subject, I am not prepared to say, nor do I deem it necessary now to determine. That question may be determined when the University shall be in a condition to make the removal under consideration.

Fourth. Whether or not it shall be deemed advisable at some future day that the Medical Department shall be removed to some other locality, I am of the opinion that the pecuniary affairs of the University do not authorize a removal at the present time. The expense of such removal would be corsiderable, and there are more pressing demands upon the funds of the Institution. I recommend, therefore, that the whole subject be indefinitely postponed.

Respectfully submitted,

ANN ARBOR, Sept. 28, 1858.

LEVI BISHOP.

REPORT ON THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE

LAW DEPARTMENT.

Submitted March 29, 1859.

Your Committee to whom was referred the subject of the Law Department, respectfully report as follows:

In entering upon the duty with which we were charged, it was deemed fitting and proper to direct our attention to the terms by which the trust with which we are invested was created.

By an act of Congress passed the 20th day of May, 1826, entitled "An act concerning a seminary of learning in the Territory of Michigan," seventy-two sections of land were set apart and reserved for the use and support of a university.

By section 2, of an act relative to the admission of Michigan into the Union, passed June 23d, 1836, it was among other things provided that the seventytwo sections of land aforesaid are hereby granted and conveyed to the State, to be appropriated solely to the use and support of such University, in such manner as the Legislature may prescribe.

By article 10, section 5, of the Constitution of 1835, it is declared that the funds accruing from the rents and sale of such lands shall be and remain a permanent fund for the support of said University.

By article 13, section 2, of the State Constitution of 1850, it is ordained that the proceeds from the sales of such lands shall be and remain a perpetual fund, the interest and income of which shall be inviolably appropriated and annually applied to the specific objects of the original grant.

These acts of Congress and these provisions of our State Constitutions in pursuance thereof, constitute the fundamental laws on the subject of a university, and are imperative alike on the Legislature and on the Board of Regents. All these provisions require the establishment of a university; and these citations become pertinent, as they bring into view the question, "What constitutes a university?" In answer to this question, it has been well argued that we are to be guided by that use of the term which time has sanctioned; the same rule which guides us in the proper application of all language. By this rule—this "jus et norma loquendi"-the term university must be deemed to mean an institution where not only "Literature, Science, and the Arts" are taught, but where young men are prepared to enter upon the practice of the several liberal professions, including that of the Law. The only restriction upon this application of the term binding upon us, has been caused by a jealousy, variously expressed in our national and several State Constitutions, of such religious teaching as might be deemed sectarian. If such is a just exposition of the term “university," then we are required, as a direct logical sequence, in the proper administration of our trust, to establish and maintain among others, a Department of Law. Such would plainly be our duty had we no other guide than `the fundamental laws to which we have already referred. In extending our inquiry and looking into the acts of our State Legislature, we observe that they have uniformly been governed by the same view of the term we have given in all their acts organizing and governing the University. Thus, by the Revised Statutes of 1838, Part I., Title II., Chapter 2, Section 9, it is provided that the University shall consist of three Departments:—

1. The Department of Literature, Science and the Arts.

2. The Department of Law.

3. The Department of Medicine.

The same number and order of arrangement of Departments are continued by the Revised Statutes of 1846, Title II., Chapter 57, and are further continued and confirmed by the act of April 8th, 1851, embodied in the Compiled Laws, as Chapter 75, the latter act providing for such other departments as the Regents shall deem necessary.

Therefore by all the acts of Congress creating and confirming the original trust, by the legitimate force and effect of the term "university," as used in the said acts of Congress, by the acts of the Legislative Council of the Territory of Michigan accepting such trust, by two Constitutions of the State of Michigan recognizing such trust and the obligations it has imposed, by three or more organic acts of the Legislature of the State of Michigan passed in pursuance of such grant, Constitutions, and laws, it became, and was, and is, the duty of the Board of Regents-a duty imperative and inflexible, and from which At could not escape if it would, to establish in the University a Law Depart

ment. How a Board, looking at the arrangement of these departments in the organic acts, could proceed to establish a Medical Department named as the third before that of a Law Department named as the second in each and every one of those acts, is perhaps not a question for the present Board to resolve. However those enactments may have been heretofore executed, it is certain that with the views herein expressed, the organization of the Law Department can no longer be postponed.

The limited amount of income up to a recent period, and the contingent character of a portion of that income until the passage of the act of February last, have evidently been means of preventing the full development of the University scheme hitherto. Since the passage of the act last referred to, our income may be regarded as permanent, and as having substantially reached its maximum of forty to forty-one thousand dollars. It is possible indeed that our capital may ultimately be withdrawn from the State Treasury, the remaining instalments on outstanding certificates of purchase paid up, and the whole invested in 10 per cent. mortgages yielding an income or fifty to sixty thousand dollars. But until interest on mortgage investments shall be much more promptly paid than is now the fact, we must be content with a 7 per cent. deposit in the State Treasury.

If, then, it be our duty to establish a Law Department, as we have attempted above to show, all further argument would be out of place, and your Committee refrain from entering thereon. But we may incidentally and not improperly add that if it be desirable for those who intend to devote themselves to the law, to have presented to them in logical order the entire body of the law, as it exists at the current moment, in a succinct and attractive form, giving to every branch its due prominence, going to its roots in the Feudal system, and in the Roman institutions just so far as illustration may render needful, directing especial attention to every means of aiding in the practical application of the principles taught-if there bo a common bond of union among all who cultivate literature and science--if it be a matter of just State pride and of true patriotism to present to the world a great university, well balanced and fully developed-if it be desirable to extend science among men, and to combine the highest results of philosophic training, with the fullest application of that science and training to useful purposes, rendering the place where all this is accomplished more than the Athens of America-then your Committee cannot doubt that the establishment of the Law Department will be hailed with general satisfaction.

Before presenting their own conclusions as to what should be the organization of the Law Department in our University, your Committee ask leave to offer a statement in few words relative to the general organization of other law schools, which is done in the following synopsis:

SYNOPSIS.

UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK-Number of Professors, 5; length of the course 2 years, 4 months each, from October 25 to March 25; expenses, $100 per year and $25 in addition to graduates.

COLUMBIA COLLEGE-Nun.ber of Professors, 1; length of the course, 2 years, each 7 months, from November 1; expenses, $75 per year.

UNIVERSITY OF ALBANY-Number of Professors, 3; length of the course, 1 yea, or 3 terms of 3 months each; expenses, $100 and $10 additional to grad

uates.

POUGHKEEPSIE LAW SCHOOL-Number of Professors, 2; length of the course, 1 year, or 3 terms of 3 months each; expenses, $90 per year.

HAMILTON COLLEGE-Number of Professors, 1; length of the course, 1 year, or 3 terms of three months each for graduates, but 4 terms for others; expenses, $65 per year.

CINCINNATI COLLEGE-Number of Professors, 3; one course of 6 months, from October 15 to April 15; expenses, $65 for the term. Students are advised to read before entering, Kent's Com., Smith's Mer. Law, Adam's Eq., Stephen on Pleading, and one vol. Gr. Ev., and to attend two courses of lectures.

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY-Number of Professors, 3; length of the course, 2 years, or two terms 20 weeks each; expenses, $100 per year. Ten lectures . and examinations each week. Studies so arranged, as far as may be, that students may begin with any term, and may elect their studies from the programme; may graduate on eighteen months study in law schools of which one year must be in this.

Evidence of good moral character is required for admission, but no special preliminary examination is required in any of them. Upon those students who pass an approved examination at the close of the course, all these institutions confer the degree of Bachelor of Law. This degree entitles them to practice in most of the States where they are granted.

This abstract, including some new and perhaps experimental schools, in the main shows the results of the experience of some of the best and oldest institutions of the country. In regard to the division of the general subject of law, and the assignment of topics to the several Professors, we observe in the several schemes examined a very great variety. There appears to be in many of the schools not so much a logical arrangement drawn from the analogies of the subject itself, as an arbitrary division made to conform to the personal conven-, ience or supposed peculiar qualities of the individual Professors. While deliberately offering upon a "tabula rasa" a plan with a view to permanence, your Committee aim to give some direction towards a proper division of the general