Richard Peters was the only Trustee that had seen
the inside of a University and he only hesitated
at Leyden. The rest were merchants, physicians,
lawyers, and James Logan a self-made scholar
who attended but one meeting. The character
of the Board, maintained to the present day, is
important because it affected the career of the
University very much and made it quite different
from our sister institutions of like age. Until Dr.
Pepper's time the Provost was not permitted to
attend the meetings of the Trustees, and they
managed the College in fact, deciding upon the
curriculum and even the rosters for a long while.
It is easy to see how hard this made the position
of Provost and Faculty. Until about 1876 the
Trustees really had control of the College only, the
Medical and Law Schools being leased to prom-
inent practitioners who charged their own fees
and paid the small expenses of their departments.
This meant a very large renumeration for these
professors and no control by the Trustees whatever.
The whole system contributed very much to the

decline of the College and the predominance of

80



THE PROVOSTS

the Medical School. Under Dr. Beasley's provost-
ship, indeed, he had but 29 pupils in the College
as compared to 500 in the Medical School. The
financial problem was constantly unfortunate in
this state of affairs.
The Academy and Charity School was carried
through its early career under the rectorship of
David Martin, M.A., and Francis Alison, M.A.,
D.D., who were the first professors in honour and
rank, but not regarded as having any general
governance of the institution or any responsibility
attaching to the office of head of the Faculty.
