dress, they would notice the deficiency of the number of clergy, in comparison of the extent of the field of labour; and that with a view to a remedy of the evil, they would recommend the instituting of scholarships. This desire was complied with.

The committee on the Psalms in metre was continued. For the meeting of the next General Convention, the two houses agreed on the third Wednesday in October, 1832-to be in New-York.

The business of the session was concluded with prayer by the presiding bishop, and by singing a part of a psalm.

The next meeting of the General Convention was in the year 1832, in the city of New-York. It began on Wednesday, the 17th of October, and ended its session on Wednesday, the 31st of the same month. The bishops present, were Bishop White, of Pennsylvania; Bishop Griswold, of the Eastern Diocese; Bishop Bowen, of South-Carolina; Bishop Brownell, of Connecticut; Bishop H. U. Onderdonk, assistant bishop of Pennsylvania; Bishop Meade, assistant bishop of Virginia; Bishop Stone, of Maryland; Bishop B. T. Onderdonk, of New-York; and Bishop Ives, of North-Carolina.

The House of Bishops chose for their secretary, the Rev. Bird Wilson, D. D. of Pennsylvania.

The House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, beginning with a full deputation, chose the Rev. William E. Wyatt, D. D. their president, and the Rev. Henry Anthon, D. D. their secretary.

The first and principal business occurring and occupying both of the houses, was the singular state of things which had taken place in the diocese of Ohio. The origin of it was as follows:

In forming the constitution of Kenyon College, located at Gambier, in that state, it was provided, that the presidency should be necessarily connected with the Episcopacy of the diocese. In the collegiate department, the principal authority was vested in a board of trustees, to which that of the president, and of every professor, was subordinate and accountable. The incongruity of this is obvious. In the event of the charge of insufficiency or of misconduct in the president, the trustees must sit in judgment on him, not only in that character, but as bishop. If he should resign, or be dismissed from the former of these stations, it must be from the latter also.

The matter was soon tested, in the person of the first

bishop. There arose serious and irreconcilable differences between him and all the professors; in which each party appealed to the trustees, whose power was alike acknowledged by them. The trustees decided in favour of the professors. On this the bishop sent in his resignation; and, the convention of the diocese being then in session, he notified to them the act; considering it as inducing a resignation of the Episcopacy. The convention, after a fruitless endeavour, by a committee, to persuade to a recall of the resignation, declared their acceptance of it. They then proceeded to the choice of a successor, and it fell on the Rev. Charles P. M'Ilvaine, of Brooklyn, in the state of New-York.

This transaction was in September, 1831, and there the matter rested until the meeting of the diocesan convention, in the present year, owing to doubts entertained and expressed in former proceedings of our ecclesiastical councils, on the subject of episcopal resignations. At the last diocesan convention of Ohio, the choice of Dr. M'Ilvaine was renewed, which brought up the matter before the General Convention, combined with the case of Bishop Chase above related.

On this case there was no material difference of opinion in the House of Bishops. In the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, it led to a wide range of debate on the questions, whether a bishop have a right to resign for any reasons judged by him to be sufficient; and on the supposition of the negative of this, whether the diocese of Ohio be not nevertheless vacated by the bishop's abandonment of his charge, and by his retirement beyond the limits of our ecclesiastical union, which cannot be reasonably stretched to a territory not within it. Under the latter of these heads, there could not be any doubt of the fact to which the argument related, but it was earnestly pressed by a respectable portion of the house, that there should be adopted conciliatory measures, through the interposition of the bishops to renew the harmony between Bishop Chase and his late diocese. This project miscarried, and it does not appear to have been held feasible by any of the bishops. The result was the recommending of Dr. M'Ilvaine for consecration.

The bishops, on receiving the instrument of his presentation, manifested the determination, that for the acting under it, and to guard against capricious resignations, there should be a canon prescribing the circumstances in which alone such an act should be held valid. Accordingly, the canon

was prepared, and sent to the other house. There it excited a warm opposition, but was at last carried. It is the thirty-second of the code now in force. The bishops held it to be an indispensable preliminary, to the supply of the exigency in Ohio, which, they thought, might else be hereafter pleaded, to sanction what they considered and feared as a future evil. TT.

Out of the case of Bishop Chase, and bearing a relation to it, there arose two incidental subjects, which could not but engage the attention of the convention.

To the House of Bishops there were communicated two resolves of the convention of Ohio, directed to two points. The first of the resolves invited the bishops to exercise a visitatorial power over their seminary. The second made to the convention at large the request, that they would notice the rules, statutes, and other proceedings of the seminary, with a view to the same, as contemplated in the constitution; meaning, to secure its adhesion to the Episcopal Church. This document was referred to a committee of both houses.

As the first of the said resolves was to be acted on by the bishops only, they declared themselves incompetent to exercise the power of visitors as a body, leaving to each bishop the privilege of acting in the premises according to his discretion.

The report of the joint committee, accepted by both houses, on the other resolve, contented itself with stating, that the convention of Ohio had not pointed out any contrariety to the doctrine, or the discipline, or the worship of the Church; and that they had not been furnished with the copies of the proceedings which they were desired to notice. With the declaration, that they could not at present accede to the request of the convention of Ohio, they said, that they did not intend thereby to accept or to refuse the authority, which, by the seventh section of the constitution of the Theological Seminary in the diocese of Ohio, is conferred on this convention. UU.

In this convention, the canons of the Church came under a careful consideration; time and experience having rendered some alterations expedient, and there having been appointed, at the last convention, a committee for the remodelling of the code; whose report was made and acted on at the present session. Ww.

The Church of Alabama was admitted to the federal union, as was also that in the territory of Michigan.

There was read a report from the trustees of the General Theological Seminary, and a call was made on every parochial clergyman of this Church, for an annual collection in aid of the institution. XX.

The prayer which has been always used in the General Convention during their session, being the same which has been provided by the Church of England, was so prepared and enacted, as to be used in all our churches during all future sessions.

It was thought not unworthy of the assembled body, to give directions as to the postures to be observed during the administration of the communion. There have been different constructions of the rubrics, as to that point, the diversity of positions, in persons equally desirous of rubrical conformity, bearing a very unseemly appearance.

There being something wanting, to perfect the permission given at the last convention, of the use of the Book of Common Prayer, translated into the French language, the defect was now supplied.

The churches in Mississippi, Alabama, and Lousiana, were authorized to associate in the choice of a bishop.

There was an alteration made in the constitution of the General Missionary Society, providing, that they shall meet triennially, in the place where the General Convention shall hold its session; the body of deputies to appoint the times of meeting, and nine to form a quorum.

There was corrected an error in "The Form of Private Baptism," as it stands in the editions of the Book of Common Prayer. The error was pronounced to be typographical, and may be perceived to be such, by a comparison of the form with that of the Church of England: no alteration in the premises having been made by this Church.

It was proposed to the next convention, to insert among the occasional prayers, that provided for conventional meetings, as above stated.

The bishops ordained a rule of seniority and of presidency, to be observed in their body; also a rule of seniority in relation to bishops elect. YY.

They also recorded their pointed disallowance of the union of the Episcopacy with the presidency of a college, designed to be indissoluble, as constituted in Ohio.

There was proposed and adopted the position, that in the rubric immediately before "The Administration of the Holy Communion," instead of "standing at the north side of the table," it should be, “standing at the right side of

the table." This is certainly the most agreeable to the spirit of the rubric, and the most consistent, where a church does not stand east and west, with the table at the former, as were all the churches of England when the liturgy was framed. ZZ.

In addition to the election to the Episcopacy of the Rev. Dr. M'Ilvaine, for Ohio, there came before the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies, that of the Rev. John H. Hopkins, for the diocese of Vermont; that of the Rev. Benjamin B. Smith, for the diocese of Kentucky; and that of the Rev. George W. Doane, for the diocese of New-Jersey.

At a meeting of the two houses, there was read by the presiding bishop a pastoral letter, issued by the House of Bishops.

The four reverend brethren elected to the Episcopacy, were consecrated in St. Paul's Chapel, in the city of NewYork, on the 31st of October, in the year 1832; the day concluding the forty-sixth year since the administrator of the service embarked for England in the said city, with the view of receiving consecration. AAA.

After the said act, the convention adjourned, to meet in the city of Philadelphia, on the third Wednesday in August, in the year 1835; there being previously recited some prayers by the presiding bishop, and the 133d Psalm sung.

The next General Convention was held in the city of Philadelphia, in the year 1835, from the 19th of August to the 1st of September, inclusive.

The session was opened in St. Peter's Church, when a sermon was delivered by the Right Rev. Bishop Stone; and prayers were read by the Rev. Dr. Wyatt, and the Rev. Dr. Burroughs.

The Rev. Dr. Wyatt was chosen president of the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies; and the Rev. Dr. Anthon, secretary of the same.

In the House of Bishops there was prepared an admission into the ecclesiastical union, of the diocese of Illinois, with their bishop, the Right Rev. Philander Chase, D. D. who, having resigned the Episcopacy of the diocese of Ohio, was considered as eligible to this new charge. The measure was concurred in by the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies. BBB.

The House of Bishops disagreed to the proposal of the last General Convention, altering the rubric before "The Selections of Psalms;" which was concurred in by the House of Clerical and Lay Deputies. CCC,