> the chairs of instruction. The faculty, as at present constituted, consists of seven members, a president, vice-president, professor of mathematics, professor of natural science. professor of history, professor of French and German, and a director of the department of physical culture. In the catalogue of 1891-92, there are enrolled 119 students, 20 of whom are females. Washington College seems now entering upon a new era of prosperity and the ardent hope is expressed that the eastern branch of the first Maryland university may continue to prosper. The college has never received a bequest nor has it ever received any large gifts in the way of endowment. The beneficial influence of Washington College has not been confined to the Eastern Shore nor even to the State of Maryland, but has been disseminated throughout the broad fields of the West and South. We should like to mention in closing the names of our noted alumni; we can not name all who are worthy, but there are many of whom we are proud. In the Report of the Commissioner of Education for 1889-'90, the library of the college was stated to contain 2,500 volumes and the permanent productive funds to be $30,000. ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE (1785-1894).' From its beginning in the dawn of the eighteenth century King William's School appears to have flourished for about eighty-five years, passing successfully through the disturbances of the Revolutionary war and educating for the State and nation sons distinguished in the early history of the country. Among its pupils was William Pinkney, whose fame is a heritage unto the nation. This school, as we shall shortly see, was finally merged in St. John's College, delivering over to it its head master, as a professor, and students, funds, and other property. The foundation of Washington College in 1782 has already been treated and we now tell the story of the second college, which was incorporated with it to form the first university of Maryland in 1785. In 1785 the legislature of the new and sovereign State of Maryland, in consideration of the contributions voluntarily made and to be made by individual or corporate subscribers for the purpose of founding St. John's College, granted to its original corporators, "the visitors and governors," to be thereafter elected by such subscribers, a charter, by which the sum of £1,750 current money was annually and Based on the address of Mr. Philip R. Voorhees, delivered at the celebration of the centennial of the college, with alterations and additions. * Statute of 1784, chapter 37. The act was signed Jan. 22, 1785. forever granted as a donation by the public to the use of said college, to be applied by the visitors and governors to the payment of salaries to the principal, professors, and tutors of said college. To constitute a fund from which this appropriation was to be paid, certain taxes were imposed which were deemed objectionable and oppressive by those on whom their payment fell and excited an extended feeling of resentment towards the college from all parts of the State. A portion of this fund was derived from a license tax upon innkeepers and other vendors of spirituous liquors. The liquor interest was a powerful and a formidable one and the college was soon made to feel its power. An attack was made upon the college and the taxes imposed for its support in a pamphlet signed "A Planter," immediately after the adjournment of the general assembly in 1785. In November, 1786, a portion of the fund so set apart was appropriated to purposes in no way connected with the college or the subject of education, which called forth a remonstrance from the board of visitors and governors, which, though repeated two years in succession, seems to have been unnoticed or disregarded.1 In November, 1794, an act was passed by the lower house of assembly repealing Section XIX of the charter and withdrawing its appropriation for the payment of the salaries of principal, professors, and tutors, but was defeated in the senate. -[Report of joint committee of the legislature, March 1, 1788.] On the 25th of January, 1806, the legislature passed an act2 repealing the nineteenth section of the charter, and the annual appropriation therein provided for was withheld from the college. The act of repeal, however, was passed by but a bare majority in the senate and a majority of 8 in the house. While in the sixteenth year of its active usefulness, and when promising increased advantages for the future, this action so crippled the institution that it did not for years recover from the blow, if, indeed, its whole development thereafter was not modified for all time. But in 1811 the State voted an annual donation of $1,000, and in 1821 authorized the college to raise, by a lottery, a sum not exceeding $80,000, of which amount the sum of $20,000 was realized and invested as a college fund. In 1832, by joint resolution,3 $2,000 was added by the State to the annual sum of $1,000 theretofore voted, conditioned upon the visitors and governors agreeing to accept the same in full satisfaction of all claims against the State for the unpaid sums provided for in the charter. Despairing of better terms and greatly needing the money, the visitors and governors, under such circumstances, acceded to these and executed a release. Subsequently, in 1858, the legislature In 1788 the house of representatives passed a bill to suspend payment of funds to St. John's College for the salaries of presidents and professors until the college should be finished and professors appointed and actually engaged in the exercise of their several duties. The senate agreed to this, James Carroll dissenting, "because the legislature has no right to interfere in any manner with the funds appropriated to the support of St. John's College. The law established that college, and giving them certain sums yearly, must be considered a grant to that corporation under the act which cannot be annulled without a forfeiture of the charter or the consent of both parties; and in this instance the trustees have not even notice of the resolution." Statute of 1805, chapter 85. 3 Resolutions of 1832, No. 41. Resolutions of 1858, No. 4. authorized a suit to be brought to test the constitutionality of the repeal of the nineteenth section of the charter. Such a suit was accordingly brought in equity, the governor appearing for the State as a defendant. The bill charged that the State by such repeal had violated the provisions of a solemn contract. The court of appeals, on a case so stated from the court below, so held; but the same court also held, later, when payment was sought to be obtained by proceedings for a mandamus to the accounting officers of the treasury, that the visitors and governors "having accepted the proposals of the legislature and by their solemn and formal release haying discharged and extinguished the claim made here, have deprived themselves of the power, as well as right, to assert and again maintain it." The court having reached this conclusion, expressed no opinion upon the point raised by the defense, that a mandamus, under the facts of the case, was not the proper remedy.2 The legal proceedings rested here, although an appeal from this decision to the Supreme Court of the United States was advised by eminent authority, upon the ground that the visitors and governors had exceeded the authority conferred upon them in executing such release, the case being one in which the act complained of involved the question of a vio lation of the Constitution of the United States which declares that "No State shall pass any law impairing the obligation of contracts."3 In 1866 the visitors and governors, ever faithful to the interests of the college, memorialized the legislature, urging in the strongest terms the hardship of the situation and their dislike to appeal to a jurisdiction outside of the State in search of any relief which it was competent for the State itself by legislative action to grant. Whereupon the legislature, mindful of the situation, voted to restore the amount of unpaid annuities which had accrued within the preceding five years, during which the college was closed. An additional appropriation of $12,000 was also voted, to be paid annually on and after June 1, 1868, for the next five years. * In 1872 there was "appropriated," in addition to the sum of $3,000 now annually paid "the sum of $12,000 annually on and after the 1st day of June, 1873, for and during the term of six years."5 Further, $10,000 were granted "per annum for the board, fuel, lights, and washing of two students from each senatorial district to be given free tuition by the college," and the sum of $5,000 was given in gross "for increasing and improving the college library, laboratory, philosophical apparatus and cabinet." In 1878, "in addition to the permanent annuity of $3,000, was continued the appropriation of 1872, of $12,000, then about to expire, for and during the term of two years on and after the 1st day of October, 1878." The provision for students from senatorial districts 15 Maryland Reports, 330. 223 Maryland Reports, 629. 3 Section X of Article 1. 1122-No. 19—7 Act of 1866, ch. 101. "Act of 1872, ch. 393. "Act of 1878, ch. 315. |