disposed, in the evening; at others for a ball in the afternoon,
given under the auspices of Richard; and on Sundays, invariably, as a place of
public worship.
    When an itinerant priest, of the persuasion of the Methodists, Baptists,
Universalists, or of the more numerous sect of the Presbyterians, was
accidentally in the neighbourhood, he was ordinarily invited to officiate, and
was commonly rewarded for his services by a collection in a hat, before the
congregation separated. When no such regular minister offered, a kind of
colloquial prayer or two was made, by some of the more gifted members, and a
sermon was usually read, from Sterne, by Mr. Richard Jones.
    The consequence of this desultory kind of priesthood was, as we have already
intimated, a great diversity of opinion, on the more abstruse points of faith.
Each sect had its adherents, though neither was regularly organized and
disciplined. Of the religious education of Marmaduke, we have already written,
nor was the doubtful character of his faith completely removed by his marriage.
The mother of Elizabeth was an Episcopalian, as, indeed, was the mother of the
Judge himself; and the good taste of Marmaduke revolted at the familiar
colloquies which the leaders of the conferences held with the Deity, in their
nightly meetings. In form, he was certainly an Episcopalian, though not a
sectary of that denomination. On the other hand, Richard was as rigid in the
observance of the canons of his church, as he was inflexible in his opinions.
Indeed, he had once or twice essayed to introduce the Episcopal form of service,
on the Sundays that the pulpit was vacant; but Richard was a good deal addicted
to carrying things to an excess, and then there was something so papal in his
air, that the greater part of his hearers deserted him on the second Sabbath -
on the third, his only auditor was Ben Pump, who had all the obstinate and
enlightened orthodoxy of a high-churchman.
    Before the war of the revolution, the English church was supported, in the
colonies, with much interest, by some of its adherents in the mother country,
and a few of the congregations were very amply endowed. But, for a season, after
the independence of the states was established, this sect of Christians
languished, for the want of the highest order of its priesthood. Pious and
suitable divines were at length selected, and sent to the mother country, to
receive that authority, which, it is understood, can only be transmitted
directly from one to the other, and thus obtain,