1838] 



FARMERS' REGISTER 



293 



Virj;inia; nor will the subject be deemed unconnected 

 with the first or principal object of the Farmers' Re- 

 gister, which is especially agricultural improvement. 

 The colleges referred to above, highly beneficial as 

 they are to the commonwealth, as well as to the peo- 

 ple more especially interested in them, are local insti- 

 tutions—principally sustained by, and in return sus- 

 taining and elevating, the surrounding and adjacent, 

 though an extended region of country. And it is be- 

 cause of this local action, and yet very general opera- 

 tion within such limits, that the improvement made in 

 the people and in the country can be so easily traced, 

 and so clearly exhibited and proved. The University 

 of Virginia, from its rich endowment, its identification 

 with national interests, and its other peculiar and 

 great advantages, is diffusing knowledge and improve- 

 ment to every part of the state, and to far remote 

 states ; and the benefits thus produced are not the less 

 certain and important, because, from their wide diffu- 

 sion, they are less susceptible of being accurately es- 

 timated, and duly appreciated. 



William and Mary College at present partakes of 

 both these characters. Formerly it w-as the state or 

 principal institution of Virginia, and even of all the 

 southern and western states then in being. Yet, in its 

 former days of prosperity, (as they were then deemed,) 

 and when receiving students annually from every re- 

 gion of Virginia, and some from perhaps five or six 

 other states, still the number of students in the scien- 

 tific classes ranged between 60 and 90, and rarely, if 

 ever, exceeded the latter number. The boys in the 

 school for Latin and Greek, are not counted under the 

 name of "students," in this institution, and are not so 

 included in these or any of the following remarks; 

 though all such boys, in the middle and higher classes, 

 are so counted in most other colleges ; and thereby 

 serve to swell their apparent numbers, and, by the com- 

 parison, to make the number of students of William 

 and Mary appear fewer in comparison. In making 

 comparisons, this difference should not be overlooked. 

 From that condition, William and Mary was struck 

 down to the lowest state of depression, first by the 

 war, which brought an invading enemy into its near 

 neighborhood, and for two years caused frequent calls 

 upon every student of military age for military service in 

 the field. Under such circumstances, the continuance 

 of regular or even profitable study and collegiate du- 

 ties, was rendered impossible ; and parents either 

 kept their sons at home, or sent them to distant col- 

 leges, which were free from such continual alarms of 

 invasion, or marauding incursions from the British 

 fleets. There were afterwards transient returns of 

 prosperity to the college, but of no long continuance; 

 as other and different blows, not necessary here to par- 

 ticularize, fell upon it in rapid succession, and served 

 to impair its interests, and to thin its ranks. These 

 changes and fluctuations will be passed over, to the 

 session of 1S33-4, when the institution seemed to be 

 so nearly prostrate, that the loss of any one valuable 

 professor was feared as a blow too heavy to be then 

 borne; and an eviJ impossible to repair, owing to the 

 email remaining inducements to attract or retain able 



professors. That session, the whole number of stu- 

 dents amounted to no more than seventeen. Not long 

 before, more than two years had passed without a quo- 

 rum of the board of visiters being got together, and 

 of course without a meeting or any action of that body 

 — those members wlio were present, and ready to act, 

 having been rendered useless by the non-attendance 

 of others. 



During that time the important professorship of 

 mathematics remained vacant; and though its duties 

 were performed by the extra service of another profes- 

 sor, still the vacancy and its cause could not but great- 

 ly impair the public confidence in the management 

 and usefulness of the institution. This neglect of the 

 visitors to attend, and act in convocation, was the great 

 cause, out of which grew all the minor and auxiliary 

 causes, of the decline and threatened extinction of the 

 college. In July 1834, a meeting of a bare quorum 

 (a majority of the visitors, as required by the char- 

 ter,) was, with difficulty, obtained; and a system of 

 reform and improvement was then begun, which has 

 been zealously continued to this time, and which has 

 produced the most remarkable and manifest improve- 

 ment in the number of students, and in the value of 

 the course of instruction. So far as the increase of 

 number of students may serve to indicate increase of 

 prosperity and value of the college, these will strongly 

 enough appear in the following statement of the num- 

 bers for the five last courses. 



In session of 1833-4, there were 17 students. 



1834-5, 48 



1835-6, 69 



1836-7, 113 



1837-8, 112. 



When the universal pecuniary difficulties and losses 

 of the last fifteen months are considered, the last num- 

 ber, though a little less in amount than that of the 

 year preceding, is, in fact, a stronger evidence of in- 

 creased public confidence in the institution, than the 

 previous rate of progressive increase of numbers. 

 And this high eminence will be justly deemed the 

 more remarkable, when considered in comparison with 

 the previous and long continued depression — in com- 

 parison with the former state, when William and Mary 

 had not a rival in this or half a dozen adjacent states 

 — and considering that now there are three other col- 

 leges deserving and drawing their shares of students, 

 and still more the University of Virginia, in a state of 

 high prosperity, and having from 200 to 240 students 

 during each of the last three years. 



While we wish the greatest possible success to all 

 our institutions of education and learning, it may be 

 permitted to us, without being obnoxious to the charge 

 of being sectional in feeling, or wanting in good will to 

 others, to set forth more especially the claims of Wil- 

 liam and Mary College as the now local institution of 

 the tide-water region, in addition to its other and strong 

 claims of a general nature. It has ceased to be the 

 principal college of this and other states, not because 

 of diminished value of its instruction (for that has been 

 greatly increased — ) but because of the establishment 

 of sundry other institutions, by public or private en- 



