er instruments, and the number of well-selected volumes in the Library, already amounting to about 25,000, was steadily enlarged by an annual appropriation from the Legislature.

But you may inquire of me, What were the characteristics of the College that gained for it such favor in the State? and what work did it perform in the cause of higher education?

1. In several respects the College was very important to the State apart from its educational work-so far as that work relates to the mental training and the acquisition of knowledge. In the first place the inhabitants of the upper section of the State were of different origin, as immigrants, from those on the seaboard. The latter being descendants of the first colonists, who had governed the whole province from Charleston, retained political preponderance even after the upper section of the State had increased to more than an equality with them in population. Hence there sprang up between the sections considerable antagonism, and even animosity. Although the causes of such a spirit were at length removed by amending the State Constitution, still the spirit itself did not altogether fade away till the centrally-situated College had brought the youth of the two sections into close association and friendship with each other. Furthermore, the upper section had been deficient in educational advantages till the College diffused over it an enlightening and elevating influence. If in nothing else, at least in these respects, the design of founding the College was eminently successful. Education throughout the State and the "harmony of the whole community" were permanently promoted. As a result, no State has had a population more unified, or political leaders more friendly with each other and more concordant in every great measure affecting the public welfare.

Another point of importance to all the people was the influence of the College in improving the standard of schools and academies. The prescribed course of preparation for entrance into the College was the standard up to which the schools brought their pupils. The entrance examination was strict; and rejection was considered a disgrace not only to the applicant but to his instructor. The principals of schools and academies sought the acquaintance of the professors, and were generally in correspondence with them Hence resulted that great good to the people-faith

ful schoolmasters.

One more point of importance we must notice-the influence of the College upon the formation of character. Within those walls no young man durst lie, or prevaricate, or deceive. If any one unembued with honorable principles happened to stray into the fold, and was guilty in this particular, the faculty had no need to take the case under advisement; but the students themselves instantly turned the offender out of College. Playfulness, mischief, serious disorders were rampant at times; but lying was so detested that the voir dire never failed as a disciplinary power. The trustees acknowledged and guarded the principle by defining in By-laws, the occasions to which, in ordinary discipline, the Faculty should restrict themselves in putting a student upon his word of honor. The high standard of character among the young men themselves rendered authority over them most effectual whenever we felt that our duty required us to

mention to them the word "gentleman." When a class had completed its course, and commencement came, the wisdom, the learning, and the beauty, too, of the State, assembled, with the Governor, the Judges, and the dignitaries of the Legislature, in their official robes-to witness the impressive scene of a presentation, as it were, of a noble band of youths, from the College to the State, as her future law-makers and rulers, and defenders of her honor and her rights.

We perceive now why the people favored the college. But is it not strange that in this country we are indisposed to "let good enough alone?" The College was at its height of efficiency and usefulness, according to its means and circumstances, when Denominational Colleges began to spring up in the State. The Methodists thought it advisable to have their own institution of learning, the Baptists theirs, the Lutherans and others theirs. The old error of the State in attempting to found four colleges had been corrected in 1804, and all its favor and power concentrated upon one to render it most efficient. The people now reversed the movement and went back to the error again. Without building up a great College, they weakened and crippled the one which might have been made great in its museum and collection of books, in the completeness of its astronomical and experimental appliances, and in the eminence of its teachers. The same process of depreciating old and strictly-modelled institutions is in progress over all our country-multiplying and popularizing Colleges of every grade, till the Baccalaureate title is no sure index of the attainments it ought to indicate.

2. To the question what has the college done in the cause of higher education—we must answer, not a great deal with respect to the country at large-but a great deal at home. It spread throughout the State an appreciation of literary and scientific attainments; and it has sent from its halls a host of noble men; teachers and Professors, preachers and Bishops, legislators, orators, lawyers, and Judges, governors, senators in congress, cabinet officers and ministers to foreign courts. During its brief existence of two generations the College instructed at least 2950 young men, of these 1752 completed their baccalaureate examination. It is worthy of notice that a high estimate was placed upon qualifications for its honorary degrees. From 1804 to 1862, besides bestowing the title D. D. upon a small number of worthy recipients, that of LL. D. was given only to nine; and these were such as JOSEPH HENRY, WM. H. TRESCOTT, Rev. Dr. BACHMAN, and GESNER HARRISON. Indeed, the people of the State as well as their College have been so exacting as to reach almost the point of discouragement in their standard of excellence.

We have not been a book-producing people. The gentlemen of the State being occupied chiefly in agriculture and abounding in wealth, preferred the elegancies of social life and the acquirements by which it is adorned, rather than the exacting toil requisite for profound scholarship and literary fame. As, however, many aspired to the honors of eloquence and statesmanship, the college in response to such aspirations directed special attention to rhetoric and the study of the classics. Its excellence in these branches equalled-I may venture to say-that of any college in the country. Perchance to your ears may have come the names of a few

of our alumni-a LEGARÉ or PRESTON, MCDUFFIE or THORNWELL, HAMMOND, MEMMINGER, MILES, or PETIGRU.-But the success of the College, as we have intimated, has not been marked by famous instances of individual pre-eminence, so much as by a wide-spread diffusion among all classes of the people, of respectable proficiency in science and literature. And as a measure of College work which of these results should we prefer? I must add with your indulgence, and even at the risk of appearing too partial-that notwithstanding South Carolina's neglect of literary reputation and book-making, yet if the occasional productions of those who have been connected with the College as teachers and students should be collected they would form a set of volumes which in erudition and elegance of composition might not fall very far behind in a comparison with a similar number of books produced under the influences of other American colleges.

In the last year of the College, i. e., in 1862, there were 8 Professors. To convey to you a conception of the quality and extent of their work, I shall briefly mention the requirements for entrance (which were strictly enforced) and the curriculum of the Junior and Senior years. For entering the Freshman class were required a knowledge of the English, Greek, and Latin grammars, including Prosody; ancient and modern geography, arithmetic, a large portion of algebra; all of Sallust, Virgil (Georgics, Bucolics, and 6 books of the Æneid), 8 orations of Cicero, Arnold's Prose Composition; Kuhner's Greek Exercises as far as Syntax, Jacob's Greek Reader, six books of the Iliad and six of the Anabasis. The examinations for entrance were what are called written examinations. In the Junior and Senior years were studied portions of Cicero, Lucan, Horace, Plautus, and Terence; of Eschylus, Sophocles, Euripides, Pindar, Plato and Aristotle; Greek and Latin Composition (for the best original essays in which gold medals were awarded);-Trigonometry, Analytics, Calculus, Astronomy; a full course in Chemistry and Mechanical Philosophy; Moral and Mental Philosophy, Sacred Literature and Evidences of Christianity; Criticism, Elocution, English Literature, Logic, Rhetoric, and Political Philosophy. For faithfulness and thoroughness in the scientific branches I need only mention that the lecturers were Prof. VENABLE, now of the University of Virginia, and Doctors JOHN and JOSEPH LE CONTE, now of the University of California. A Board of Visitors from the State at large convened by appointment of the Trustees to consider, criticise, and report upon the final examinations. The Trustees in turn made their reports to the Legislature.

The late war destroyed the college. In 1862 the Confederate Congress called to arms the young men of sixteen years of age. The day upon which that call came-books were thrown aside-the halls deserted-the students gone! The buildings were soon afterwards taken by the Government for Hospital purposes. At the close of hostilities in '65, the State Treasury was empty; and the college was changed to a University system on a self-sustaining basis. This was done as a relief to the treasury, and as a means of affording partial courses of instruction to suit, at the time, the pressing needs of the youth of the State. With the same design a Law school and one of Modern languages were added, and a full Medical

Department was incorporated with the University. The number of Professors was increased to twelve; and ten separate schools were established on the plan of the University of Virginia. The State, as soon as it could, made liberal appropriations for the institution. A large body of young men sought the advantages offered,-many of them wounded, maimed, crippled,—but ardent to repair their loss of education occasioned by the imperious summons to military service. A noble work was before us; and in a few years much was accomplished. But the sudden extension of the franchise to the liberated Africans resulted in giving them in South Carolina a voting majority of 30,000 over the English-descended population. Under evil leadership, these ignorant new citizens have taken possession of all that belonged to the State, including the University. Three years ago the old professors resigned or were summarily dismissed. Strangers were put in their places, and the University-still so called-supported by heavy taxation, has become a training-school for negro boys; most of whom, I am informed, are paid from the treasury $20 per month for their attendance. (Reference is made to Acts of S. C. Legisl. 1875-6, p. 100.) I suppress any utterance of my own, and merely say with LIvy's mildness -est plerumque fit, major pars meliorem vicit.

A few words more before I take my seat. There were in the old SouthCarolina College four valuable scholarships for poor young men ; and thirty-two free-tuition scholarships were given by the State; and each of the two Literary Societies among the students, helped through college, by secret contributions, some one of their members needing such help. All this has passed away. Many a Carolinian who used to help others, has sons of his own whom he cannot now afford to send to college. The few words more which I desired to say are to acknowledge in your presence the kindliness of an institution in Virginia (the Washington and Lee University), in offering the advantages of a scholarship to any youth recommended by the Columbia Academy, an excellent academy which the people there are striving to support for those practically shut out from the more spacious halls which their fathers built. And Union College, too, in New York, which furnished our first President, in 1804, has generously offered to the young gentlemen of South Carolina, four scholarships. Benefactions so nobly and courteously tendered-even if, from various circumstances, they may not have been accepted-claim a grateful acknowledgement in the presence of this honorable assemblage of Presidents and Professors.

The essay was listened to with marked attention, and was briefly commented upon by Prof. E. T. TAPPAN, LL. D., of Ohio, and by other gentlemen.

The Hon. H. A. M. HENDERSON, Superintendent of Public Instruction of Kentucky, then read a paper entitled

THE POLITICAL

ECONOMY OF HIGHER AND TECHNICAL
EDUCATION.

Cui bono? "Who will show us any good?" This is the question of this wealth-coveting age. "Will it pay? is the challenging query put to every enterprise inviting attention. The world no longer has a Dryad for the wood, but a lumber-hunter; no longer a Naiad for the murmur and sparkle of the blue-eyed fountain or the rippling stream, but the hydraulic ram and the turbine wheel; no longer a Neptune, rising from the yeasty wave in a dolphin-drawn shell-chariot, but the copper-bottomed clipper ship and the oak-ribbed and iron-braced steamer; no longer a Vulcan for the forge and anvil, but the compound blow-pipe and the trip-hammer; no longer a Mercury for a news-bearer, but the electric telegraph; no longer a Juno for the fields, but the buggy-plow and the machine reaper; no longer a Jupiter throned upon Olympian heights holding parliament with the gods, but a Wall-street broker parleying with the bulls and bears.

An impertinent foe once asked Iphicrates what he was, for he had neither javelin, bow, nor armor. Pointing to his army panoplied for war, he replied: "I am the man who commands these warriors." There is a utilitarian spirit which interrogates the sage in like mood of contempt. It beholds him without hammer, scales, saw, or plowshare, and tauntingly asks, "What is he fit for?" Crowned with judgment, girded with strength, may he not rejoin, "I am the man who commands them all."

When Eschylus drew a portraiture of ideal greatness, which, when displayed in the theatre, turned, in admiring gaze, all eyes upon Aristides, as the model before the artist's mind, he pictured a field deeply plowed and, therefore fertile in productions:

Reaping in the mind the produce of a deep furrow.

A close investigation will reveal that the world's wealth is the product of deep culture, and that riches do not spring spontaneously from the ground.

It is a widespread opinion that original discovery is mostly the product of accident, while the history of the world's progress clearly demonstrates that ignorant men are not the representative discoverers and inventors. Was it a butcher that discovered the circulation of the blood? No, it was the reflecting anatomist, Harvey. Was it a strolling astrologer who revealed the system of the universe? Nay, it was the philosophic Copernicus—the scientific Newton. Look at the genealogy of great inventions and discoveries, and you can trace the steps of development as of the demonstration of a theorem. Take, for example, the history of chlorine and its uses. Its great wealth-producing agency is manifest in the art of bleaching cotton. This art was no mushroom growth. In 1785, Berthollet noticed that a watery solution of chlorine, as the gas itself, could annihilate vegetable colors. To help him to this observation was the previous discovery of chlorine itself by SCHEELE in 1774. In 1786, in Paris, BERTHOLLET exhibited the process to WATT, who, on his return to Scotland, experimented upon the suggestion, and succeeded in bleaching 1,500 yards of linen. It was introduced by Prof. COPELAND to the attention of the Aberdeen bleachers, and through the instrumentality of Dr. HENRY was adopted at Manches