Dr. A. Beach, Dr. Charlton, James Farquhar, Matt. Clarkson, Edward Goold, Henry Rogers, Herman LeRoy, G. Ludlow, Jacob LeRoy, Charles Wilkes, Henry White, and Richard Harison.

The committee of leases subsequently presented the following plan for exonerating the Corporation of Trinity Church from the debt which was due to the Charity School, and establishing a fund for its annual expenditure.

The debt owing to the school by this corporation was £6500, and the average annual expenses thereof £700.

It was therefore proposed to assign mortgages to it to the amount of £8610 15s. and to grant it about eight lots of land, bounded by Lumber, Greenwich and Rector streets, on a part of which the schoolhouse stood, and the residue whereof yielded at the time an annual rent of £67 8s.

In the following year a donation was made to the school of a thousand dollars, and such a further grant of lots was recommended as on a reasonable calculation would produce an annual rent of $500.

was

The committee of leases having again taken the matter into consideration, recommended that bonds and mortgages should be given, in lieu of the lots heretofore proposed, which recommendation agreed to by the Board, and bonds to the amount of £3000 were accordingly assigned to the said institution. In addition to the liberal endowment of the school by Trinity Church, a donation was also made to it by

the State.

The extension of gratuitous education among the

poor by the New-York Free School Society, was found to interfere so materially with the original plan of the Charity School, which was designed to bring them up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord, agreeably to the doctrines of the Church, as well as to fit them for the business of life; that in the year 1826 it was thought expedient by the trustees to reorganize it, and to convert it into a school for instruction in all the principal branches of English education, and also in classical learning, under the name of the New-York Protestant Episcopal Public School. The grand leading feature of the former system, however, was carefully preserved, for religious instruction was to be given in every department of the school, under the supervision of the Bishop.

Shortly after this new arrangement, a donation was made to it by John G. Leake, of one thousand dollars.

And in 1832, Trinity Church granted a lease, at a mere nominal rent, to the trustees, of five lots of ground on Canal, Varick, and Grand streets, on one part of which the school-house now stands, and the other part of which is let out on such advantageous terms as to increase very materially the income of the Board.

The School subsequently underwent some further modifications, and in 1845 received the name of Trinity School; and it is now, perhaps, in a more flourishing condition than it has ever been since its very foundation.

In the original endowment of Trinity Church by the Colonial Government, it appears to have been the intention to connect the promotion of learning with the

interests of religion. For there is this record on the early minutes of the Vestry:

It being moved, which way the King's Farme which is now vested in Trinity Church should be let to farm, it was unanimously agreed, That the Rector and Church Wardens should waite upon my Lord Cornbury the Gov, to know what part thereof his Lordship did design towards the Colledge which his Lordp designs to have built, and thereupon, to publish placarts for the letting thereof at the public outcry, to the highest bidder.

this

No effectual measures, however, were taken for purpose, until nearly half a century had passed

away.

In 1752, it was unanimously agreed by this Board, that a proposall be made to the Commissioners appointed to receive proposalls for the Building a College, and that this Board is willing to give any reasonable quantity of the Churches farm, which is not let out, for the erecting and use of a College.

It is ordered, That the Rector and Church Wardens be a committee to wait on the said Commissioners, and make the aforesaid proposalls to them, and confer with them thereupon.

Two years after, the arrangement between them appears to have been finally made.

It is unanimously agreed by this Board, that this Board will give for the use of the Colledge intended to be erected, a certain parcell of land belonging to this Corporation, to erect and build the said Colledge upon, and for the use of the same; that is to say, a street of ninety feet from the Broadway to Church street, and from Church street all the lands between Barclay's street and Murray's street to the water side; upon this condition, that the President of the said Colledge for ever, for the time being, be a Member of and in Communion with the Church of England, and that the Morning and Evening Service in said Colledge be the Liturgy of the said Church, or such a collection of prayers out of the said Liturgy, as shall be

agreed upon by the President or Trustees or Governours of the said Colledge.

The following draft of a letter on this subject, from the Vestry to the Rev. Dr. Bearcroft, Secretary to the Venerable Society for the Propagation of the Gospel, was read and approved of, and being engrossed, was signed by the members present, and is in the words following, viz:

REV'D SIR:

We esteem it a great Honour, amidst the many virulent reproaches we have met with, to find our conduct with regard to the Colledge lately founded here, approved by so venerable and respectable Body as the Society for the propagation of the Gospell, and to have received their thanks for the Donation we made; which was communicated to us by Mr. Barclay, and which we most gratefully acknowledge. We had also the satisfaction of the universall approbation of our constituents, notwithstanding the vast debt we have contracted by building the chappell of Ease.

We always expected that a gift so valuable in itself, and so absolutely necessary, (it being the only ground within the city properly situated, and of sufficient extent,) would be a means of obtaining some priviledges to the Church, especially as the first promoters of the affair, in the House of Representatives, always proposed such a preference, at least, as is granted by the charter; but we never insisted on any condition, till we found some persons labouring to exclude all systems of religion out of the Constitution of the College. When we discovered this design, we thought ourselves indispensably obliged to interpose, and have had the countenance of many good men of all denominations, and in particular the ministers of the Foreign Protestant churches in this city, who are appointed Gover nors of the Colledge, and who without the least hesitation qualified agreeable to the Church, and continue hearty friends to it.

But notwithstanding this, the opposition still continues, and has so far prevailed as to have hitherto prevented the application of the money raised by Lottery to the use of the Colledge. To effect this,

our opponents have been indefatigable, the most base and disingenuous methods have been used to prejudice the Common People in the several counties, whom they have endeavoured to persuade, that the Test impos'd on the president will infallibly be attended with the establishment of Bishops and Tythes, and will end in the loss of all their Religious priviledges, and even in persecution itself. Petitions have been drawn and handed about to be signed against the Charter Establishment; and weekly papers have been published for two years past, wherein all the friends of the Church, and the Vestry of Trinity Church in particular, have been abused in the most opprobious terms so that it is very uncertain when the moneys will, by the Generall Assembly, be vested in the Governors. In the mean time, they have begun a subscription amongst themselves, and are daily purchasing materialls to lay the foundation of a handsome, convenient Edifice, which, God willing, they purpose to begin next Spring; and they are induced to hope, that as the dissenting seminary in New Jersey has had the General Assembly of the Kirk of Scotland engaged in its behalf last year, as well as the dissenting interest in England, and as we are informed, have collected a very consid erable sum of money, so our Brethren in England will be ready to contribute, to preserve the Church in this part of the world from the contempt its enemies are endeavouring to bring upon it. The Dissenters have already three Seminarys in the Northern Governments. They hold their Synods, presbyteries, and associations, and exercise the whole of their Ecclesiastical Government to the no small advantage of their cause, whilst those churches which are branches of the National Establishment are deprived, not only of the benefitt of a regular Church Government, but their children debarred the priviledge of a liberal education, unless they will submitt to accept of it on such conditions as Dissenters require, which, in Yale Colledge is to submitt to a fine as often as they attend Public Worship in the Church of England, communicants only excepted, and that only on Christmass and Sacrament days. This we cannot but look upon as hard measure, especially as we can, with good conscience, declare that we are so far from that bigotry and narrowness of spirit they have of late been pleased to charge us with, that we would not, were it in our power, lay the least restraint on any man's conscience, and should