fifteen feet, where it enters the Mississippi Sound-and thence to Cat Island harbor, the sound, which it enters, acquires a depth of twenty-one feet, until it finally reaches the harbor between Cat Island and Isle au Pied, where there is plenty of water from twenty-five to forty feet deep. By looking at the soundings of the United States Coast Survey, made in 1856, it will be perceived that a sheet of water three and one fourth to four fathoms unites Cat Island harbor with Ship Island harbor, some eight or ten miles to the east-and that there is a gradual slope into the Gulf, both from Ship and Cat Island harbors southward, until a depth of water of six and seven fathoms is reached, five miles north of the Chandilieur Islands--and from that point there is a slope to the southeast, from seven fathoms to twelve and thirteen-beyond which the soundings were not carried by the coast surveyors, because the deep water of the gulf was reached. Cat Island harbor being but about half the distance from New-Orleans of either of the passes at the Balize; hence, if an outlet were made from the river, leading into that harbor, the velocity of the water through the new pass would be much greater than that of the river itself, and, running down an inclined plane, would scour out its bottom, instead of filling it with sediment, as has been supposed.

Mr. Ellet, in his report to the War Department, demonstrated that an outlet fourteen feet deep could be made from the river, into Cat Island harbor. At the time he made the survey, in 1851, he said that, if the levee, at a point where he stood (ten miles below the city), "were removed, the water would rush from the Mississippi, toward the Gulf, in a cl umn six feet deep. But if the earth immediately back of the levee were excavated to the level of the swamp, the water would pour through this opening in a column ten and a half feet deep." But if a cut were made to a level of the bottom of the lake, after making every allowance for filling up, he came to the conclusion that fourteen feet could be maintained in the outlet. There is no reason why twenty-three feet could not be had in such an outlet from the Mississippi, as that is the depth of that outlet of the Ganges which falls into Hooghly bay. Cat Island and Ship Island harbors are both land locked by islands, almost exactly like Bombay harbor-the best harbor in Asia. Mr. Ellet estimated that "an outlet, or new pass, at that point of the river with the Gulf, would reduce the surface of the high water line at New-Orleans four feet, and possibly five feet." It would be a cheaper plan of draining the city, than that lately recommended by Major

Beauregard. It would injure some interests: there would be no use for pilots, but it would not affect the towboat companies. The current would be so strong between the river and Cat Island harbor, that towboats would still be necessary to bring ships up from that point to the levee in front of New Orleans. It would, however, surely convert the canal Carondelet into a dry ditch, except in rainy weather. Commercial men can better appreciate, than I can, the advantages to commerce of a nearer and deeper channel to the sea than the present one, but they cannot so well appreciate its advantages in regard to health, because they seldom visit Baton Rouge, and have not looked so closely, as some medical men, into a deep well there, in which so many valuable truths in regard to the health and medical geography of New-Orleans and Louisiana lie hid from public view. It is called the State Library. In that well will be found" Charlevoix's Works," 3 vols., describing New-Orleans, and giving its topography; and "Lavil's," 2 vols., 1728; "La Harpe's Journal for Five Years," which is very minute in its medical geographical details; "Du Pratz's History," 3 vols., 1758, a work edited by Duvallon, founded on three years' residence in Louisiana, near the close of the last century; "Robin's Travels in Louisiana," 3 vols. ; and "Loziere's," 2 vols., 1817; "Father Labat's," and "Count de Vergennes' Memoir on Louisiana :" all of which contain a great deal of medical geographical information. Among other things, they prove that a residence in New-Orleans, or its vicinity, was then, as it is now, almost a sure cure for dyspepsia and many other distressing chronic ailments, by bringing the blood into the cutaneous capillaries. As early as the year 1718, the French Government pressed the science of medical geography into its service, and sent out La Harpe to explore Louisiana; a science which the American Government, of the present day, does not seem to know the use of, or even the existence of, judging from the vast sums it has expended in fruitless attempts to deepen the water over the bars, at the Balize, without pressing into its service the only science which could enable it to act understandingly. Nor does the city government of New-Orleans seem to be aware of the existence of the science which directs the footsteps of Queen Victoria, or it would surely have taken counsel from it before spending so much money in attempts to do what has not been done-draining the city. If it had been guided by the light of medical geography, half the money spent in those fruitless attempts would have been sufficient to have thrown an outlet of the Mississippi into an estuary,

below New-Orleans, which would not only have drained the city, but would have given it the commerce of half a conti

nent.

ART. V. THE UNIVERSITY OF THE SOUTH.

ADDRESS OF THE COMMISSIONERS TO THE PEOPLE OF THE SOUTHERN STATES.

AT a meeting of the Board of Trustees of the University of the South, held at Montgomery, Ala., in November, 1857, it was resolved that the Bishops of Louisiana and Georgia be appointed Commissioners to canvass the several Dioceses for subscriptions to form the endowment of a University. This resolution was re-affirmed at a subsequent meeting of the Board, held at the Beersheba Springs, Tenn., in July, 1858, and, by authority of this commission, the undersigned are now engaged in the performance of this important duty.

The undersigned have deemed it necessary, as auxiliary to their work, to sketch the history of this proposed University, and to discuss the principles upon which it is to proceed. It presents some features which are peculiar, and which, it is believed, will commend it to the confidence of the States for whose blessing it has been instituted. As these are contained in pamphlets which are rapidly getting out of print, it is proposed to embody them in this publication, and present them anew to the public attention.

The Southern States have not been indifferent to the subject of collegiate education. Each of these States, at a very early period of its history, has founded a University, upon which it was intended to concentrate the patronage of the State Legislature. Could this policy have been adhered to steadily, free from the interference of popular clamor, or religious differences, the University which we are now proposing to establish, might have been unnecessary. But it has been virtually abandoned by the incorporation, year after year, of colleges, which have drawn off from the State Universities both their students and their means of advancement. No one of the Southern States has either wealth or population enough to do more than sustain, upon a proper footing, a single collegiate institution, while we find, in each of them, four or five colleges contending for the mastery, and endangering, in the struggle, the State University.

This condition of things, while it has diffused education and placed a course at college within the reach of a larger number of young men, has prevented any one of these institutions from attaining the very highest rank as a University, and has left that want to be supplied. And this is no time for us to be behind the rest of the world in either intellectual or moral greatness. The South needs, more than ever, men of the very highest education, who shall prove, by their ripe scholarship, that our institutions are not adverse to the

loftiest culture, and who shall be prepared to maintain truth and right against all comers, not merely by the force of genius, but with the resources of learning and the traditions of the world. And, under our peculiar form of government, where opinions and policy vary with the caprices of the moment, we can hope for such scholarship only from an organization independent of the popular will for its revenues, and immoveable in its conduct as the Church of Christ. We think, therefore, that the right chord was struck in the Southern heart when the people of the ten States, lying south and southwest of Virginia and Kentucky, were invited to a union for this purpose upon the comprehensive principles of the Episcopal Church.

This invitation was given in the summer of 1856, through a letter addressed, by the Bishop of Louisiana, to the Bishops of North and South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Arkansas, and Texas, in which he drew their attention to this necessity of the South, and invited their co-operation for its supply. His language was this:

"Institutions there are within the pale of all our Dioceses, upon a more or less enlarged scale, and of greater or less excellence. They have been established either by State patronage, or founded by one or other of the religious denominations surrounding us, and are doing what they can--and, in some instances, with eminent and honorable success-to supply a public necessity; and whatever their degree of excellence may be, they do not meet the wants of our people.

In the minds of many, they are not upon a scale sufficiently extended or full to offer advantages comparable to those to be had abroad, or at the institutions of highest grade in the Northern States of our Union; and, for that reason, are set aside, and our children are expatriated or sent off to an inconvenient distance, beyond the reach of our supervision or parental influence, exposed to the rigors of an unfriendly climate, to say nothing of other influences not calculated, it is to be feared, to promote their happiness or ours.

"Our Dioceses are all comparatively new, some of them but of yesterday. They must therefore be expected to be feeble--too feeble singly to rear any such establishments as could occupy the commanding position, or offer such advantages as I have indicated. But what we cannot do singly, we may, with great ease, do collectively. I believe now is the time at which we may found such an institution as we need. An institution to be our common property, under our joint control, of a clear and distinctly recognized Church character, upon a scale of such breadth and comprehensiveness, as shall be equal in the liberality of its provisions for intellectual cultivation to those of the highest class at home or abroad, and which shall fully meet the demands of those of our people, who require for their children the highest educational advantages, under the supervision of the Church."

This letter led to a meeting, at Philadelphia, during the session of the General Convention in October, 1856, of the Bishops included in the above invitation. At that meeting it was unanimously resolved to attempt the foundation of a University upon the amplest scale, and to prepare an address to the members and friends of the Episcopal Church in the Southern and Southwestern States, inviting their co-operation. This address was signed by all the Bishops in attendance upon that meeting, and sets forth the reasons which incited them to this vast undertaking. After speaking of the great responsibility which rested upon them as the chief pastors of the Episcopal Church, to make suitable provision for the training of the young in learning and religion, they say:

"We desire, in the outset, to express our sense of the high character and eminent services of many institutions, already existing in the several States, where our fields of labor lie-institutions which, whether founded by the States severally, or by one or other of the religious denominations inhabiting them, have discharged the duty of training those committed to their care with honorable success, and on an extended scale. Of the capabilities and the claims of some of these, the personal experience of several of our number would forbid our speaking otherwise than in terms of the highest respect and vener

ation.

“It is believed, nevertheless, that the whole ground is not occupied; that the work to be done is beyond the power of the laborers who are employed in doing it; and that the entrance of another institution of a high grade upon the field to be cultivated, so far from being uncalled for, should be hailed as a welcome ally.

Nothing is more common than to hear it affirmed that the hopes of mankind are suspended upon the success of the experiment in government now being made in these States. The success or failure of this experiment turns entirely on the degree of intelligence, and the character of the moral sentiment which shall distinguish the masses of our population. These masses are but the aggregation of individuals, and the responsibility and duty of originating and sustaining Institutions whose offices go to the point, directly or indirectly, of enlightening them, is therefore obvious and imperative. And we may add, if there ever was a time in the history of our republic at which good men were called upon more than at another, to unite upon efforts to found such institutions, the present is that period. At no time in all the past, have we been so threatened with the spread of the wildest opinions in religion and government; and at no period, therefore, has there been so great a call to put into operation and multiply agencies, whose high conservatism shall furnish us with the means of making fast the foundations of the State, securing a sound and healthy feeling in the social condition, and preserving in their integrity the great truths of our holy religion.

"In view of this condition of things, we, your Bishops, during our sojourn in this city, in attendance on the General Convention, have thought it expedient to take the matter into our serious consideration, and have come to the conelusion, it is of so pressing a character, that no time should be lost in relieving it; and that for its relief in the most effectual manner, no plan presents itself of so promising a character as that which would unite the energies and resources of all our Dioceses in one common effort. We have therefore resolved, after mature deliberation and consultation with leading clergymen and laymen of our several Dioceses, to propose to you to unite our strength in founding an Institution upon a scale of such magnitude, as shall answer all our wants. This, we propose, shall be a University, with all the faculties-theology included-upon a plan so extensive, as to comprise the whole course usually embraced in the most approved institutions of that grade, whether at home or abroad.

We are aware of the magnitude of such an enterprise, in all its aspects-the large amount of capital necessary for its foundation, and the very weighty responsibility resting upon those who shall be charged with the duty of shap ing its plans and conducting them to a successful consummation. But when we think of the pervading and far-reaching influence such an institution could not but have upon the interests of the country and the Church, and reflect on the extent of the field whence we propose to draw, not only the means for its establishment, but the minds to found and govern it, we dare not hesitate to believe that all the resources necessary, of whatever description, are within our reach, and will be forthcoming so soon as they shall be needed. To say nothing of the well-known and ample wealth belonging to our communion generally, we will not allow ourselves to believe that upon the presentation of such an occasion for the employment of a part of that treasure committed to our stewardship, we shall fail to find our Lawrences and Stuyvesants, our Moores, and Kohnes, and Gores, and Dudleys, ready to lend their aid in the consummation of so great a work."