Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/410

406 which I have taken the Liberty to do, after having just come from the Arch- bishop of Canterbury, who was pleased to say he would write to your Grace on this subject, and that there might be no Impropriety in my sending a few Lines at the same time. On 9 September, Dr. Smith and Dr. Jay issued a letter " To all worthy and Reverend the Clergy and Ministers of the Gospel into whose hands his Majesty's Royal Brief, for the Colleges of Philadelphia and New York " may come, affording them such further account of the Design and Usefulness of these Seminaries, as might enable them, upon due information, to give the People under their Ministry that Encouragement which we are persuaded your Christian Zeal will induce you to bestow upon every Scheme for the advancement of Religion and useful Knowledge. * * * You, Gentlemen, who are the Ministers of God's Word, and always foremost in every Design for the Instruction of Mankind, we can well depend that this so laudable an under- taking will meet with your particular Countenance and assistance. The kind Providence of God seems to have great things in view, by calling the British Nation to the Possession of the most important part of America; and the greatest of all the Glories that can accrue to this Kingdom from a Dominion so widely extended, will be to make use of the opportunities thereby given her for the advancement of divine Knowledge, and to be found a chosen instrument in these latter Days for calling New and here- tofore unexplored Countries, to the enjoyment of everything that can exalt Humanity at a time when so many of the old have fallen again into their original Barbarity. * * * What we would in a more especial manner pray of you is, that, together with your good offices to make our Brief as effectual as possible, in regard to the pious purposes for which it is granted, you would likewise give it all the despatch your convenience will admit of. And we hope our particular circumstances will be our plea for this humble request, being at three thousand miles distance from the places of our abode, and obliged at great expense to our Constituents, to wait the issue of this business. This letter, the authorship of Dr. Smith, is lengthy, but per- spicuous. It recites the present work of the Colleges : " near four hundred Youths are continually educated in them; of whom about sixty are intended for the learned Professions, and," here is a reference to the prevailing motive of all like seminaries at the time " particularly to furnish a Supply of Ministers and Teachers for the Different Societies of Christians in these parts." And,