Andros England. CHAPTER XIII. DOWNFALL OF THE STUARTS. THE founding of Pennsylvania helped to accelerate the political revolution which had been preparing in New York ever since the first arrival of Andros. During the spring of 1680 many complaints against that energetic governor found their way across the ocean. Not only was fault found with his treatment of New Jersey, but it was said that he showed too much favour to Dutch shipping, and especially that he allowed Boston people to trade in furs with the Mohawks. These rumours led the duke to summon Andros returns to to London in order to justify himself. The governor sailed in January, 1681, expecting to return so soon that he left Lady Andros in New York. He had little difficulty in satisfying the duke as to his official conduct, but during his absence serious troubles broke out in New York, which had been left in charge of Brockholls, the lieutenant-governor. The duke's customs' duties, which had been imposed in 1677 for three years, expired in November, 1680, and by some oversight Sir Edmund neglected to renew them by special ordinance. After he had gone, divers merchants refused to pay duties, and Brockholls did not feel sure that Expiration of the customs law. he had sufficient authority to renew them, a squeamishness for which the duke was far from thanking him. As soon as the merchants came to realize the weakness of the situation in which Brockholls was placed, the discontent which had smouldered during long years of autocratic rule burst forth in an explosion that had momentous consequences. . Dyer. William Dyer, the duke's collector of customs at the fort of New York, detained sundry goods for non-payment of duties. He was promptly indicted for high treason in taking upon himself "regal power and authority over the king's subjects by demanding the payment of taxes that were not legally due. Brought to trial before Indictment a special court, he began by pleading of William "not guilty," but after a while called in question the competency of the court. The case was a somewhat novel exhibition of legal ingenuity, which puzzled the judges, and it was decided to send Dyer over to England for trial. He was examined in London by the king's legal advisers, who found that he had "done nothing amiss," and presently he returned to New York to be "surveyor-general of his Majesty's customs in the American Plantations." The excitement over Dyer's case found vent in a clamorous demand for a legislative assembly. People wagged their heads as they asked whether the arbitrary rule of a lord-proprietor was any better than the arbitrary rule of a mercantile company. The old English and Dutch principle of "taxation only by consent" was loudly reiterated. At this Demand for ative as sembly. juncture the duke's release of the Jerseys and the founding of Pennsylvania seemed to bring things to a crisis. Here, said the men of New York, in these new colonies, almost at their very door, no laws could be made and no taxes levied a represent except by a colonial assembly of freemen. Why could not James Stuart conduct the business of government upon as liberal principles as his friends, Philip Carteret and William Penn? A petition was accordingly soon sent to the duke, in which the want of a representative assembly was declared an intolerable grievance. The document reached him at a favourable moment. He had been complaining that it was hard to raise a sufficient revenue in his province of New York, that his officers there were in difficulties and the air was full of complaints, so that he had half a mind to sell the country to anybody who would offer a fair price for it. "What," cried William Penn, "sell New York! Don't think of such a thing. Just give it self-government and there will be no more trouble." James concluded to take the advice. Andros was made a gentleman of the king's chamber and presented with a long lease of the island of Alderney. In his place James sent a new governor to New York, with instructions to issue the writs for an election of representatives. With all his faults and in spite of his moroseness, this Stuart prince had many excellent men attached to him; and the new governor for New York was one of the best Dongan. of them, Colonel Thomas Dongan, an Irishman of broad statesmanlike mind and all the Thomas personal magnetism that the Blarney stone is said. to impart. His blithe humour veiled a deep earnestness of purpose, long experience with Frenchmen had fitted him to deal with the dangers that were threatening from Canada, and while he was a most devout Catholic none could surpass him in loyalty to Great Britain and its government. The first 1683. The arrival of Governor Dongan in New York, with the news of his errand, was hailed with vociferous delight. The assembly was duly elected and held its first meeting in Fort James on the 17th of October, 1683. Its composition forcibly reminds us of what places the assembly, Duke of York's province consisted. The places represented were Schenectady, Albany, Rensselaerwyck, Esopus, Harlem, New York, Staten Island, Long Island (under the name of Yorkshire in three districts called "ridings "), Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, and distant Pemaquid. There were in all eighteen representatives. Several wholesome laws were passed, and an admirable charter was drawn up and sent to England for the duke's approval. All this took some time, and before he had signed the charter an event occurred which wrought many changes. 1 This assembly divided New York and its appendages into twelve counties, the names of some of which are curious: New York, Westchester, Dutchess (after the duke's new wife, Mary of Modena), Albany (Ulster, after the duke's Irish earldom), Orange (after William, the duke's Dutch son-in-law, destined to supplant him), Richmond (probably after Louise de Keroualle's bastard), Kings, Queens, Suffolk (a good name for such a Puritan county), Dukes (including Martha's Vineyard and neighbouring islands), and Cornwall (comprising the Maine districts). See Brodhead's History of the State of New York, ii. 385, 386. In February, 1685, a stroke of apoplexy carried off Charles II., and the duke became king. His proprietary domain of New York thus became a royal province, one among a group of colonies over which he now exercised similar and equal control, and his policy toward it was altered. He did not sign the charter, but let it lie in abeyance while he was turning over in his mind an alternative scheme the outcome of which we shall presently see. Meanwhile the sagacious Dongan had his hands as full as they could hold of French and Indian diplomacy. Happily the determining feature of the situation was in his favour. We have seen Iroquois politics. how the pivotal fact in early American history was the alliance between the Five Nations and the white men on the Hudson River, first Dutch, afterwards English. We have seen how they dealt with the Dutch, exchanged peltries for muskets, and then entered upon a mighty career of conquest. How they destroyed the French missions in the Huron country in 1649 is one of the most lurid chapters in history. By Governor Dongan's time they had reduced to a tributary condition nearly all the tribes east of the Mississippi and north of the Ohio and Potomac. They had lately wiped out of existence the formidable Susquehannocks, and now guaranteed the safety of Penn's new colony. We have seen how in 1675 they bestowed upon Andros the title of "Corlear," and promised to befriend the English as they had befriended the Dutch. Were they ready to go further, if need be, and attack Onontio himself, the Great White Father, in his strongholds upon |