if a person fully qualified for the task, and inclined to enter upon it, could have been found, the trus

that young men of suitable abilities may be instructed in divinity, preparing them for the ministry, and supplying the necessity of the Churches; for themselves, and in behalf of their Churches, presented a petition to our trusty and well-beloved William Franklin, Esq., Governor and Commander in Chief, in and over our Province of New-Jersey, in America; setting forth, that the inconveniencies are manifold, and the expenses heavy, in either being supplied with Ministers of the Gospel from foreign parts, or sending young men abroad for education; that the present, and increasing necessity for a considerable number to be employed in the ministry, is great; that a preservation of a fund for the necessary uses of instruction very much depends upon a charter, and therefore humbly entreat that some persons might be incorporated in a body politic, for the purposes aforesaid: and we being willing to grant the reasonable request and prayer of the said petitioners, and to promote learning for the benefit of the community, and advancement of the Protestant Religion, of all denominations; and more especially, to remove as much as possible, the necessity our said loving subjects have hitherto been under of sending their youth intended for the ministry to a foreign country for education, and of being subordinate to a foreign ecclesiastical jurisdiction: KNOW ye, therefore, that considering the premises, WE do of our special grace, certain knowledge, and mere motion, by these presents, will, ordain, grant and constitute, that there be a college, called Queen's College, crected in our said Province of New-Jersey, for the education of youth in the learned languages, liberal and useful arts and sciences, and especially in divinity; preparing them for the ministry, and

tees, as yet, had no funds for his support. Nay, moreover, the same letter states, that it was not then determined where the academy should be located, and that the question had produced a little jealousy and collision among the trustees, some wishing it

other good offices; and that the trustees of the said college, and their successors for ever, may and shall be one body corporate and politic, in deed, fact, and name; and shall be called, known, and distinguished by the name of the trustees of Queen's College, in New-Jersey.

"We do by these presents, for us, our heirs and successors, create, ordain, constitute, nominate, and appoint, the Governor or Commander in Chief, the President of the Council, our Chief Justice, and our Attorney General of said colony, for the time being, Sir W. Johnson, Baronet, and Johannes Henricus Goetschius, Johannes Leydt, David Maurinus, Martinus Van Harlingen, Jacob R. Hardenbergh, aud William Jackson, of our said colony of New-Jersey; Samuel Verbryk, Barent Vrooman, Maurice Goetschius, Eilardus Westerlo, John Schuneman, of our province of New-York; and Philip Wyberg, and Jonathan Dubois, of the province of Pennsylvania; Hendrick Fisher, Peter Zabriskie, Peter Hasenclever, Peter Schenck, Tunis Dey, Philip French, John Covenhoven, Henricus Kuyper, of our colony of New-Jersey, Esqrs.; and Simon Johnson, Philip Livingston, Johannes Hardenbergh, Abraham Hasbrook, Theodorus Van Wyck, Abraham Lott, Robert Livingston, Levi Pauling, John Brinckerhoff, Nicholas Stilwill, Martinus Hoffman, Jacob H. Ten Eyck, John Haring, Isaac Vroeman, Barnardus Ryder, of our province of New-York, Esqrs., trustees of our said college, in New-Jersey."

to be placed at Hackensack, and others at NewBrunswick.*

Knowing these facts, which made it very improbable that the Church here would soon be able to call and maintain a professor for herself; having previously, as it would seem, matured a plan for restoring peace to this divided and afflicted portion of Zion, which wanted only a satisfactory article in relation to a professor, to render it complete and acceptable to all parties concerned; acquainted, too, with the high character of Dr. Witherspoon, as a scholar and divine, it is not surprising that Mr.

* The efforts of the Cœtus party, at this time, to establish a theological seminary, led some persons (of the opposite party it is supposed) to think of having a divinity-professor in King's College, New-York, under the sanction of a clause granting the privilege to the Dutch Church, which was said to be contained in the charter of that Institution.

The Rev. Mr. Ritzema, a staunch Conferentie-partisan, and one of the ministers of the Church of New-York, was then a director of the college; and many of his friends expressed a wish that he should receive the appointment. The Classis of Amsterdam, as appears by a letter of one of its members (the Rev. Mr. Tetterode,) dated in 1771, was pleased with the plan, and recommended its adoption, until a college for the Dutch Church could be erected. It subsequently, however, advised that the professor have no connexion with any literary institution.

Livingston, in his zeal, should either have proposed or acceded to an arrangement, intended perhaps at the time to be merely a provisional one, and promising such immediate and incalculable benefits. It does not appear that a union of the Dutch and Presbyterian Churches was now even thought of, much less designed; but, that a certain connexion was to be formed with Princeton College, simply with a view to the preparation of pious youth of the Dutch Church for the ministry, under the superintendence of a man in whose talents, piety, and orthodoxy, the Church at home, and the Church abroad, would have the most entire confidence.

That this was the project in embryo, can hardly be doubted, after a few extracts from the letters of Mr. Livingston's friend to him upon the subject, shall have been perused. "At present," says Mr. Lott, in a letter of November, 1768, "from a superficial view of the plan you mention, it арpears to me, it will meet with difficulty and objections from both parties. For I know them so well, that I think I may venture to prophecy, that as long as their present spirit of power and dominion remains with them, no plan will be accepted of, however reasonable and useful the same may be, unless the different congregations have good sense enough to agree, whether their ministers will or will not."

In another of December, of the same year, after stating that the Rev. Mr. Ritzema had shown him a Dutch letter, which that gentleman had received from Mr. Livingston, communicating the outlines of the plan, the same correspondent adds, "The matter being still new to me, I cannot see how it can possibly take place. For, in the first place, I believe that the Conferentie and Cœtus will never unite, their difference being of such a nature that they dare not trust each other, and thus a junction [is] morally impossible and in the next place, I can't see how a local junction can be brought about with the Presbyterians, even should the jarring Dutch Churches agree."

To provide a suitable professor for the academy as it was then denominated, which was about to be erected, Mr. Livingston had, prior to the visit of Dr. Witherspoon to Holland, prevailed upon a number of liberal individuals there, to pay the expense of educating a poor youth of piety and talents, and of Dutch descent, if one should come from America, for the purpose of being qualified for the station—and had accordingly written to his friends in New-York, requesting them to select and send over a youth of this description, to be duly qualified. No better expedient could probably have been devised, at the time, to supply a deficiency which,