ART. II. The General Association of Connecticut shall be said Society.

ART. III. The object of the Society shall be to co-operate with the A. H. M. S. in building up the waste places of Connecticut, and in sending the Gospel to the destitute, and assisting feeble congregations in other and more destitute portions of the United States, according to the provisions of the 8th Article of the constitution of the parent society, with such stipulations as shall secure to this society the control of the raising and application of funds, the selection and appointment of missionaries, and the general designation of their fields of labor; the said stipulations to be mutually agreed upon by the directors of the society, and the executive committee of the A. H. M. S.

ART. IV. The officers of the society shall be, a secretary, a treasurer, an auditor, and eighteen directors. The treasurer and auditor of the Missionary Society of Connecticut shall be, ex officio, treasurer and auditor of this society. The twelve trustees of the Missionary Society of Connecticut shall be ex officio, directors of this society. Six additional directors shall be annually chosen by ballot by the General Association. The secretary shall be chosen by the directors. Seven of the directors shall be laymen, and eleven clergy

men.

ART. V. The treasurer shall pay out the money of the society only as ordered by the directors, and shall exhibit a statement of his accounts to the board whenever called on for the purpose.

ART. VI. It shall be the duty of the directors, five of whom shall be necessary to constitute a quorum for business, to pursue the object of the society by adopting such measures, from time to time, as they shall judge expedient, under the superintendence of the General

Association, and subject to their special direction, should it, at any time, be thought proper to apply to the General Assembly for a brief.

ART. VII. The directors shall have power to apply the funds of the society according to their discretion, in all cases in which they shall not be limited by the General Association, or the donors; to appoint and dismiss missionaries; to pay them; and generally, to transact all business necessary to attain the ends of the society. And no officer of the society, the treasurer excepted, shall receive any compensation for his services.*

ART. VIII. The board of directors shall meet twice a year; on such day of the week of the state election, at Hartford, as they shall appoint, and on the first Wednesday of August. The board of directors shall annually report their doings to the General Association.

ART. IX. A permanent fund may be formed, consisting of donations of individuals, if the donations are made with that particular view; but all other moneys of the society shall be appropriated, from year to year, to the attainment of the ends of the society.

ART. X. No alterations shall be made in this Constitution, unless the same shall have been proposed at a previous annual meeting, or recommended by the directors and adopted by a vote of two thirds of the members of the General Association present.

The last clause of this article was erased in June, 1832.

APPENDIX:

CONTAINING NOTICES OF THE GENERAL ASSOCIATIONS OF MASSACHUSETTS, NEW HAMPSHIRE, AND NEW YORK; THE GENERAL CONVENTION OF VERMONT; THE GENERAL CONFERENCE OF MAINE, AND

THE EVANGELICAL CONSOCIATION

OF RHODE ISLAND.

GENERAL ASSOCIATION

OF

MASSACHUSETTS.

At

THE Confederation of churches, as it exists in Connecticut, under the Saybrook Articles, has never been introduced into Massachusetts. different periods, the attempt has been made, in that state, to provide for the communion and intercourse of churches, more effectually than is done by the Cambridge Platform, or by the usages which have grown up under it, and which have now in a great measure superseded it. But such proposals have always been rejected there.

Associations of pastors, meeting statedly, for counsel and mutual improvement, began to exist in Massachusetts at a very early period. But these associations were never, as in Connecticut, formally adopted by the churches as an element in their system of communion. Gradually, however, the practice of examining and approving candidates for the ministry, was recognized by usage as belonging to the associations. A General Convention of Congregational Ministers was held annually at Boston, on the occasion of the general election and the meeting of the legislature. In this convention, which was not a representative body formed by delegation, the ministers of the metropolis, and its immediate vicinity, held of course, a