Page:The History of the University of Pennsylvania, Wood.djvu/71

Rh. The former of these gentlemen, understanding that by becoming a candidate he might interfere with the interests of his friend Dr. Andrews, generously declined a nomination; the latter, though supported by a large number of the trustees, had, however, a majority opposed to him, and was now finally separated from an institution, with the infancy of which he had become associated in early life, whose youth he had strengthened and adorned in the vigour of his age, and whose untimely decay, now in his declining years, was another link in the chain of sympathy by which it had so long been connected with his fortunes. The age and infirmities of the late provost were probably thought to unfit him for the superintendence of a great seminary, in which vigour of authority must be conjoined with extensive knowledge and talents for instructing; and an inferior station could hardly have been offered with propriety, or accepted without degradation. It is possible, however, that a little leaven of old political animosity may have lurked in the minds of those who opposed him, and mingling with the more obvious motives, have communicated to them a force and influence which they might not otherwise have possessed. Yet this feeling, if it existed at all, must have been feeble; for no asperity marked the official proceedings, and every disposition was displayed to do, in whatever regarded pecuniary matters, all that justice could require. The doctor was allowed to retain, for one year, free from rent, the house which he had occupied as provost of the college; his claims upon the institution to the amount of nine hundred pounds were admitted and adjusted; and an annuity of one hundred pounds, formerly granted in consideration of his services in England, was now secured to him for life. The intimate connexion of the affairs of the old college, in all its vicissitudes of good and bad fortune, with him who was its first and last provost, has necessarily brought 9