The Rev. E. E. Beardsley, D.D., LL.D., rector of St. Thomas's
Church, New Haven, historian of the diocese and biographer of
Bishop Seabury, then made the following address:

So much has been written and spoken about the consecration of
Bishop Seabury, that it must be well understood by all intelligent
Connecticut churchmen, if not by all American churchmen. It is
quite unnecessary to take you over the familiar ground; but I have
been sometimes asked; "What was the Scottish Episcopal Church,
that her bishops a century ago should venture an act which the
bishops of the Church of England declined to undertake?" The
question involves an answer which goes back a century farther,
even to the time when Episcopacy was established in Scotland as a
state religion under the reign of the Stuart kings. The revolution
of 1688 caused the fall of James II., king of Great Britain and
second son of Charles I., and with him fell the Episcopal Church
in Scotland, as an establishment William, the Prince of Orange,
had married his daughter Mary, and fitting out an expedition when
the people were ripe for a change, he invaded England, and seizing
the throne, was crowned with his wife to the sovereignty of the
realm. The Church of England took a prominent part in forwarding
this revolution, which was a religious one in its origin, and in
transferring the crown, on the abdication of James II., to the
heads of William and Mary. The Anglo-Saxon mind combines with love
of liberty a veneration for national institutions and traditions.
It resisted in this instance the determination of the king to
render himself absolute and restore the Roman Catholic religion in
England. Hence the English Church as a whole felt herself bound to
cast off allegiance to him, for, in addition to the various