important contributions to the history of this period of our Church's organization.

THE REV. DR. GRIFFITH TO BISHOP WHITE.

Fairfax Glebe, 18th June, 1789.

Dear Sir.

I have no copy of my Letter to you of the 30th of April, but from what is suggested in yours dated the 30th of May, which I have r'ed. I fear I have been understood as censuring the Gentlemen who made the proposal you was so obliging as to communicate, or that I conceived myself improperly treated by you. However incautiously I may have expressed myself on that subject, you may rest assured that I feel no resentinent against any Person for his conduct on that occasion, and that I entertain not the least suspicion respecting the propriety of yours particularly, through the whole of that business. I deem it, however, an unlucky circumstance that I was not acquainted with the motives that induced the proposal, as it certainly would have prevented me from offering myself (very imprudently I acknowledge) at the time I did. But I viewed the subject in a very different light from the Gentlemen before alluded to, and being anxious to complete our Ecclesiastical System, as well as desirous to prove my disinterestedness, I suffered myself to be led by a warm (I will not say blind) zeal, which, but for the interposition of Providence, would soon have brought me into great and additional perplexities. The Grace of God is, I believe, a sufficient support for his faithful Servants; yet human nature shrinks at the approach of such difficulties as I had in prospect, and I confess I feel much satisfaction at my deliverance from the weighty and oppressing Cross I was about to take on myself for the remainder of my Pilgrimage on Earth. The Cross I allude to is the particular inconveniences and distresses that must have attended me in the discharge of the Episcopal Office.

The Virg'a Conv'n met at the stated time-between 30 and 40 Members assembled. They did nothing except settle the Parochial, or rather Party, disputes in two of the lower Parishes, and again represent, to the Members of our Communion, the deplorable state of the Church in Virg'a. They made no alteration in the former appointm't of deputies to the General Convention, and, to show that I am not angry with them for neglecting their Bp. elect, and have not as some may expect, quitted, in disgust, the cause of the Church, as well as to gratify a respectable Majority of its Members in this State, who wish, I believe, that I should represent them, and to keep from among you certain troublesome innovators, I have determined to go to the ensuing Conven'n. I cannot find that they have given any additional instructions respecting the ratification of the Prayer Book.

I remain, D'r Sir,
Your affectionate

and very hu'ble Serv't
DAVID GRIFFITH. (1)

(1) From the Bishop White Correspondence.

BISHOP PROVOOST TO BISHOP WHITE.

Dear and Right Reverend Sir.

Your Letter of July 13th, was delivered to me by the Reverend Mr. Hurt who is to dine with me to-day and I shall be happy to shew him every attention due to your recommendation.

I am very sorry to inform you that it will not be in the power of Mrs. Provo'st and myself to accept your kind and repeated Invitation. I have been so much indisposed for some days past with a constant fever and violent headaches and have so little prospect of immediate amendment (for I have already been bled by Dr. Bard without receiving the relief I expected) that in compliance with the advice of my friends I have laid aside all thoughts of attending the General Convention.

I have every reason to think the Church of this State will be fully represented and I hope the present information will prevent any Inconven iences that might have arisen from my non-attendance without giving you timely notice.

Your most affectionate Brother
SAM'L PROVOOST. (1)

I am Dear Sir

N. York July 22d 1789.

(1) From the Bp White Correspondence.

THE CONVENTIONS OF 1789.

At the meeting of the General Convention of the Church in the Middle and Southern States, in July, 1789, a letter from the Rev. Samuel Parker, enclosing an invitation from the Clergy of Massachusetts and New Hampshire to the Bishops of Pennsylvania and New York, to unite with the Bishop of Connecticut in the consecration of the Rev. Edward Bass, their Bishop elect, demanded immediate attention. This measure, as we are assured by Bishop White, was set on foot by the energetic Parker; and, as appears in the sequel, was not so much intended to bring about Mr. Bass's consecration, as, by the presentation of a case in point, to effect that union which was the desire of the great body of Churchmen throughout the land. The tendency of this measure had not escaped the vigilant eyes of Bishop Provoost in New York, and the attempt was made by the most prominent Layman of Massachusetts, Dudley Atkins Tyng, Esq., to interest the various vestries of Massachusetts and New Hampshire in opposition to Mr. Bass's consecration, on the ground, that none but the Clergy had been permitted to participate in his election. It required the most determined and painstaking effort, on the part of Mr. Parker, to counteract this opposition, to the strength of which he refers in a letter we shall subsequently give. But by his judicious measures, the growing discontent was allayed, and on the third day of the session the following document was introduced.

"An act of the Clergy of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, recommending the Rev. Edward Bass for consecration, was laid before the Convention, by the Right Rev. Dr. White, and is as follows:

The good providence of Almighty GoD, the fountain of all goodness, having lately blessed the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States of America, by supplying it with a complete and entire Ministry, and affording to many of her communion the benefit of the labours, advice and government of the successors of the Apostles:

We, Presbyters of said Church in the States of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, deeply impressed with the most lively gratitude to the Supreme Governor of the universe, for his goodness in this respect, and with the most ardent love to his Church, and concern for the interest of her sons, that they may enjoy all the means that Christ, the great Shepherd and Bishop of souls, has instituted for leading his followers into the ways of truth and holiness, and preserving his Church in the unity of spirit and the bond of peace, to the end that the people committed to our respective charges may enjoy the benefit and advantage of those offices, the administration of which belongs to the highest Order of the Ministry, and to encourage and promote, as far as in us lies, a union of the whole Episcopal Churc in these States, and to perfect and compact this mystical body of Christ, do hereby nominate, elect and appoint the Rev. Edward Bass, a Presbyter of said Church, and Rector to St. Paul's, in Newburyport, to be our Bishop; and we do promise and engage to receive him as such, when canonically consecrated and invested with the apostolic office and powers by the Right Reverend the Bishops hereafter named, and to render him all that canonical obedience and submission which, by the laws of Christ, and the constitution of our Church, is due to so important an office.

And we now address the Right Reverend the Bishops in the States of Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania, praying their united assistance in consecrating our said Brother, and canonically investing him with the apostolic offices and powers. This request we are induced to make from a long acquaintance with him, and from a perfect knowledge of his being possessed of that love to Gop and benevolence to men, that piety, learning and good morals, that prudence and discretion, requisite to so exalted a station, as well as that personal respect and attachment of the communion at large in these States, which will make him a valuable acquisition to the Order, and, we trust, a rich blessing to the Church.

Done at a meeting of the Presbyters whose names are under written, held at Salem, in the County of Essex, and Commonwealth of Massachusetts, the fourth day of June, Anno Salutis, 1789.

SAMUEL PARKER, Rector of Trinity Church, Boston.

T FITCH OLIVER, Rector of St. Michael's Church, Marblehead.
JOHN COUSENS OGDEN, Rector of Queen's Chapel, Portsmouth N. H.
WILLIAM MONTAGUE, Minister of Christ Church. Boston.

TILLOTSON BRUNSON, Assistant Minister of Christ Church, Boston.
A true copy.
Attest: SAMUEL PARKER.

At the meeting aforesaid,

Voted-That the Rev. Samuel Parker be authorized and empowered to transmit copies of the foregoing Act, to be by him attested, to the Right Reverend the Bishops of Connecticut, New York and Pennsylvania; and that he be our agent to appear at any Convocation to be holden at Pennsylvania or New York, and to treat upon any measures that

may tend to promote an union of the Episcopal Church throughout the United States of America, or that may prove advantageous to the interests of said Church.

EDWARD BASS, Chairman. A true copy. Attest: SAMUEL Parker.”

Following the presentation of this important document, as we learn from the journals

"A letter was also read from the Right Rev. Dr. Seabury, Bishop of the Church in Connecticut, to the Right Rev. Dr. White, and one from the same gentleman to the Rev. Dr. Smith.

Upon reading the said letters, it appearing that Bishop Seabury lay under some misapprehensions concerning an entry in the Minutes of a former Convention, as intending some doubt of the validity of his consecration

Resolved unanimously, That it is the opinion of this Convention, that the consecration of the Right Rev. Dr. Seabury to the Episcopal office is valid. (1)”

On being referred to the committee of the whole, this matter was discussed day by day, until Wednesday, August 30, 1789, when, as appears from the Journal

"The Rev. Dr. Smith, in order to bring the business before them to a conclusion, offered the following resolves :

The Committee of the whole, having had under their deliberate consideration the application of the Clergy of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, for the consecration of the Rev. Edward Bass, as their Bishop, do offer to the Convention the following resolves;

1st, Resolved, That a complete Order of Bishops, derived as well under the English as the Scots line of Episcopacy, doth now subsist within the United States of America, in the persons of the Right Rev. William White, D. D., Bishop of the Frotestant Episcopal Church in the State of Pennsylvania; the Right Rev. Samuel Provoost, D.D., Bishop of the said Church in the State of New York and the Right Rev. Samuel Seabury D. D., Bishop of the said Church in the State of Connecticut.

2d, Resolved, That the said three Bishops are fully competent to every prop

(1) Reprinted Journals of the General Convention, Perry's Edition I. pp. 70, 71.