answer. Nor can you be at a loss to predict what is to be the effect on the schools, of insisting on some definite standard of admission to the University. The Faculty are well satisfied that the principles on which they have been permitted to commence their administration are the only principles on which success, if practicable at all, can be secured, and all they can reasonably ask is that the board will patiently await the result of an experiment on these principles."

"Under the blessing of Heaven, and with your wise superintendence, liberal encouragement, and strong support, we think we shall ultimately succeed in making a useful and respectable institution, adequate to the wants of this rising Commonwealth."

CHAPTER IX.

Uniform Dress Adopted for Students-The First Commencement Sermon at the University-Astronomical Observatory-Disturbance among the Students-First Trial of the "Exculpation Law"-Riot among the Students-Suspension of College Exercises-Death of Professor Pratt. The year 1839 was a peaceful and prosperous year for the University. The only change in the Faculty was the election by the board of Mr. Samuel S. Sherman, A. M., of Middlebury College, Vt., to the tutorship of ancient languages, made vacant by the resignation of Mr. Jacob Pearson. Mr. Sherman remained at the University two years and be came in 1813 the first president of Howard College, an institution established that year by the Baptist denomination at Marion, Ala., for the education of young men.

The Faculty being required by an ordinance of the corporation to prescribe a uniform dress to be worn by the students, established in January the following as the uniform dress: A frock coat of dark blue cloth, single-breasted, with standing collar, ornamented on each side with a gilt star, a single row of gilt buttons in front, and six buttons on the back. A black stock and a black hat with narrow brim were to be worn.

The students were required to appear in uniform on the 1st day of September. They were required by law to wear this uniform on Sunday and on all days of public exhibition at the University, and always when away from the University grounds. On week days and on ordinary occasions at the University they were permitted to wear undress clothing.

The number of students during the collegiate year 1839 was as follows: Seniors, twelve; Juniors, thirteen; Sophomores, eleven; Freshmen, twenty-five; total, sixty-one. Graduates at commencement, ten. The sum of twenty-five hundred dollars was appropriated this year

MS. Reports of the Presidents of the University, Vol. I.

by the board of trustees for the purchase of astronomical and magnetic instruments, and to further increase the facilities for instruction. The Faculty were authorized by the corporation to appoint a tutor of mod ern languages, at a salary of one thousand dollars; but no person of suitable attainments being found to take the place, no appointment was made.

The first commencement sermon at the University was delivered on the Sunday before commencement day by Dr. Manly, president of the University.

During the year 1840, astronomical instruments were purchased for the University by Prof. F. A. P. Barnard, to the value of two thousand eight hundred dollars, and the board of trustees made an appropriation of two thousand dollars for the erection of the astronomical observatory.

In the spring of that year a serious interruption of the usual good order in the University occurred. On the night of March 19th a disgraceful outrage was perpetrated in the Rotunda, which was used as the chapel of the University. Placards of an inflammatory character were displayed, and the Bible had been taken from the desk and torn into fragments. A few days after this the private rooms of one of the tutors were forced open, the drawers containing his private papers were invaded, and articles of value taken out and destroyed. Two days elapsed without any disclosures, but as it was an outrage utterly inconsistent with every notion of order or authority, the Faculty determined, in conformity to the laws of the University, to hold the inhab itants of the entry in which this last outrage occurred accountable, unless they should oblige the real authors of the mischief to assume their own responsibility in the case. On the morning of the 27th it was resolved by the Faculty that the occupants of the tenement in which the tutor resided should be called before the Faculty and placed each upon his own exculpation. Therefore, these individuals were forthwith summoned to appear before the Faculty, and were severally interrogated as follows: "Were you concerned, either mediately or immediately, in breaking open the room of Tutor Whiting, or were you present, aiding or abetting or looking on?" To this interrogatory each for himself replied in the negative. They were then discharged, with an appeal from the president to aid the authorities in the preservation of order, and to protect themselves by causing the real offenders to make themselves known.

The next day (March 28th) a special meeting of the Faculty was held for the further consideration of the recent acts of disorder. The occupants of the entry in which the offence was committed having declined to take any measures to throw off the responsibility in such cases by law fastened upon them, it was resolved that they be, for the present, prohibited from attending the exercises of their classes. It was also resolved that the whole body of students be summoned forthwith to ap

pear before the Faculty and each be put upon his own exculpation in regard to this offence. The students were at once called together and interrogated separately, and each for himself distinctly replied, deny. ing any participation in the affair. The president then informed the students that the inmates of the tenement would be held responsible for the act until the guilty party should be made known. Under this action nine students were indefinitely suspended.

On the following night (Sunday, March 29th) there was much rioting on the college campus and in the college halls. On Monday, March 30th, the Faculty received sufficient evidence to establish who was the student who had broken into the tutor's room. Inasmuch as he had by a solemn declaration exculpated himself, he was summarily dismissed from the University and reported to the corporation for expulsion.

As the University still remained in a demoralized condition, the Faculty formally declared a recess in the exercises until April 22d. All the students were sent home, and a circular letter was printed, and sent to their parents and guardians, explaining the reasons for the suspension of collegiate exercises. Each student on his return after the recess was required to subscribe on honor to the following declaration: "I declare upon honor—

"First-That I do not know of any student now in the University who was engaged directly or indirectly in destroying the Bible and otherwise desecrating the place of worship, and that I do not know any person now out of the University who was so engaged.

"Secondly-That I will, when called on in the University to testify as to my share in any disorder, answer according to truth, and I will withhold my countenance, friendship, and society from any student whom I believe on proper evidence not to have answered truthfully when called on.

"Thirdly-That I had no agency in the discharge of fire-arms on the University premises on the evening of Sunday, March 29th."

Nearly all the students, except those who had been guilty of the acts of disorder, returned to the University after the recess. Exercises were resumed on the 22d of April, and continued without serious interruption to the end of the year.

The number of students in 1840 was as follows: Seniors, twelve; Juniors, twelve; Sophomores, twenty-one; Freshmen, twenty-eight; total, seventy-three. Graduates at commencement (1840), nine.

In August, 1840, during vacation, the painful intelligence of the death of the Rev. Horace Southworth Pratt, professor of English literature in the University, was communicated to the Faculty. He died of bilious fever at the residence of his brother, the Rev. Nathaniel A. Pratt, in Cobb County, Ga. Professor Pratt had been appointed to preach the baccalaureate sermon at the ensuing commencement in December, 1840. The Faculty requested the president of the University to deliver on commencement Sunday, in the place of the usual commencement