porary settlement, and the lords of trade claimed New Jersey as a royal province, and they proposed a 1699. settlement of the question by" a trial in Westminster Hall on a feigned issue.' The proprietaries, threatened with the ultimate interference of parliament, in re1702. spect to provinces "where," it was said, "no regular government had ever been established," resolved rather to resign their pretensions. In the first year of Queen Anne, the surrender took place before the privy council.

It is worthy of remark, that the domain, ceasing to be connected with proprietary powers, remained, under the rules of private right, safe to its possessors, and was never confiscated. After the revolution, even to the present time, their rights have been respected like other titles to estates. So true it is, that the separation of private property from political questions tends to its security.

The surrender of "the pretended " rights to government being completed, the two Jerseys were united in one province; and the government was conferred on Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury, who, like Queen Anne, was the grandchild of Clarendon.

New Jersey neve again obtained a charter: the royal commission and the royal instructions to Lord Cornbury constituted the form of its administration. To the governor appointed by the crown belonged the power of legislation, with consent of the royal council and the representatives of the people. A freehold, or property qualification, limited the elective franchise. The governor could convene, prorogue, or dissolve the assembly at his will, and the period of its duration depended on his pleasure. The laws were subject to an immediate veto from the governor, and a veto from the crown, to be exercised at any time. The governor, with the consent of his council, instituted courts of law, and appointed their officers. The people took no part in constituting the judiciary. Liberty of conscience was granted to all but Papists, but favour was invoked for the Church of England. At the same time, its prosperity was made impossible by investing the governor with the right of presentation to benefices.

In suits at law, the governor and council formed a court of appeal; if the value in dispute exceeded two hundred pounds, the English privy council possessed ultimate jurisdiction. Two instructions mark, one a declining

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bigotry, the other an increasing interest. Great incon. venience," says Queen Anne, may arise by the liberty of printing in our province" of New Jersey; and therefore, no printing press might be kept, "no book, pamphlet, or other matters whatsoever, be printed without a license." And, in conformity with English policy, especial countenance of the traffic "in merchantable negroes was earnestly enjoined. Thus the courts, the press, the executive, became dependent on the crown, and the interests of free labour were sacrificed to the cupidity of the Royal African Company.

One method of influence remained to the people of New Jersey. The assembly must fix the amount of its grants to the governor. The queen did not venture to prescribe, or to invite parliament to prescribe, a salary,— still less, herself to concede it from colonial resources. Urgent that all appropriations should be made directly for the use of the crown, to be audited by her officers, she wished a fixed revenue to be settled; but the colonial deliberations were respected, and the wise assembly, which never established a permanent revenue, often embarrassed its votes of supplies by insisting on an auditor of its own.

The freemen of the colony were soon conscions of the diminution of their liberties. For absolute religious freedom, they obtained only toleration; for courts resting on enactments of their own representatives, they now had courts instituted by royal ordinances; and the sense of their loss quickened their love of freedom by an undefined sentiment of having suffered a wrong. By degrees they claimed to hold their former privileges by the nature of an inviolable compact. The surrender of their charter could change the authority of the proprietaries, but not impair their concessions of political liberties. Inured to self-reliance and self-government, no thought of independence sprung up among them; but the Quakers and Puritans of East and West New Jersey, cordially joining to vindicate their common liberties, never feared an encounter with a royal governor, and were ever alert to resist encroachments on their rights.

Retaining its own legislature, New Jersey was, for a season, included in the same government with New York. The first governor of West New Jersey had been the peaceful Thomas Olive, who, as a magistrate, had quietly

dispensed justice seated on a stump in his fields, and, as governor, had been content with twenty pounds a year. Did hopes dawn of a brighter day with a kinsman to the queen as governor of the united royal province? In the administration of Olive, there had been tranquillity and contentment, the happiness of a blameless community under its own guardianship. Would more even justice be administered by one so nearly allied to the nobility and the throne of England?

In New York, the dread of Popery and despotism bewildered the hasty judgment of the less cultivated. There were differences in origin; the Dutch were not blended with the English; and if, of the latter, the stern dissenters opposed the churchmen and those who had gathered round the royal governor, among the Dutch, also, the humbler class of people had not amalgamated with "the gentlemen of figure.' From the first, feudal distinctions had existed among the emigrants from Holland. In assuming power, Leisler rested chiefly for his support upon the less-educated classes of the Dutch, and English dissenters were not heartily his friends. The large Dutch landholders, many of the English merchants, the friends to the Anglican Church, the cabal that had grown up round the royal governors, were his wary and unrelenting opponents. But his greatest weakness was in himself. Too restless to obey, and too passionate to command, as a Presbyterian, Leisler was averse to the Church of England; as a man of middling fortunes, to the aristocracy; while, as a Dutchman and a Calvinist, he was an enthusiast for William of Orange. Destitute of equanimity, his failure was inevitable.

The Protestant insurgents had, immediately after the revolution in New England, taken possession of the fort in New York. A few companies of militia, from the first, sided with Leisler openly, and nearly five hundred men in arms soon joined him. Their declaration, published to the world, avows their purposes: "As soon as the bearer of orders from the prince of Orange shall have let us see his power, then, without delay, we do not intend to obey, not the orders only, but also the bearer thereof."

A committee of safety of ten assumed the task of 1689. reorganizing the government, and Jacob Leisler received their commission to command the fort of New York. Of this he gained possession without a struggle.

An address to King William was forwarded, and a letter from Leisler was received by that prince, if not with favour, yet with respect, and without rebuke. Nicholson, the deputy-governor, had been heard to say, what was afterwards often repeated, that the people of New York were a conquered people, without claim to the rights of Englishmen; that the prince might lawfully govern them by his own will, and appoint what laws he pleased. The dread of this doctrine sunk deeply into the public mind, and afterwards attracted the notice of the assemblies of New York. At that period of disorder, the committee of safety reassembled; and "Leisler, an insolent alien, assisted," say "the principal men" of New York, "by those who formerly were thought unfit to be in the meanest offices," was constituted the temporary governor of the province.

The appointment was, in its form, open to censure. Courtland the mayor of the city, Bayard, and others of the council, after fruitless opposition, retired to Albany, where the magistrates, in convention, proclaimed their allegiance to William and Mary, and their resolution to disregard the authority of Leisler. When Milborne, the son-in-law of Leisler, first came to demand the fort, he was successfully resisted. In December, letters were received addressed to Nicholson, or, in his absence, to "such as, for the time being, take care for preserving the peace and administering the law" in New York. A commission to Nicholson accompanied them. The commission proved the royal favour to be with the Tory party, the friends of the late government; but, as Nicholson was absent, Leisler esteemed his own authority to have received the royal sanction.

A warrant was soon issued for the apprehension of 1690. Bayard; and Albany, in the spring, terrified by the calamity of an Indian invasion, and troubled by the anger and the outrages of domestic factions, yielded to Milborne.

To protect the frontier, and invade and conquer Canada, was the ruling passion of the northern colonies; but the summer was lost in fruitless preparations, and closed in

strife.

Meantime, a House of Representatives had been convened, and, amidst distress and confusion, the government constituted by the popular act.

In January of 1691, the Beaver arrived in New York harbour with Ingoldsby, who bore a commission as captain. Pos

Leisler offered him quarters in the city: 1691. session of his majesty's fort is what I demand," replied Ingoldsby, and issued a proclamation requiring submission. Thus the aristocratic party obtained as a leader one who held a commission from the new sovereign. Leisler, conforming to the original agreement made with his fellow-insurgents, replied, that Ingoldsby had produced no order from the king, or from Sloughter, who, it was known, had received a commission as governor, and, promising him aid as a military officer, refused to surrender the fort. The troops, as they landed, were received with all courtesy and accommodation; yet passions ran high, and a shot even was fired at them. The outrage was severely reproved by Leisler, who, amidst proclamations and counter-proclamations, promised obedience to Sloughter on his arrival.

On the evening on which the profligate, needy, and narrow-minded adventurer, who held the royal commission, arrived in New York, Leisler sent messengers to receive his orders. The messengers were detained. Next morning, he asked, by letter, to whom he should surrender the fort. The letter was unheeded; and Sloughter, giving no notice to Leisler, commanded Ingoldsby "to arrest Leisler, and the persons called his council."

The prisoners, eight in number, were promptly arraigned before a special court constituted for the purpose by an ordinance, and having inveterate royalists as judges. Six of the inferior insurgents made their defence, were convicted of high treason, and were reprieved. Leisler and Milborne denied to the governor the power to institute a tribunal for judging his predecessor, and they appealed to the king. On their refusal to plead, they were condemned of high treason as mutes, and sentenced to death,-Joseph Dudley, of New England, now chief-justice in New York, giving the opinion that Leisler had had no legal authority whatever. Certainly never greater villians lived," wrote Sloughter; but he "resolved to wait for the royal pleasure, if by any other means than hanging he could keep the country quiet."

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Meantime, the assembly, for which warrants had been issued on the day of Leisler's arrest, came together. In its character it was thoroughly royalist, establishing a