few other clerical gentlemen of New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, at a meeting held in reference to a society for the relief of the widows and children of deceased clergymen. On this occasion it was determined to procure a larger assembly for the purpose of agreeing on some general principles of union. Such a meeting was accordingly held in New York, on the fifth of the ensuing October, and although the members composing it were not vested with powers adequate to the present exigence, they happily laid down a few general principles to be recommended to Episcopalians in the respective states as the ground on which a future ecclesiastical government should be established. These principles acknowledged Episcopacy and the Book of Common Prayer, and provided for a representative body of the Church, consisting of clergy and laity, who were to vote as distinct orders. It was also recommended to the Church in the several states, that clerical and lay deputies should be sent to a meeting appointed in Philadelphia on the 27th of September in the following year.

In the meantime, the Rev. Samuel Seabury, formerly a missionary on Long Island, had been elected to the episcopate by the independent action of the clergy in Connecticut, and had proceeded to England for consecration. Not meeting with success in that country, he had applied to the bishops

in Scotland, and had there received the Apostolic commission. In the beginning of the summer of 1785, he returned to America, and entered on the exercise of his new function. Thus, at length, an American bishop had been obtained, and the Church, in one state, appeared in a complete form. But what was necessary in Connecticut was equally necessary in other regions, and although Episcopalians generally respected the new bishop, and few alleged any thing against the validity of his episcopacy, they still thought it most proper to direct their views towards that country from which they derived their origin as a people and as a Church.

CHAPTER XI.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

First General Convention.-Various opinions in the Church.-Influence of Dr. White.-Prayer-book altered.-Address to the English Prelates.-Reply from the English Archbishops.— Election and Consecration of two American Bishops.-Constitution of the Church revised.-Dr. Coke proposes a reunion of the Methodists with the Church.-Assistant Bishops appointed.-The House of Bishops acquires the right of negative.-Increase of the Church.-Western country nearly lost to the Church.-Diocese of Vermont organized.-General Theological Seminary and Washington College instituted. -Bishop Chase and others consecrated.—The Church quadruples its numbers in twenty-four years.-Missionary Society established.-Alexandria Seminary, Kenyon College, and Kentucky Seminary instituted.-General Convention of 1835. -Missionary Bishops.-Death of Bishop White.—His cha

racter.

On the 25th of September, 1785, the first General Convention was held in the city of Philadelphia. Seven states were represented, namely, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and South Carolina. The Church had been thrown entirely on its own resources, like an

infant deprived of the sympathy and guidance of a careful parent. It might, therefore, be expected that many crude opinions would exhibit themselves in this assembly, and that little unanimity would prevail in regard to the course necessary to be taken in future. The former was actually realized; the latter was providentially averted. In the north, the ideas of Churchmen on the subject of Episcopacy were generally correct and well defined, by reason of their frequent collisions with the dominant body of congregational dissenters. In the south, where church government had not been so much a subject of controversy, many singular views existed. In Maryland and elsewhere, the doctrine was held by Episcopalians, that a presbyter can perform all the functions of a bishop, excepting confirmation and ordination. The opinion was common among those of the middle states that the laity possessed a right to sit in convention with the clergy. This was defended as a natural consequence of the principle of following the Church of England; and it was pleaded that in no other way could a substitute be provided for the parliamentary sanction to legislative acts of power. But on the other hand, it was maintained that the admission of the laity to an ecclesiastical synod was incongruous with every idea of episcopal government. This latter sentiment was held by Bishop Seabury and his clergy,

in common with the Episcopal Church of Scotland. Some again were anxious to defer all measures towards the organization of the Church until a regular episcopate should have been obtained; while others were ready to establish an ecclesiastical system, under the control of presbyters, until bishops could be procured.

The moderate and conciliatory measures of Dr. White, the Cranmer of the American Church, and then president of the convention, contributed much towards the settlement of difficulties, and the first convention was concluded with a degree of harmony greater than, under existing circumstances, could have been anticipated. During this convention the articles of union were ratified which had been proposed in the informal meeting at New York. An ecclesiastical constitution was likewise framed which provided for a convention of the Church in each state, and also for a triennial General Convention, consisting of a clerical and lay deputation from the several states. Considerable alterations in the Prayer-book were also proposed, of which some were in accommodation to the new government of the country; others were, perhaps, expedient as improvements, and a few not only unnecessary, but altogether improper. Finally, a document was drawn up by unanimous consent, addressed to the English archbishops and