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The reasonable construction of the statute is, that while the University shall not comprehend the ordinary common school studies, it shall so arrange its terms of admission that the public schools may be able to meet them, and that there be left no unbridged chasm between the body of the State school system and the University at its head.

In the better class of public schools there are now taught, not only Grammar, Geography and Arithmetic, but also Algebra, Geometry, Natural Philosophy, History of the United States, and Human Physiology, and in very many of them the Latin language. All these may properly be prescribed, therefore, as preparatory studies for the University. They are all so elementary in character as to come within the easy comprehension of students under fifteen years of age; they all need to be studied as preparations for mastering the University course; and they may all be successfully taught in public high schools. In the Latin, the quality of the scholarship attained, rather than the quantity of the reading, may wisely be made the test, and the student should be admitted who can construe readily any passage in Cicero's Select Orations, or Virgil's Georgics and Æneid.

The preparatory course above indicated, differs from that ordinarily prescribed for admission to colleges, in the omission of the Greek language, and in the extension of the requirements in mathematics and other studies. It is believed that this variation will not only better adapt the preparation to the peculiar character of the University, but will adjust the University much more nearly to the ordinary course of studies now generally taught in our public high schools. These schools universally teach Geometry and Algebra; but only in a few cases teach Greek to any great extent. The grade of scholarship required for admission will thus be made as high as that required at other Universities, though made up of different elements. To make the work of the Industrial University thorough and complete, demands that the preparation for it shall be also full and sufficient.

The argument for an elevated standard of qualifications for admission gains great force from the fact, that until the student has made as much progress as this preparatory course requires, he has not usually formed his purpose and tested his strength and ability to pursue a course of liberal or scientific study. The history of preparatory schools is full of proof that many of those who set out for a College course stop short of the College doors. Science, like scripture, has its " stony ground" hearers, who at first receive the word with joy, but who, when the hot sun of hard study is up, wither away. If our doors must be held open to every half-taught youth who is seized with a sudden ambition to "go to the University," our halls will be flooded annually with fresh hosts of mere tyros, who will stay only long enough to manifest their unfitness for the place, and then go forth to shame the Institution whose students they will claim to have been; thus ruining its reputation, after helping to destroy or impair its usefulness.

Among this host of short-lived "students of the Industrial University" the State will look in vain for that long line of graduates-the ripe and scholarly leaders in her agriculture and her great industries-which she has hoped to see proceed annually from the University halls.

The Committee are confident that no person who properly considers the amount of more important work which the University has to accomplish, will wish to see its forces diverted to the teaching of these elementary branches which the high schools may properly claim as their own ground; and certainly no one who desires the success of the University, as a great scientific and industrial college, will wish to see students entering its classes with less preparation than is here prescribed.

It needs to be repeated that this does not forbid students of suitable maturity and experience to come to the University to take a few select studies, without passing an examination in Latin and the higher mathematics named.

HONORARY SCHOLARSHIPS.

The law for the organization of the University provides that "each county in the State shall be entitled to one honorary scholarship in the University, for the benefit of the descendants of soldiers and seamen who served in the armies and navies of the United States during the late rebellion; preference being given to the children of such soldiers and seamen as are deceased or disabled; and the Board of Trustees may, from time to time, add to the number of honorary scholarships, when, in their judgment, such additions will not embarrass the finances of the University; nor need these additions be confined to the descendents of soldiers or seamen. Such scholarships to be filled by transfer from the common schools of said county, of such pupils as shall, upon public examination, to be conducted as the Board of Trustees of the University may determine, be decided to have attained the greatest proficiency in the branches of learning usually taught in the common schools, and who shall be of good moral character and not less than fifteen years of age." These scholarships entitle the incumbents to free tuition for three years.

The Committee recommend that the Regent, in connection with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, prepare examination papers, and transmit the same to the County Superintendent of Schools in each county, who, with other examiners, appointed by the Regent and Superintendent, will see that the examinations are properly conducted, and will return the papers, with the written answers of the several candidates and with such testimonials as they may present, to the Regent, who shall determine on the papers and notify the successful candidates of their appointment.

A competitive examination, thus uniform in character and thus fairly conducted, can not but react with a most healthful stimulation upon the public school interests of the State; and this stimulation will be increased by a publication of the names of the schools in which the successful candidates were prepared, and the teachers by whom they were taught. In case any counties shall neglect to send students on their scholarships, the Regent may be authorized to award such scholarships, for the year, to suitable candidates from other counties.

CHARGES FOR tuition, and OTHER EXPENSES.

The Committee would rejoice if the condition of our funds and the provisions of the law would permit the University to be made free to all citizens of the State, and they cordially recommend that its tuition be made thus free at the earliest practicable moment; and that from the outset the charges be made as light as is consistent with justice to the Institution itself.

The charges in American Colleges range from a few dollars per annum to several hundreds. In Yale College the annual fees amount to $85. The annual fees at Harvard are $133. At the Michigan University each student pays a matriculation fee of $10, and an annual fee of $5. At the Michigan Agricultural College the tuition is free for citizens of the State. Students from other States pay $20 per annum. All students pay a matriculation fee of $5. The proposed fees for the Cornell Uni versity are $20 a year for tuition; matriculation fee $15.

The Committee recommend that the Academic year be divided into two semiannual sessions, as nearly equal as may be, and that the tuition and other fees for each session be fixed at the following rates:

For tuition to students from other States, $10 per term.....

For incidentals, care and warming of public rooms, etc., $5 per term.
For room rent, $6 per term....

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They recommend, also, that a matriculation fee of $10 be charged to each student on first entering the Institution. This fee is never charged a second time, but, once paid, entitles the student to all the privileges of membership at any time thereafter. Students on the "honorary scholarships" will pay the matriculation fee and charges for room rent and incidentals, but will be charged nothing for tuition.

BOARDING DEPARTMENT.

The building is provided with the necessary rooms for a boarding department. It is believed that in a short time we may wholly dispense with this department, even if it must be opened at the outset. Suitable boarding houses will doubtless soon spring up in the neighborhood, and the rooms in the University building may be appropriated to more public and proper uses.

STUDENTS' ROOMS.

There are in the University buildings sixty-six rooms designed for students' dormitories, each dormitory being calculated to accommodate two students. These rooms are without furniture. It is customary to leave students to provide their own furniture, as they will ordinarily take better care of their own property than they will of that belonging to a public Institution.

MANUAL LABOR SYSTEM.

One of the most important and difficult questions concerning the organization of the University, is that of the introduction of the manual labor system. It is true that the attempt to connect manual labor with schools has, in many instances, failed; but the nature and extent of this failure have not been generally understood. It has not failed because the students were unwilling to work, nor because the work was injurious either to their health or culture. It has simply failed to pay. The labor of students was found unprofitable.

The high success and utility of the labor system, as practiced at the Michigan Agricultural College, has, in the minds of your committee, fully demonstrated its feasibility and value; and they would heartily recommend its adoption here, provided similar conditions can be secured. There, each student is required by law to work three hours a day, unless excused on account of sickness. The professors accompany the students to the garden or field, and participate in and direct the work, which is made to illustrate the principles taught in the lecture rooms. Wages, according to the value of the work done, not exceeding seven and a half cents an bour, are allowed the student, and he is thus enabled to pay a considerable part of the expense of his schooling by his labor. Even there the work has never yet proved remunerative to the institution, though it annually approaches nearer this result.

It should be added that the manual labor system, as practiced at the above named institution, has been carefully inspected by gentlemen sent from several of the Eastern States, and has been warmly commended, in their published reports, as eminently satisfactory and successful.

The chief advantages of the labor system are these:

1. It promotes the physical health and development of the student.

2. It cultivates habits of industry, and, keeping the student inured to muscular effort, renders his return to the farm, or other physical labor, natural and easy. This is a point of much importance, if we wish successfully to turn the tides of educated life into the industrial employments.

3. When made, as in the agricultural course, to bear npon the studies pursued, it creates a practical interest in, and comprehension of, those studies, which can not be obtained by mere abstract study.

4. When pursued, as here recommended, in the society of intelligent class-mates and teachers, and lighted with a knowledge of the reason of every process, it is not only pleasant, but comes to be seen as noble and dignified; and thus the sentiment of honor to labor is deeply implanted in the mind.

5. It aids the student to pay his own way, and cultivates in him the feeling of manly independence.

These considerations are so important that they incline us to recommend its introduction, even though it should fail to pay all the expenses attending it. But if proper care is taken not to establish too high a rate of compensation, the committee are not without hope that no loss need result, even if no profit is gained,

APPARATUS OF ILLUSTRATION AND INSTRUCTION.

Each department in the University will require, besides the general cabinets or collections, some means of illustration and instruction peculiar to itself. For general study of the natural sciences there will be needed full and well classified collections of specimens in mineralogy and geology, in botany and in the various branches of zoology.

The departments of agriculture and horticulture will require, in addition, cabinets of seeds, grasses, grains and fruits; models or drawings of farming and garden implements, of farm buildings, and plans of farms, gardens, celebrated parks, and landscape gardens, etc.; and specimens and drawings of various breeds of domestic animals.

The department of mechanics and civil engineering, will demand a cabinet of models and drawings of machinery, architectural plans and plans of roads, bridges and other structures, and specimens of building materials, as the various woods, marbles, granites and more common building stones.

The military department will require its specimens or drawings of the various kinds of arms and military structures, together with plans of celebrated battle-fields, sieges, encampments, etc.

The department of fine arts will require casts, photographs or engravings of the great master-pieces in art. These may be obtained at reasonable rates, and original drawings, paintings and sculptures will, in due time, be added. The healthful, refining and stimulating influence of such collections on the minds of the young, must be seen to be properly appreciated.

The common working apparatus of instruction must embrace a good set of chemical and philosophical apparatus. The prominence due to chemistry in such an institution as this, will demand at the earliest practicable day, a separate and suitable building for a chemical laboratory, such as exists at Harvard, Yale and Amherst, and at the Michigan University.

The experimental farms, orchards and gardens, with the several stock barns, yards, pens, etc.; the mechanic shops, tools and machinery; the military arms and parade grounds; the engineer's tools, and the model counting house, will furnish the

fitting apparatus for teaching in the several leading departments of special instruction.

As the collection of cabinets is a work of years, it is important that it begin at once, and that applications for duplicate specimens, casts, etc., be made as early as practicable, wherever they may be obtained. The friends of the University in the various sections of the State would doubtless donate many specimens, if a brief circular, containing a statement of our wants, and instructions for packing and forwarding, were sent out.

FACULTY.

The committee were also instructed "to suggest a faculty" for the University. In the entire work of organizing the institution, there is no more difficult or important part than this. On the character and ability of its faculty, will the character and success of the University depend, more than upon all other circumstances taken together. Buildings, cabinets, libraries and rich endowments will be all in vain, if the living agents-the professors-be not men of ripe attainments, fine culture and eminent teaching powers.

Numerous applications have already flowed in upon the committee, but the time has been quite too brief, since the last meeting of the Board, to allow any such careful and extensive inquiries as would justify the committee in presenting any names at this time. Self-nominated candidates will always be abundant, but the men we want will need to be sought for as with lighted candles. The incumbent of a professor's chair should be no ordinary man. In this, its chief seat of learning, in which it proposes to provide for the highest education of its sons, and from which, as a great center of science, it seeks to diffuse light to all the great fields of its industries, the State needs men of the highest type, as scholars and as men. The qualifications of every candidate for a professorship must be rigidly scrutinized without fear or favor; and none but men of tried and proven ability must be admitted to a place. Older and ordinary colleges may do with second rate men; this University can only succeed with the best men.

A good college professor should have the three-fold qualification of eminent and extensive scholarship, at least in his department; thoroughly tested ability to teach; and high-toned, gentlemanly character and culture. The first two are indispensable qualifications; the third will never be overlooked by those who have marked how inevitably and ineffaceably the teacher impresses his manners and habits upon his pupils. If culture is the better part of education, high-toned character and genuine courtesy of manner and feeling are the better part of culture.

The number of professors must depend upon the extent of the endowments and the consequent ability to pay salaries. Until the Trustees shall determine upon the disposition of the land scrip, and thus approximately determine the prospective extent of its funds, this question of the numerical force of the faculty must remain unsettled.

The corps of instruction may properly embrace four classes of teachers: 1st. Professors, or principal instructors in each department of study. 2d. Assistant Professors-younger, or less accomplished teachers, employed in sub-departments, or to aid in departments in which the work can not be fully done by one man. 3d. Lecturers, or non-resident Professors-men eminent in some speciality of art or science, who may be employed to visit the University at specified seasons, and give

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