first suggested the law of the increase of population, which anticipated Malthus, places him among the great economists of the world. A year after his letter to Dr. Johnson, in a letter to Jared Eliot on the 12th of September, Franklin refers to the academy in Philadelphia, later the University of Pennsylvania: Our academy flourishes beyond expectation. We have now above 100 scholars, and the number is daily increasing. We have excellent masters at present, and as we give pretty good salaries, I hope we shall always be able to procure such. We It will be noticed that in these items the pay of the English master was as great as that of any of the instructors. Subsequent changes in the course of study in the academy led to Franklin's expostulation against lowering the plane of the English instruction. His Observations Relative to the Intentions of the Original Founders of the Academy in Philadelphia, written thirty-eight years later, are the history of these changes and Franklin's protest.2 Two years later, on the 19th of April, Franklin wrote to the Rev. William Smith, appointed provost of the academy in 1754, and filling that office as head of the academy and of the college successfully for a period of thirty-seven years, until the University was created in its second charter of 1791.2 Franklin's letter to Dr. Smith is as follows: PHILADELPHIA, April 19, 1753. SIR: I received your favor of the 11th instant, with your new piece on education,3 which I shall carefully peruse and give you my sentiments of it, as you desire, by next post. I believe the young gentlemen, your pupils, may be entertained and instructed here in mathematics and philosophy to satisfaction. Mr. Allison, who was educated at Glasgow, has been long accustomed to teach the latter, and Mr. Grew the former, and I think that their pupils make great progress; Mr. Allison has the care of the Latin and Greek school, but as he has now three good assistants," he can very well afford some hours every day for the instruction of those who are engaged in higher studies. The mathematical school is pretty well furnished with instruments. The English library is a good one, and we have, belonging to it, a middling apparatus I See Observations Relative to the Intentions of the Original Founders, etc., supra. ? For much valuable information concerning the academy, the old college, and the inception of the University, see Wood's History of the University in Vol. III of the Memoirs of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania. "The Rev. Francis Allison, afterwards Vice-Provost of the College in Philadelphia. (Stuber.) 5 Theophilus Grew, afterwards Professor of Mathematics in the college. (Stuber.) "Those assistants were at that time Charles Thompson, afterwards Secretary of Congress; Paul Jackson, and Jacob Duche. (Stuber. Bigelow, Vol. 11, p. 288.) for experimental philosophy, and propose speedily to complete it. The Loganian Library, one of the best collections in America, is shortly to be opened, so that neither books nor instruments will be wanting; and as we are determined always to give good salaries, we have reason to believe we may have always an opportunity of choosing good masters; upon which, indeed, the success of the whole depends. We are obliged to you for your kind offers in this respect, and when you are settled in England we may occasionally make use of your friendship and judgment. If it suits your convenience to visit Philadelphia before your return to Europe, I shall be extremely glad to see and converse with you here, as well as to correspond with you after your settlement in England, for an acquaintance and communication with men of learning, virtue, and public spirit is one of my greatest enjoyments. I do not know whether you ever happened to see the first proposals I made for erecting this academy. I send them inclosed. They had, however imperfect, the desired success, being followed by a subscription of four thousand pounds towards carrying them into execution. As we are fond of receiving advice and are daily improving by experience, I am in the hopes we shall, in a few years, see a perfect institution. I am, very respectfully, etc. B. FRANKLIN. Franklin was in sympathy with Dr. Smith's ideas in education. They were far in advance of the prevailing sentiment of the times and are substantially embodied in the four years' course prevailing at the present time. Prof. Lamberton has shown at length the philosophical character of Dr. Smith's educational ideas, and that the University of Pennsylvania was the first American institution to adopt the curriculum common now throughout the country. Much has been said of Franklin's relations to Dr. Smith, and there is a diversity of sentiment concerning them. It seems upon consideration of the evidence that Dr. Smith leaned to the classical studies, while Franklin preferred the English branches. This may possibly be explained by the difference in the education of Franklin and Smith. Dr. Franklin would have all young men trained as he had trained himself; Dr. Smith, a fine classical scholar, would place Latin and Greek above the English language in the college. To these fundamental differences between them was added the disputes growing out of the relations of the academy and the college to the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the contentions following the war of the Revolution. The college was likely to be destroyed amidst these serious commotions.2 In 1754 Franklin drew his plan of union for the colonies, known as the Albany Plan. It illustrates his love of compromise, and the scheme as first drawn by Franklin is, "Short Hints towards a Scheme for 'See Prof. Lamberton's article on the Department of Arts in the University of Pennsylvania. 2For a detailed account of the relations between Franklin and Smith and between the college and the legislature, see, infra, the Historical Sketch of the University, by John L. Stewart, Ph. B.; The University in its Relations to the State of Pennsylvania, by the Hon. Samuel W. Pennypacker, LL. D.; The Relations of the University and the City, by J. G. Rosengarten, A. M.; The Provosts and Vice-Provosts, by Hon. Henry Reed, A. M.; The Department of Arts, by Prof. William Lamberton, A. M. uniting the Northern Colonies." While the commissioners from the colonies, who assembled at Albany, met for the ostensible purpose of discussing Indian affairs, the subject of a plan of union, the uppermost thought in Franklin's mind, received their attention. It is, as proposed by Franklin, according to the representative idea of government, a governor general appointed by the King, having a salary from the Crown and a veto on the acts of the grand council, to be chosen by the assembly of one member from each of the smaller colonies and two or more from each of the larger. It was an effort to establish for the colonies a government similar to that now existing in Canada. Franklin says of the Albany Plan: The assemblies all thought there was too much prerogative and in England it was thought to have too much of the democratic, and therefore the plan was not adopted. In 1755 his experiments in killing fowls by electricity led him to record: "Too great a charge might indeed kill a man. * * * It would certainly, as you observe, be the easiest of all deaths," anticipating modern electrocution. His utilitarian philosophy is illustrated in his letter to George Whitefield of July 2, 1756: Life, like a dramatic piece, should not only be conducted with regularity, but, methinks, it should finish handsomely. Being now in the last act, I begin to cast about for something fit to end with; or, if mine be more properly compared to an epigram, as some of its lines are but barely tolerable, I am very desirous of concluding with a bright point. In such an enterprise I could spend the remainder of life with pleasure, and I firmly believe God would bless us with success if we undertook it with a sincere regard to His honor, the service of our gracious King, and (which is the same thing) the public good. It is in this letter that he thanks Whitefield for his "generous benefactions to the German schools. They go on pretty well, and will do better when Mr. Smith,' who has at present the principal charge of them, shall learn to mind party writing and party politics less and his proper business more, which, I hope, time will bring about." Franklin's love of a comfortable ancestry is illustrated in his letter to his wife from London the 6th of September, 1758, in which he gives an account of his visit to Huntingdonshire, the ancient home of his family. He is there pleased to record of his ancestors that the women were smart and sensible; that the men became wealthy, left off business, and lived comfortably; and, as was characteristic of himself, others were clever, "vastly content with their situation, and very cheerful, and another a leading man in all county affairs and much employed in public busines❞—all of which shows Franklin's ideal of men and women. 'The ill feeling between Smith and Franklin already referred to was intensified by the heat of local politics, but it seems that the contention between them gradually ceased, and so completely that Dr. Smith accepted the invitation to pronounce the eulogy upon Franklin at the time of his death. 1180-10 |