the support of said institution." The act took effect July 1, 1875. This year (1876) the trustees will doubtless "demand and collect" such rents, or attempt to do so, The lessees of the university lands petitioned the Legislature of 1875-6 to relieve them from this payment. No such relief was granted.

The aggregate valuation of the university lands for taxation is $1,060,000, while the valuation for rental is "scarcely $70,000." Should the university succeed in obtaining the amount of the state tax on the one million dollars of valuation, now paid neither to the State nor to the institution, it will nearly double the present college revenue from the lands.

MIAMI UNIVERSITY.

The second institution of higher learning established in the State was the Miami University, at Oxford, Butler county, the origin of which has already been referred to The township of land granted to the university by the United States was located and registered in 1803. The legislature passed an act to establish the university February 17, 1809, and the first meeting of the board of trustees was held on the 7th of June, in the same year. The university, however, was not opened until November, 1824. There are eighteen trustees chosen by the legislature to serve for nine years. The first president was Rev. R. H. Bishop, D. D., who held the office from 1824 to 1841. His successors were Rev. George Junkin, D. D. (1841-4), Rev. E. D. McMaster (1845–9), Rev. W. C. Anderson, D. D. (1849–54), Rev. J.W. Hall, D. D. (1854-66), Rev. Robert L. Stanton, D. D. (1866-71). He was succeeded by President Hepburn, who remained only a short time. These were all learned and able men. Since 1872 the institution has been closed, but it will be reopened whenever its financial condition will warrant it.

The history of this university is one of much interest. Few institutions have done better work or sent forth so large

a proportion of graduates who have become eminent in the various walks of life, but there has been a long struggle with financial embarrassment.

The legislation of the State deprived it of the revenues it ought to reap from its endowment, as will be seen hereafter when the history of the State control of the university is presented. So important were the tuition fees, to make up for want of larger endowment, that in many of the catalogues we find the following notification: "Tuition and room rent must invariably be paid in advance, and no deduction or drawback is allowed, and if not paid by the student it is charged to the faculty, who are made responsible to the board for it"---the latter clause sometimes printed in italics and sometimes in capitals. It is to be hoped that few colleges have ever been compelled to make a similar demand upon a poorly paid faculty.

The whole number of graduates from 1824 to 1872 inclusive, is 966. Of the 699 graduates from the beginning to the year 1860 inclusive, 198 became clergymen and 187 lawyers, being in each case nearly 27 per cent. The graduates, in unusually large numbers, have reached positions of distinction as governors, senators, congressmen, cabinet officers, foreign ministers, professors in theological, literary, and medical institutions, editors, teachers, business men, etc. It is doubtful whether any college in the land can show a relatively greater proportion of distinguished graduates. In the triennial catalogue of 1867, there is a roll of honor giving the names of 233 students who were connected with the army or navy in the service of the United States during the late civil war. These were not all graduates, but all had been students. On this roll are three distinguished "war Governors"-Richard Yates, Governor of Illinois, who was connected with the institution, but afterwards graduated at Jacksonville College, Illinois; William Dennison, a graduate of the class of 1835, Governor of Ohio in the first year of the

war, and Oliver P. Morton, Governor of Indiana, who was a student in 1843. Hon. Chas. Anderson, a graduate of 1833, Colonel of the 93d Ohio Regiment, was elected Lieutenant Governor and became Governor after the death of Governor John Brough, in 1865. There were thirty-five field officers from the grade of major to major general, nineteen surgeons and assistant surgeons, and seven chaplains. Professor R. W. McFarland left his chair of mathematics and served during the war as Lieutenant Colonel of the 86th Ohio Regiment, and afterwards returned to his professorial duties. Among the captains, we find the name of Whitelaw Reid, the successor of Horace Greeley as editor of the "New York Tribune." Probably more than twenty graduates have become presidents or professors of colleges.

The catalogue contains the following information relative to religious instruction and worship:

"Instruction in religion and morality, is, according to the charter, among the objects for which the university was established. For this provision is made. Bible classes are instructed by the Faculty every Sabbath morning. * * * The students are required to attend daily worship in the chapel and also on the Sabbath a public religious service in some one of the churches of the town."

The endowment of the university was a township of land. On the 17th of February, 1809, an act was passed authorizing the trustees to "divide, sub-divide and expose the same to sale in tracts of not less than 80 nor more than 160 acres and for the terms of 99 years and renewable forever, subject to a revaluation every 15 years, always considering the land in an unimproved state for the purpose of valuation, and provided that the land shall be offered at auction at not less than $2 per acre, and the tenants or lessees shall pay 6 per cent. per annum on the amount of their purchase."

On the 6th of January, 1810, or less than one year after, the next legislature passed an act to amend the foregoing act

declaring "That so much of the 10th section of said act as requires a revaluation of said lands every fifteen years, is hereby repealed, together with so much of said act as comes within the purview of this act.”

By an examination of the records it appears that a large number of the members of the legislature which passed the first act, belonged to the succeeding one which repealed it. The Senate was composed of the same persons in both years, with only a change of two members, and in the House twenty members out of forty-nine were the same men. The Senator and the three members of the House from Butler county in which Oxford is located, were the same individuals in both legislatures. The only explanation, attainable, of this legislation so self-contradictory and in the end so disastrous to the university, lies in the fact that during the year 1809 very few if any leases were taken, on account of the revaluation clause. But there was no pressing need to dispose at once of the lands. The university did not need the money, for it did not go into operation until November, 1824, or fourteen years after the passage of the law of 1810. The university now receives from its lands-farming lands and village lots, $5,600 per annum.

It is not to be wondered at that the alumni and friends of the university, however rich as individuals they may be, should be unwilling to add to the endowment of an institution under the control of a State which has shown so little wisdom in the management of its great trust. It should be stated however, that in 1867 nearly $30,000 were contributed chiefly by the trustees, for a new college building and for general improvements. The buildings are now in good order. They are finely situated in a beautiful and well kept campus of one hundred acres.

OHIO AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE.

On the 2nd of July, 1862, the Congress of the United States passed "an act donating lands to the several States and Territories, which may provide colleges for the benefit of Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts." By this act, the quantity of land to be given to each State was proportioned to the number of its congressional members, 30,000 acres to each member. The proportion offered to Ohio was 630,000 acres. There being only eighty acres of public land in Ohio

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subject to sale at private entry at one dollar and twentyfive cents per acre," land scrip for 629,920 acres was to be issued by the Secretary of the Interior and placed in the treasury of the State. The assignees of this scrip might locate the same "upon any of the unappropriated lands of the United States subject to sale at private entry at one dollar and twenty-five cents per acre." The act providing that the proceeds of the sale of these lands shall be safely invested, and the interest "shall be inviolably appropriated by each state which may take and claim the benefit of this act, to the endowment, support and maintenance of at least one college, where the leading object shall be, without excluding other scientific and classical studies, and including military tactics, to teach such branches of learning as are related to Agriculture and the Mechanic Arts, in such a manner as the legislatures of the States may respectively prescribe in order to promote the liberal and practical education of the industrial classes in the several pursuits and professions of life."

At a special meeting of the State Board of Agriculture called by Gov. Tod in December, 1862, that board recommended the "acceptance of the grant, under the provisions of said act, by the legislature of the State and the early establishment of the college contemplated." In January, 1864, the same board presented to the General Assembly a memorial, entitled a "Memorial of the Ohio State Board of