Page:The History of the University of Pennsylvania, Wood.djvu/22

16 meet, occasionally, and inquire into the condition of the schools, and conduct of the scholars; to see that the laws were observed, and the plans of education carried into effect; and, when any deficiency in the arrangements of the institution was observable, to propose such regulation for the sanction of the trustees, as they might deem likely to be conducive to its prosperity.

On the charitable foundation, there were two schools, one for boys, and another for girls, which were taught respectively by a master and mistress, with occasional assistants. The boys were instructed in reading, writing, and arithmetic; the girls in reading, writing, and sewing. The schools were under the immediate care of the trustees, to whom applications for admittance were to be made. The number of charity scholars was seldom much short of one hundred.

The whole property and government of the institution were, by the charter, vested in the board of trustees, which retained its original constitution. In conferring the powers before mentioned upon the faculty of the college and academy, the trustees reserved to themselves the exclusive privileges of making laws; of appointing all the officers of the seminary; of inflicting on the students the severer punishments of degradation, suspension, and expulsion; of conferring the ordinary and honorary degrees; and finally, of deciding in all matters of high importance to the institution. But in every thing which related to the students, though, for fear of abuse, they thus reserved the power in their own hands, they generally decided according to the recommendation of the faculty, whose better opportunities of forming an accurate judgment entitled them to this deference.

The first commencement of the college took place on the