1789] J^^y. WILLIAM SMITH, D. D. 28/ 



CHAPTER LII. 



The Convention now becomes Bi-Cameral — Both Houses sit in the State 

 House; the Clerical and Lay Deputies, over whom Dr. Smith is 

 elected to preside, in the Chamber of Independence — Strange Vicissi- 

 tudes in Dr. Smith's Life — The History of the Formation of the 

 Book of Common Prayer of the Protestant Episcopal Church in the 

 United States of America — The House of Bishops consists of Bishop 

 Seabury and Bishop White, Bishop Provoost absent — The Selection of 

 Psalms^ Some Comparison of the Proposed Book with the new Book 

 of Common Prayer — Prospects of the Church — Alterations of the 

 Prayer Book deprecated unless in conjunction with the Church of 

 England, and unless the Books of the two Churches are made nearly 

 or quite alike — Dr. Smith writes an Address ordered by the Conven- 

 tion to President Washington and one to the English Archbishops. 



On the union of the Churches in the New England States with 

 those in the Middle and Southern by which the Bishops thus far 

 consecrated for America (Seabury, White and Provoost) were 

 made members of the Convention, the Convention divided itself 

 into two chambers : that of the House of Bishops and that of the 

 House of Clerical and Lay Deputies. The Bishops, we are told 

 in the Journals, "withdrew." They retired, I presume, to the 

 room in the upper part of the State House, which was long used 

 by the Governor and Council ; while the Clerical and Lay Depu- 

 ties remained on the ground floor, in that chamber, on the east 

 side of the edifice, formerly known as the Assembly Room of the 

 Province, and since as the Chamber of Independence. 



Immediately on the retirement of the Bishops, Dr. Smith was 

 elected President of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, and 

 was conducted, no doubt, to that same historic chair occupied, for 

 some years before the Revolution, by the Speakers of the Colo- 

 nial Assembly, in 1776 by John Hancock, and in 1787 by George 

 Washington. Dr. Smith was not a vain-glorious, nor a self-elating 

 man ; but I should suppose that in such a moment — called on as 

 he now was, to preside over an ecclesiastical assembly which might 

 fairly be called august — seated in that chair which the Speakers of 

 the old Quaker Legislature had once so self-complaccntly filled, he 



