in with me in our
most unfeigned and hearty prayers to God Almighty for them."

At the close of this verbose speech, the burgesses returned to their
house, and the council adjourned.[366:A]

FOOTNOTES:

[364:A] A meeting of the council was held, consisting of his Excellency
Francis Nicholson, Esq., lieutenant and governor-general, and William
Byrd, John Lightfoot, Benjamin Harrison, Robert Carter, John Custis,
Philip Ludwell, William Basset, Henry Duke, Robert Quarry, and John
Smith, Esquires.

[366:A] Documents in S. Literary Messenger, communicated by Wyndham
Robertson, Esq., having been copied by his father, while he was clerk of
the council, from old papers in the council chamber.

CHAPTER XLVI.

1703-1705.

Quit-rents--Northy's Opinion against the Custom of the
Vestry's employing a Minister by the Year--The Free Church
Disruption in Scotland--Controversy between Blair and
Nicholson--Convocation--Nicholson recalled--Notice of his
Career--Huguenots.

BY the account of Colonel William Byrd, receiver-general, the nett
proceeds of her majesty's revenue of quit-rents for the year 1703
amounted to five thousand seven hundred and forty-five pounds.

In the Church of England the people have no part in the choice of their
minister; a patron appoints him, and a living supports him. In Virginia,
on the contrary, the salary being levied directly from the people by the
vestries, they fell upon the expedient, as has been repeatedly
mentioned, of employing a minister for a year. Governor Nicholson, an
extreme high-churchman, procured from the attorney-general, Northy, an
opinion against this custom, and it was sent to all the vestries,
with directions to put it on record. The vestries, nevertheless,
pertinaciously resisted this construction of the law. In two important
points the church establishment in Virginia differed from that in
England--in the appointment of the minister by the vestry, according to
the act of 1642, and in the absence of a bishop.

In recent times the disruption of the Scottish general assembly resulted
in the Free Church of Scotland, which thus, by sacrificing the
temporalities, vindicated its independence of the government in things
spiritual. In Virginia the vestries virtually maintained a like
independence. In Scotland the contest arrayed against each other
schismatic parties in the established kirk, known as the Evangelical and
the Moderates, whereas