them rebels, arrested and confined them. Alarmed by this measure, Leisler attempted to escape, but was apprehended, with many of his adherents, and brought to trial. 36. In vain did they plead their zeal for king William. In vain did Leisler insist that the letter from England authorized him to administer the government. They had lately resisted a governor with a regular commission, and this governor, and a subservient court, were resolved upon their conviction. Leisler and Milborne were condemned to death for high treason. 37. Soon after their trial, the affairs of the province required Sloughter's presence at Albany. The faction opposed to them, entreated him, before his departure, to sign the warrant for their execution; but he, unwilling to sacrifice two men, who, though they had sometimes erred, had served his master with zeal, refused. Unable to effect their purpose by persuasion, they resorted to a detestable expedient. A sumptuous feast was prepared, to which the governor was invited. When he had drunk to intoxication, they presented him the warrant, which he signed, and when he had recovered his senses, the prisoners were no more. 38. On application to the king, their estates, which had been. confiscated, were restored to their heirs. Their bodies were afterwards taken up and interred, with great pomp, in the old Dutch church; and their descendants are considered honored, rather than disgraced, by the conduct and fall of their ancestors. 39. In July, 1691, Sloughter, having returned from Albany, ended, by a sudden death, a short, weak, and turbulent administration. About the same time, major Peter Schuyler, at the head of three hundred Mohawks, made a sudden and bold attack upon the French settlements, at the north end of Lake Champlain. An army of eight hundred men was despatched from Montreal to oppose him. With these he had several irregular, but successful conflicts; in which he killed a number of the enemy, greater than that of his whole party. 40. In 1692, colonel Fletcher arrived as successor to Sloughter. He was a good soldier, was active, avaricious, and passionate. From the talents and information of major Schuyler, he derived great assistance, and was governed by his advice, particularly in transactions relative to the Indians. 41. As a great portion of the inhabitants were Dutch, all the governors, to produce uniformity in religion and language, had encouraged English preachers and school-masters to settle in the colony. No one pursued this object with more zeal than Fletcher, who was devoted to the church of England. At two successiva sessions, he recommended the subject to the attention of the as sembly; but the members, being generally attached to the church of Holland, disregarded his recommendations. For this neglect, he gave them a severe reprimand. 42. The subject being laid before them, at a subsequent session, they passed a bill providing for the settlement, in certain parishes, of ministers of the gospel, to be chosen by the people. The council added an amendment, giving to the governor the power of approval or rejection. The house refused to concur in the amendment, at which Fletcher was so much enraged, that he commanded them instantly to attend him, and, addressing them in an angry speech, prorogued them to the next year. 43. In 1697, a peace, which gave security and repose to the colonies, was concluded between Great Britain and France. The next year, the earl of Bellamont was appointed governor. He was particularly instructed to clear the American seas of the pirates who infested them, and who, it was suspected, had even received encouragement from Fletcher. 44. The government declining to furnish the necessary naval force, the earl engaged, with others, in a private undertaking against them. The associates, procuring a vessel of war, gave the command of it to a captain Kid, and sent him to cruise against the pirates. He had been but a short time at sea, when, disregarding his instructions, he made a new contract with his crew, and, on the Atlantic and Indian Oceans, became himself a daring, atrocious, and successful pirate. 45. Three years afterwards, he returned, burned his ship, and, with a strange infatuation, appeared publicly at Boston. He was apprehended and sent to England, where he was tried and executed. The earl and his partners, some of whom resided in England, were accused of sharing in his plunder, but in all his examinations he declared them innocent. 46. Notwithstanding the death of Leisler, the people were still divided into Leislerians and anti-Leislerians. Fletcher had been the instrument of the latter; Lord Bellamont espoused the cause of the former. He, however, persecuted no one; but exercised authority with justice and moderation. He died in 1701. 47. The next year, Lord Cornbury was appointed governor. He presented a striking proof of the folly of hereditary distinctions. He was the son of the celebrated earl of Clarendon; but possessed not one of the virtues of his ancestor. Mean, profligate, and unprincipled, he was a burden to his friends at home, and was sent to America to be beyond the reach of his creditors. 48. He declared himself an anti-Leislerian, and the first assembly that he summoned was composed principally of men of that party. They presented him two thousand pounds to defray the expenses of his voyage. They raised several sums of money for public purposes, but the expenditure being intrusted to him as governor, he appropriated most of it to his own use. 49. His acts of injustice and oppression; his prodigality; his indecent and vulgar manners, rendered him universally odious. In 1708, the assemblies of New-York and of New-Jersey, of which colony he was also governor, complained to the queen of his misconduct. She removed him from office; he was soon after arrested by his creditors, and remained in custody until the death of his illustrious father, when he returned to England and tock his seat in the house of lords. 50. A proceeding of the house of representatives, near the close of his administration, ought not to be passed over without notice. Wearied by their sufferings, they appointed a committee of grievances, who reported a series of resolutions having reference to recent transactions, which resolutions were adopted by the house. One of them, in explicit language, asserted the principle, "that the imposing and levying of any moneys upon her majesty's subjects of this colony, under any pretence or color whatsoever, without consent in general assembly, is a grievance and a violation of the people's property." It is not uninstructive to observe how early, in some of the colonies, were sown the seeds of the American revolution. 51. In 1710, general Hunter, who had been appointed governor, arrived in the province. He brought with him near three thousand Germans, some of whom settled in New-York, and some in Pennsylvania. The latter transmitted to their native land such favorable accounts of the country which they had chosen for their residence, that many others followed and settled in that colony. The numerous descendants of these Germans are honest, industrious, and useful citizens. 52. The prodigality of Lord Cornbury, had taught the assembly an important lesson. Before his removal, they had obtained from the queen permission, in cases of special appropriations to appoint their own treasurer. They now passed a bill confiding to this officer the disbursement of certain sums appropriated for ordinary purposes. The council proposed an amendment. The house denied the right of that body to amend a money bill. Both continuing obstinate, the governor prorogued them, and at their next session dissolved them. 53. At this time, war existed between England and France. In 1709, expensive preparations were made for an attack upon Canada, but the promised assistance not arriving from England, the enterprise was abandoned. In 1711, the project was resumed. A fleet sailed up the St. Lawrence, to attack Quebec; G and an army of four thousand men, raised by New-York, New Jersey, and Connecticut, marched to invade Canada, by the route of Lake Champlain. The fleet, shattered by a storm, was com pelled to return. The army, informed of the disasters of the fleet, returned also, having accomplished nothing. 54. The people, approving the conduct of their representatives in relation to the revenue, had re-elected nearly all of them, and they were now in session. To defray the expenses of the late expedition, they passed several bills which were amended in the council. Between these two bodies, an other contest ensued. The representatives, deriving their authority from the people, considered themselves bound to watch over the expenditure of their money. The council, deriving their authority from the same source as the governor, were desirous of increasing his influence by giving him the management of the revenue. During this, and a subsequent session, both contínued inflexible. The governor, provoked at the obstinacy of the representatives, dissolved the assembly. This 55. At the ensuing election, which was warmly contested, most of the members chosen, were opposed to the governor. assembly was dissolved by the death of the queen. The next was dissolved by the governor, soon after it first met, a majority of the representatives being known to be unfriendly to his views. The people became weary of contending. Most of the members chosen at the succeeding election, were his friends and partisans, and, for several years, the utmost harmony existed between the different branches of the government. 56. Governor Hunter quitted the province in 1719, and his authority devolved on Peter Schuyler, the oldest member of the council. The next year, William Burnet, son of the celebrated bishop of that name, was appointed governor. Turning his attention towards the wilderness, he perceived that the French, in order to connect their settlements in Canada and Louisiana, to secure to themselves the Indian trade, and to confine the English to the sea coast, were busily employed in erecting a chain of forts from the St. Lawrence to the Mississippi. 57. He endeavored to defeat their design, by building a trading house, and afterwards a fort, at Oswego, on Lake Ontario. But the French had the command of more abundant resources, and applied them to the accomplishment of their object, with great activity and zeal. They launched two vessels upon that lake; and, going farther into the wilderness, erected a fort at Niagara, commanding the entrance into it; they had previously erected fort Frontenac, commanding the outlet. 58. The assembly, elected in 1716, had been so obsequious to the governor, that he continued it in existence until the clamors of the people induced him, in 1727, to dissolve it. That which next met, was composed entirely of his opponents. The court of chancery, in which he presided, had become exceedingly unpopular. It had been instituted by an ordinance of the governor and council, without the concurrence of the assembly; the mode of proceeding was novel; and some of the decisions had given great offence to powerful individuals. The house passed resolutions declaring it "a manifest oppression and grievance,” and intimating that its decrees were void. The governor instantly called the assembly before him, and dissolved it. 59. Being soon after appointed governor of Massachusetts, he was succeeded by colonel Montgomery, upon whose death, in 1731, the supreme authority devolved upon Rip Van Dam, the senior member of the council. Under his short and inefficient administration, the French were permitted to erect a fort at Crown Point, within the acknowledged boundaries of NewYork, from which parties of savages were often secretly despatched to destroy the English settlements. 60. Van Dam was superseded by William Cosby, who arrived in August, 1732. Having been the advocate, in parliament, of the American colonies, he was at first popular, but soon lost the affection and confidence of the people. By his instigation, one Zenger, the printer of a newspaper, was prosecuted for publishing an article declared to be derogatory to the dignity of his majesty's government. He was zealously defended by able counsel, and an independent jury gave a verdict of acquittal. The people applauded their conduct, and the magistrates of the city of New-York presented to Andrew Hamilton, one of his defenders, the freedom of the city, in a gold box, and their thanks for "his learned and generous defence of the rights of mankind, and the liberty of the press." 61. Governor Cosby died in 1736, and was succeeded by George Clark, at that time senior counsellor, but soon after appointed lieutenant-governor. Again was revived the contest which had ended, twenty years before, in the victory gained by governor Hunter, over the house of representatives. The colony being in debt, the house voted to raise the sum of six thousand pounds; but, in order to prevent its misapplication, declared, that it should be applied to the payment of certain specified debts. Offended by this vote, Clark resorted to the expedient which had usually been adopted to punish or intimidate; he immediately dissolved the assembly. 62. At the next election, great exertions were made by the opposing parties. The popular party was triumphant. At their |