To return:--The correspondence between Bishop Skinner and Dr.
Berkeley was continued through the winter of 1782-1783, but
without any actual result. [Footnote: Scottish Church Review, i.
36-43.] In the autumn of 1783--some four months after Seabury's
arrival in England--a letter was sent to the Scottish Primus by
Mr. Elphinstone, a man of literary reputation, the son of a
Scottish clergyman, in which the following question was put: "Can
consecration be obtained in Scotland for an already dignified and
well vouched American clergyman, now in London, for the purpose of
perpetuating the Episcopal reformed Church in America, particularly
in Connecticut?" [Footnote: Wilberforce, American Church,
p. 205.] At the same time Dr. Berkeley renewed his correspondence
with Bishop Skinner in these words: "I have this day [Nov.
24] heard (I need not add with the sincerest pleasure) that
a respectable Presbyter, well recommended from America, hath
arrived in London, seeking what it seems in the present state of
affairs he cannot expect to receive in our Church. Surely, dear
sir, the Scotch prelates, who are not shackled by any Erastian
connexion, will not send this suppliant empty away. .... I scruple
not to give it as my decided opinion that the king, some of his
cabinet counsellors, all our bishops (except, peradventure, the
Bishop of St. Asaph [Footnote: Dr. Jonathan Shipley.]), all the
learned and respectable clergy of our Church, will at least
secretly rejoice if a Protestant bishop be sent from Scotland to
America--more especially if Connecticut is to be the scene of his
ministry." [Footnote: _Scottish Church Review,_ i. 106; where
the rest of the correspondence is also given.]

The question now brought before the Scottish bishops, was, as will
be readily seen, a different one from that proposed nearly two