ARTICLE SIGNED "CANDIDUS."
[Boston Gazette, June 17, 1771.]
Messieurs EDES & GILL,
It is not very material whether the Address of the Convention of the Clergy, as it is called by the Layman, in Mr. Draper's last Paper, was the Act of seventeen or twenty three Gentlemen, or whether there were only twenty-four or thirty present, when the Vote was procured. - Be it as it may, it is a Question, why this Matter was bro't on and finished so early, and when so small a Number as thirty, if so many, were present. - It is said that after the Address was Voted, the Number increased to Sixty; and upon a Proposal to reconsider the Vote, "not above Ten of that Number voted for such Reconsideration." Allowing this to be the Case, it appears, that not more than one in seven of the Congregational Clergy of this Province were at the Meeting, and in all Probability seven-eighths of that Denomination never heard that an Address was intended; for I am told, that upon a moderate Computation, their Number in the Province is at least upwards of Four-Hundred. I should be glad therefore, if the Reverend Doctor who presided at the Meeting, would inform us, with what Propriety the World is told, that this was "the Address of the Congregational Ministers of the Province."
For my own Part, I pay very little Regard to Addresses to Great Men: Whenever they appear to be but the Breath of Flattery, they must be offensive to the Ears of any Man who has the Feelings of Truth and Sincerity in his own Breast. -There is no Question but the Clergy have a Right to address whom they please; and it is not strange to find some of them ready to make their Compliments to a Governor - It is in Course: But of all Men, we are to expect from them, even upon such Occasions, Examples of that Simplicity and godly Sincerity, which we so often hear them inculcate from the Pulpit - I do not pretend to charge them with a Failure in this Instance: But I cannot help thinking, that rather more of those excellent Christian Graces would have appeared in these Reverend Addressers, if they had ascertained the Number present. This might have prevented a Mistake in many of the distant Readers, who may possibly conceive that "so kind, so affectionate an Address," contained the declared Sentiments of a Majority at least of the "respectable and venerable" Body of the Clergy of the Province; which cannot be true, if in Fact not more than a seventh Part of them knew any Thing about it - I am with due Veneration for "the Congregational Ministers of the Province."