The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1870-12-21
DNEsDAY MORNING, DECEMBER 2l.. 1870.
The Educational Lana Fund.

The Educational Land Fund.
The JOINT committee Of the General As
sembly were again In session yesterda.
afternoon. 3. tfr.
The claims Of the New-Market Polytech
| mic Institute were advocated by Professor
Benton, who claimed it to be the mos
practical institution now In the State
Though not manual-labor school, it afford.
greater facilities for mechanical instruction
than any other. It manufactures Its owl
lair-pumps, electrical apparatus, and al
kinds Of apparatus. It instructs young
men in agricultural chemistry and Other
sciences. It gives just such instruction a.
is.needed for practical farmers and mechan
les; and, though it has not been in
operation two years, it has patron
age from Washington city, Mary.
land, Pennsylvania, New York, and
the western States. 1t is in q healthy
neighborhood, rich agricultural district,
and is located where students can get good
remarkably low. 1t claims that in the
short space of two years it has been more
progressive and has done more in the way
Of practical instruction than any other col.
lege.
Major Robert Stiles followed in an elabo-
rate and forcible argument IN favor OF
Hampden Sidney: College. He examined
the principles of appIopr riation-found in
the law of Congress anu outside of it-and
found 49,; -. ss:S553s5.
LIST. That the recipient of the fund might
clearly be an existing or q specially y-erea.
ted institution.
ID. That it need not and should not be q
State institution, as the law of Congress
only required general supervision of the
application Of the fund by State Legisla-
tnres, and come Of the States had already
appropriated it to Independent institutions.
Major Stiles then read from one of the acts
of endowment of the University of Vir-
ginia, passed in 1921 section, appro-
prfating $4,000 annually to the col
leges whenever the income of the lit
erary fund should amount to $780,
600, and said that though Che said income
reached S125, ,000 per annum for years be-
fore the war, this solemn compact of the
State had never been fulfilled. The speaker
also insisted that this appropriation came
into the system of graded education at the
time Virginia was forming it, and was
real as important to the University as to
20 Colleges.
sd. That the recipient Of the fund might
be denominational institution.
4til. That It should be selected with re-
ference to cheapness Of living and educa-
ton, as the primary object Of the law of
Congress was to furnish practical educa-
ton "for the industrial classes"
+ By elaborate argument he endeayored to
show that the rule. of absolute conccntra-
tion was not applicable to the condition Of
Virginia just now, and cited the Hampton
institution as First necessity, demanding
o% Of fxri Of ha f,1,I 10 hon
contended that distribution, the law of ne
cessity, such as ours, should not be pressed
too far, lest it should lose capacity by put
ting away the fund in small parcels. He also
cited on the same point the law of Con-
gress requiring that the teaching of agricul.
Sure and the mechanic arts should be a
leading feature of the recipient institu-
ton. BE thought a division In thirds
about the proper compromise to preserve
sufficient capacity, yet relieve as mafly
necessities as possible.
He claimed that the condition of South
side Virginia was the second great neces-
sity of the State, saying that the change in
the labor system, the loss of slave property,
and the taxation Of the great staple, were
the three great causes Of Virginia's de-
pressed condition; and all candid minds
admitted that all bore most heavily on
Southside Virginia. That the gift must 60 to
Hampden Sidney College if to Southside
Virginia, for it was the only institution
there /; in the centre of the section and Of its
railroad system, accessible from all sides, In
O healthy region, with peculiarly intelli-
gent, moral, and religious community; 1t
could accommodate two hundred and fifty
students. had chemical apparatus and labor
atory, and owned two hundred acres OF
land suitable for the experimental farm.
He alluded to the great agricultural
schools of the northside, at the University,
and at Lexington, and reminded the Legis-
lature that SOuthside Virginia had paid one
third of the S500,000 and over given to the
northside for higher education, and the
law of justice would now demand for her
some returni
Rev. DR.. Edwards again spoke In favor of
Randolph Macon. He was not like his
friend who had just preceded him-that is,
TO give one-third of the fund to any one
school but be favored an equal division
between all the institutions represented
except the University and Washington Col
lege. These last two he thought were
sufficiently able to take care of themselves,
and were not in need Of aid.
The remarks of DR.. Edwards, while they
were to the point, were excruciatingly hu.
morous, and kept his auditors in almost
uproarfous laughter nearly the whole time.
Hon. B. j. Barbour will represent the
University this afternoon. The committee
will then adjourn until the 9th of January
next, at O'Clock.