driven another bargain, and a hard bargain it is, with the miserable Indians. For thirty-five thousand dollars in merchandise, a little more than five thousand pounds in money, as valued by those who furnished it, and an annuity of less than two thousand pounds per annum, Governor Cass, whose diplomatic talents appear on this occasion to have been highly applauded by his countrymen, has prevailed upon the helpless aborigines to surrender five millions of fertilė acres, to the westward of the lakes, and equal in surface to about one fourth of Ireland. Verily, Governor Cass may be said to understand his business.”

This long-enduring prejudice, and habitual propensity to vilify our country and our institutions, seems to be confined to no particular political sect in Great Britain, nor to exempt from its operation any particular measure, which, by the power of association, is calculated to call up our original sin, of thinking, and acting, and judging for ourselves. With a power to expel the Indians from a territory, which, during all our wars with Great Britain, they have only occupied as a convenient avenue to make inroads upon our frontiers, we draw them into amicable treaty on the restoration of peace, and pay them what they acknowledge an ample equivalent for their title. We introduce into all our treaties provisions for bettering their condition, and enlightening and improving their minds. We furnish them blacksmiths and teachers, implements of husbandry and stock. We pay them large annuities; we pass laws to protect them from the cupidity of traders; and we employ agents to reside among them, to ensure the punctual payment of these annuities, and the faithful observance of these laws; and attend to their numerous wants, and complaints, and distresses. If it be asked what amount of moneys we pay them, what laws we have enacted to protect their territorial rights and to preserve their morals, let our statute books furnish the reply. If it be asked what injuries we have redressed, what distresses we have relieved, let the monthly, and quarterly, and annual returns of our Indian, and our subsistence department be examined. And yet, because we have not done all that an enlightened, virtuous, humane, and opulent nation could, might, or perhaps ought to do, all this is to pass for nothing, or, if we would believe the vituperative prints of England, to be put down to the score of ingratitude, neglect, and national depravity.

Our English neighbours, in the Canadas, manage these matters in a different way. When they covet a piece of Indian_territory, they boldly take possession of it, in the name of the king. There is no consulting with the chiefs and head men of the tribe, no long and expensive treaty, no recognition of their title to the soil which is so uncerimoniously taken away, and no annuities paid out with punctilious formality. The thing is cut short “ by His Majesty's command.” This single line has cancelled more Indian title in America, than the government of the United States ever have, or probably ever will purchase, with all their accumulated and accumulating wants and means. But let us, for a moment, cast our eyes upon Hiudostan, and behold the unholy wars, the murders, and abominations, which, like a burning sirocco, have swept away the native institutions of that devoted country, aud drenched it with the blood of its simple, unoffending inhabitants.

It is truly becoming, in those who have despoiled the rich inheritance of about ninety millions of Hindoos, to reproach us for paying a few scattered

bands of hunters for portions of territory which they do not want, cannot improve, and are willing to part with.

We wish this volume contained more information respecting the Michigan Territory; this portion of our country is becoming more interesting every day, and we know less of it than we should, whether we consider its importance or the facility with which it may be, and, indeed, perpetually is explored.

It is rather remarkable, that the tide of emigration, which set so strongly from the east to the west, should have rolled by the southern boundary of this peninsula without leaving scarcely a solitary deposite within its borders. Perhaps one reason for this was, that the New-Englanders, who were induced to desert the homes and graves of their fathers, were prompted by the love of change, or the hope of improving their condition, to go where the soil and climate might vary as far as possible from that they had left. There can be little doubt that, in these respects, Michigan is more like New England than any other portion of our yet unsubdued wilderness. In temperature, in the changes and general character of the seasons, and in the nature of the soil, there is a great resemblance. In parts of the territory epidemic disease occasionally prevails; but it is probably as salubrious, taken as a whole, as any unreclaimed, well watered, and heavily wooded coun

In process of time it must give sustenance to a very large population. If one half the area of the peninsula be considered unproductive, and this is certainly a large allowance, there will remain nearly twelve millions of acres capable of cultivation; and it must not be forgotten, that those parts of this territory which are too low and flat for cultivation, are almost universally thickly wooded with forests of the most useful and necessary timber. Should any circumstances occur to throw forward upon the western country another wave of emigration, the advantages offered by this fine territory will not be again neglected. Indeed, it is now rapidly filling up, and in the common course of things, will doubtless soon support a population as dense as that of some more southern districts, which, within the memory of young men, were, as this is now, an untamed and almost unvisited wilderness.

try can be.

1. [Report of a Committee of the Overseers of Harvard College.]

Boston. 1824. 8vo. pp. 11. 2. Remarks on a Report of a Committee of the Overseers of Har

vard College, proposing certain Changes, relating to the Instruction and Discipline of the College ; read May 4, 1824, and to be taken into consideration June 1, 1824. By One, lately a Member of the Immediate Government of the College.

Cambridge. 1824. 8vo. pp. 12. 3. Report of a Committee of the Overseers of Harvard College,

January 6, 1825. Cambridge, 1825. 8vo. pp. 179. 4. Speech of John Pickering, Esq. before the Board of Overseers,

on the question of the acceptance of the Report of a Committee recommending some Alterations in the Discipline and Mode of Instruction in the University. Published in the American

Statesman, February 1, 1825. 5. Memorial of the Resident Instructers of Harvard College to

the Corporation of that Institution.] 1824. 8vo. pp. 31. 6. Remarks on a Pamphlet printed by the Professors and Tutors

of Harvard University, touching their Right to the Exclusive Government of that Seminary. By an Alumnus of that

College. Boston. 1824. 8vo. pp. 58. 7. A Letter to John Lowell, Esq. in Reply to a Publication en

titled “ Remarks on a Pamphlet, printed by the Professors and Tutors of Harvard University, touching their Right to the Exclusive Government of that Seminary." Boston. 1824. 8vo.

.

pp. 102.

8. Further Remarks on the Memorial of the Officers of Harvard

College. By an Alumnus of that College. Boston. 1824.

8vo. pp. 36. 9. Report of a Committee of the Overseers of Harvard College,

on the Memorial of the Resident Instructers. January 6,

1825. 8vo. pp. 23. 10. Speech delivered before the Overseers of Harvard College,

February 3, 1825, in behalf of the Resident Instructers of the College. With an Introduction. By Andrews Norton.

Boston. 1825. 8vo. pp. 59. The University at Cambridge, like every other important establishment, has at all times found many in the community who were ready to discredit its management and censure its officers. The vulgar, whether great or small, who are unable to appreciate intellectual endowments or to conceive of intellectual labour, have been inclined to look with an

evil eye upon those who seem to thrive without exertion. The friends of those who may have missed the honours or suffered the punishments of the institution, have occasionally permitted partial affection to get the better of their love of discipline in the abstract. Those who were unable to govern their children at all, have been disappointed that they could not be governed at College with a milder sway. And of those who were without children, some have wondered that severity should be necessary in the government of the young, while others have been astonished that it was so seldom exercised. The literary outs, again, have looked coldly on the literary ins; and the parties, whether religious or political, which have at different times divided the state, have not been more ready to agree on the subject of the management of the University, than on any other considerable point. Difficulties and clamours from such sources were to be expected ; and the governors of the College have submitted to bear what human wisdom could neither prevent nor avoid.

Within a few years, however, the complaints and objections have assumed a shape, and proceeded from quarters, which seemed to demand more attention. Not the careless and inimical only, but the well-wishers of the institution have lately thought they could perceive evils which required remedy, and incongruities which demanded explanation. It appeared to them that the number of pupils and their improvement was not in proportion to the increasing wealth and endowments of the College. They heard of frequent and large bequests to the funds, while they perceived no diminution of the expenses of education. They were told of the increasing apparatus and advantages of the institution, and were surprised that its classes did not greatly outnumber, and that in some instances they did not even equal, those of other institutions much less richly endowed. The reproach of these matters, when uttered by those unacquainted with the nature of the government, fell principally upon the resident instructers, who, of course, felt somewhat uneasy under the blame of a system over which they had no control, and for the errors of which, if any existed, they were not responsible. This uneasiness has been manifested in various ways, as will appear in the sequel of this article. In the mean time, as the real nature and organization of the government of Harvard University may not be known to the majority our readers, we shall quote the following account of it from one of the pamphlets at the head of this review.

The institution has been almost entirely under the control of the Corporation, a body, which has been composed of the President of the College, and six non-resident members; and which perpetuates itself, by filling its own vacancies. The Corporation originate all laws, appoint to all offices, confer degrees, and have the disposal of the funds of the College. Their more important measures are subject to the approval or rejection of the Overseers. But the power of the latter body has lain, till within a short period, almost dormant, and its proceedings have been little more than matters of form. * * *

The Overseers consist of the Governor of the State, the Lieutenant Governor, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, the President of the College, the members of the Council and of the Senate, all ex officiis, and of twenty permanent members, namely, ten laymen and ten clergymen, chosen from the community at large. Beside the Corporation and Overseers, there is a third body, called the Immediate Government, composed of the President of the College, of most of the resident instructers, and of the librarian. Four resident instructers, on account of the character of their offices, or from some other particular considerations, are not members. The duties of the members of this body, collectively and individually, are simply to carry into effect the laws of the Corporation respecting instruction and discipline.

Professor Norton's Speech, p. iv. We quote from the same pamphlet the account of the first steps towards the correction of the abuses and evils which were supposed to exist in the system of instruction and discipline.

It is well known to many, that for a considerable number of years past, great dissatisfaction with the condition of the College has existed in the minds of the resident officers, and others who have had an opportunity for a near view of its real state. In the summer of 1821, that is, about four years and a half since, a paper was drawn up by a highly respectable officer of the institution in the form of a letter to a member of the Corporation, containing a statement of some of the evils which existed, accompanied with proposals of remedy and reform. This communication, taken in connexion with the prevailing dissatisfaction with the state of the College, led the Corporation to direct their attention to the subject. A circular letter addressed to the resident instructers, and to one instructer not resident (I am uncertain whether to any others), was accordingly issued by them, dated in September, 1821. It filled seven closely written folio pages, and contained a great variety of questions, respecting the discipline, instruction, and morals of the students, to which answers were requested. Replies were given by most of the gentlemen addressed, as soon as practicable, some of them entering into the subject much at length. These replies were referred to a committee of the Corporation; and, that body having apparently by its proceedings pledged itself to undertake a reform, it was confidently expected by some that important changes would be introduced. Nothing, however, was done except promulgating some regulations re. specting the expenses and dress of the students. With this exception, the whole business was suffered to sleep. In the summer of 1823, two