Ihope the present complexion of the times will free you from having recourse to such an expedient which I am confident nothing but necessity can have forced you to adopt."

The subsequent acknowledgment, by England, of the Independence of this country having obviated all existing difficulties in the case, Mr, Stuart's friends entertained the hope of winning him back to labor among them, and Dr. Griffith, bishop elect of Virginia, invited him to settle in his diocese. But notwithstanding the dulcedo natalis solis, Mr, S. declined the proposal. Writing in 1785, he says :--

"'T must allow that if you adhere to your Bill of Rights, and establish church

government onthe plan, and according to the spirit of the outlines you have drawn, it will certainly deserve the name of a Reformation, * * * * * I

1 Letter to Bishop White, 1 Feb. 1784.

2 Wilson's Life of Bp. White; also White's Memoirs of the P. E. Church furnish full information relative to this pamphlet. 3 Letter of 17 March, 1784.

\

Fad

516 MEMOIR OF THE

must here acknowledge the sense I have of Mr. Griffith's friendly remembrance of me, altho' I despair of being able to aecept of his kind proposal. The time has been when the chance of obtaining a settlement in that part of Virginia wou'd have gratified my utmost ambition. But, at my time of life, and with such riveted prejudices in favor of a government totally different from that of the United States, Iam resolved not to look back. having once put my hand to the plow."'1