Gentlemen: The favorable issues of another year, bring me with alacrity to lay before you another annual report.

      Our number, as per catalogue just printed, is, Seniors, 7; Juniors, 13; Sophomores. 17; Freshmen, 19. Scientific course, 17; Irregulars, 6; Preparatory Department, 47. Total, 126, of whom 30 are from other States.

      There have added during the year, 230 volumes to the Library, among which are 93 new volumes from London, embracing all the bound volumes of the London Tract Society - a large and precious collection of the best writers of the last century on practical divinity. The Cabinet of Shells, Fossils and Minerals, have now reached a point of great respectability, and enable us to teach several branches in a manner never attempted before. When it is remembered how much the dignity and usefulness of a College is advanced by such aids, it is hoped our friends will everywhere collect for us appropriate articles. Our largest donors of minerals and fossils, during the year past, have been Rev. H. F. Buckner, of Somerset, and our Prof. Elliott. About 1000 shells from our Western waters have just been given by Messrs. John Bush, of Covington, Ky., and S. T . Carley, of Cincinnati. Hitherto we have had only transatlantic shells, so that this large collection of native shells, gathered by gentlemen of science, is a very valuable accession. Prof. Elliott has re-arranged, in scientific order, the whole Cabinet of Minerals.

      The principal improvements of the year have been in and about the building. One of the largest rooms has been fitted up in a costly and very convenient manner, to be used exclusively for Chemical lectures and experiments. The apparatus and fixtures for this science have been increased and improved. Hereafter this important branch will be taught with special reference to agriculture, and no pains be spared to furnish in our regular course most of the advantages of an exclusively agricultural college. It is hoped that a large part of our students will give themselves to rural pursuits, and we shall seek to give them every educational advantage for that line of life. Such are the men who will develope the grand capabilities of our wide domain, and will always constitute an inestimable part of our civilians and legislators.

      [Here follow reports from each Instructor, by which it appears that during the last Half year the President has taught Evidences and duties of Christianity, Analogy of Religion and Nature, Mental Philosophy, French Composition, and Declamation; Prof. Thomas, Greek and Latin, and Composition; Prof. Elliott, Chemistry, Geology, Nat. Philosophy, Latin and Composition; and Prof. Day, Algebra, Geometry. Analytical Geometry and Greek.]

      I feel great pleasure in contemplating the condition and prospects of our Preparatory Department, as managed for a few years past. It certainly cannot be generally known through the State, or it would command a great increase of pupils. The room is fitted up not only with every convenience, but with elegance, and presents an appearance wholly the reverse of those repulsive and prison-like school houses so common in the land. A discipline which skilfully mingles the paternal with the official, has almost banished disorder and produces voluntary studiousness, at once greater and more valuable than is ever done by compulsion. The rod forms no part of the arrangement, and every pupil seems to look on the teacher with love and reverence. B. T. Blewitt, Esq., the Principal, reports a total of 47 scholars, of which several are candidates for admission to the next Freshman class.

      I cannot close this report without expressing the anxious wish of my heart, that more effort be made for the prosperity of the College by its friends in various parts of the State.

      We seem to have been watched with deep interest by many, but assisted by few; no general rally, no warm gush, of wide-spread attachment, no testamentary donations - in a word, no strong and general indications of attachment have been our portion.

      In resolute exertions and sacrifices, we have stood too much alone. True, every year has found us in better condition and prospects than the preceding; but as a Board and a Faculty, our ability, and therefore our success, has a limit. After sixteen years of arduous and often discouraging toil, the founders and friends of the College have a right to expect that those who have looked on doubtingly will regard the College as having outlived the period of precarious experiment, and now come forward to take our places and crown our endeavors. We would point them to our steady efforts, and our evident success, as well as to the incalculable importance of the enterprize to the Church and the country, as ample inducements for their hearty co-operation. We have worked cheerfully, in the assurance that the College was caring for itself the confidence and patronage of the friends of education. Must we still feel ourselves on probation, and still be compelled to see those who could help us, look on with suspicion or indifference, or shall we now find new helpers and new life?

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[From the Tennessee Baptist, July 17, 1847, p. 1. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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