then in force in the other English colonies, but it contains many provisions evidently new; the whole being arranged in alphabetical order. It was published only in manuscript, and as it was of considerable length, but few copies were prepared. These were deposited, one in the office of the Colonial Secretary, and others in the record offices on Long Island. After the retrocession, in 1674, it was republished by Gov. Lovelace, and two or three copies have come down to the present century. In 1809, it was, for the first time, printed by this Society, and may be found in the first volume of its collections. There is much in it to attract remark; but I can only stop to say, that it authorised the election of town officers; established town courts, courts of sessions, and a court of assize-the latter to be held once a year in New York, by the Governor and such magistrates as he should call to his assistance; that it assumed, throughout, that matters of religion, as well as of trade and politics, were subject to governmental rule; and that many of its penal regulations were exceedingly severe.*

The Duke's laws made no provision for a general assembly; the sheriffs and other principal officers were appointed by the Governor, and held at his will; and the same union of executive, legislative and judicial powers, which had given so much dissatisfaction under the Dutch rule, continued to exist. NICOLLS and his successor, LOVELACE, imposed and levied taxes, by the aid of officers appointed by themselves, and without receiving or asking the assent of the people. This system of procedure was far from satisfactory to the people. The Dutch complained of it as a

A synopsis of the civil and criminal laws contained in this code, and of the administrative arrangements made by it, may be found in Thompson's Hist. of Long Island, i, 132-143. As a specimen of the former the following may be mentioned. Persons in any wise denying the true God and his attributes, are punishable with death; so also are children above the age of sixteen, smiting their natural father or mother, unless there to forced by self preservation from death or maiming, provided the complaint be made by the father and mother, (and not otherwise,) who are to be sufficient witnesses of the fact. No minister of the gospel was to be allowed to preach unless licensed by the governor; and ministers of every church to preach every Sunday, and to pray for the King, Queen, Duke of York and the royal family; and to pray and preach on the 25th of November, the anniversary of the gunpowder treason, and on the birth-day of Charles II. and on the 30th of January, to manifest detestation of the barbarous murder of Charles I. of blessed memory; but all persons professing Christianity were to have liberty of conscience.

These laws were altered and amended at the General Assizes held in 1665, 1666, 1672, and 1676. See the original laws in Collections of N. Y. Hist. Soc. i. 307-397; and for the amendments, Id. 398-425.

+ Smith, i. 37. 42.

violation of the articles of capitulation; and the English were loud in their remonstrances. Nurtured in the spirit and accustomed to the rights, of Puritan democracy, they brooked with little patience the exercise of these arbitrary powers, and clamored for the representative assemblies and other free customs of New England.*

In this state of the public feeling, there was little disposition to aid LOVELACE, in defending the city or province, when invaded by the Dutch fleet under EVERTSE and BENKES, to whom both were surrendered, without a struggle, in August, 1673. The people, except those in the eastern part of Long Island. (who would gladly have returned to the dominion of Connecticut,) quietly submitted to the Dutch rule, until October, 1674, when the colony was again and finally transferred to the English, pursuant to the treaty of London.†

ANDROSS, the Governor to whom the colony was surrendered in 1674, (afterwards so notorious in New England,) re-established the DUKE's laws, and like his predecessors, exercised, alone or with his council and subordinates, all the powers of Government. In 1676, he endeavored, by consulting the people as to the amount of taxes they were competent and willing to render, to make the system of taxation more acceptable. But the principle which forbids taxation except by the free vote of the people through their lawful representatives, had taken strong hold of the public mind; and the dissatisfaction of the inhabitants continued to increase. The impatience of the English extended to the Dutch; until, at length, in 1682, both united in a demand for popular representation, so plain and urgent, that the Duke, who five years before could "see no use in assemblies," yielded to the claim. THOMAS DONGAN, a military officer who shared his religious faith and enjoyed his personal confidence, was sent over in the place of ANDROSS, with directions to call a legislative assembly.‡

DONGAN did not arrive until August, 1683. He immediately issued orders to the sheriffs to summon the freeholders of their

Bancroft, ii. 321, 322, and the several Historical Sketches of Long Island; Wood 91; Thompson, 2d edition, i. 147.

+ To prevent doubts as to his title, the Duke of York, after the treaty, obtained from Charles II. a new grant, dated June 29th, 1674, for the same territories described in the original grant of 1664.

Smith, i. 59. Bancroft, ii. 406, 407, 415, 416. Dunlap, i. 133, 134. It is said that the advice of William Penn, who had recently visited New York, and who knew the state of things existing there, had, on this occasion, a controlling influence with the Duke.

respective districts, to choose representatives to meet him in assembly on the 17th of October, 1683, on which day the delegates of the people convened in this city.* The event is memorable, not merely as the era of representative government in New York, but from the character of the laws which were then enacted. Three of them-the charter of liberties and privileges the act to divide the province and dependencies into shires and counties-and the act to settle courts of justice-though not printed until the present century, are now easily accessible, and well deserve attention and remark. By the first of these laws, the Supreme Legislative power under the Duke of York, Lord proprietor of the province, was declared to be vested in a Governor and Council, and in the People, met in a general assembly, to be chosen by the freeholders, once at least in every three years, by a majority of voices. The usual privileges of Parliament were conferred on the Assembly and its members; no tax was to be levied without their consent; and all the guaranties of life, liberty and property, contained in Magna Charta, in the petition of right, and the habeas corpus act-trial by jury, with entire freedom of conscience to all Christians, in matters of religion and various other beneficial provisions of the English law-were proclaimed and established as the rights, liberties, and privileges of the inhabitants of New York.t

By the second law, the province is divided into twelve counties, each of which is divided into towns; thus organizing the whole province upon that system of townships to which allusion was made under a former head of this discourse.

The act to settle courts of justice, established town courts, to be held by commissioners of the peace; county courts and courts of oyer and terminer, of criminal and civil jurisdiction, to be held by judges and justices; and a court of chancery, which should be deemed the supreme court of the province, to be held by the Governor and Council; with power to the former to depute a chancellor in his stead, and with a right of appeal from the courts of oyer and terminer, and from the

Smith, i. 59, 61. Bancroft ii. 416.

+ See this Charter, at length, in the Appendix to the Revised Laws of 1813, Vol. ii. Appendix iii. No. ii.

Revised Laws of 1813, ii. App. vi. No. 3. Two of these counties, Dukes, containing the island of Nantucket and the neighboring islands, and Cornwall, containing Pemaquid and the territories and islands adjacent, claimed by the Duke, was afterwards, as mentioned ante p. 30, surrendered to Massachusetts.

court of chancery, to the King, according to a reservation in the letters patent to the Duke.*

These measures were followed, in 1685 and 1686, by charters to the city of New York, and to the city of Albany, confirming to the former, with important additions, the rights it had enjoyed under the Dutch, and granting to both all necessary municipal privileges and powers. But the assembly promised and provided for by the Charter of Liberties and Privileges of 1683, was not summoned; the Governor and Council continued to exercise legislative as well as executive powers; and in 1685, when the Duke of York became James II. and the royal government commenced, a new commission was issued to DONGAN, by which he was empowered, with the advice and consent of his council, to enact ordinances for the government of the province. In this commission he was expressly enjoined to suffer no printing press to be put up; and the same arbitrary spirit pervaded others of its provisions. These theoretic violations of natural right and of chartered pledges were fol lowed by the total omission to convene a general assembly, and by other overt acts of the like stamp.t

The great mass of the inhabitants, both Dutch and English, were Protestants by birth, and for the most part, in communions far removed from the church of Rome. The Charter of Liberties and Privileges, in accordance with the general policy of James II., had been so framed as to extend to all Christians and Christian churches equal toleration; though public offices could only lawfully be held by Protestants. It was known that several of the new settlers, including the collector and some others of the King's officers, were Roman Catholics; and it was generally believed, that Jesuit priests had been, or were to be, introduced into the province. To this, the people, whose hereditary aversion from the Romish faith was greatly heightened by the barbarous persecution then driving to these shores the Huguenots of France, were utterly opposed. The popular feeling, by this infusion of religious zeal became more intense and inflammable.

Similar abuses of the royal power, perpetrated simultaneously, but on a grander scale, at home, soon called forth that torrent of public indignation by which the dynasty of the Stuarts was overwhelmed and forever swept away.

Revised Laws of 1813, ii. App. viii.

+ Thompson, i. 162, 163.

‡ Smith, i. 79. Dunlap, i. 148–152. The edict of Nantz was repealed in 1685.

The revolution of 1688, though it freed the British isles from despotic sway, confirmed the throne in the Protestant succession, placed it on the narrow ground of popular consent, hedged it in with many barriers of aristocratic power and with some of democratic liberty; and though it restored to the New England colonies their violated charters, brought to New York any thing but good. Hailed with joy by the people, and especially by the Dutch, who delighted to resume their old relations to a Prince of the House of Orange, and regarded by devout Protestants as the greatest of blessings, it was yet, by a strange fatality, made the occasion, if not the cause, of the foulest blot in our colonial history.

With the first news of the event, the friends of constitutional freedom here, acting under the same high impulses with their more illustrious compatriots abroad; sharing, in an equal degree, their dread of Popery and of arbitrary power; and not exempt from the like exciting prejudices and passions; proceeded, like them, to take such revolutionary measures as they deemed necessary to the safety of the people. JACOB LEISLER, a Dutch burgher, conspicuous before, for his patriotism and his courage, and more daring now than the wise and prudent of the higher class, took the lead in these measures; expelled Lieutenant Governor NICHOLSON, the successor of DONGAN and the representative of James II.; and seizing, with strong hand, the government of the province, avowed his determination to hold it for William and Mary, the new Sovereigns of Great Britain, whom he also proclaimed as the Sovereigns of New York.* Dearly did he answer for his rash pre-eminence in heroic virtue.

In the conjuncture in which he was placed, men wiser, more experienced and better advised than he, would have found it difficult to avoid mistakes. LEISLER, imperfectly acquainted with the English tongue, and with English usages and institutions, and necessarily dependent for information in respect to them on his son-in-law Milborne, and others of English birth or extraction, committed an error, if indeed it can be called such, which proved, in the hands of his enemies, the instrument of his ruin. In December, 1689, despatches arrived from the government of William and Mary, directed to " Francis Nicholson, Esquire, or in his absence to such as, for the time being, take care

* Smith, i. 80; Dunlap, i. 153; Bancroft, ii. 450.