of the above purposes, as a committee appointed by the General Association deems most expedient. The fund is the result of one-fourth of a residuary legacy left by Dr. Solomon Everest of Canton, who deceased April 3, 1822. The interest received from this the year preceding the last report was $264.89.

NOTE D, p. 37.

In June, 1766, a proposal was made to the General Association, then sitting at Guilford, by the Synod of New York and Philadelphia, for a correspondence between that Synod and the Congregational Churches of Connecticut. Presented in the kindest manner, the proposal was accepted in the same spirit, and the several Associations were advised "to appoint one or more of their body to meet commissioners from the Synod, to converse with them upon a plan and articles of such desired union." The advice was followed, and the delegates and commissioners met at Elizabethtown, N. J., in November of the same year, and accomplished the objects of their appointment. From that time a convention was held annually, alternately within the bounds of the General Association and of the Synod until 1775. The delegates from Connecticut were appointed by the district Associations. The immediate and prominent cause of the convention was the apprehension that the English government, at the solicitation of some of the friends of the National Church here, would establish bishops in the colonies; that these, of course, would "bring with them, or if not, might be clothed with the paramount authority of Britain, with the powers of English bishops, to the great preju

dice of people of other communions, and in contrariety to the principles on which the settlement of the colonies had taken place :"* an apprehension which the rise of the American Revolution dissipated. Beside communicating information and collecting accounts of the united cause and interest of their churches, combining their endeavors and counsels for preserving their liberties, they sought the spread of the gospel, and other objects then deemed important; and it is worthy of notice, that about the period of the close of these conventions, the present general system of missions commenced in Connecticut.

In 1790 a motion was made in the General Association "by the delegates of the Western Association of Fairfield County, respecting a general union of the Congregational and Presbyterian Churches throughout the United States," and a committee of correspondence was raised on the subject. In September, 1791, committees, mutually appointed by the General Association and the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church, met in the chapel of Yale College, and devised a plan of correspondence, which was approved the year after, and went into operation in 1793. Three delegates were to be annually chosen by the respective bodies who should have the right of sitting in the other's general meeting, making such communications as were directed by their respective constituents, and deliberating on such matters as should come before them, but no right of voting. In 1794, the right of voting was added, but rescinded in 1827. The present year (1841), it has been agreed that the number of delegates be reduced to two.

* See Bishop White's Memoirs of the Prot. Epis. Ch. p. 19, and Note A.; also Memoirs of Rev. John Rogers, pp. 185–187.

In 1802 the following articles of union and correspondence were ratified between the General Association and the General Convention of Vermont :

"ARTICLE 1. Each body shall send one or two delegates or commissioners to meet and sit with the other at the stated sessions of the body.

ARTICLE 2. The delegate or delegates from each body, severally, shall have the privilege of entering into the discussions and deliberations of the body as freely and equally as their own members.

ARTICLE 3. That the union and intercourse may be full and complete between the said bodies, the commissioner or commissioners from each, respectively, shall not only sit and deliberate, but act and vote."

Similar terms of correspondence were entered into with the General Association of Massachusetts in 1809, except that two delegates were to be annually appointed by each body; with the General Association of New Hampshire in 1810; with the Evangelical Consociation of Rhode Island in 1821, and with the General Conference of Maine about 1828. The General Association of the State of New York was admitted into union with us on the same terms of correspondence as the Ecclesiastical bodies in New England in 1835.

Beside these connections, a correspondence has been carried on by letter since 1833, between the General Association and the Congregational Union of England and Wales. Occasionally a delegate, designated by a committee of the General Association, has set in the annual meeting of that body.

Letters also have passed between the General Association and the pastors and ministers of the Canton de Vaud in Switzerland.

NOTE E, p. 38.

Alterations in some of the articles have occasionally been thought of by one district association and another, or by the General Association itself, as may be seen by turning to Note B; but on referring them to the district associations at large for further consideration, they have not been adopted. The general voice has been for retaining the Platform as prepared in 1708. This has been judged a safer and better course than to attempt alterations, even if some passages are not the most happily worded.

The Association of Litchfield County, at a meeting on the last Tuesday of May, 1757, voted:

"Whereas the Rev. General Association, in their meeting, June, 1756, recommended it to the particular associations of this Colony to manifest their concurrence with the Saybrook Confession of Faith, this association having taken it into consideration, do hereby declare their unanimous assent and consent to the Articles of the Christian Religion in said Confession, so far as they are contained in the Assembly of Divines' Shorter Catechism; and as to the Platform of Discipline, we think it not expedient that any alteration be made in the public impression, but that every consociation be at liberty to vary in such things as to them appear exceptionable."

"The reason of our expressing ourselves as above concerning the Confession of Faith, is, because some expressions therein appear to us exceptionable, which we are willing to send in to the next General Association, if desired."

It will be noticed that the things deemed exceptionable in the Confession, are expressions and not senti

ments; and concerning the Platform, the principal variation which the consociation in that county had adopted, respects the 4th Article, and is found in the following rule:-"In all acts of this consociation, nothing shall be allowed as a vote of this body but where there is a major part of the ministers, and also a major part of the messengers agreed."

The consociation of New Haven West, in the Preamble to their present constitution say, "that serious objections have been entertained by the churches against the Saybrook Platform on account of the power given to the pastors in their churches and in the consociation, although in other respects that rule of discipline was in general cordially approved." The fourth article has been specially faulted, though the principle of voting in councils there laid down, is said in the article itself to have been the common practice of our churches before. But there is some doubt whether the reason of the principle is well understood. The construction of the article by the convention of New Haven County in 1709, in which some of the compilers were present, is given elsewhere. There is a tradition, also, "that this article was intended to prevent the overpowering influence of the churches, as it was customary for them in those days, to send to consociations a number of delegates."* The custom was an unhappy one, very liable to abuse, and to become the occasion of dissatisfaction and mischief.t

* Rev. Dr. John Elliott's Sermon on Consociation, p. 18.

† See Turell's Life of Dr. Colman, p. 99.