rth into
the ministry, another is ready, and several have been under awakenings.
None so healthy and orderly as our children, and some promise great
talents for learning."[34] Still, "all was not well there," and on
October 2, 1793, he "found matters in a poor state at college; L500 in
debt, and our employes L700 in arrears." A year later, matters were
desperate and the good Bishop wrote that "we now make a sudden and dead
pause--we mean to incorporate and breathe and take some better plan. If
we can not have a Christian school (_i.e._ a school under Christian
discipline and pious teachers), we will have none."[35] The project of
incorporation was not favored by some, who feared that the College would
not be thereby so directly under the control of the Conference, but was
carried through, and the charter bears date, December 26, 1794.[36] By
it, the institution was allowed to have an income not exceeding L3,000.

How a charter was to avoid increased indebtedness does not appear and
the College's debt had so increased, that the Conference in 1795 decided
to suspend the Collegiate Department and have only an English Free
School kept in the buildings.[37]

Misfortunes never come singly: an unsuccessful attempt to burn the
buildings had been made in the fall of 1788, and now, on December 4,
1795, a completely successful one was made, and the building and its
contents were consumed. Rewards to discover the incendiary were offered
in vain, and Asbury writes:[38] "We have a second and confirmed report
that Cokesbury College is consumed to ashes--a sacrifice of L10,000 in
about ten years. If any man should give me L10,000 to do and suffer
again what I have done for that house, I would not do it. The Lord
called not Mr. Whitefield, nor the Methodists to build colleges. I
wished only for schools; Dr. Coke wanted a college. I feel distressed at
the loss of the library."

Asbury despaired, but Coke did not and, going to work, he raised L1,020
from his friends. After the determination was made to move the College
to Baltimore, the Church there gave L700, and a house to house
solicitation brought in L600 more. A building originally erected for
balls and assemblies was purchased and fitted up. It stood next the old
Light Street Methodist Church and a co-educational school was opened
therein on May 2, 1796. The high course planned for girls is especially
noticeable at this early period. The school opened with promises of
success, an