Columbia college is liberally endowed, possessing property to the amount of nearly half a million of dollars. It was formerly composed of a Faculty of Arts and a Faculty of Physic. The latter was abol ished in 1813. The Faculty of Arts consists at pre sent of a professorship of Moral and Intellectual Philosophy, Rhetoric, Belles Letters and Political Economy; a professorship of Greek and Latin Lan guages, a Jay professorship of the same, a profess orship of Natural and Experimental Philosophy and Chemistry, a professorship of Mathematics, Analy tical Mechanics, and Physical Astronomy. Certain branches of instruction and the general superinten dance of the college are committed to the charge of the president of the college, who is chosen by the trustees. The number of students is gene rally about one hundred and thirty. There are two literary societies connected with the college, com posed of under graduates, the Philolexian and Pei tholopian societies, and a grammar school recently organized, containing one hundred and ninety stu dents, subject to the government of the trustees of the college.
The number of graduates of Columbia college since its foundation is about eleven hundred; many of whom have been eminent in the service of the church and state.
Columbia college possesses an excellent library of about four thousand five hundred volumes, and en joys an admirable location in a commanding part of the city: it is one of the finest specimens of archi tecture in New York.
University of the City of New is the name of a college recently projected by a number of gentlemen of New York, and designed to embrace a more extensive system of literature and science than any heretofore established. A literary con vention was held in the city in October 1829, with a view to its formation; subscriptions to a consid erable amount have been already obtained among the citizens for this object; a board of council has been chosen, by whom the Rev. James Matthews, D.D. has been chosen chancellor of the institution. A distinctive character of this establishment is an entire exclusion of all sectarian influence. A scite for the contemplated building has been chosen, and the whole is in a train of successful progress.
The several faculties are divided into a Faculty of Letters, a Faculty of Science and the Arts, a Fa culty of Law and a Faculty of Medicine.
The General Theological Seminary of the Protest ant Episcopal Church of the United States.--This in stitution is situated about two miles from the City Hall, on the eastern bank of Hudson river. The block of land on which the seminary is located is an oblong square of eight hundred by one hundred and eighty feet; the present value of which is sixty thousand dollars, and was presented to the semina ry by Clement Moore, son of the late Right Rev. Benjamin Moore, D.D.
The present building is one wing of those con templated, whenever the funds of the institution will enable the trustees to complete the design, and is a spacious stone edifice of Gothic architecture, one hundred and ten feet in length, sixty feet wide and three stories high. At this seminary (institut ed in 1819, partly by the funds of the Episcopal church and partly by a liberal bequest of the late Jacob Sherrard of this city), about one hundred and forty candidates have been prepared for the minis try. The late Mr. John Kohn of Philadelphia has
recently bequeathed to this institution one hundred thousand dollars, on the demise of his widow; at present it relies for support in a great measure on the liberality of the friends of the church. The faculty consists of a Professor of Biblical Learning and the Interpretation of the Scriptures, a Profes sorship of Systematic Divinity, of Oriental and Greek Literature, and also a Professorship of the Nature, Ministry and Polity of the church.
Mercantile Library 3ssociation institution was organized in 1821, and occupies appropriate apartments in that substantial and superior edifice denominated Clinton flail. An elegant lecture room is provided, in which lectures are delivered on several branches of the physical and ethical sciences. The present number of subscribers is thirteen hundred; the library consists of about six thousand volumes. The annual income derived from various sources, is about two thousand five hundred dollars. Active zeal and rigorous enter prise characterize this institution, and no small share of its present flattering condition is owing to the liberality of Philip Hone, late mayor of New York.
General Society of Ilkchanics and Tradesmen.— This society was incorporated in 1792, and was originally designed for the purpose of affording aid to the widows and children of deceased mem bers, which it has effectively done, to a large amount annually. Meeting with flattering support, it established a school for the education of the children of deceased members whose circum stances required their assistance, and subsequently the school was enlarged, so as to accommodate many of the children, both male and female, of the more wealthy members, whose attention was attracted to the school by the high character it maintains, and which it yet fully sustains; by this arrangement the tuition fees of those who pay, defray the whole expenses of the establishment. The children are all alike educated, and the dis tinction, always odious, between those who do and those who do not pay, is unknown in this valuable school. Some years ago the society enlarged the sphere of its usefulness, by the estsblishrnent of a library, for the exclusive and gratuitous use of the apprentices of mechanics. The library is open every evening (excepting on Sundays), and contains about eleven thousand volumes: the number of readers now amount to fifteen thousand. A more spacious building has recently been purchased, which will enable the society to enlarge the school and library, and add thereto reading rooms, for the apprentices of mechanics. The society is con spicuous among the many valuable institutions of New York, and has exercised a large and salutary influence on those for whose immediate benefit it was specially designed. The amount of its pro perty is estimated at seventy-five thousand dollars, and its annual revenue at four thousand five hundred dollars.