In the annual report of the Faculty mention is made of a decrease in patronage, caused by the financial condition of the country and the establishment of colleges in other Southern Conferences; so that it was again necessary to ask the Board to do something to increase the income of the College.
This year a French course was introduced for the first time, and E. A.
Blanch was elected tutor of French.
At the annual meeting, June, 1843, a committee was appointed, consisting of Messrs. Chambers, Rogers, Alexander, Leigh, and Early, to recommend a plan for the relief of the College from financial embarrassment. This committee reported as follows:
1. That it is absolutely necessary to raise a permanent fund of $20,000 to sustain the institution, and if we fail in doing so, it must and will go down.
2. That the Agent be instructed to endeavor to obtain one hundred subscribers of $500 in money or in bonds, the interest to be paid annually at the sessions of the Virginia and North Carolina Conferences, and the principal within a period not to exceed ten years, no subscription to be binding until $10,000 shall have been subscribed, the principal to be kept as a permanent fund.
The Faculty of the College showed their spirit of liberality and self-denial by the following communication:
"The Faculty, with a view to contribute all in their power toward the establishment of the College, propose to give to the Board of Trustees the sum of five thousand dollars, the same to be paid in five years by a relinquishment annually of $1,000 on their salaries upon the following conditions, viz.:
"1. That the balance of their salaries be paid promptly.
"2. That the donation shall cease before the expiration of the five years, unless the exigencies of the institution shall require it."
[Illustration: GEORGE W. BENAGH, A. M., Professor, University of
Alabama.]