cipally in consequence of their public stations, not from any peculiar fitness for the office, or attachment to its duties, could not be expected to manifest that minute attention and vigilant care which had characterized their predecessors, whose long connection with the College had almost identified its interests with their own. The consequences of this want of vigilance in the board were evident, as well in the uncertain and fluctuating measures which were adopted, as in the condition of the financial concerns, which even the liberal grant of the legislature did not preserve from embarrassment. With the teachers, the unsettled state of their accounts was a frequent source of complaint; and the numerous changes which took place among them, owing probably to this as much as to any other cause, were calculated very materially to injure the reputation of the school. Besides the want of proper energy in the management of the University, another impediment to its prosperity existed in the unfriendly feelings with which it was regarded by many respectable citi zens. Attached to the old school and its officers, and considering the new as having been founded in usurpation, they were disposed both from inclination and principle to prefer some distant seminary for the education of their children; thus not only withdrawing their immediate support from the University, but arraying against it the influence of their example with their fellow-citizens, and the force of new attachments among those who were hereafter to become active members of society. this period we may perhaps trace the origin of those partialities which have directed away from our highest literary institution so much of the public patronage, and at this moment [1827] are operating to the disadvantage and dishonour of the city. To CHAPTER VIII. RE-ESTABLISHMENT OF THE COLLEGE.-SEPA RATE EXISTENCE OF THE TWO SCHOOLS.- In the mean time the late authorities of the College were not quiescent under their wrongs. Dr. Smith, especially, was indefatigable in seeking redress for the institution and himself. In repeated memorials, drawn up with no little ability, he represented the injustice and unconstitutionality of the legislative proceedings in their case, and complained that, in his old age, dismissal from an office which he himself had rendered valuable should have been the only reward of his long and important services. Petitions, moreover, were presented to successive legislatures, by the displaced trustees; and the support of a numerous party was not wanting to enforce their claims of justice. The feelings of the venerable Franklin, who was now returned from Europe, were known to be in their favour; for, though by the law which established the University he was declared one of the trustees, and afterwards, as president of the executive council, had an additional right to the station, he had always declined qualifying himself for a seat at the board, by taking the requisite oaths. Though the public ear may for a time be deafened by the rage of party, it cannot always be closed to the voice of justice; and the current of opinion at length began to turn in favour of the old establishment. One effort, indeed, to restore the College charter by legislative enactment proved abortive; but a bill subsequently introduced was more successful; and, in the year 1789, a law was passed by a great majority, which reinstated the trustees and faculty in all their former estates and privileges. In the preamble of this law, the proceedings of the legislature by which these estates and privileges had been transferred to the trustees of the University, were stigmatized as repugnant to justice, a violation of the constitution of this Commonwealth, and dangerous in their precedent to all incorporated bodies;" so different are the views which will be taken of the same subject by men in the opposite states of calmness and excitement. But the same sense of justice which led to the re-establishment of the College, forbade any farther interference in the affairs of the University, than was necessary for the accomplishment of this purpose. The trustees of the latter institution, therefore, retained their corporate capacity; and, as the grant formerly made by the legislature out of the confiscated estates still remained to them, they were not left absolutely destitute of support. New buildings were provided for the accommodation of the * The minutes of the American Philosophical Society show that on March 11, 1789, a committee of the University of the State of Pennsylvania leased the building of the Society for £85 per annum for five years, with the exception of the two south rooms on the second floor, the University to complete the building, deducting the expenditures for the same from the rent. In 1794, after |