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vision for free schools. These were to be schools for liberal culture and not essentially of free tuition, though later special provision was made for the education of orphans. King William's school at Annapolis and probably a school at Oxford were the onlv ones established. Under the Act of 1.723academies were e;tablished in each of the twelve coun- ties then existing. After the Revolutionnry war the desire for better educa- tional institutions and the wish to be entirely independent of the mother country led to the founding of Washington College in 1782 and St. John's College in 1784. These with other colleges, to be afterward founded, were to form the University of Maryland upon the model of Oxford. This move perpetuated the small colleges rather than the large central university. The more thickly settled bay shores naturally influenced the location of these colleges, but after the French RI1c1 Indian war the fertile and richly timbered western Maryland, with mountains full of valuable orcs, SOOI1 attracted an excellent class of settlers. The same reason that gave rise to Washington and St. j ohn's.collegcs led the people to desire a college in the central part of Northwestern Maryland. Though there had been three colleges founded within the present bounds of Cerrou county, and a number of others in this section, Mr. Fayette R. Buell saw the place for another at the thrifty county seat, Westminster. No more hcautiful and healthful location could- have been selected than the plateau upon the spur of Parr's Ridge where the college stands. In the midst of the most picturesque scenery and fertile agricultural region it is centrally IDeated and easy of access fr0111all directions. Thus favorably situated it needed but the right man to make it a great college. Providence raised up such a man in Rev.Tnmes Thomas Ward, D. D. The Maryland Annual Conference of the Methodist Prot-