limestone. The first story contains the president's office, lecture-rooms for the schools of law, engineering, Greek, and mathematics. The second and third stories are devoted to students' lodgings.

Clark Hall, which forms the front of the quadrangle, is a handsome structure of brick, with trimmings of gray limestone, and is appropriated to general academic uses. It is three stories in height. The first story contains the library and reading-rooms and the winter chapel. The great public hall of the University occupies the second and third stories. This hall will seat with comfort eight hundred people, with accommodations for several hundred more in the galleries.

Garland Hall forms the east side of the quadrangle, and is the counterpart of Manly Hall on the west.

The whole of the lower floor is devoted to the very extensive collections owned by the University in geology, botany, conchology, mineral ogy, and zoology. The upper apartments are lodging-rooms for stu dents.

CHAPTER XXX.

Liberal Donation of Lands for the University-Action of the State Legislature thereon-Ordinance of the Board of Trustees-Location of the Grant-The Administration of President Lewis-His Untimely Death -Biographical Sketch.

By act of Congress approved April 23, 1884, the State of Alabama was empowered to locate for the benefit of the University forty-siz thousand and eighty acres of the public lands within the State, to b applied to the erection of suitable buildings for the University and o the restoration of the library and scientific apparatus, heretofore destroyed by fire, the surplus, if any, to increase the endowment of the University. Under authority conferred by this act the Governor appointed three commissioners, A. C. Hargrove, Eugene A. Smith, and J. B. Moore, to make selection of said land. The grant was accepted by the State, and the further location and management thereof was turned over to the trustees by act of the General Assembly approved February 5, 1885.

At a meeting of the trustees held in June, 1885, an ordinance was adopted providing for the care and management of this important trust, and for the sale of so much of said lands as was deemed necessary for the present needs of the University. The ordinance provided for the election of a land commissioner and a committee of three trustees, to be styled "the committee on the University land grant," said committee to be elected annually. To this committee is intrusted the care and sale of these lands, subject to such restrictions as the ordinance imposes, or as may from time to time be made by the trustees.' Messrs. Willis

1 Report of the Trustees of the University of Alabama to the General Assembly, presented December 10, 1886, pp. 11-12.

G. Clark, James Crook, and Henry H. Brown were elected the said committee, and have been continuously in office by reëlection ever since,

Hon. A. C. Hargrove was elected land commissioner and still holds the office. All of these lands have been located, and nearly all of the selections have been formally approved by the Secretary of the Inte rior. About eleven thousand acres, or about one-fourth of the grant, had been sold up to January 1, 1889, realizing a handsome sum, which has been and is being expended as the act of donation directs. The average of prices received for said land is largely in excess of the expectations of the trustees, and encourages the hope that the grant will eventuate in a munificent endowment for the University.

During the five years, 1880-85, in which Colonel Lewis was presi dent of the University the institution enjoyed uninterrupted prosperity. The number of students steadily increased, and there was annually sent out a large number of graduates in the different departments.

At the beginning of the autumn term, 1885, the University opened with a largely increased number of students. The president was engaged during the first day of the term in his usual duty of matriculating new students and assigning them to their classes. At the meeting of the Faculty in the afternoon he complained of indisposition, and the next day he was too unwell to leave the house. His malady turned out to be pleurisy, and he was pronounced by the attending physician to be dangerously ill. He lingered until the 11th of October, on which day he departed this life, mourned by his colleagues in the Faculty and by the students of the University, who loved him for his many noble qualities of heart and intellect, and by his family and friends. The funeral ceremonies were conducted in Clark Hall, from which his remains were borne to Evergreen Cemetery, hard by the University.

Colonel Lewis was a native of Alabama, born July 7, 1838, in the city of Montgomery; he was reared and educated wholly in his native State. His father was a distinguished physician, who died when he was yet a child. His mother was a daughter of the Hon. Eli Shortridge, who was for a long time one of the judges of the circuit court of Alabama. After careful preparation for college he entered the University in 1853, and was graduated with honor in 1857. After a season of preparatory study in the office of his uncle, Hon. George D. Shortridge, of Montevallo, he was admitted to the bar and had begun the practice of his profession when the Civil War began.

Mr. Lewis offered his services to the State, and was during the War a captain in the Second Alabama Cavalry Regiment. After the War he returned to the practice of the law, at Montevallo. In 1870-72 he represented Shelby County in the Legislature of the State. In 1873 he removed to Tuscaloosa and was engaged in a lucrative practice when, in 1875, he was nominated for Congress as a Representative from the State at large. He served two terms in Congress, but left the field of statesmanship in 1880 to take the presidency of the University.

In 1879 his alma mater honored him with the degree of doctor of laws. He died in the very prime of life. Had he been permitted to live he would doubtless have risen to a high rank among the scholars of his age. His acquirements were varied and extensive. Unlike many of his legal contemporaries, he had not allowed the study of the law to absorb the whole of his time and attention. His mind had ranged over a wide field of thought and knowledge. He was a diligent reader and student. Possessed of an excellent memory, he rarely forgot anything in his studies that seemed worthy of being remembered. Although he was fond of literature and was well acquainted with the great masters of English style, his inclination led him to severer studies. He was a student of psychology and of political philosophy. His lectures to the Senior class on political economy, and to the law students on international and constitutional law, furnished the highest proof of his scholarly attainments in these abstract sciences.

As a man Colonel Lewis was remarkable for his amiability. Although there was nothing demonstrative in his manner, there was that something in him which, for want of a better name, has often been called personal magnetism, and by this he attracted the love and respect of all. As he had lived a Christian life, so he died in perfect peace.

The committee of the trustees in their report to the General Assembly, under the head of "Presidency of the University," speak thus feelingly of the death of Col. Lewis:

"On the threshold of the collegiate year of 1885-86 the death of Hon. Burwell B. Lewis deprived the University of its president and the State of an eminent citizen. A graduate of the University, distinguished for the unblemished purity of his private life and for his attainments as a scholar, jurist, and statesman, he brought to the great trust confided to him firmness tempered by mildness, wisdom ripened by experience, and knowledge sanctified to noble and patriotic ends by a sincere Christian profession and practice.

"The steady advance in the usefulness and popularity of the University during his administration realized the just expectations of the board in his election, and justified the belief that the continuance of his life and services would bring that institution to the standard of capacity and efficiency demanded by the educational wants of the State, and accomplish the objects for which it was endowed."

The students at the University at the time of his death have, by permission of the trustees, placed a handsome marble tablet in Clark Hall in honor of their loved and lamented preceptor and friend.