The Legislature has no right, without the assent of a
Corporation, to alter its charter, or take from it any of its franchises
or property." The Trustees would not yield at once and, in March, 1839,
presented a petition to the Legislature, praying it not to pass an act
requiring them to give up the property to the Regents. The memorial was
referred to a joint committee, which reported a bill restoring the
property to the Regents. The bill was enacted and the Regents have since
ruled. During the supremacy of the Trustees, the Faculty of the Arts and
Sciences was organized. They contemplated activity in 1821, and issued a
circular, which drew down on them the wrath of Professor Hoffman,
inasmuch as they "contemplated 'academic' instruction" not intended by
the charter. The founders, he said, intended that instruction should be
conveyed by lectures and that no other form of instruction should be
allowed. The discussion which followed seems to show that he had the
idea of having work carried on, like that done by graduate students
to-day.
But nothing was done, apparently, until Baltimore College was annexed in
1830. That institution was chartered on January 7, 1804,[20] and was the
development of an academy kept by James Priestley, the first president,
on Paul's Lane (St.
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