Training School, and other flourishing Church schools, manifest his power of organization and maintenance, and his success in rallying aid by means of the confidence which his personal and official character inspired, he never neglected the General Institutions of the Church. Not only in General Convention was he one of the strong men of the Upper House; but in the Board of Missions, in the Church Book Society, in the General Theological Seminar)', he has been among the foremost, sometimes the one of all others to lead the way at critical moments, and to sound the call to which others were glad to rally. His clear-sightedness, indeed, sometimes made him a little in advance of his time ; and no truer proof of wisdom could be given by a tenacious man than the promptness with which he dropped a subject when satisfied that it was not yet ripe for action. One case of this kind was in regard to the General Theological Seminary, which he foresaw must sooner or later change its form from a general to a local institution ; and about twenty years ago he proposed it in the Board. The proposal failed, and was not renewed. The time for that change is much nearer now than it was then, and the shape which it will take, will probably be different in some important respects from Bishop de Lancey's ideas at that time. But his foresight as to the coming change will continue on record. Another and still more important subject was also introduced first by him into General Convention -- the adoption of the Provincial System. Bishop White, indeed, had sketched out the plan long before, and he had taken it from the universal system of the Church in all ages and countries ; but Bishop de Lancey was the first to propose it, formally, to the Legislature of the Church.