BOSTON PUBLIC LATIN SCHOOL.

SINCE the reference to the site of the Schoolhouse (ante, i. 83), and the account of the negotiations, in 1748, between this Parish and the Town of Boston, for a piece of land at the easterly end of the church (ante, ii. 53 et seq.) were written, a bronze tablet, bearing the following inscription, has been placed on the stone post of that part of the City Hall fence nearest to King's Chapel:

ON THIS SPOT STOOD THE

FIRST HOUSE

ERECTED FOR THE USE OF THE
BOSTON PUBLIC LATIN SCHOOL.

THIS SCHOOL HAS BEEN CONSTANTLY
MAINTAINED SINCE IT WAS ESTABLISHED
BY THE FOLLOWING VOTE OF THE TOWN:
"AT A GENERAL MEETING UPON PUBLIC NOTICE
IT WAS AGREED UPON THAT OUR BROTHER,
PHILEMON PORMORT,

SHALL BE ENTREATED TO BECOME
SCHOOLMASTER FOR THE TEACHING

AND NURTURING OF CHILDREN WITH US.

APRIL 13, 1635."

THE bill for making Dr. Freeman's Vestments has been preserved in the Church files. It is here printed verbatim :

BOSTON, June - 1783.

THE GEN CHIRCH WARDENS TO BENJA STEVENS

To making the parson's gond and Casseck

To Silk and thread for D.

To wone Kneeckloop

£ 5-3-10

Rec! Three pounds Twelve Shillgs in part of Within Acc!

EXTRACT FROM A LETTER OF DR. FREEMAN RESPECTING THE ORDINATION SERVICE

OF THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.

IN 1815 the Rev. Dr. Jedediah Morse, the mouthpiece and special champion of the Orthodox party in the Unitarian Controversy, so called, caused to be reprinted in Boston, in several editions, a chapter of the Rev. Thomas Belsham's Memoirs of the Rev. Theophilus Lindsey. To this pamphlet Dr. Morse gave the title "American Unitarianism; or, a Brief History of the Progress and Present State of the Unitarian Churches in America." He then proceeded to review the pamphlet anonymously and in a most disingenuous manner in the "Panoplist for June of the same year, and thereby "opened that bitter controversy which so long distracted our community." A brief but excellent account of Dr. Morse's connection with this proceeding is contained in an Historical Note to Dr. George E. Ellis's Discourse on the Twenty-fifth Anniversary of his Ordination at Charlestown, March 12, 1865. Mr. Belsham secured most of his facts respecting Unitarianism in and about Boston through a correspondence with Dr. Freeman and others. Soon after his own ordination (Nov. 18, 1787), Dr. Freeman wrote to Mr. Belsham as follows;

"I mentioned in a former letter, that Bishop Seabury had ordained a priest in Boston. The members of my congregation in general attended. They were so shocked with the service, particularly with that part where the Bishop pretends to communicate the Holy Ghost and the power of forgiving sins, which he accompanied with the action of breathing on the candidate, that they now congratulate me upon having escaped what they consider as little short of blasphemy. Few of them had ever read, or at least attentively considered, the Ordination Service. Since they have heard it, I have frequently been seriously asked by them whether I would have submitted to so absurd a form. I confess that I am convinced I should have acted wrong if I had done it. I shudder when I reflect to what moral danger I exposed myself in soliciting ordination of the American bishops, for I certainly never believed that they had the power of conveying the Holy Spirit."

THE BELL.

AGREEMENT made this twenty sixth day of December, 1815, by & between Aaron Dexter & Joseph May in behalf of the proprietors of King's Chapel of the one part & Paul Revere and son of the other part.

The said Paul Revere & son agree to take the Church Bell, now belonging to King's Chapel, & pay therefor twenty five cents per pound; they also engage to convey the said Bell to their Foundery, and form an exact mould thereof; and with the whole metal of the old Bell & a small addition of other suitable metal, they engage to cast a new Bell which shall in all respects, size, shape, weight, & tone resemble, as exactly as possible, the present Bell, as it was when unbroken. The new Bell shall be examined & compared with the old one by the said Dexter & May, or any three Judges whom they shall appoint; and if approved of, the said Dexter & May shall pay therefor forty one & 2100 Cents per pound, at the end of one year from the time of receiving said Bell; which shall be warranted by the said Paul Revere & son to be merchantable, strong, sound, & free from all latent defects. The old Bell to be delivered, & the new one to be received, at the door of King's Chapel in Boston.

The breaking and recasting of the bell inspired the following

stanzas:

The Chapel Church,

Left in the lurch,

Must surely fall;

For church and people

And bell and steeple
Are crazy all.

The Church still lives,
The priest survives,
With mind the same,
Revere refounds,
The bell resounds,
And all is well again.

The late Mr. Joseph W. Revere kindly furnished for these pages a copy of the following anonymous letter:

BOSTON, Oct. 28, 1816.

SIR, Since the arrival of the New Bell at the Old South, much has been said respecting the one you cast for the Stone Chapel. — I assure you as a friend and for the future credit of your Foundery, that it is highly necessary you should do something to HARMONIZE the sound &