to be able to compare the thoughts of the preacher, who, under the same date, writing to his son, says, "I was with Dr. Chauncey last Sunday, in an old wooden church my father united in building sixty years ago, and which I had hardly seen since I was a boy; and as I sat on the half-fallen willows of that age, I preached a more effective sermon to myself than it is likely I did to others within the building." father was elected President of the

Diocese of New York. new duties and closer

In 1862 my Standing Committee of the This brought upon him some relations with the Bishop. He was now fully engaged, and practically interested in diocesan affairs, and his voice was often heard in the counsels of the Church. It was in the Convention of the succeeding year that he introduced the subject of the "Provincial System." This has since steadily gained approval as a wise, practical measure, till this year, 1870, has seen the first meeting, in the city of New York, of the bishops and the delegates of the five dioceses now included within the State.

The underlying idea in my father's mind was a plan which would allow of the increase of the episcopate, and the multiplication of dioceses, without weakening the position of the Church as coincident with the civil lines of the State. He acknowledged that it was a difficult problem to work out, especially when a State had already been divided, but none the less important on that account, and he therefore boldly pressed it upon the Church in spite of the disfavor with which it was at first received.

This endeavor to hold the Church lines coincident with the civil lines, according to the practice of the early Church, was the important feature in which his plan of Provinces differed from the earlier one of Bishop DeLancey.

Ν

CHAPTER XXIII.

RETIREMENT AND DEATH: 1864-1868.

IN the early spring of 1864 the Trustees of Columbia College called upon the Faculty to report to them, in view of a memorial to Congress, upon the subject of a uniform system of weights, measures, and coins. The Faculty submitted the question to a committee of their own body, of which Professor McVickar was chairman. The majority of this committee agreed upon two principles, which they embodied in about twice as many lines, and submitted that as their report. The chairman dissented on the ground that it was not worthy of the college or the subject, or in accordance with their instructions, and could not but be inoperative if sent to Congress in that bald shape, bringing in himself a minority report of considerable length. President King, writing to the chairman with respect to it, says, "The members of the Board of Trustees were much impressed with your report as meeting fully their resolution, and as stating with precision and ability the merits of the whole question, and if the paper had been officially before them, on the part of the Faculty, they would, I think, at once have accepted and ordered it to be transmitted to Congress."

This was one of the last college duties which my father officially performed. Soon after, he and President King retired together, though the title, and in his case the emolument, of "Emeritus Professor," still attached him to the College, a connection only severed by his death.

His last report as professor of the "Evidences" was submitted two months later, and concludes with what we may consider the ripe deductions of a nearly fifty years' professional experience.

In conclusion, I would venture to observe that from the frequent voluntary acknowledgments made to me by students in after life, I cannot but highly appreciate the value of such a religious course in the completion of academic education: and express the belief that such enduring influence on the mind of the student has arisen mainly from the whole subject being treated in the lecture-room, not as a matter of memory, or book learning, but altogether as a question of conscience and individual conviction, thus planting in the mind and heart, when all that was trusted to the memory is forgotten, living seeds that never die.

Respectfully,

JOHN MCVICKAR,

Professor of Evidences up to June, 1864, but at present date Professor Emeritus.

The following to the writer, who had gone abroad for health, is somewhat in the spirit of his earlier letters, which, with the increase of years and infirmi

ties, and somewhat in conformity with an age that was giving up letter writing, had become more and more infrequent :

NEW YORK, November 17, 1865.

MY DEAR SON, -I have delayed long writing to you, waiting for something beyond family news. Your letters bring back all my own pleasure in the scenes you describe, doubled by the delight of your improving strength and health. You showed good judgment in avoiding Liverpool, and striking at once on the antiquities of our ancestral home in cathedral Chester, and the splendor of her modern science in the "Menai bridges." These first impressions are all important in their associations, and most enduring in remembrance with those who visit England, as all of your party but yourself do, for the first time.

But now for our land and its mighty interests. Our Church is advancing, as she has never done before, with national strides. The South is coming in, I may almost say, bodily. Broken up by the sects. and their endless disputes and divisions, they look to the Church as the only earthly rock on which they can rest. Our late General Convention has been a national blessing, and a great element in the conciliation of the South. The new bishops from that quarter are powerful persuaders. Bishop Quintard, after his consecration, came on here, when a new bond arose between us, on learning from him that he was one of my own "Trinity School" scholars; and as I was aiding him in his first service here, he brought with him his old teacher, Dr. William Morris. Of