Page:Works of the Late Doctor Benjamin Franklin (1793).djvu/130

120 Boſton, dated October 18th, acquainting me that you had written largely by Capt. Davis. Davis was loſt, and with him your letters, to my great diſappointment.—Meſnard and Gibbon have ſince arrived here, and I hear nothing from you.—My comfort is, an imagination that you only omit writing becauſe you are coming, and purpoſe to tell me every thing viva voce. So not knowing whether this letter will reach you, and hoping either to ſee or hear from you by the Myrtilla, Capt. Budden's ſhip, which is daily expected, I only add, that I am, with great eſteem and affection. Yours, &c, B. FRANKLIN.

Mr. Smith.

About a month after the date of this laſt letter, the gentleman to whom it was addreſſed arrived in Philadelphia, and was immediately placed at the head of the ſeminary; whereby Dr. Franklin and the other truſtees were enabled to proſecute their plan, for perfecting the inſtitution, and opening the college upon the large and liberal foundation on which it now ſtands; for which purpoſe they obtained their additional charter, dated May 27th, 1755.

Thus far we thought it proper to exhibit in one view Dr. Franklin's ſervices in the foundation and eſtabliſhment of this ſeminary. He ſoon afterward embarked for England, in the public ſervice of his country; and having been generally employed abroad, in the like ſervice, for the greateſt part of the remainder of his life (as will appear in our ſubſequent account of the ſame), he had but few opportunities of taking any