ake such stipulation, and they
did not act in the premises. The Overseers could make no stipulation
either to bind the parish or the proprietors, because their power only
extended to giving a lease of land not exceeding two years. In the
case of Thompson vs. the Catholic-Congregational Society in
Rehoboth, (5th Pickering, 469,) it was settled that where there was
a ministerial fund in a parish, and the society settled a minister
stipulating to pay him a salary, without taking any notice of the
income of the fund, he must be considered as accepting the salary as
a full compensation, and the society are entitled to the fund. Harvard
College settled Mr. Fish in Marshpee, and agreed to pay him about five
hundred dollars, or two-thirds the proceeds of the Williams fund. The
society to which Mr. Fish was sent to preach, took no notice of the
parsonage, nor did the Proprietors of Marshpee, hence Mr. Fish cannot
hold the proceeds of the parsonage by right of succession, or by
stipulation, either from the society or the Marshpee Proprietors, and
therefore the Proprietors of Marshpee are entitled to the parsonage.

There is one other consideration that might legally deprive Mr.
Fish of his rights in the parsonage, even if he acquired any by the
transaction in 1811, which is denied. When he went to Marshpee, and
first preached there, he was of the Unitarian faith, and so continued
some time. Subsequently, (and most undoubtedly from high conscientious
motives,) he became Orthodox in his creed, and has remained so ever
since. [This fact has been named by the President of Harvard College,
as one reason why the Williams fund has continued to be diverted from
its proper use; the delicacy Harvard College felt at dismissing Mr.
Fish, lest it should be ascribed to persecution, for his change of
sentiments from Unitarian to Orthodox.]

But if Mr. Fish claims to hold the parsonage by the "_laws_," he must
be governed by the decision of the Court in the celebrated case
of Burr, vs. the first parish in Sandwich. Mr. Burr was settled an
Unitarian, and became Orthodox, and this the Supreme Court decided was
just cause for the parish to dismiss him. Chief Justice Parsons,
said in that case, that "according to the almost immemorial usage
of Congregational churches, before the parish settle a minister, he
preaches with them as a candidate for settlement, with the intent of
declaring his religious faith, and if he is afterwards settled, it is
und