Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/361

Rh ises to be of so much use for the Advancement of true Learning and Knowledge, will at this time meet with great Encouragement in England, where there are Thousands that want nothing more than opportunities of Showing their Beneficence and good will to anything calculated for the Benefit of these Colonies, and we have the greatest hopes in this affair from the assurance given us by Dr. Smith of the Disposition which he found in sundry Persons of Distinction when he was lately in England, to befriend this Seminary on a due Application to them and which some of them have been pledged to respect in their private Letters to him. We therefore most heartily recommended to the Trustees to take this Matter into their immediate and most serious Consideration and to engage some proper person to go over to England with all convenient Expedition and furnish him with proper Recommendations and Credentials in order to sollicit the Benevolence of the Good People of Great Britain for such further Support of the Institution so that it may be put upon a footing suf- ficient to maintain for ever an expedient Number of Professors, Masters, and Tutors as well as to enable the Trustees to make such additional Build- ings as will obviate the objections made to the Institution in its present form for want of Lodging and Superintending the Morals of the Students. It is recorded that a great majority voted to carry on the whole Buildings, as recommended in the Report which was accordingly agreed to provided the Expence did not exceed the sum raised by the last Lottery, [and] the Trustees unanimously agreed that there was a Necessity of nominating some proper person to sollicit the Benefactions of their Mother country for the further support of this Institution, and it was agreed that Dr Smith was the properest Person to undertake the Service. And the Committee having intimated that in some previous Conversation with him they had reason to believe he would be very willing to serve the Institution in this way if it should be approved by the Trustees. They therefore desired he might be sent for, and the President acquainted him in the name of the Trustees that it was their unanimous Desire that he would with all convenient Speed undertake a Voyage to England for the Purposes above mentioned, and that they would endeavor to supply his place with some proper Person who should in his Absence carry on his part of the Lectures in the Philosophy School. Dr Smith answered that it might be a little inconvenient to him to under- take a Voyage at this Season of the Year, yet he was willing to serve the Institution in this or any other Method in his Power ; and further that he would make all the Dispatch he could in preparing himself for the Voyage ; and had good Hopes from what had passed between him and some Persons of Distinction in England, of answering their Expectations in this Matter.