Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/175

Rh being then sent for, accepted the charge of the said School for one Year, his salary to be one Hundred and Fifty pounds per annum.

On 17 November following Mr. Kinnersley informed the Trustees "that there are no more than FortyoneForty-one [sic] scholars belonging to the English school," and they thought it unnecessary to keep two Ushers and Mr. Carroll, and Mr. Franklin was therefore desired to acquaint him that the Trustees have no further occasion for his services, but that they will nevertheless continue him in Pay for Three Months after the expiration of the current Quarter, unless he shall sooner get into some other employment.

Mr. Kinnersley so commended himself to the Trustees in his labors, that at a large meeting of the Trustees held on 11 July, 1755, with Franklin presiding, he was "unanimously chosen Professor of the English Tongue and of oratory." It was a month before his appointment as Master of the English School, that we find one of those fugitive notes in the local press which testify to the Trustees' recognition of the importance of keeping the attention of the community alive to the subject of education as exemplified by the rule of the Academy. "On Wednesday the 30th past, the Reverend Mr. Cradock, from Maryland, preached in the Academy Hall, a most excellent Sermon on the Advantages of Learning." This may have had a deeper meaning than the mere notice of the sermon would convey. May it not have been that Franklin thought he would find in this trained scholar and successful teacher the man to take the place, which he had hoped at the outset of the Academy would be filled by the learned Samuel Johnson of Stratford,