INTERNAL POLICE.

WEST POINT. The committee on internal police beg leave to report, that they have had under consideration the various subjects within the purview of their duties, and while they have much to approve and admire, they have nevertheless, in their investigations, discovered defects which they will now bring to the view of the Board.

As the health of the cadets is of primary importance, your committee directed their attention first to an examination of the hospital.

The condition of the hospital, in its internal arrangements, is fully suited to the object of securing to the cadets all the comforts and all the inedical aid that they can require in ordinary cases of indisposition. Clean, well ventilated, and properly attended by nurses, nothing need be added on these heads. Recent circumstances, however, of a painful character, have suggested the propriety of enlarging the number of surgical instruments, as casualties appear to be the most common outlet of life here.

The want of an appropriate instrument, at a proper moment, sometimes proves fatal, when its application would, perhaps, give relief.

The attention of your committee was next drawn to the barracks. The south barrack is the oldest building of the kind at this post. The rooms are badly constructed, both as regards their dimensions and their location. They are too small for the purposes for which they are appropriated, and very injudiciously disposed. The north Barrack contains large and well ventilated rooms, in every way calculated to ensure the comfort of the in

cumbents.

Both barracks present an air of cleanliness and order that reflects credit on all concerned.

Your committee next visited the steward's hall, where the cadets mess in common. Here we found that the cadets are supplied with good and wholesome food. The price of board in this hall, exclusive of bedding, washing, or any other accommodation, other than dieting, is ten dollars per month. A new building, 50 feet in front, 70 feet deep, and 24 feet high, has been commenced, and is intended for a chapel. The erection of such a building is much wanted, and will be completed, it is thought, this year. The store house here is an old and very insecure building, only nine and a half fee long and eleven feet deep, and is altogether unfit for the use to which it i applied.

In conclusion, your committee would beg leave to recommend to the Board, that the especial attention of the Secretary of War be called-First. To the necessity of an additional supply of surgical instruments. Secondly. To the necessity of rebuilding the south barrack.

Thirdly. To the necessity of erecting a store-house for the safe keepin of the stores deposited here.

All which is respectfully submitted by your committee.

E. S. DAVIS, Chairman.

FISCAL CONCERNS.

The committee on fiscal concerns, report, that in pursuance of the duty assigned to them, they have cursorily inspected the accounts of this institution, between the 1st of January, 1834, and the 31st of December, 1835, inclusive, and believe them to be correct. That the disbursements are in accordance with the appropriations made, and that a system of order and economy prevails throughout. The ordinary appropriations for the Military Academy are embraced under the general appropriation of pay and subsistence for the army, which does not discriminate between the pay and subsistence of it and that of the cadets. By the regulations of this institutution, the paymaster here stationed, is treasurer of the cadets, and the sum appropriated as above mentioned is by him disbursed. The amount of this fund annually expended, by an average of the last ten years, may be fairly estimated at $93,566 52. Another appropriation is made specially for the Military Academy, and directs the objects to which it shall be applied. These are fuel, forage, stationery, printing, transportation, postage, and for repairs of buildings, improvements, &c. Likewise for the pay of the adjutant and quartermaster's clerks, increase and expense of the library, for philosophical apparatus, and models for the départment of engineering, for models for the department of drawing, repairs of mathematical instruments, for-apparatus and contingencies for the department of chemistry, miscellaneous itens and ncidental expenses of the Academy, and for defraying the expense of the Board of Visiters at West Point. The annual sum thus appropriated is about $25,000.

There have been occasional extraordinary appropriations, viz: one of $20,000 for the erection of a building for military and other exercises. This ecessary edifice has not yet been erected, from the circumstance, that the san appropriated for the purpose was insufficient. It has, however, been ommenced, and about $1,000 expended, under the belief that Congress not refuse to complete a work so requisite for the successful prossecution military knowledge during the inclement season of the year, and to the alth of the cadets. There has likewise been an appropriation of $10,000 fra chapel, which is now in a state of progress, and about $1,840 expended to the 1st of April. The sum originally appropriated, owing to the rise a the price of materials and labor, it is feared will not complete the buildng but the necessity of moral and religious instruction is so evident, as to asion no apprehension that the necessary means to finish it will be withbeld

The committee are compelled to recommend that an improvement should be made in the apartment appropriated to the use of chemistry, the library, ad natural philosophy; they being too small for an advantageous display philosophical apparatus, or of chemical experiments. Besides, the válnalibrary and costly philosophical apparatus, is continually endangered by Tunavoidably contingent on chemical experiments. The committee rethat the teacher of drawings is so entirely destitute of the convenience essary to the practice, study, and, of course, improvement, in his profesThe only place in which he can prossecute his labors, is either the or the garret. Other professors have facilities during vacations, or relaxations from their academic duties, to prosecute those studies Wch lead to eminence in their professions. The committee are of opinion

that it would be vain to expect stability in a department so inseparably connected with the objects of this institution, (a complete military education.) or that distinguished masters would continue here as professors, if reasonable accommodation is not afforded them. They therefore recommend the building of an apartment for the use of the teacher of drawing, the expense whereof it is estimated will not exceed $800. Your committee have examined the accounts of the treasurer and of the quartermaster; they are arranged in a tabular form, under appropriate heads, for each of which there is a voucher, and without which the accounts would not be passed. The expenditures rigidly adhere to the appropriation, and the whole fiscal arrangement meets our entire approbation.

Your committee have directed their attention to the inquiry, if due attention is here paid to economy in all the details of the institution, and the result is very satisfactory.

The regulations refuse to the cadet the possession or use of money, or the expenditure of it, but with the consent of the superintendent. The pay and subsistence of the cadet is $16 per month, and two rations, equal to $12 making the total $28 per month. Each cadet provides a check book, which is arranged in tabular form, and exhibits in one view, his expenditures and his means. When the cadet desires to obtain an article, he applies to the superintendent, whose approval is indicated by writing in the opposite The article is then furnished, and charged to the cadet by an en try in another column. The entries in this check book are constantly ex hibited to the superintendent, and are vouchers, upon which the treasure pays to the persons who furnish the cadets.

This mode of keeping the account is perfectly simple, easily understood and well imagined to prevent imposition. Besides, the moral effect is ex cellent, as the cadet is constantly admonished of the extent of his incom and the necessity of a prudent exercise of his slender means. It gives him the habit of order in his affairs; a qualification, essential not only to h professional success, but to his reputation and happiness as a private mar and your committee cannot refrain from here expressing their entire appr bation of the system. It is the best evidence your committee can affo you of economy on the part of those charged with the administration of t institution, that there is an unexpended balance in the treasury, of the l year's appropriation, of about $8,000; $5,000 of which is intended for t supply of fuel, in part, for the ensuing year, for which, heretofore, no a propriation has been made in season for the necessities of the institutic leaving a balance of $3,000.

From the statement made, it will be perceived that the annual amou expended, is estimated to average $118,166 52, that is to say, for the pay professors, and pay and subsistence of cadets, $93,566 52; and for acader purposes $25,000. The latter item embraces the sum necessary for the crease of the library, the philosophical apparatus, mathematical inst ments, &c.

By a reference to the regulations, it will be perceived, that each ca upon entering the institution, is required to furnish certain articles of el ing and furniture, necessary to his comfort.

The cost of the above mentioned requisites is about $75. It is v regret your committee inform you, that many cadets do not bring with th when they come to the institution, money for this use. The conseque

is, the cadet is compelled to contract debts in anticipation of pay, which occasions him much embarrassment, and is unfriendly to that high feeling of independence, which is the characteristic of a freeman and a soldier.

Your committee recommend that the War Department be requested to impress the parent or guardian of each cadet, when notified of their appointment, of the necessity of furnishing the means required by the above alluded to regulation.

Your committee are satisfied that no beneficial reduction of expenses can at this time be effected in this institution. Indeed, when the great moral and political benefits emanating from it, are considered, they are only surprised that so much advantage can be gained at such a cost. By this institution, the remote ends of our country are, if not indissolubly bound, more firmly welded together. The youth of the north, the south, the east, and the west, are here brought together, and united in friendship's holy bands.

The parents partake of their sons' feelings, and love those they have never seen, because their sons loved them. The youth here taught enter the world with the highest aspirations, and being fitted for any useful purpose, will attain the highest distinctions, and their hearts will recur frequently to the lovely scenes of their youth, and with gratitude to the country whose iberality educated them.

Your committee cannot but express their conviction that the beneficial results of this institution are inestimable, and that true economy demands is support.

JOHN HUNTER, Chairman of the Fiscal Committee.

No. 8.

REPORT FROM THE TOPOGRAPHICAL BUREAU.

TOPOGRAPHICAL BUREAU,

Hon. LEWIS CASS, Secretary of War:

Washington, November 2, 1835.

SIR: In obedience to your instructions of the 4th of September last, I have the honor to submit to you a statement, marked A, exhibiting the amount drawn from the Treasury Department, and remitted to the disbursing officers under this bureau, from the 1st of October, 1834, to the 31st of September, 1835, inclusive, and the amount of accounts rendered.

The topographical and civil engineers have been employed upon, and the funds appropriated for surveys for the year 1835 have been applied to, the following objects:

1. An examination of the route for a rail-road from Memphis, in Tennessee, to the Atlantic ocean.

2. A report and estimate of the cost of the construction of the Portage summit of the Ohio canal, that is, the canal from Pittsburg to Lake Erie.

3. Survey with a view to the improvement of the Cumberland river from Nashville, Tennessee, to the head of navigation in Kentucky.

4. The report of the geological investigations made of the public lands, and of the Territory of Arkansas.

5. A survey of the harbor of St. Joseph's, in the Territory of Michigan.

6. A survey of the harbor at the mouth of Trail creek.

These surveys and reports, from 1 to 6 inclusive, have been completed since the last annual report, and were reported to Congress during its last

session.

7. A survey of the Delaware river from Newcastle to Port Penn, and a survey of Pea Patch island.

These surveys embrace an exposition of all the facts necessary in the digesting of a system of the defences of that pass in the river, as well as all those necessary to its navigation. The duty is completed, and the maps delivered to the bureau.

8. A survey of the Brandywine shoal. The object of this survey is to determine the best position on the shoal for the construction of a lighthouse. It is a highly important point in the navigation of the Delaware bay, but its exposed situation, and the composition of the shoal, make it one also of extreme difficulty in the establishing of a foundation which will endure, and sustain the superstructure for the light.

The appropriation for this object was made in June, 1834, and in the following words: