tended, to be herein or hereby given and granted, unto them and their successors for ever.

And we do hereby, at the desire and request of the said trustees, constitute and appoint the Reverend William Smith, M. A. to be the first and present provost of the said college and academy, and the Reverend Francis Allison, M. A. to be the first and present vice-provost of the same, who shall also retain the name and style of Rector of the Academy; which offices the said persons shall have and hold only during the pleasure of the said trustees.

And we do further, for us, our heirs, and successors, authorize the said trustees and their successors, to meet on such day or days, as they shall by their laws and statutes appoint, to examine the candidates for admission to degrees in the said college and academy, and also to transact, determine, and settle all the business and affairs of the same. And we do will and ordain, that at all those meetings, such a number of members so met and convened, as shall by the laws and statutes be authorised to transact any particular affairs or business, and the majority of them shall have full power to transact, determine, and settle such affairs and business, in as ample and effectual a manner as if all the said trustees were present; excepting always the nominating, constituting, and discharging the provost, vice-provost and professors, or any of them; in all and every of which acts, there shall be thirteen at least of the members of the said corporation present and consenting.

And we do further, for us, our heirs, and successors, authorize and empower the said trustees, and their successors, met from time to time as aforesaid, to make laws and statutes to regulate, ascertain, and settle the precedence, powers, and duties of the said provost, vice-provost, (or rector) and professors, in the execution of the laws made, or to be made, for the education of the youth, and wholesome government of the said college, academy, and charitable school; and also by these laws and statutes, in such manner and form as they shall think convenient, to empower the provost, vice-provost, and professors, for the time being, to make and execute ordinances, for preserving good order, obedience, and government, as well among the students and scholars, as the several tutors, officers, and ministers, belonging to the said college, academy, and charitable school; and further, by the said laws and statutes, to enact all other matters and things, in and concerning the premises, which may by the said trustees and their successors, be thought. conducive to the well being, advancement, and perpetuating the said college, academy, and corporation; provided ahways, that the said laws be not repugnant to the laws and statutes then in force in the kingdom of Great Britain; nor to the laws and statutes then in force in our said province of Pennsylvania.

And we do further, for us, our heirs, and successors, give and grant to the trustees of the said college and academy, That for animating and encouraging the students thereof to a laudable diligence, industry, and

progress in useful literature and science, they and their successors, met together on such day or days as they shall appoint for that purpose, shall have full power and authority, by the provost, and in his absence by the vice-provost, and in the absence of both the provost and viceprovost, by the senior professor, or any other fit person by them authorized and appointed, to admit any the students within the said college and academy, or any other person or persons meriting the same, to any degree or degrees, in any of the faculties, arts, and sciences, to which persons are usually admitted, in any or either of the universities or colleges in the kingdom of Great Britain. And we do ordain, That the provost, vice-provost, or other person appointed as aforesaid, shall make, and with his name, sign diplomas or certificates of the admission to such degree or degrees, which shall be sealed with the public seal of the said corporation, and delivered to the graduates as honourable and perpetual testimonials thereof; provided always, and it is hereby declared to be our true meaning and express will, That no student or students, within the said college and academy, shall ever, or at any time or times hereafter, be admitted to any such degree or degrees, until such student or students have been first recommended and presented as worthy of the same, by a written mandate, given under the hands of at least thirteen of the trustees of the said college and academy, and sealed with the privy seal belonging to the said corporation, after a public examination of such student or students in their presence, and in the presence of any other persons choosing to attend the same, to be had in the hall of the said college and academy, at least one whole month before the admission to such degree or degrees; and provided further, That no person or persons, excepting the students belonging to the said seminary, shall ever, or at any time or times, be admitted to any such degree or degrees, unless with the express mandate of at least two thirds of the whole number of trustees, first to be obtained under their hands and the privy seal aforesaid, to the provost, vice-provost, and professors of the said college and academy directed.

And lastly, we do, for us, and our successors, grant, declare, and ordain, That these our letters patent and charter, and every clause, sentence, and article herein contained, shall be in all things firm, valid, sufficient, and effectual in the law, unto the said trustees, community, and corporation, and their successors, according to the purport and tenor hereof, without any further grant or toleration from us, our heirs, and successors, to be procured or obtained; provided always, That the clear yearly value of the messuages, houses, manors, lands, tenements, rents, annuities, or other hereditaments, and real estate of the said corporation, do not exceed the sum of five thousand pounds sterling. In testimony whereof, we have caused these our letters to be made patent, and the great seal of our said province to be hereunto affixed. Witness ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS, Esq., our lieutenant governer and commander in chief, in and over our said province of Pennsylvania, and counties of

New Castle, Kent, and Sussex, on Delaware; this fourteenth day of May, in the twenty-eighth year of the reign of our sovereign lord George the second, king of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, &c. and in the year of our Lord, one thousand seven hundred and fifty-five.

ROBERT HUNTER MORRIS.

V.

["Order in Council" to the Lord High Chancellor to draw up Letters Patent authorizing the collection of funds for the joint benefit of the College, Academy and Charitable School in Philadelphia and of the College of the Province of New York.]

AT THE COURT AT ST. JAMES THE 12TH. DAY OF AUGUST 1763.

The King's most excellent Majesty in Council.

Whereas there was this day read to his Majesty at this Board the joint Petition of William Smith, Doctor in Divinity, Agent for the Trustees of the College, Academy and Charitable School of Philadelphia in the Province of Pennsylvania, and Provost of that Seminary; and of James Jay Doctor in Physic, Agent for the Governors of the College of the Province of New York in the City of New York in America, setting forth-That the great growth of these Provinces and the continual accession of people to them from the different parts of the world, being some years ago observed by sundry of his Majestys good subjects there, they became seriously impressed with a view of the inconveniences like to arise among so mixed a multitude, if left destitute of the necessary means of instruction, differing in Language and Manners unenlightened by Religion, uncemented by a Common Education, strangers to the humane Arts, and to the just use of Rational Liberty.

That these considerations were rendered the more alarming by sundry other circumstances, and particularly the amazing pains which Popish Emissaries were everywhere perceived to take for the propagation of their peculiar tenets, and the many establishments which they were making for this purpose in all parts of America belonging to them; while his Majesty's numerous subjects there, and particularly in the two important and central Provinces aforesaid remained too liable to their corruptions by being spread abroad on a wide frontier, with scarce a possibility of finding a sufficient supply of Protestant Ministers and Teachers for them, so long as opportunities were wanting to educate them there, and but few men of proper qualifications here could be induced to exchange their hopes in these kingdoms for a laborious employment in a remote wilderness where they were to expect but small secular advantage to reward their toil.-That these inconveniences began to be greatly felt not only by the Society for Propagating the Gospel in foreign Parts, but also by the various denominations of other Protestants in his Majesty's Colonies, so that the good purposes which they severally had in view for the support and extension of the Reformed

Religion in these remote countries were like to be greviously affected by the want of fit persons to send forth as instructors and teachers. That from a deep sense of these growing evils the two Seminaries aforesaid, distant about 100 miles from each other were begun in two of the most important and populous trading cities in his Majesty's American Dominions, nearly at the same time and with the same view, not so much to aim at any high improvements in knowledge as to guard against total ignorance; to instil in the minds of youth just principles of Religion, Loyalty and Love of our excellent Constitution; to instruct them in such branches of knowledge and useful arts as are necessary to trade, agriculture and a due improvement of his Majesty's valuable Colonies; and to assist in raising up a succession of faithful instructors and teachers to be sent forth not only among his Majesty's subjects there, but also among his Indian Allies, in order to instruct both in the way of truth, to save them from the corruptions of the enemy, and help to remove the reproach of suffering the emissaries of a false religion to be more zealous and propagating their slavish and destructive tenets in that part of the world, than Britons and Protestants are in promoting the pure form of godliness and the glorious plan of public liberty and happiness committed to them.

That for the better answering these great and important purposes the aforesaid Seminaries are under the direction of the chief officers of government sundry of the Clergy of different denominations, and other persons of distinction in the respective cities where they are placed, and their usefulness has been so generally felt and acknowledged, that amidst all the calamities of an expensive war near ten thousand pounds sterling have been contributed in each of the said Provinces to their support, and some hundreds of youth continually educated on charity and otherwise; But as designs of so extensive a nature have seldom been completed in the most wealthy kingdoms, unless by the united generosity of private benefactors and often by the particular bounty of soveriegn princes, the Petitioners are persuaded it will not be thought strange that all the resources in the power of individuals in young Colonies should be found inadequate to such a work, and that the Governors and Trustees of the said Seminaries should have the just apprehension of seeing all that they have raised for their support speedily exhausted and an end put to their usefulness, unless they can procure assistance from distant places, as the expense of each of them is four hundred pounds sterling yearly above their income; the defraying of which would require an additional capital of above six thousand pounds sterling apiece. That, under such circumstances, at a time when the signal success of his Majesty's Arms in America opens a new field for the advancement of divine knowledge there, and renders the design of such Seminaries more peculiarly important, it was hoped that benefactors would not be wanting to give that kind assistance to pious foundations in his Majesty's Colonies, which has always been so readily

bestowed upon every design of a like kind in these kingdoms, and seldom denied to Protestant brethren even in foreign nations-That the Petitioners being accordingly appointed to solicit and receive such assistance, and being sensible that the highest satisfaction which his Majesty's known piety and humanity can derive from the prosperity and extension of his dominions will be to see these advantages improved for enlarging the sphere of Protestantism increasing the number of good men, and bringing barbarous nations within the pale of Religion and Civil Life; they are therefore encouraged humbly to pray-That his Majesty will be pleased to direct that a Royal Brief may be passed under the Great Seal of Great Britain, authorizing them to make a collection throughout the kingdom, from house to house, for the joint and equal benefit of the two Seminaries and Bodies Corporate.

His Majesty taking the same into his royal consideration, and being willing to give encouragement to every design that may tend to the good of his Colonies and the advancement of Religion and Virtue, is graciously pleased, with the advice of his Privy Council, to Order, as it is hereby Ordered-That the Right Honorable the Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain do cause Letters Patent to be prepared and passed under the Great Seal for the collections of the charity of all well disposed persons for the assistance and benefit of the said two Seminaries, according to the prayer of the said Petition.

(Signed)

W. SHARPE.

VI.

[Joint-Letter of the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thos. and Richard Penn, and the Rev. Samuel Chandler, D. D., relative to the collection made in England and the original foundation of the Acad. emy.]

To the Trustees of the College etc. of Philadelphia.

GENTLEMEN, We cannot omit the opportunity which Dr. Smith's return to Philadelphia give us of congratulating you on the great success of the collection which he came to pursue, and of acknowledging your obliging addresses of thanks to us for the share we had in recommending and encouraging this design. Such a mark of your attention to us will, we doubt not, excuse our hinting to you what we think may be farther necessary to a due improvement of this collection and the further prosperity of the Institution under your care.

This Institution you have professed to have been originally founded and hitherto carried on for the general benefit of a mixed body of people. In his Majesty's Royal Brief, it is represented as a Seminary that would be of great use for raising up able instructors and teachers, as well as for the service of the Society for propagating the Gospel in foreign parts, as for other Protestant denominations in the Colony.