County, and some other comparatively desirable selections. These selections, as stated, have been tacitly admitted by the legislature; but it unfortunately transpires that the State's title to some 20,000 acres, embracing the town of San Elizario, is not clear, and that no successful effort has been made by the State to confirm the title to the university, which is liable to lose the land by prescription, if not already lost, by the State not securing the testimony of witnesses while they were living, before the regents were given control of the lands.

Besides the sacrifice in the Mexia compromise, the 8,000 acres of university lands in litigation in Grayson County appear to have been lost to the university by the land commissioner who was in office at the time floating and not relocating the surveys. As further shown in a statement to the regents by Professor Batts, the right of the university to every tenth section, amounting to about 10,000 acres, located for the Galveston and Brazos Navigation Company, though not denied, has never been given practical recognition by the State.

Governor Throckmorton stated in his message to the legislature in

1866:

According to report of John Henry Brown, agent for the sale of university lands, there had been paid into the treasury on account of sales of the lands $126,343, and there remained as yet unpaid as principal $70,320. The amount of interest paid up to April 18, 1865, was $48,924, and the approximate interest due up to the future year 1878 was $55,888.

It was this amount of approximate interest that the State failed to collect, and is doubtless lost to the university, though indirectly, perhaps, as the result of "reconstruction" and interruption by the war.

GREAT FINANCIAL LOSSES.

In their report of January 8, 1883, to Governor Roberts the regents speak of an offer in cash of $1,350,000 for the first 1,000,000 acres of land donated to the university by the constitution of 1876 in lieu of

the railroad tenth sections. They had no authority, however, to accept the proposition, and the land board, it seems, would not or did not make any concessions in the matter. This was possibly unfortunate for the university, as the price was about a fair average for such land compared with the average which the more desirable 50 leagues as far as sold had realized.

Great losses to the university naturally resulted from the war on account of payments for university lands, which had been sold on annual installments and for long terms, being made in Confederate notes. During subsequent years, known as the "reconstruction period," Comptroller Bledsoe, acting on an opinion of Attorney-General Alexander, based on the reconstruction acts of Congress, ruled that the proceeds of certain State bonds substituted for United States bonds belonging to the university were tainted by treasonable use of the money during the "rebellion," and suddenly dropped the accounts from the roll of the State's liabilities. The bonds, which had been granted to the university by the act of 1858, were taken from the fund of the university and credited to the State's general revenue. Comptroller Darden, finding the items (which aggregated with interest $134,472 in bonds, besides a Comptroller's certificate for $10,300 for university land sales) remaining on the books of the office, embraced them in his public-debt statement and asked Governor Roberts to recommend the legislature to pass upon the question of their validity. The recommendation was made, but it was not till 1883 that the legislature finally declared that the bonds, having been issued by the State and the proceeds used for "frontier defense" against the Indians and Mexican marauders, and not in aid of the "rebellion," were valid obligations of the State, and provided for returning the money to the university fund, including the item of $10,300, although that did not certainly appear to have been used for State purposes. Governor Ross, when a member of the State senate, was quite instrumental in having the bonds replaced as an obligation of the State to the university.

ILLIBERALITY TO THE UNIVERSITY.

In the "reconstruction convention" of 1868 Mr. Sumner proposed a section for the new constitution providing as follows:

All public university lands in the State of Texas that have heretofore been disposed of shall be turned over to the common-school fund, and it shall be the duty of the legislature to pass such laws as shall provide for free schools in every neighborhood in each county.

It was not adopted, and is here alluded to only to show how little regard some men had for these funds, and especially those held in trust by the State for the university. A like spirit manifested itself

twenty years later, when, in the twentieth legislature, Representative Prendergast, speaking against a proposition to return university money used by the State, argued that the State did not owe the university one cent, and that it was only a case of "justified diversion of funds intended for one purpose, but changeable by subsequent enactment;" and another prominent member, Mr. Bell, of Cooke County, declared in a violent speech, assuming the power of the legislature as sufficient argument against any appropriations for the university, that "the legislature could refuse to make any provision for it whatever and starve it out of existence, or demolish it, by tearing down its walls and leveling it to the ground."

In 1888, after Texas had just received nearly a million dollars from the Federal Government as indemnity for defense of the Rio Grande frontier, the friends of the university were buoyant with the hope of having its old claims of several hundred thousand dollars against the State allowed out of the fund, or at least a liberal portion of the amount. Gen. S. B. Maxey, Col. William L. Prather, and Rev. Dr. Carroll addressed strong appeals to Governor Ross; and Dr. Thomas D. Wooten, president of the university regents, Prof. Leslie Waggener, chairman of the faculty, and other prominent gentlemen personally urged Governor Ross's attention to the matter. General Maxey, who was then United States Senator, urged that the university would never have greater need of the funds due it from the State, or the State ever be in better condition to settle. He knew of no principle, save force, that would enable a State acting as trustee to withhold these funds. Governor Ross, however, rather favored the money being placed to the general-revenue account for distribution from that fund by the legislature, and only $40,000 of the money and a "loan" of $125,000, mainly for the benefit of the medical college, went to the university.

The regents, in their report to the governor, which was accompanied by a statement from Comptroller McCall of the old indebtedness to the university, earnestly pleaded in its behalf as follows:

The regents are willing to leave the statements of facts by the comptroller to have their proper weight, trusting that the funds borrowed in the time of the emergency of the State will be returned to the regents at the time of the emergency of the university. It may not be out of place to say that in recognizing this claim of the university, which can not be enforced in the courts, the legislature will but follow in the footsteps of the General Government in allowing to Texas an indemnity fund, which the State had no power to enforce or ability to collect. What Congress has just done the legislature can certainly do, especially as in so doing the legislature will not be paying money to an outsider, but will be simply repaying to one department money borrowed from that department to pay expenses of another department, or refunding securities received by order of one department in trust for another, which securities have since become worthless. It may be proper to say here that this claim for money paid in Confederate notes for university lands has not been filed sooner because the facts were not until recently sufficiently known to justify a formal presentation of the matter.