TREASURER'S REPORT.

The account herewith submitted, marked C, shows the total amount of receipts and expenditures to May 1st, 1841. There is yet due from the stockholders, the sum of $18,403 82; not more than one-fourth can be considered as available. A part of the delinquent stock has been sold by order of the board, but no measures have been taken to enforce the collection of the balance remaining due, after applying the proceeds of their stock.

Of the guaranty of the State for $500,000, there has been issued and applied to the use of the company $417,000.— The balance $83,000, has been placed in the Bank of the State, as collateral security for loans obtained.

The expenditures on account of construction, may be considered, nearly at an end, though some additional improvements at the depot in Raleigh, and other points on the road prevent the accounts from being closed.

It will be seen, on reference to the account, the expendi

tures properly chargeable to transportation, have been, to the first of May inst. $57,281 01, and the receipts during the same period $124,227 66, showing a balance of $66,946 65-which will, however, be reduced three to four thousand dollars, by outstanding claims for negro hire.

The property of the stage company has been disposed of, and that account is yet to be credited with the proceeds of the sale.

Of the bills receivable on hand, about one-half may be considered available at the present time, though I believe the whole amount to be ultimately good.

The balance appearing against the Petersburg Company on the 1st of May, has been since realized, and applied to the payment of land damages, and other pressing claims against the company.

Statement B, is a comparative view of the Transportation, for the years ending May 1st, 1840 and 1841.

From this, it will be seen that the receipts from passengers have nearly doubled, while the increase in freight has been less.

This is owing, no doubt, in a great measure, to the increased charges for Transportation on the Petersburg Railroad, which have withdrawn freight from both roads, without adding to our receipts for what we have carried. It must be recollected that this road was opened the whole extent but a small portion of the first fiscal year, and that a portion, therefore, of the largely increased receipts must be ascribed to this fact. From a careful estimate which I have made, the proportionate increase does not vary but little from 55 per cent. and the receipts from freight alone during the month of April, exceeds by a thousand dollars, that of any other month since the opening of the road.

The increased charge on passengers has been in operation hardly long enough to test its propriety, but, so far, the effect has been to increase the receipts, without reducing the number of passengers.

S. W. WHITING, Treasurer, &c.
Raleigh (N. C.) Register.

To the Hon. John Bell, Secretary of War: Sir:-I have the honor herewith to enclose to you the Report of the Inspecting Board of Visiters at West Point, in compliance with your instructions of the 26th ultimo. According to your desire, the examination has been closed, and the inquiries minuted; and the result, I trust, will be satisfactory to the Department.

I have the honor to remain, sir, with the highest consideration and respect, your most obedient servant, CHAS. STEWART.

To the Hon. John Bell, Secretary of War: Sir:--The Board of Visiters to the United States Military Academy at West Point met at this post on the 7th instant, agreeably to your request, and were organized by appointing Commodore Charles Stewart, of the Navy, President, and Professor Charles B. Hadduck, of New Hampshire, Secretary.

The Visiters were informed by the Superintendent of the Academy that the Academic Board would be divided into distinct committees, for the purpose of examining different sections of Cadets, at the same time, in different departments. The Visiters thereupon assigned one-half our own members to each of these departments, and immediately entered on our duties, under the direction of the Department.

Seven hours each day (the Sabbath excepted) have been devoted to the examination of the Cadets, in each department, and, so far as our other duties would allow in the presence of the respective committees of the Board of Visiters. Two hours a day have been employed in various exercises and practical exhibitions of military skill in the field.

The examinations have been continued without interruption from the 7th to the 21st instant.

In submitting the results of their inquiries to the Department of War, the Board propose, for the sake of perspicuity, to comprise what they deem it important to communicate to you under several distinct heads.

And, in the first place, they beg leave to invite your attention to the subject of scientific instruction.

This department constitutes the principal study in each of the four years' course.

The class formed of new Cadets at the commencement of the academic year is called the fourth class. This class is instructed in algebra, geometry, plane and spherical trigonometry, mensuration of planes and solids, and the higher sections of the class in descriptive geometry.

The studies of the third class embrace descriptive geometry, by the lower sections, with application to spherical projections, warped surfaces, shades, shadows, and perspective; also, surveying, including the description of instruments and the mensuration of heights and distances, analytical geometry, the differential and integral calculus, including its various applications to mensuration and the determination of many important properties of the geometrical magnitudes. The second class begins the courses of natural and experimental philosophy, which includes mechanics, embracing statics, dynamics, hydrostatics, and hydrodynamics: Optics, embracing a general outline of the theory of light, the fundamental laws of reflection and refraction, and the construction of optical instruments: Astronomy, embracing a description of the solar system, the nature of the earth, the theory of the motions of the heavenly bodies, the methods of determining the latitude and longitude of places on the surface of the earth, and the uses of astronomical instruments: Magnetism, embracing general facts and principles, polarity, laws regulating magnetic intensity at different distances, terrestrial magnetism, the variation of the compass, and the construction of magnetic instruments: Electro Magnetism and Electro Dynamics.

The course of Chemistry includes the properties of matter and the general laws of chemical changes, embracing attraction, affinity, caloric, electricity, and galvanism; the nomenclature and the use of the symbols; the preparation, properties, and uses, of non-metallic elements and their compounds; the general properties of metals and alloys, with the character and uses of the most important metals and their compounds; salts; mineral analysis and the use of the organic analysis; the proportion, properties, &c. of the most blow-pipe; the composition, &c. of vegetable principles, important vegetable principles, and the chemical properties of gunpowder.

The departments of Natural Philosophy and Chemistry are both illustrated by lectures and experiments, the apparatus for that purpose being large and in good order.

The first, or highest class, is principally occupied with Engineering, which includes the science of war, military engineering, civil engineering, and architecture. The first comprises the general composition of armies and the principles of strategy.

The second relates to the erection of temporary and permanent defences of every description, with the means of attack and defence.

The third treats of civil works, including the art of construction in general, in all its branches.

The fourth comprises the principles of architecture and the comparison of the different styles of building.

The instruction in these branches is given partly from text-books prepared by the present Professor in the department, partly by oral communication and partly by means of drawings made under the direction of the teachers. Models illustrative of the most important subjects are exhibited and explained by teachers. The first section of the class is instructed on the subject of machinery.

Mineralogy and Geology are also taught to this class.The course of Mineralogy includes crystalography; the physical properties of minerals; classification, determinate mineralogy, and descriptive mineralogy, embracing the study of the most important minerals.

Geology includes the classification of rocks according to their origin and age; stratification; the general characters and composition of principal classes of rocks, embracing an account of their minerals and fossils, the uses to which they are applied, and their location in the United States. This course, also, is illustrated by numerous specimens and occasional lectures.

The first class are also taught to apply the science which they have acquired in preceding years to the military artparticularly to gunnery; to the motion of projectiles in resisting mediums, as in air or water; to the penetration of balls and shells into various substances; to the construction and proof of the materials of war in general, especially the different kinds of cannon, gun-carriages, and caissons; to the construction of maps of military surveys, plans of fortifications, models of guns, &c.; to the manufacture, preservation, and use of gunpowder and other articles prepared in the military laboratory; and to the effects produced by the gases developed by combustion.

In these numerous subjects, so connected with each other, and so important in a military education adapted to the improved state of the art of war, the Board are happy to see a completeness and unity of system which leave little room for improvement. The examinations in the departments of science have been highly satisfactory. The Cadets appear well grounded in all the branches, and afford gratifying evidence of the ability and fidelity of their instructors.

The next department distinctly considered by the Board of Visiters is that of moral and religious instruction. The members of the Board have sought occasional interviews with the gentlemen to whom the care of this department is entrusted, and have been pleased to find that very proper views are entertained by those gentlemen of the nature and importance of their duties, and that they seem disposed to spare no pains in giving a right direction to the minds of the young men under their charge, and in elevating, to the utmost degree, the love of moral and religious feeling, so necessary to the full development of the human intellect, and to the perfect discharge of the duties and responsibilities of life. This department includes Geography, English Grammar, Rhetoric, Moral Philosophy and Constitutional Law. The Principal in the department is Chaplain to the Academy, and preaches in the chapel on the Sabbath.

Former Boards of Visiters have recommended that the chaplain should be relieved from a considerable part of the text-book instruction now imposed upon him, that he might have more time for the appropriate duties of a Christian teacher and pastor. In order to effect this change, it would be necessary to employ an additional instructer in the department. In this recommendation the present Board entirely agree. Indeed, they beg leave to attract the attention of the War Department particularly to this subject. It is not to be overlooked that in this Institution are assembled two hundred and fifty young men, at a very susceptible period of life, separated from the wholesome restraints of friends and kindred, deprived of parental guidance, and stimulated to high intellectual attainment and honorable distinction, without the humanizing and sanctifying influences of a pious home.

The whole community, in one form or another, connected with the Academy, amounts to about a thousand. In the moral character and deportment of all this population, the Institution is deeply interested, and the chaplain is their only religious teacher and spiritual guide. It must, therefore, be evident to the Government that the less the time and studies of this officer are occupied with other things, and the more exclusively he is devoted to his appropriate Christian influence, the better the great ends of the Institution are likely to be answered. The Board, in this view, earnestly recommend that the text-book instruction of the chaplain be confined to moral Philosophy; and that he be, also, considered as so far exonerated from the ordinary rules of discipline that he may have free access to the rooms of the Cadets, and the most unrestrained and familiar intercourse with them, at all times, without being exposed to the suspicion of acting as an inquisitor into their conduct, and without being understood to sustain any other relation to them

than the affectionate, parental relation of a pastor to an ordinary parish. From the nature of the clerical office, and especially from the remarkable intelligence and kindness of the present chaplain, (himself a graduate of the Academy,) and from his peculiar qualifications for securing the confi dence and affection of the young, the Board cannot but anticipate the most salutary and desirable results, if he should be left to give himself more entirely to his appropriate duties. There is one branch of study, not introduced into this department, which seems to the Board of too great importance to be omitted. We refer to Logic-particularly the principles and rules of evidence. This suggestion is strongly recommended to the Department by the consideration that the young men educated here are, in the natural course of things, to be called frequently to sit in judgment on the character, and, it may be, lives of their fellow-men. And it would seem too obvious to require to be urged on the attention of the Department, that a perfect acquaintance with the general rules of evidence is essential to the proper administration of military law.

In another view, also, it seems to us equally important that this subject should not be excluded from the course of study. The sciences here taught are mainly demonstrative. The pupil is, therefore, in danger of insensibly acquiring the habit of feeling that nothing is proved which is not mathematically demonstrated. He should be taught, also, the nature of proof in general, and the kind of evidence proper to the very dissimilar subjects of interest to us, as men of science, as citizens, and as moral beings. It gives the Board great pleasure to be able to say that, so far as they can judge, after careful attention to the annual examination, the studies of this Department are taught with ability and great success by the several instructors. They would also add, that from all that has come to their knowledge, during their stay at the Academy, they are impressed with the consideration that sound morals and regular deportment, at present, distinguish the Officers and Cadets, and that the parents and friends of the young men sent here, may rely on their being as carefully preserved from vice and immorality as the nature of a public education admits. One of the principal defects which the Visiters have observed in the Cadets, during the examination, relates to this department, and consists in an imperfect and indistinct elocution. Particular attention seems not to be paid to this subject. A clear and full enun. ciation is, however, an accomplishment in a military man ; and, indeed, can hardly be dispensed with in any profession. We observed with regret that, in all the classes, the voice is imperfectly cultivated, and the elocution often indistinct and hurried. The proper remedy for this defect would be either to employ a distinct teacher for the purpose, or, what would perhaps be even better, to render the several professors and instructors responsible for an accurate and clear articulation in their respective exercises and examinations.

Connected with this subject is that of Composition, which has been recommended to the consideration of the department by other Boards of Visiters, in which recommendations this Board fully concurs. It may not be improper for the Board to suggest, in this connexion, that the principal text-book in the study of the French language (a department taught with great industry and care by the very competent and efficient teachers of the languages,) is not of the most moral and useful character. There must be abundance of good French, perfectly free from objection. There can, therefore, be no necessity for teaching the language in authors of a questionable tendency. It must be obvious to the Department that the youthful imagination. is too delicate and too susceptible of wrong impressions to be safely exposed to the exciting scenes frequently introduced into novels of the class to which this work belongs. Even the occasional hasty perusal of an exceptionable author, by the young, should be prevented if possible. This, however, is one thing. It is quite another thing for the young mind to be detained upon such an author, to read it aloud in the presence of others, to commit portions of it to memory, and, especially, to do so under the authority and with the approbation of a public instructor. The Board have, also, carefully considered the system of discipline prescribed by the President of the United States

on the 1st of January, 1839; and, after mature inquiry and personal observation, they have every reason to believe that these rules and regulations have been faithfully enforced by those on whom the duties devolve. The hospital is a stone edifice, located near the bank of the Hudson river, beautifully shaded with the sugar maple on the east and near the base of the mountain on the west; commanding an interesting view of the river, and securing always a free circulation of pure air. This building contains, in its basement story, eight rooms of convenient size for the accommodation of the nurses, matrons, domestics, kitchens, &c. Immediately above these rooms are eight large, convenient, and airy chambers for the sick, with a portico in front, furnishing a pleasant promenade, in full view of the river, for convalescent patients. Connected with this building, one at each end, are two buildings of similar size, one story higher than the hospital, for the accommodation of the surgeon and assistant surgeon. The whole building is convenient and appropriate. It is hardly possible that an establishment of the kind should be more suitably and cheaply furnished. The barracks have been the subject of such repeated animadversion and criticism by former Boards that we should content ourselves with barely referring to their several reports, did we not consider that the health, morals, and industry of the Cadets, and, of course, the success of the Institution itself, depended in no small degree, on the improvement of these accommodations. For the successful pursuit of knowledge, a youth must have command of his time and pursuits, in his room, must have good health, and must be comfortable.

The barracks contain only 96 rooms. These must furnish accommodations for 250 Cadets; more than two must of course, be put into a room. In fact four, and often five, are crowded into a single chamber. The rooms in the south building are scarcely large enough to accommodate one. They are cold and uncomfortable in the inclement seasons of the year, and badly ventilated in the summer. It is a matter of astonishment to this Board that Cadets have attained to such proficiency in their studies under circumstances so unfavorable. It is a strong proof of the great improvement of which the Academy is susceptible, with better facilities and more experience. During the first fifteen years of the existence of the Academy whilst the Cadets were accommodated in wooden barracks, opening to the south, there was scarcely an instance of a Cadet being confined to the hospital by dis

ease. Since the erection of the stone barracks, the sick re

ports of the surgeon show an average of five, and sometimes of six, thus confined. By reference to one of the quarterly reports of the surgeon, embracing the months of January, February and March, of the present year, it will be seen that the cases of disease for that quarter amount to 494; of these, 177 are cases of catarrh, and fairly referable, chiefly, to these uncomfortable rooms. Other diseases, such as pleurisy, headache, &c., naturally result from the same cause.

Again these barracks are clumsy, ill-shapen stone structures, erected without regard to order or taste-situated on the plain which ought to be appropriated to military evolutions, at a point where it is impossible to erect the necessary appendages and conveniences without danger to health and

comfort.

The public grounds furnish, on the east side of the plain and on the bank of the river, the most convenient and beau tiful site for such buildings. Here the barracks would open to the south-east, and all necessary appendages might be disposed of with due regard to neatness, taste, and health.

The Board have no hesitation in recommending the erection of new barracks on the bank of the river.

The commons are good. The steward is a salaried officer, and under no temptation to furnish any but wholesome and proper provisions. The regulations on the subject of clothing, bedding, &c., are in the highest degree consistent with comfort and economy. The substantial building intended for the philosophical apparatus and library is nearly completed. The completion of this building will open the rooms occupied by the philosophical apparatus to the Professor of Chemistry, and these important departments will be both provided with the most ample and desirable accommodations.

The Board would next invite the attention of the Secretary of War to the course of Military Instruction. The fundamental purpose of this Institution is to prepare young men for the proper discharge of the duties of the soldier. It is essentially a military school, and its courses of instruction are intended to convey a full knowledge of the military art, not only in its general principles, but also in its details. To this end, much time is given to the acquisition of the exact and mixed sciences, which are applied by the military student not only in acquiring a knowledge and understanding of the science of war, but in the more detailed operations in the field, the fort, the foundry, and the laboratory. A moment's reflection upon the vast influence of the exercises of the military art upon the destiny of nations and the affairs of life-an art that calls into the most active and efficient exercise all the energies of mind and body, and which, in that exercise, must direct, control, and manage the innumerable, varied, and complex operations, modifications, and circumstances of mind and material-must convince every one of the usefulness of an institution which dispenses such knowledge. Such an institution is this Academy.— In their examinations of the attainments of the pupils in military knowledge, and of skill in its practice, the Board have had assurance that the object of the Institution has been faithfully kept in view. The theory is well taught, and the practice is satisfactory, so far as the limited nature of such an establishment will permit. The evolutions of the line and the actual operations of fortification cannot be practised here, however complete the scientific instruction may be.

of shot, shells, and other projectiles; the use of the musket In the management of cannon and mortars, and the firing and sword; in the exercise of field artillery; and in the drill and manoeuvres of the company and battalion of infantry, the performance of the Cadets has been perfectly satisfactory. The various manipulations of the military laboratory have been performed by the members of the graduating class with skill; and they have promptly explained the principles on which these manipulations depended, in a clear and scientific manner. They have exhibited to us that kind of knowledge of the subject which will enable them at once to execute the difficult and important task of preparing and using accurately the immediate implements of attack, or of supplying their want from the most practicable expedients. cipated they would derive from the use of a small number The Cadets have now the advantages which it was antiof cavalry tactics, together with considerable skill in the useof horses. The practice of field artillery and the elements ful and graceful art of horsemanship, are learned in a satisfactory manner, and so as to answer the additional purpose of a healthful bodily exercise. Its effect upon their health is decidedly beneficial.

Board has been given is that of the fiscal concerns and proThe last general subject to which the attention of the perty of the Academy.

It appears to the Board that the 16th, 17th, 18th, and 19th articles of the "Revised Regulations" approved by the President, have been strictly observed and carried out in letter and spirit. The amount of money expended here by the Government for the year ending 1st May, 1841, applicable to the Institution, for the cost of Instruction and pay of Cadets, is as follows, viz:

Of this sum, $81,405 68 is for pay of Cadets, being $28 per month to each.

Out of this sum the Cadet boards and clothes himself, furnishes his own books, stationery, and mathematical instruments, the furniture of his room, washing, &c.; every thing, in fact, but fuel.

The regulations of the Institution place all the Cadets upon a financial equality. Each must live on his pay, and can receive no " family aid." Hence a system of vigilant econo my must be observed, to enable each Cadet to meet the re