"the loud and general Voice of their Constituents; the Dictates of "sound Policy, the ties of Gratitude, and the glorious Struggle "we have engaged in for our invaluable Birth Rights, dared to "vote supplies to the Troops without the least Shadow of a "pretext for their pernicious Grant-the most eligible place will "be in the Fields near Mr De la Montagne's, and the time"between 10 & 11 o'clock in the morning, where We doubt not every friend to his Country will attend." "LEGION." Which Paper having been taken into Consideration by the General Assembly of the said Province, the House did on the nineteenth Day of December Instant come to the following Resolutions thereupon. Resolved Nemine Contradicente, that the said Paper is an infamous Libel, and contains a Scandalous Reflection on the Conduct Honor and Dignity of this House. Resolved Nemine Contradicente that the Author or Authors of the said Paper is and are Guilty of a high Misdemeanour. Resolved Nemine Contradicente, that an Humble Address be presented to his Honour the Lieutenant Governor, requesting he will be pleased to Issue a Proclamation offering a Reward of fifty pounds, to any Person or Persons who shall discover the Author or Authors of the above recited Paper, so that they may be brought to condign punishment. I have therefore thought fit by and with the advice of his Majesty's Council to issue this Proclamation; hereby in his Majesty's Name offering a Reward of Fifty pounds to any Person or Persons who shall discover the Author or Authors of the above mentioned Paper, so that he or they be thereof convicted: And over and above the said Reward I do hereby promise his Majesty's most gracious Pardon to any accomplice or accomplices who shall discover the Author or Authors of the Seditious Paper aforesaid. Given under my Hand and Seal at Arms at Fort George in the City of New York the Twentieth Day of December one thousand seven hundred and sixty Nine, in the Tenth year of the Reign of our Sovereign Lord George the third by the Grace of God of Great Britain France and Ireland King Defender of the Faith and so forth. On the 20th Dec. JOHN LAMB, afterwards a Captain in Montgomery's expedition against Canada, and since known as General Lamb, was brought before the Assembly on the Speaker's warrant and examined, on the following day, touching his conduct regarding the two preceding "Libels." As it did not appear that he had acted at the Meeting of the Citizens on the 18th in consequence of those obnoxious papers, though it is stated that he was the proposer of the Resolutions there, he was discharged. Gen'l Lamb, after seeing considerable service through the Revolutionary War, died in New York "in poverty and distress" on the 31 May, 1800, in the 66th year of his age. The Life and Times of Gen. Lamb were published in the course of the last year by Isaac Q. Leake, Esq., to which work the reader is referred for further particulars relative to this Patriot. Meanwhile the reward offered by government for the discovery of the author of the above addresses, had the effect of stimulating informers. A journeyman in the employ of James Parker, the printer of a newspaper in the city of New York, made some disclosures which procured the arrest of his employer on the 7 Feb. 1770. Parker being at the time a clerk in the post office was threatened with dismissal unless he disclosed the name of the author. He made certain avowals, and Capt. ALEXANDER MCDOUGAL was arrested, and on refusing to give bail, committed to prison. A Bill was found against him at the ensuing April term, and on consenting to give bail in the sum of £1000, he was set at liberty, but the suit never was prosecuted. On the 20th Dec. following McDougal was arraigned at the bar of the Assembly as "the supposed author or publisher" of the address signed "A Son of Liberty." He pleaded, in reply, that as the grand jury and Assembly had declared the paper in question to be a libel, he had nothing to say further than, being under prosecution already in the Supreme Court, he conceived it would be an infraction of the laws of Justice to punish a British subject twice for the same offence, for that no line could be run-he might be punished without end. This defence was voted "a high contempt," and McDougal was sent to jail, Messrs Gale, Van Cortlandt, Col. Woodhull, Capt. Seaman and Mr Clinton voting in the negative. A writ of Habeas Corpus was sued out of the Supreme Court in the course of the follow ng month, to which it was returned that the prisoner was "committed by a warrant of the Speaker for a contempt of the authority of this House." The Assembly was eventually prorogued on the 4th March, 1771, when Mr McDougal was liberated after an imprisonment of 81 days. His recognizance was discharged on the 27th of same month after being under bonds nearly twelve months and actually suffering twenty-four weeks imprisonment, in consequence of both these arrests. He was subsequently a member of the Provincial Convention, and in 1775 was appointed Colonel of the 1st N. Y. Regt. He rose in the course of the war of the Revolution (1776) to the rank of Brigr General, and in 1777 to that of Majr Genl in the U. S. army; was a prominent member of the N. Y. State Senate from 1784 until his death, which occurred in June, 1786. He is represented by one Author, as a native of Scotland; Allen's Biograph. Dict. states that he was the son of a Scotchman who sold milk in the City of New York, and that he was not ashamed to acknowledge that when a boy he assisted his father. For further particulars See, Journ. of N. Y. Prov: Convention, and American Archives 5th Series, Vol. 1. ED. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF REV. MR. DU BOIS OF NEW-YORK. [Note to p. 447.] The Revd. GUALTHERUS DU Bois, Minister of the Dutch Reformed Church of the city of New-York, was born in the year 1671, at Streef-Kerk, in the Province of Holland, of which place his father, Dome Petrus du Bois, was at the time pastor. The latter removing subsequently to Amsterdam, Gualtherus passed with great credit through the Latin school of that city, and at the age of twenty, was sent to the university at Leyden, where he studied humanity, science, philosophy and theology under Professors Van Es, Hollebeck, Van Peenen and Francius. After having "sate six years at the feet of these four Gamaliels," he returned to Amsterdam, and underwent his preparatory examination on the 1st July, 1697, before the Classis of Amsterdam. He received a call in the course of a couple of years after from the congregation at New-York, before which he made his debut on the last Sunday of October, 1699, being then in the 28th year of his age. He served uninterruptedly and faithfully in this church for upwards of half a century, devoting all his learning and energies to the advancement of religion. He preached for the last time on the afternoon of the 29th Sept., 1751. After service, he returned home to prepare for a visit to Bergen, N. J., where he was to administer the Lord's Supper on the following Monday. But he was seized in his study by a most oppressive sense of suffocation, accompanied by an universal cold and clammy sweat, and followed by excruciating pains in the head, arms and legs. These continued three or four days, but he rallied at the close of the week and felt so much better, that it was presumed he was suffering only from a cold, caught on his return from preaching in consequence of a change in the weather. He continued to improve until 5 o'clock p. m. on Monday when he had a return of the attack, which increased, accompanied with great pain, notwithstanding all the art of medicine and the attention of friends, so that he could not rest, neither in nor out of bed. His stomach now rejected all sustenance, and he quietly sunk, on the following day, into the arms of the Lord. "I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that I am his servant," was his confiding reply shortly before his death, when asked if he did not fear eternity; adding from 2 Cor., 5., "For we know, if our earthly house of this habitation be dissolved, that we have a building of God, a house not made with hands, eternal in heaven." The Revd Mr Du Bois was at the time of his death, in the 80th year of his age, and in the 52d of his ministry in New-York. His funeral sermon was preached on the 13th Octob., 1751, by his successor the Revd Lambertus de Ronde, who had served the Church in Surinam for four years and a half, and had been called to assist the Revd Mr Dubois only some months before the latter's death. This Sermon, from which we have gleaned the above particulars, was printed in N. Y. by Hendricus de Foreest, anno 1752, and is to be found in the N. Y. State Library. ED. |