the chair of modern languages before our next annual meeting, and I refrain from suggesting the appropriations which are greatly needed for the enlargement of the library and the cabinet, and of the philosophical and chemical apparatus.

I submit the following estimate, in order to a proximate understanding of the financial condition of the Institution for the year 1855.

7. Salary of Prof. of Mental Philosophy, &c. (one quarter).....................

250 00

8. Salary of Prof. of Chemistry, &c. (with incidentals)..................

350 00

To meet these expenditures, the Treasurer estimates the available funds for the use of the university, for the year 1855,

I have made this detailed statement, which I trust will be found substantially correct, of the probable receipts and disbursements of the treasury for the current year, in accordance with an act of the legislature requiring it, as the basis of a specific appropriation of our revenue, to meet the specified wants of the University. It

is obvious from the statement, that the wants of the University require that its whole revenue should be placed at the disposal of the board.

As the annual income of the University fund is accumulated in the State Treasury on the first of January, and as the claims on the Treasury of the University are liable to be presented from time to time throughout the year, it is desirable that some uniform system of removing our money from the State Treasury into the treasury of the board, should be devised and established by law. On this subject, I will take the liberty to make one or two suggestion: 1. That the warrants, drawn in accordance with our by-› laws on the treasurer of the board, be made payable quarterly, say on the first of January, April, July and October; and that on these several days, an order be drawn by the board, if in session, or by the executive committee during recess, on the State Treasurer, in favor of the Treasurer of the University, of sufficient amount to meet outstanding warrants; or 2. If it be thought advisable that all university warrants shall be payable directly from the State Treasury, this object may be effected by a law directing the State Treasurer to pay such warrants, when endorsed by the treasurer of the board. Some settled practical rule on this subject, seems to me te be very desirable.

The subject of the supply of board for students, is a matter of paramount importance, in its bearing on the patronage of the University. It is unwise to rely entirely on the disposition of private house holders to extend accommodations to students. Limited as our numbers have hitherto been, much difficulty has been experienced in this behalf, and as the university will soon come into a condition to command extended patronage, the inadequacy of this reliance for supply, will place the institution under very great disadvantage. It is quite certain that some plan must be adopted, through which young men, proposing to enter the university, may have the assurance of being able to obtain suitable board at modhrate prices. The old usage of bringing all the students into a commons hall, as a part of the regimen of the institution, has been

genrally abandoned by the older colleges, as unfavorable to good order, and perhaps equally so to good manners and good morals. All that I would recommend, is a common dining room for the accommodation of some of the families of the Faculty and such of the students as may prefer that arrangement to seeking board in private famies, the charges merely covering expenses. A club room may be attached, for the accommodation of those who may desire to board themselves. In accordance with the favorable action of the Board, in this behalf, at their Agust meeting, the extreme south wing of the new building will be finished with reference to residence. To carry out the residue of the plan, would require but a small comparative outlay. Considering the importance of the subject, it is worthy of consideration, whether the means of accomplishing it may not be provided within the present year. The surplus revenue of the year 1856 will be more than sufficient for this purpose, and this will be in the treasury on the first of January of that year.

The Superintendent of public instruction recommends, in his report to the legislature, the appropriation of a sufficient sum annually, from the income of the school fund, for the support of the normal Professor in the University. Should the legislature adopt this policy, which appears to me to be sound and unobjectionable, the board will be able to open that important department of the institution as early as the beginning of the next year, and make it the dispenser of the normal instruction for the State. Some ar rangement for the professional education of the teachers of the State is a present necessity. It is doubtless a much better economy for the cause of popular education to accomplish this end through this Univeasity department, than to throw upon the school fund the outlay necessary for originating and endowing a separate normal school; which, after all, could not be reasonably expected to do its work so well. A yearly appropriation from the income of the school fund of $1,500, in support of the normal department of the University, would secure the end, while a new organization would require, in charges for maintenance and interest on outlay, several times that amount annually.

The adoption of the policy recommended by the Superintendent will devolve upon the board, among other duties, that of providing forthwith for a separate preparatory school; so that the present University buildings shall be devoted entirely to the uses of the collegiate and the normal departments. A movement is now being made in Madison for the establishment of an academic or union school, with departments adapted to all grades of instruction, up to a full preparation of the higher classes for the University. I would recommend that the executive committee be in structed to negotiate an arrangement with the directors of this enterprise, through which the classical department of the school may do our preparatory work. I have no doubt that the connexion may be so arranged as to be highly beneficial, both to the school and to the university, and may be made to accomplish, in the best manner, all that we desire in this behalf.

The committee, to which was referred the proposition of a portion of our fellow-citizens to endow, in part, in the University, a chair of Scandinavian Language and Literature, reported to the August meeting of the board of ordinance, to carry into effect, conditionally, the objects of those who are interested in the movement. I am of opinion, on mature reflection, that the acceptance of the offer on the conditions specified in the ordinance, would be just to those who have made it, and advantageous to the institu tion.

The University is under great and lasting obligation to those of our fellow-citizens, who have, from time to time, interposed their private or their official services, not only to save the origi, nal endowment from the danger to which it was at some times exposed of ruinous depreciation, but also to bring to a successful termination, our application for a new grant of lands of equal amount with the first. The bill, securing to us this additional endowment, became a law early in the present session of congress; and a large proportion of the locations, made in anticipation of the grant, are understood to have been secured to the institution. The residue will be located in the spring. It is a question for the board to consider, what legislation may be desirable to bring

these lands early into the market and to secure to the trust their full value. If appraised at an average of $3 per acre, a proportion of them would meet with a ready sale, and the entire grant would yield the sum of $138,240. It can hardly be doubted that, by thrifty management, this sum may be realized within five years; and my observation of the chances to which university lands are exposed, leads me to doubt whether we may not be losers by aiming at a larger amount. A fair appraisal next summer, on the basis of a minimum of $2 50 per acre, would perhaps distribute even justice to the University and to the settler. Taking the value of the original endowment, as before stated, at

And of the recent grant, at

We make the whole endowment

. $180,000 138,240

After the completion of the edifice now in process of erection, including the boarding accommodations mentioned above, with the addition of what fixtures may be requisite for the Normal department, I should recommend that no more building be undertaken, until, by the application of the surplus income of the institution as a siuking fund, the entire debt, incurred thus far, be paid off, leaving the institution in the unencumbered ownership of its buildings and grounds, and a clear productive fund of at least $300,000.. When this condition shall be realized, and not before, shall I deem it advisable to proceed to the erection of the main edifice contemplated in our plan of building, and to the establishment of the departments of law and medicine. In the mean time, our resources will be sufficient to a gradual developement of the collegiate, normal and agricultural departments of the institution, by filling, with competent and devoted men, the necessary chairs of instruction, and by surrounding them with those subsidiary appliances which distinguish the older educational institutions of the country-a complete apparatus for analysis and demonstration in the experimental branches of science,, an extensive and well assorted library, and copious collections of natural specimens illus