Houdin is a converted priest from Popery, formerly superior of a convent in Canada -- and from his letters of orders, it appears he was ordained priest by the Archbishop of Treves on Easter day, 1730 ; and on Easter day, 1747, he made a public renunciation of the errors of the Church of Rome, received the holy communion according to the liturgy of the Church of England, in the city of New York, and he afterwards took the oaths of allegiance, and subscribed to the XXXIX Articles of our Church : and after having made himself a tolerable master of the English language, he began to officiate in it and hath behaved, according to full testimonials, as it becometh a good Christian and a good clergyman -- and by his letters of thanks to the Society, dated Trenton, Nov. 4th, 1753, it appears that he is usefully, and to very good purposes employed, he having baptized from the 13th of December preceding, forty-five children and five adults, after proper instruction; and at Annwell, a town within his mission, above two hundred Presbvterians and some families of Anabaptists, during the last summer, joined with

a New York MSS. from archives at Fulham, vol. li. (Hawks.)

THE TOWN OF NEW ROCHEIXE.

the members of the Church of England in the public worship of God, and many of them observing the peace and charity among our congregations, and the troubles and dissentions among others, contributed towards the finishing of the church, which, at the date of Mr. Houdin's letter, he blesses God, was then quite done."a