CHAPTER XX.

THE   RECTORSHIP   OF   DR.   AUCHMUTY,   CONTINUED.

Steps Taken towards Disestablishment—Commencement of King's College, lltq—
Death of Sir Henry Moore—His Funeral—Lord Dunmore—Auchmuty's Letter to Sir
William Johnson on the State of the Church and Public Affairs—Efforts to Obtain an
American Episcopate—Church Music.

WE have reached the year 1771. The time was far
spent; one system was passing away and another
coming in ; signs of change were in the threatening skies.
To one of those signs we have now to give attention ; a
presage of disestabhshnient was in the air. The Church
of England had been estabHshed in the province. To the
nonconformist part of the population this was a substantial
grievance ; the support of the ministry of that Church, fell
in great part on people not attendant on their ministrations.
A movement now began which carried disestablishment
with it as a direct consequence ; and be this noted and re¬
membered that it was begun by members of the Church,
who were already persuaded that she would be more pros¬
perous if free from connection with the State. Colonel
Lewis Morris, a communicant of the Church of England,
and a grandson of one of the early supporters of Trinity
Parish, opened the case in the New York Assembly, April
6, 1769, by bringing in a bill to relieve non-Episcopalians
from taxes levied to support the established Church in
the four counties of the Province of New York. A
bill to that effect was passed ten days later, but the Coun¬
cil failed to approve it. Four other bills passed the As¬
sembly at a later time, the last going to a third reading
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