Page:History of the University of Pennsylvania - Montgomery (1900).djvu/447

Rh had a favorable passage of thirty days, and was in London on 10 December. 12 Here we leave him in the furtherance of those measures of hopeful conciliation, which, however, eventually shaped themselves to the separation of the colonies, though when he entered on this present mission even his foresight could not apprehend such a political change which was of greater magni- tude and promise than had been witnessed in the political world for many ages. And in the meanwhile we must seek a portrayal of the continued life and work of the College of his foundation, which under other hands was to supply the community with well trained men who would thus be better fitted to become cit- izens of the young Nation with whose birth and infancy the name of Franklin will ever be inseparably coupled.

The new buildings, the want of means for the completion of which had been the moving cause for Dr. Smith's tour of solicitation in England and Ireland, had been completed and were in part occupied. But the institution was yet unable to make the lodgings therein entirely free. At the meeting of 14 June, 1764, immediately upon Dr. Smith's return, he was joined with Messrs. Coxe, Willing and Strettell in a "Committee to consider what could be done with the new Buildings, so that they may bring in an annual Revenue, agreeable to the Institu- tion." Their report, a lengthy one, is entered on the Minutes of 1 1 September. Some extracts from this may afford us a view 12 News of his arrival in England did not reach Philadelphia for three months. Penna. Gazette, 14 March, 1765. Dr. Cadwalader Evans writes him 15 March, "the most agreeable news of your arrival in London occasioned a great and general joy in Pennsylvania among those whose esteem an honest man would value most. The bells rang on that account till near midnight, and libations were poured out for your health, success, and every other happiness. Even your old friend Hugh Roberts stayed with us till eleven o'clock, which you know was a little out of his common road, and gave us many curious anecdotes within the compass of your forty years' acquaintance." Sparks vii. 283.