and the Trustees of the University of the State of Pennsylvania, a new corporation was created by the Legislature on the 30th of September, 1791, as the University of Pennsylvania, with a Board composed of an equal number of members chose from the Trustees of the former College and University.

RESIDENCE AND WORK IN MARYLAND-1779-1784.

Finding himself ejected from the College, for which his own personal efforts had secured large endowments, and which had grown in public estimation beyond the limits of the city in consequence of his teaching and administration, and without any occupation or means of supporting his family in Philadelphia, he went to Chestertown, in Maryland, and became Rector of a church there. He found at that place an academy with a few pupils. He was made Principal of it, and in a short time one hundred and forty scholars were in attendance. He then applied to the Legislature of Maryland for a Charter, erecting this Academy into a College, modeled upon the plan of the College of Philadelphia, to be called 'Washington College.' The Charter was granted in the Spring of 1782, and within one year from that time, this indefatigable man collected, principally from the planters of the Eastern Shore of Maryland, nearly £10,300 toward its endowment. General Washington contributed fifty guineas, and General Cadwallader headed the Maryland subscriptions.

Dr. Smith never held any parochial charge until driven to Maryland in 1779, yet there can be no doubt that he was in many respects one of the foremost of the Episcopal clergy of his day, not only in this State, but in the country. His reputation as a Pulpit orator, in particular, seems to have been widely extended. He preached frequently, and on all occasions of special importance in Christ Church and in St. Peter's, Philadelphia. In the latter church he preached on the 4th of September, 1761, the dedication sermon upon its being first opened for Divine worship. He preached, also, before the General Convention of the Episcopal church in 1785, and again in 1789, as well as at the consecration of Bishops Claggett, Robert Smith, and Bass in 1792. By his own church, his sermons were considered so valuable, that the General Convention of 1789 unanimously adopted a resolution requesting him to publish them. He was also one of the committee appointed by the first General Convention to revise the English Prayer-book, so as to accommodate it to the changes produced by the Revolution.

On the 26th of August, 1783, Dr. Smith was unanimously elected

Bishop of Maryland by the Convocation of the Episcopal clergy of that State, twenty-two in number, and a letter signed by all of them was addressed to the Bishop of London asking for his consecration.

PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY.

In 1769, Dr. Smith appears as one of the founders of the American Philosophical Society, for which he drew the charter and fundamental laws, and carried on its correspondence abroad as one of its secretaries. He superintended the publication of the first volume of its transactions, in 1771, in which was issued the accurate observations, by himself and Mr. Rittenhouse, of the transits of Venus and Mercury. He engaged in many local enterprises, and labored for a system of internal improvements by canals for the whole State-having, as he wrote to the Bishop of London, in 1774, an 'enthusiastic persuasion that this great continent was designed by Providence to be the best soul of liberty and knowledge, and that no human purpose or power could finally defeat this gracious intention of Heaven toward this country.'

In 1791 (March 1), he pronounced an oration, before and on the appointment of the American Philosophical Society, and in the presence of General Washington and both Houses of Congress, on Benjamin Franklin, in which he rises above all academic prejudices and does ample justice to the great services of Dr. Franklin in the three distinct relations:

1st.-As a Citizen of Pennsylvania, eminent in her councils, the founder and patron of most of those useful institutions which do honor to her name.

2d.-As a Citizen of America, one of the chief and greatest workmen, in the foundation and establishment of her empire and renown.

3d. As a Citizen of the World, by the invention of useful arts, and the dif fusion of liberal science, incessantly and successfully laboring for the happiness of the whole human race.

In his domestic relations, Dr. Smith was peculiarly fortunate and happy. The strength and ruggedness of his nature seemed melted to tenderness when he was surrounded by his wife and children. He was, as his letters abundantly show, an affectionate father and a most devoted and loving husband. He married Rebecca, daughter of Hon. William Moor, of Moor Hall, Delaware County, who bore him five children. This lady fell a victim to the yellow fever in October, 1793, and I transcribe from a letter of Dr. Smith to Dr. Rush an account of the circumstances attending her death, not merely as an expression of his feeling at her loss, but also as a striking picture of the horrors of the time:-'Decently as the time would permit, my mournful family, assisted only by a worthy and pious black, Richard Allen, she was laid in her coffin. Silent, but

more awful and instructive than all the funeral pomp in the world -and short the distance we had to go-I followed her, accompanied only by the coffin maker and by Richard Allen, and my own weeping and faithful black boy to the spot she had chosen. It was nine o'clock in the evening, neither moon nor torchlight, but light sufficient through the gloom of the evening to deposit all that was mortal. . . . . Alas! how shall I live without her? I never had a

....

I never had

joy which became a joy to me till she had shared it. a sorrow which she did not alleviate and participate. I never did an action which I could consider as really good, till she confirmed my opinion. For my many failings and infirmities she had a friendly vail. Her conversation was enlightened, and that with her correspondence by letter, during my many absences, have been my joy for thirty-five years and more.'

Dr. Smith passed the last ten years of his life at his country seat near the Falls of Schuylkill, occupied chiefly in advocating a system of internal improvements in Pennsylvania, by means of canal navigation, and in preparing for the press a complete edition of his writings. Death, however, overtook him in the midst of these labors, and two volumes only, out of the four or five which he had arranged, were published after his death. He died in Philadelphia on the 14th of May, 1803, in his seventy-sixth year.

FREDERIC EBERHARD VON ROCHOW.

MEMOIR.

FREDERIC EBERHARD VON ROCHOw, the third son of the Prussian Minister of State, Frederic William von Rochow, was born October 11, 1734, at Berlin, After receiving the best education which private teachers and the 'Knights' Academy' at Brandenburg could give, he became, in 1750, ensign in the regiment of Carbineers at Rathenau, where Frederic II. noticed him in a military review and promoted him to the Garde du Corps at Potsdam. In 1752, he was commissioned, and in 1756, he was in active service, captured the Imperial General Labkonitz at the battle of Labkonitz, and was wounded in his left arm. In the next campaign, in the battle around Prague, he was wounded in the right arm; and in 1758, resigned his commission, and retired to his estate at Rekahn, near Brandenburg-married the daughter of Chancellor von Bere, and devoted himself to agricultural pursuits and scientific studies. Endowed with a lively sensibility and active benevolence, he studied the condition of the laboring population on his estates, and devoted himself to its amelioration. Becoming acquainted with Basedow's 'Aims and Methods of Education,' he devoted himself with sound judgment and discriminating charity to improving the schools and homes of his own peasantry-but not without encountering many untoward hindrances and much opposition from those whom he strove to benefit.

During the years 1771 and 1772 wet weather prevailed and much hay and grain were ruined, and, in consequence, famine and disease befell man and beast. Rochow did all in his power to relieve his tenants and his country people by advice and active help. He engaged a regular physician at a fixed salary to treat his people without charge for attendance, medicine, and advice; but an unreasonable prejudice, superstition, a total ignorance of reading and writing, rendered his best efforts useless. The people accepted the remedies, which he paid for, but did not use them; the most simple prescriptions of cleanliness and order were not followed, and they would secretly employ other remedies, consult quacks, miracle-doc

tors, and old women, for which they paid roundly, while many died a miserable death.

Profoundly grieved by these terrible consequences of ignorance and superstition, von Rochow was one day sitting before his writing desk, engaged in sketching a lion held by the hunter's net. So,' he mused, 'the noble gift of God, reason, which every man possesses, is surrounded by a tissue of prejudice and ignorance,-so much so, that, like the lion here, it can not make use of its strength. If only a little mouse would come, to gnaw and cut a few meshes of the net, perhaps the lion would apply his strength and break his bonds.' And he began to draw the mouse, which has cut some of the meshes of the net which holds the lion. Then a sudden thought occurred to him: 'Suppose you were that mouse!'—And the whole chain of cause and effect lay clear before him. The peasant was so ignorant-because he grows up like an animal among animals. His instruction can have no effect upon him, since the schools are so mechanically conducted; and the church is no better, since the clergyman speaks a language which he can not understand. The sermon is a connected discourse, which he hears from duty, but which tires him, because, not accustomed to such style and language, he can not follow up its ideas, and even if good and compact, it leaves no conviction in his mind. Such teachers, as Christ said of old, are generally 'blind guides,' and 'thus the state suffers more from this condition of the peasantry, than from defeat after the bloodiest battle.'

'My God!' he mused, 'can not the peasantry, the true strength of the state, be instructed and become better qualified for all good work? How many men could I have saved to the country, who have been sacrificed to their own ignorance, which ought to have been prevented? Yes! I will be the mouse; and may God help my purpose.'

6

School Books.

And the next morning, on the very sheet upon which he had sketched the lion and mouse, he began to write the titles of the thirteen chapters of a School book for Country Teachers. At noon he showed it to his clergyman, Stephen Rudolph, who approved it and recommended him to advise with Chief-Counselor Teller, in Berlin. The latter appreciated his enterprise and gave him his hearty support. His first literary effort appeared in 1772, under the title: School Book for Children of Country People and for the use of Village Schools.' Its chief object was to elevate the intelligence and practical skill of teachers; and he advocates an increase