JOURNAL

OF THE

PROCEEDINGS OF THE CONVENTION.

BALTIMORE, MAY 31, 1848.

This being the day appointed for the meeting of the Annual Convention of the Protestant Episcopal Church in Maryland, a number of the clergy and laity assembled at 9 o'clock, A. M., in St. Paul's Church.

Morning Prayer was read by the Rev. George L. Mackenheimer, assisted in the Lessons by the Rev. Joseph J. Nicholson; the Bishop reading the Ante-Communion Service.

The Convention Sermon was preached by the Rev. Robert W. Goldsborough, after which the Holy Communion was administered by the Bishop, assisted by the. Rev. George L. Mackenheimer, the Rev. John Owen, and the Rev. Smith Pyne.

The Bishop took the Chair, and called the Convention to order.

The list of clergy entitled to seats in the last Convention was called over by the Secretary, when fifty members answered to their names, as follows:

The following Lay Delegates presented their testimonials, and signed the declaration required by the second article of the Constitution:

D. M. Henry,

H. E. Ballard,

Daniel J. Dashiell,
R. Mackall,

J. Robert Ward,

James T. Johnson,

William R. Barker,

W. H. Briscoe,

W. Williams,

David Higgins,

William W. Duvall,
F. W. Brune, Jr.
R. H. Owen,

William P. Maulsby,

Edward L. Focke,

Benjamin O. Mullikin.

On motion, the Convention proceeded to elect, viva voce, a Secretary to the Convention.

Whereupon, Dr. Hervey Colburn was nominated, and declared to be unanimously re-elected.

The Chair appointed John Henry Alexander, Esq., assistant Secretary.

The Standing Committees were then announced, as follows:

ON THE RIGHTS OF CLERGYMEN TO SEATS. Rev. Charles C. Austin, Rev. John Crosdale, Rev. Joseph Trapnell, Jr.

ON THE ELECTION OF LAY DELEGATES. Samuel I. Donaldson, John J. Dashiell, and William R. Barker, Esqrs.

ON PAROCHIAL CONTRIBUTIONS.

Rev. Levin I. Gilliss, Rev. William N. Pendleton, Dr. J. Robert Ward.*

ON ACCOUNTS.

Rev. George L. Mackenheimer, William Goldsborough, and Thomas Berry, Esqs.

Dr. Ward having been excused, the Hon. D. Higgins was afterwards appointed in his place.

ON ADMISSION OF NEW PARISHES AND CONGREGATIONS.

Rev. Thomas Atkinson, Rev. Joshua Morsell, Com. H. E. Ballard, Doctor Hanson Penn, and Wm. A. Patterson, Esq.

Applications for admission into union with the Convention were received from the Vestries of Wicomico Parish, Somerset County; St. Philip's Parish, Prince George and Anne Arundel County; and St. Luke's Church, Baltimore City; and on motion, were referred to the Committee on the admission of new Parishes and Churches.

The Bishop stated that he was ready to deliver his Address, if the house was prepared for it.

Whereupon, on motion, the Bishop was requested to proceed with his Address.

The Address was then read as follows:

Brethren of the Clergy and Laity:

We meet not again this year, as last, with the number of those who labor in the word and doctrine undiminished. Thankfulness for that blessing is to be exchanged for a higher privilegethe recognition of mercy displayed to a venerable departed brother throughout a long life of faithful obedience, and in a consistent death, calmly peaceful in the full assurance of a religious and holy hope. Our late senior presbyter, the Rev. Walter Dulany Addison, has been taken from us, full of days and of the fruits of faith. Among the first, if not the very first, admitted to holy orders by the first bishop of this diocese, his continuance with us was a link of the present to the past which we could ill afford to lose. Although for some years past unable to be present with us in the body, he was never absent from us in spirit on these annually recurring occasions of assemblage to take counsel together for the work of the Lord. His prayers cooperated with the efforts of his brethren to preserve the peace and purity of the household of the faith, to keep men in the good old paths in which the fathers trod, and to bring to the blessed unity

of the Spirit those whom ignorance, prejudice or error had led astray, or sin was making willing captives of the enemy. A more earnest, faithful laborer in the holy cause we never had, so long as he was permitted to fulfil the active duties of the ministry; and when his Master suffered the infirmities of age to disqualify him for those toils, as warm a heart as ever still beat true to the claims of the Lord's own heritage on his love and care. Childlike simplicity of faith and love characterised him in all the many vicissitudes of his long career. He was eminently

single-hearted. Long may his example of godly sincerity and quietness be remembered among us, and taken as a model! Long may the fragrance of his name continue to refresh us!

The absence of his successor in the honor of seniority among the Presbyters of the diocese, the Rev. Dr. Wyatt, is the more to be regretted by us all, because our loss of the advantages to be derived from his long tried wisdom and practical experience is occasioned by the infirm condition of his health, rendering a temporary respite from the arduous duties of his station absolutely necessary, and disqualifying him for filling on this occasion that chief place among his brethren which his pre-eminent ability and excellence have so often heretofore adorned.

In other respects we have little change to note. A slight increase in the number of the Clergy, and a nearly steady, and quite general, but nowhere very marked or rapid growth of the congregations committed to their charge, indicate a healthy condition of the diocese, but afford no ground for boasting, if that ever might be safely indulged in contemplation of spiritual advantages or growth. If the reasonable assurance that nothing has been lost encourage us to look back upon the progress already made, there is enough to keep us from being lifted up, in the contemplation of the very many proofs of spiritual weakness and disease yet manifest among us, and the many directions in which effort for further progress is not required only, but imperatively demanded. The maintenance of the Clergy, for instance, and