were not immediately available, it was necessary, in the commencement, to have recourse to a loan; and the trustees accordingly borrowed eight hundred pounds, on their own joint bond.

The next object was to procure a suitable building; and in this they were remarkably fortunate.* The celebrated Whitefield had arrived in America a few years before this period. Though excluded from the churches of Philadelphia, and compelled to preach in the fields, such was the power of his eloquence, that immense. crowds were collected to hear him, and a fervour of religious feeling was excited in the community, of which the annals of the country had afforded no previous example.

* I find it mentioned on the minutes of the Board of Trustees, that a lot of ground in Sixth Street was offered to them by James Logan, upon which to erect an academy, "provided it should be built within the term of 14 years." The offer was declined, as “the new building was, in all respects, better suited to their present circumstances and future views." The trustees, however, expressed "a most grateful sense of his regard to the academy," and returned him "their sincere thanks for his kind and generous offer."

In this state of the public mind, it was proposed to erect an edifice, which might serve the double purpose of a charity school, and a place of public worship for Whitefield, and other ministers of the gospel, similarly circumstanced. Little difficulty was experienced in obtaining adequate subscriptions; a lot was procured in Fourth, near the corner of Mulberry Street; and a large building was speedily raised, which is still standing, and well known to Philadelphians by the name of the Academy.* At that time, however, it was called the New Building, and as people of almost every religious denomination had been concerned in its erection, it was vested in trustees selected from different sects, among whom were Whitefield and Franklin. But the lot having been purchased on ground rent, and money having been borrowed for the completion of the building,

* It may be proper to state, that one-half of this building has been recently removed, and a church erected on its site by a Society of Methodists.—December, 1833.

The church has since been removed.-Note to the present edition.