Rumours of

Nicholson's government in New York was supported by three members of the council. They were Dutch citizens of the highest social position: Frederick Philipse, the richest man in the province, Stephanus van Cortlandt, mayor of New York, and Nicholas Bayard, colonel of the city regiment of train-bands. The other members of the council were scattered, some of them as far away as Pemaquid. These three war. were the only ones present in the city. On the 26th of April they heard of the imprisonment of Andros, and the very next day they heard that Louis XIV. had declared war against Great Britain and the Netherlands. This report was premature, for war was not declared until May 7th, but the very air was full of premonitions of that bloody struggle which was to last for eight years. Small blame to Nicholson and his three councillors if the grim tidings disturbed them! Small blame to the mass of worthy citizens if something like a panic was created! There were many Huguenot refugees in the city; they had been coming for several years, and especially for the last four years since the king had revoked the Edict of Nantes; and they had been received with warm welcome. They knew, as everybody knew, that Louis XIV. had a very long arm. There never was a time when an attack by France seemed more formidable than in 1689. The king had not yet been cast down from his pinnacle of military glory, and the spirit of Catholic propagandism had been taking fuller and fuller possession of him. We now know what his truculent purpose was with regard

to New York. Frontenac was just starting to execute it. Of course the burghers of New York did not know of those secret instructions to Frontenac, but they understood perfectly the danger of the situation. As for the frightful blow with which the Iroquois baffled the scheme of Louis XIV. (which for the sake of clearness we have mentioned by anticipation), it did not come till the summer of 1689, and still further time was needed to disclose its effects. In the spring of that year it was still in the future.

It was not at all strange, then, that the elements of an anti-Catholic panic were rife in New York. Other things contributed to destroy confidence and

Causes of the antiCatholic panic.

make men distrustful of one another. In spite of all pretences of liberality, it had always been the design of James II. to force the Catholic faith upon the American colonies; so he afterwards told Pope Innocent XI.1 People were not wrong, then, in suspecting him. The two regiments of regular troops which Andros had brought to America were made up of Irish Catholics, and one had been commanded by Nicholson, who was now in command of New York. Nicholson was really an Episcopalian, but it was rumoured that he had knelt at the Mass once on Hounslow Heath in presence of King James, and many people believed him to be a Papist in disguise.

At the first news of war Nicholson directed the city train-bands to take turns in guarding Fort James, and a watch was placed upon Coney Island

1 Brodhead, History of the State of New York, ii. 531.

Jacob
Leisler re-

duties.

to look out for French ships. The money collected as revenue was placed within the fort for safety, and the new receipts after May- fuses to pay day were to be applied to building new fortifications. At this juncture a cargo of wine arrived from Europe, consigned to a well-known wine-merchant, Jacob Leisler. The duty was about a hundred pounds sterling, and Leisler refused to pay it, on the ground that Matthew Plowman, collector of the port, was a Roman Catholic, and that since King James's flight no duly qualified government existed in New York.

Leisler.

This Jacob Leisler was a German of humble origin, born at Frankfort-on-the-Main. In earlier days he had been a soldier in the pay of the West India Company, and had come to New Amsterdam a few years before its capture by the English. A residence of thirty years had made Character of him one of the most and conprosperous spicuous citizens. Through his marriage with Elsie Tymens, a niece of Anneke Jans, he had become connected with the aristocracy, but was not cordially welcomed among such people. One can imagine that Van Cortlandt and Bayard might not feel proud of such a connection, and that occasions would be afforded for Leisler to cherish resentment. Indeed, there had been a bitter quarrel, with one or two lawsuits between Leisler and these two gentlemen, so that their families were not on speaking terms. Leisler was a man of integrity, noted for fair and honourable dealing in matters of business. We hear, too, that he was kind-hearted and generous with money. But he

was evidently of coarse fibre, ignorant, stubborn, and vain, just the man to be seized and dominated by a fixed idea. His letters are those of a man with too little education to shape his sentences correctly. He seems to have had something of the heresy-hunting temper, for we have already met him once in this narrative as deacon of Nieuwenhuysen's church, bringing charges of "false preaching" against Dominie Van Rensselaer, losing his suit, and getting saddled with the costs of it. But his ruling passion was hatred of Popery, and his dominant idea was rooted in the dread of it. He could see no good in any Romanist; his eyes were blind to the loyal virtues of such a man as Dongan, who was quite above and beyond his ken; he believed Nicholson to be a Papist. These men had been servants of James Stuart, who was now harboured by the French king; what were they staying about New York for if not to deliver it into the hands of the enemy? The Boston men had struck with promptness and decision, New York must do the same, and Jacob Leisler would be God's instrument in bringing this to pass.

Besides this dread of Popery, there was another feeling that Leisler represented. Long-continued arbitrary taxation and the repeated failure to obtain representative government had caused much popular discontent. Though the population of the little city was scarcely more than 4000 souls, a distinction of classes was plainly to be seen. Without regard to race, the small shopkeepers, small farmers, sailors, shipwrights, and artisans were far apart in their sympathies from the rich fur trad

ers, patroons, lawyers, and royal officials. The general disappointment sharpened the distrust felt toward people in high station, especially toward such as had accepted office from the Catholic king, who had not kept his promises. Vague Vague demdemocratic ideas and hopes still hazier ocratic ideas. were in the air. Along with the indignation at the recent attempt to annex the province to New England, there was exuberant pleasure in the thought that the throne was now to be occupied by a Dutch king; and there was a dim half-shaped notion that a prompt and fervid expression of allegiance to William of Orange would be helpful in winning from him a grant of popular liberties. Coupling all this with the fear that James's officials might betray the city to the French, we find, I think, a certain coherence among the notions that were teeming in Leisler's rugged and fanatical mind. A wealthy and prominent citizen, he was in lack of refinement and education like the mob, and so had its confidence, which was no doubt enhanced by his known integrity and energy. He may well have deemed himself marked out for the leader of a popular movement, and believed that he could establish a claim upon the good graces of William III. by saving for him his province of New York despite the diabolical plots of Catholic officials and the Dutch aristocrats who supported them; for although such men as Bayard and Van Cortlandt were thorough Protestants and deacons in the Dutch Reformed Church, they were none the less to Leisler's distorted fancy a "crew of Papistical renegades."