ryland were conferred, at the same time the corner-stone of the
college building was laid, and in 1784 General Washington himself
visited the college.

Dr. Smith prepared a three years' curriculum for the institution, equal
to that of any college of the day and similar to the one used at the
University of Pennsylvania. But the Western Shore could not endure that
the educational success of its rival section of the State should so far
outstrip its own. In the early days of the State, the sections were
nearly equal in importance and the prevailing dualism of the political
system invaded the field of education.

In 1784, two years after the founding of Washington College, _St. John's
College_ was chartered.[7] It was to be placed at Annapolis, and in it
was merged the old county Academy, "King William's School," founded some
eighty years before. By the same act, the two colleges were united in
the _University of Maryland_. This University was modeled on the English
type: the governor was to be its chancellor, and the governing body was
to be the "Convocation of the University of Maryland." The convocation
was to be composed of seven members of the Board of Visitors and
Governors and two of the faculty of each college; it was to establish
ordinances for the government of the colleges, to cause a uniformity in
the "manners and literature," to receive appeals from the students, and
to confer "the higher degrees and honors of the University." Its
meetings were to be annual, and to be held alternately at each college
on its commencement day.

The provisions of the act were never carried out; two fruitless attempts
were made to hold sessions of Convocation in 1790 and 1791, and then
nothing was even attempted. So thoroughly was the project forgotten,
that the Legislature of 1805, in withdrawing the State appropriations
from the two colleges, did not even mention the University, and in 1812,
though the old charter had never been repealed, there was no hesitation
in bestowing the name of University of Maryland on a second
institution.[8]

The two colleges which constituted this first University are still
existing and doing good work. The elder, Washington College, lost Dr.
Smith in 1788 by his return to Philadelphia and re-accession to his old
position there. He was succeeded by Rev. Colin Ferguson, a native of
Kent county, and educated at Edinburgh University. Under him the college
continued to flourish, until the withdrawal o