Page:The History of the University of Pennsylvania, Wood.djvu/42

36 a very considerable sum was subscribed in Philadelphia and the neighbourhood; so that there was every reason to expect, that the permanent income of the college would, for the future, be amply sufficient to defray all its necessary expenses.

But the troubles of the revolutionary war, which now broke out, very materially impaired its resources. One of the first effects of this contest upon the institution was a diminution in the number of students, and a consequent falling off to an equal extent, of the receipts for tuition. In the spring of 1779, there were only about twenty members of the college classes, and eighty boys belonging to the grammar school and academy; and, at a previous period of the revolution, the numbers had been still less. The income of the college was also greatly diminished by the compelled receipt of depreciated paper in payment of rent and interest; and much loss of capital was experienced, in consequence of the discharge, in the same paper, of the bonds and mortgages in which a great portion of the funds was invested. At the same time that the resources were thus impaired, an enormous advance in the price of almost every necessary, rendered an augmentation of the salaries of the teachers indispensable, and thus very greatly increased the expenses. To such an extent was this the case, that at the opening of the schools, after a temporary suspension arising from the occupation of Philadelphia by the British army, it was found absolutely necessary to double all the salaries, in order that the professors might obtain a livelihood.

To compensate, in some measure, for this reduction of receipts and increase of expenditure, it was resolved, soon after the resumption of the duties of the college, in the fall of 1778, to make one more application to the citizens for aid. From a report made to the legislature, in the succeeding year, relative to the state of the schools, it appears, that this application resulted in the subscription of