is rise in the rivers.

The assembly met in July, 1771. About this time the question of an
American episcopate was agitated; and in some of the Northern colonies
the measure was warmly contended for in the public papers. New York and
New Jersey desired to secure the co-operation of Virginia in petitioning
the king on this subject, and deputed the Rev. Dr. Cooper, President of
King's College, New York, and the Rev. Mr. McKean, deputies to visit the
South in this behalf; and at their urgent solicitation, Commissary
Horrocks, himself aspiring to the mitre, as was supposed, called a
convocation of the clergy to take the matter into consideration. Only a
few attended; but after some vacillation they determined to join in the
petition to the crown, the Rev. John Camm taking the lead in this
proceeding. Four of the clergy in attendance, Henley and Gwatkin,
professors in the College of William and Mary, and Hewitt and Bland,
entered a protest against the scheme of introducing a bishop, as
endangering the very existence of the British empire in America. The
assembly having expressed its disapprobation of the project, and it
being urged but by few, and resisted by some of the clergy, it fell to
the ground; and the thanks of the house were presented, through Richard
Henry Lee and Richard Bland, to the protesting clergymen for their "wise
and well-timed opposition." Churchmen naturally sided with the English
government, and the bench of bishops were arrayed in opposition to the
rights of the colonies. The protest of the four ministers gave rise to a
controversy between them and the United Episcopal Conventions of New
York and New Jersey; and a war of pamphlets and newspapers ensued in the
Northern and Middle States; and the stamp act itself, according to some
writers, did not evoke more bitter denunciations, nor more violent
threats, than the project of an episcopate: New England was in a flame
against it. It was believed, that if bishops should be sent over they
would unite with the governors in opposition to the rights of America.
The laity of the Episcopal Church in America were, excepting a small
minority, opposed to the measure. Neither the people of Virginia, nor
any of the American colonies, were at any time willing to receive a
bishop appointed by the English government. Among the advocates of the
scheme the Rev. Jonathan Boucher took a prominent part, and he sustained
it ably from the pulpit. He held that the refusal of Vir