256 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE \M^9 



heretofore, or shall hereafter expire, or be in danger thereof, the min- 

 ister may call a meeting on the first Monday of any month follow 

 [sic], an 1 hold a new election to revive and continue the vestry and the 

 minister to be a member as heretofore. Dr. Carroll and Dr. Allison 

 went with me into the Senate and delivered the clause, declaring that 

 on the insertion thereof, we were all agreed to the bill. 



I have done the best with Mr. Chase's usual good offices and the bill 

 will be taken care of in its passage through the House of Delegates by 

 Chase, W. Tilghman, and other members of our Church, but I cannot 

 return the minutes of our Convention by the bearer, as they are neces- 

 sary to Mr. Chase and myself to show our authority. I shall take care 

 of them till next Convention, and am in haste, 



Yours, William Smith. 



P. S. — To-morrow I shall hope to return to Chester and would wish 

 to hear from you as often as convenient. 



The bill thus spoken of passed the Senate and was reported to 

 the House, but there it failed to be acted upon and for the time the 

 matter dropped. 



CHAPTER L. 



The Proposed Book not so well received as might have been reasonably 

 EXPECTED — The cause of this thus explained — Proposed by a Conven- 

 tion before the Church was properly Organized by the presence of 

 THE Episcopal Order — The New England Clergy alarmed by a wrong 

 impression of the Purpose of Dr. White's "Case of the Episcopal 

 Churches in the United States Considered" — The Alterations not 

 Agreeable to all — Bishop Seabury's statement of some of the grounds 

 of dislike— State Pride and Jealousy as much a cause for the Non- 

 reception as any better reasons — The work too hastily done — Let- 

 ter to Dr. West. 



Although, as we have said, the "Proposed Book" was univer- 

 sally admitted to contain no doctrines not those of the Church of 

 England, and to promulge in form more or less explicit all that 

 were clearly expressed in the old book as undeniably hers, and in 

 several respects to make valuable improvements upon this old 

 book, the volume did not give general satisfaction. 



The New England Churches — under the guidance of the able, 

 upright and fearless Seabury — had some notions of churchmanship 

 that were perhaps rather too tightly drawn to be universally ac- 

 knowledged as the only view allowed by the Church of England, 



