union led,
has been successfully passed. The friends of the University generously
subscribed for its support an "emergency fund" of more than $100,000.
Other large gifts were made and others still are known to be in the
future. The Trustees, moreover, have changed four-fifths of their
holdings of the common stock of the railroad company above mentioned,
into its preferred stock, from which a permanent income of six per
centum will be derived. The finances of the University are now on a
solid basis, although additional gifts will be required for the
construction of buildings and for the enlargement of the course of
study, and still more before a medical department can be instituted.

PRELIMINARY ORGANIZATION.

The Johns Hopkins University was incorporated under the laws of the
State of Maryland, August 24, 1867. Three years later, June 13, 1870,
the Trustees met and elected a President and a Secretary of the Board.
They did not meet again until after the death of Mr. Hopkins, when they
entered with a definite purpose on the work for which they were
associated. They collected a small but excellent library of books,
illustrating the history of the universities of this and of other lands;
they visited in a body Cambridge, New Haven, Ithaca, Ann Arbor,
Philadelphia, Charlottesville, and other seats of learning; they were
favored with innumerable suggestions and recommendations from those who
knew much about education, and from those who knew little; and they
invited several scholars of distinction to give them their counsel.
Three presidents of colleges gave them great assistance, answering in
the frankest manner all the searching questions which were put to them
by a sagacious committee. Grateful acknowledgments will always be due to
these three gentlemen: Charles W. Eliot, LL. D., President of Harvard
University, Andrew D. White, LL. D., President of Cornell University,
and James B. Angell, LL. D., President of the University of Michigan.

INAUGURAL ASSEMBLY.

The election of a President of the University took place in December,
1874. He entered upon the duties of his station in the following spring,
and in the summer of 1875, at the request of the Trustees, he went to
Europe and conferred with many leaders of university education in Great
Britain and on the continent. At the same time he visited many of the
most important seats of learning. During the following winter the plans
of the University were formulated a