2

six hundred, and yearly increasing, when
in Europe the ratio is from one to 1000 in
England, to one in over 2000 in Germa-
ny and Austria, countries so renowned
as countries of medial learning that pupils
went to their school, from all other civiliz-
ed nations.

It has long been a standing reproach
to Virginia, and a cause of lamentation
for her wise and good citizens, that so many
of our able-bodied young men, who might
to their own advantage and that of the
State, devote their energies to agriculture
or other industrial arts, should prefer to
seek admission into the professions of Medi-
cine and Law, for which a large number of them are un-
fit. As a necessary consequence a very
large proportion becomes drones, or politi-
cal adventurers at home, or else immigrate
to the West, thus draining our State of what
might be a valuable portion of the white
population. If many were [to] asked if it is
desirable to apply a further stimulus in