subjects in advance of the opening of the university. The results of his observations and the views expressed to the regents by that distinguished educator are of such interest in connection with its initiatory proceedings that it is best to give them in his own language: AUSTIN, TEX., January 10, 1883. DEAR SIR: Having come to Austin in response to the invitation to become connected with the University of Texas, with which I have been honored by the board of regents, with the object of learning more definitely the conditions under which the institution is to be inaugurated, I have to thank you and the other gentlemen of the board for the kindness with which you have given me the amplest facilities for obtaining the desired information. Permit me to say that in the choice of a seat for the proposed university, in the general character of the provisions made for its support in future years, in the breadth and soundness of the plans which your board has originated and by which its action so far has been guided, and in the personal and professional character of all the gentlemen who so far constitute the administration and teaching staff of the important institution to be soon put in operation, you have secured the chief conditions for the attainment of such real success as will be at once recognized by all intelligent friends of education throughout the country. Allow me, however, to say also, frankly, that one point seems to remain in unsatisfactory form. It is impossible to overrate the importance of the University of Texas making a good beginning of actual teaching work. If at the outset the impression be made upon its first students and the public that the institution is not prepared to do thorough work within such scope as it professes to occupy; that its efficiency is among the possibilities of the future, but not among the realities of the present, long years may, and probably will, pass before this evil reputation can be shaken off, and the confidence of the people of Texas be secured. In order to actually do good work from the first, very considerable expenditure will be needed for the material equipment of the several departments of instruction, the provision of a working laboratory, apparatus, specimens, diagrams, books, and lecture appliances, as well as for many general expenses incident to the commencement of activity in such an institution as is contemplated. A wise provision of law prevents, as I understand, the use for such purposes of any of the permanent fund of the university. Only income can be used. The design of the lawgivers of Texas, that the proposed university shall be free to all the people of Texas, precludes the possibility of obtaining the necessary means from tuition fees. Such means must come from the State herself for the benefit of her children, and the income from the present will not suffice. If your board can obtain from the legislature such additional endowment as will provide, not necessarily for all the work the university may be able to do in the future, but for the really essential equipment for the commencement of work in an institution of learning of high grade, a university in fact and not merely in name, I believe that your success is thoroughly insured so far as human preparation can make it so. If, on the contrary, a false or a feeble start be made, grave doubts must be felt as to the attainment of any such success as will satisfy the people of Texas, at any rate within such time as the present generation is concerned with. I have the honor to be, sir, very respectfully, your obedient servant, Col. ASHBEL SMITH, President Board of Regents, University of Texas. The members of the new faculty of the academic department, or most of them, soon after their appointment met in Nashville, Tenn., where, in company with Col. Ashbel Smith, as president of the board, they went to consult as to the best methods for putting the academic department into operation and the curricula of studies to be adopted. Dr. Humphreys and Dr. Broun, of the new faculty, lived in Nashville, where they were professors in Vanderbilt University; and one object of the meeting there was to afford Colonel Smith an insight into the methods, appliances, and advantages of that recently established but well-endowed and finely equipped and popular institution, as some index to the requirements of the new university in Texas. LAW DEPARTMENT. This department has been an integral part of the university from the first, having been organized at the same time as the academic department at Austin. It has been a great help to the university. It has attracted, as a general thing, a more mature class of students, and its graduates have uniformly been instrumental in turning toward the university students who desired collegiate learning. This department has not only been advantageous to the university, but it has, it is believed, been of signal service to the State. It has kept in Texas a large number of young men who would, in all probability, have gone to other States for their professional training. They have been educated by professors familiar with Texas jurisprudence, and when graduated they have naturally carried with them a respect for the laws of the State and a pride in its history and in the achievements of its people that it would be desirable to instill into the hearts of all its citizens. ENGINEERING DEPARTMENT. The "school of engineering," which was originally in charge of Prof. A. V. Lane, was but a few years ago reorganized as the "department of engineering," mainly at the suggestion and through the efforts of Professor Taylor, the present head of the department, who, like his predecessor, has been quite successful in his recommendations of graduates for railroad service and other engineering work. MEDICAL DEPARTMENT. The act of February 11, 1858, establishing the university, provided, among other things, for "instruction in surgery and medicine," and the act of March 30, 1881, required that "the medical department be located separate from the university proper, if the vote of the people so determined." The vote resulted in its location at Galveston. The expense, however, of putting the main university into operation at Austin and the large grants from the university fund which the legislature continued to bestow upon the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Bryan seemed to preclude the possibility of an early organi zation of the "medical branch of the university," as the legislature termed it, till the subsequent offer of grounds and buildings for its uses by the city and some of the citizens of Galveston, backed by the earnest efforts of Hon. Walter Gresham, of that city, as chairman of the house finance committee, stirred the twentieth legislature to action, resulting in the adoption of the following provisions in the general appropriation bill passed at the special session (general appropriation act May 17, 1888): As a loan to the available fund of the University of Texas, to be placed to the credit of said fund out of the indemnity fund now in the State treasury, and to be paid to the State out of the revenues of the university on or before January first, nineteen hundred and ten, without interest, one hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars, of which the sum of fifty thousand dollars is hereby appropriated and set apart to be used in the construction of buildings for the medical branch of the University of Texas, at the city of Galveston: Provided, That the said city of Galveston shall donate to the University of Texas block six hundred and sixty-eight in said city, to be used for the medical branch of said institution: And provided further, That the executors of the estate of John Sealy, deceased, shall agree to construct on said block, at a cost of not less than fifty thousand dollars, a medical hospital, which, when completed, is to be donated to the medical branch of the University of Texas, and to be under the control of the board of regents of said university: Provided further, That this loan shall be in full payment and satisfaction of all claims of the University of Texas against the State of Texas for moneys drawn from the university fund by said State. Even this concession as a loan was barely gained by combinations forcing an all-around compromise of conflicting interests of the medical college and main university and the old claims of the university. Commenting on this action of the twentieth legislature in connection with the university claims, amounting with interest to $431,188, against the State, the regents in their third biennial report to the governor, December, 1888, say: Of this amount it was calculated that the items of interest and the amount misappropriated by the legislature to the Prairie View School would be allowed. These amounts ($302,633.55) would have enabled the regents to finish and equip the main building at Austin and finish and equip the building for the medical school at Gal veston. It will be noticed that it is distinctly admitted that moneys were drawn from the university fund by the State, and as the correctness of the statements in regard to the amounts of the respective claims has never been questioned, the supposition is reasonable that these amounts were found, upon examination, to be as given by the regents to your Excellency. It remains, therefore, that the legislature has paid a debt of $431, 188.85 by a loan of $125,000. Moreover, the provision that "the loan shall be in full payment and satisfaction of all claims," will, perhaps, be construed so as to cut off the university from asking an equivalent for the navigation lands, for the lands in conflict in Grayson and McLennan counties, and for the money drawn from the university fund to pay clerks in the departments. This being the case, the regents are shut off from all sources from which they can secure an immediately available fund, except another loan. They, therefore, respectfully ask that a loan of $200,000 be placed to the credit of the available fund of the University of Texas on |