MEMORIAL.

To the Honorable Oliver Miller,

Speaker of the House of Delegates of Maryland:

The visitors and governors of St. John's College, in obe-
dience to the order of your Honorable Body of the 7th in-
stant, have had prepared their responses to the inquiries
therein, which are herewith submitted with the annexed pa-
pers. They have to regret the delays which have necessarily
taken place in discharging this duty. They beg leave also to
submit herewith a brief sketch of the history, condition and
prospects of the college.

This college was founded in the year 1784, by the donations
of the citizens of Maryland, paid into the Treasury of the State
for the benefit of the college, to the amount of thirty-two
thousand dollars, on the express contract by the State to grant
them their charter, (1784, ch. 37,) about four acres of con-
fiscated ground in Annapolis, and "annually and forever," in
the very words of the nineteenth section, the sum of £1,750
($4,667,) for the payment of the salaries of the Principal,
Vice Principal, Professors and tutors.

Thus established and built by the money of the individual
donors, the State from 1784 till 1805, executed its part of
the contract, by paying the annuity for the salaries of the
professors.

In that year by the resolution 1805, chapter 85, the State
undertook to repeal this part of the charter granting the an-
nuity, thereby violating the contract and depriving the col-
lege of the means devoted to the payment of the professors.

This very point is expressly decided by the Court of Ap-
peals in 15 Maryland Reports 330, in a cause between the
college and the State, the court holding that this resolution
of 1805, chapter 85, violated the Constitution of the United
States, by attempting to impair the obligation of this con-
tract in the charter and was therefore void.

The General Assembly in 1812 and 1832, restored part of
this annuity, equal to $1,000, and then increased it to $3,000
by resolutions 1811, No. 38 and 1832, No, 41, which latter