1 82 LIFE AND CORRESPONDEXCE OF THE [l/S^ 



the 22d instant on my way to this town; and gave me the great satis- 

 faction of hearing that you had received the preface, and that it hath 

 met with your approbation. By our appointment, among other things, 

 we were directed to "accompany the Prayer Book with a ^xo'^q.x Preface 

 or Address, setting forth the reason and expediency of the alterations, 

 etc." This, therefore, was a very important part of the great trust 

 committed to us, and I was exceedingly anxious that it should be dis- 

 charged in the fullest and yet least ostentatious manner possible, hold- 

 ing forth this leading idea through the whole, that we were not attempt- 

 ing any novel reformations or the least departure from wliat has been 

 the general sense of the greatest and best men in our Church for a 

 century past. If our address has the effect intended, it will procure a 

 ready acceptance of the book, and that not upon the mere authority 

 of the Convention, but upon principles carrying conviction to every 

 rational mind, and enabling them as I hinted in my last to give a 

 reason, etc., to all who may call in question any part of the alterations 

 or improvements, which are offered. In this view, the preface is a neces- 

 sary and essential part of our work, and I hope will not be thought too 

 long as I cannot see in what part it could well be abridged without 

 injury. I speak this from my own wish to have had it shorter: for you 

 do not seem to make any objection to its length, or to anything else in 

 it, which as I said before gives me great satisfaction. I think I men- 

 tioned in my last letter that if printed in a smaller letter it will not 

 take more room than the different prefaces before the old Prayer Book, 

 which are three or four (exclusive of the Act of Uniformity), viz. : ist. 

 The General Preface; 2d. Concerning the Service of the Church; 3d. 

 Of Ceremonies, etc. ; 4th. How the Psalter and Scripture are to be 

 read. I beg your attention to the punctuation, both of the hymns and 

 preface, as I never read them over with a view to punctuation, and you 

 have only such stops or points as fell from my pen in a hasty transcrip- 

 tion. 



Please to direct the bookbinder to prepare half a dozen copies of the 

 best and first binding in his power for my use, as I have engaged them 

 to some persons of distinction, friends and patrons of our great under- 

 taking. 



Our Convention meets the 4th of April. I hope we shall not be dis- 

 appointed in our five hundred books; some of which ought to be dis- 

 tributed in the different parishes before that time. You will give all 

 dispatch possible. Dr. West gives you his best compliments. He is 

 just elected by Baltimore Town, a Visitor and Governor of St. John's 

 College. We meet for the first time, as a body corporate at Annapolis 

 on Tuesday next; and on Wednesday, March ist, I hope to cross the 

 Bay to Chester and to receive your several letters which may wait for 



me there Have you yet heard anything from England? 



Yours, etc., 



Wm. Smith. 



