288 LIFE AND CORRESPONDENCE OF THE {M'^9 



could not have done other than recall the scene in that identical 

 room some thirty years before, when, summoned before the Legis- 

 lature of Friends — then the dominant power of Pennsylvania — for 

 what iJicy called a libel on the Government, he was insulted by 

 these Broadbrims, and with contempt for his ecclesiastical orders 

 and his academic distinctions alike, was convicted without evi- 

 dence ; and by a sentence unwarranted by the charge made against 

 him, sent to the cells of the gaol at Walnut and Fifth streets. 



We have mentioned elsewhere, that Smith's life seems filled with 

 dramatic incidents. This, perhaps, is one of them. So does the 

 whirligig of time bring about its revenges. Well does it behoove 

 every man in power to remember the poet's precept: 



^quam memento in rebus arduis 

 Servare mentem, non secus in bonis 

 Ab insolenti temperatam 

 L?etitia. moriture Delli ! 



But Dr. Smith had not much time just now for meditation and 

 moralizing. He had to go to work at once with important busi- 

 ness. 



The Proposed Book had not been adopted ; and a review of 

 "The Book of Common Prayer and administrations of the Sacra- 

 ments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church, according to 

 the use of the Church of England," was now, of course, in order. 



Instead of appointing one large committee to do the work of 

 review and alteration for the whole book — the plan adopted in the 

 Convention of 1785 for the Proposed Book — the work of altera- 

 tion and review in the Convention of 1789 was parcelled out 

 among several committees — some of the committees being ap- 

 pointed in the House of Bishops and some in the House of Cler- 

 ical and Lay Deputies. 



Those appointed in the latter House, and, as I suppose, by the 

 President, Dr. Smith, were these: one to which was given the 

 preparation of a morning and evening service; a second, to which 

 was given the preparation of the Litany, with occasional prayers 

 and thanksgivings; a third, to which was given the preparation 

 of a Calendar and Table of Lessons for Morning and Evening 

 Prayer throughout the year; a fourth, to which was given the 

 preparation of an order for the administration of the Holy Com- 

 munion; a fifth, to which was given the duty of reporting in what 



