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Maj'ts Royall feet and pray that her Majesty would give her poore opprest Subjects such Reliefe as in her Royall Wisdom and goodness She Shall Judge most fitt."

Instant action was taken; a petition to the Queen was read and approved by the House and the Speaker signed it. A letter to the Right Honorable Robert Harley, one of her Majesty's principal Secretaries of State was also prepared and signed by the Speaker. Not only this, but an address to the Governor "Remonstrating some of the Griev ances of this province pursuant to ye above Resolves" was presented to Cornbury by Samuel Jennings, the Speaker, who was attended by the whole House. This address spoke in no uncertain tones. While prepared with great care and assuming the peculiar tone of deference used in those days by citizens, when addressing persons in authority, it gave full scope to the charges made against the Governor and recapitulated fully what those grievances were. Not only that, but it directly charged Cornbury thus: "It is Notoriously known that Many Considerable Sums of Money have been raysed to procure the dissolution of the first Assembly, to get cleare of the Proprietors Quit rents, and to claim such officers as the Contributors Should approve of, this House has great reason to believe the money so gathered was given to lord Cornbury and to induce him to dissolve the then Assembly, and by his own Authority keep three Members out of the next Assembly, and putting So Many Mean and Mercenary Men into office by which corrupt prac tice men of the best estates are Severely harassed and her Maj'ts subjects in this province So Impoverished that they are not able to give that support to her Majesty's government as is desired or as they Would otherwise be Encloyned to doe."

The delivery of the address which was read by the Speaker, Jennings, to the Governor, was attended with some peculiar circumstances. The Governor assumed a very loud, dictatorial tone and haughty mannerinterrupted the reader now and then with exclamations and questions; but, Jennings was equal to the occasion. He paid no attention whatever to the manner of the Governor, but, when interrupted with a question or exclamation, deliberately, but more emphatically than before, read the sentences over again. The principal matters set up in this address were non-attendance of the Governor in New Jersey; that some persons under sentence of death for murder, had not only remained unexecuted, having been condemned to die a short time after Cornbury came to the province, but had been allowed to go at large;

that parties who had been charged with crime, but against whom the Grand Jury had failed to find indictments, had been obliged to pay court fees; that the only office for the probate of wills, in the whole province, was at Burlington; that the Secretary's office for the eastern division was not kept at Amboy, but that all persons living in that part of the province were obliged to go to Burlington if they had any business to transact with that office; that the Governor had granted a monopoly for the carriage of goods from Burlington to Amboy; that he had undertaken to establish Court and other fees, which it was claimed could only be done by him in connection with the Council and the Representatives; that he had put the public records of the eastern division in the hands of Peter Sunmons who did not reside in the province and had not given security for the keeping of records in due order; that he had prohibited the agents of the Proprietors from granting any warrants for the taking up of land in the western division; that he had refused to permit three members of the legislature to take their seats, allowing himself to be swayed by the groundless assertions of two of his Council; that considerable sums of money had been raised to procure the dissolution of the first Assembly, and paid over to Cornbury so as to enable parties who honestly owed them, to rid themselves of the payment of quit-rents; and that he had put many mean and mercenary men into office.

To this remonstrance the Governor, on the 12th of May, made his answer-long, desultory and rambling; lacking in dignity, wanting in force and inconsequent. In it, he vented his spite against the two men in the legislature who had been prominent in the oppositionSamuel Jennings and Lewis Morris. Mention has already been made of Jennings a man without reproach and who had served the province in several positions of honor and trust; Morris, at this time one of the leading men in the province, became more and more prominent and will necessarily be mentioned hereafter. Both these men had been dismissed for their lack of subservience to the Governor.

By this time a new cause of offence to the Assembly had arisen. Peter Fauconnier was the Receiver General for the province. The Legislature, in some manner, became dissatisfied with his action, as such Receiver, and commanded him to appear before them with his accounts. He appeared and presented them. The Legislature required.

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that he should verify them by vouchers.

This he refused to do, claiming that he was not the officer of that body and that he could only comply with its requests when ordered to do so by Cornbury. The Legislature instantly sent a committee to the Governor requesting that he should order Fauconnier to present his vouchers. He delayed, but finally said that the Receiver was only accountable to the Lord High Treasurer, who had appointed a deputy to audit such accounts and that if the House were dissatisfied with any of the charges, it could apply to the deputy, who would satisfy them.

The breach grew wider and wider. Each party was determined in its antagonism to the other, the Governor refused to yield and the Assembly unanimously resolved that nothing should be done until its grievances were removed. By this time the proprietors of both prov inces, who had been thoroughly aroused by the action of Cornbury, took part in the controversy and sent a remonstrance to the authorities in England. The Assembly also sent one, but direct to the Queen, and the result was that in 1708, she, with very great reluctance, removed Cornbury from the office of Governor of New York and New Jersey. This date is incorrectly given by Gordon, who fixes it at 1709. lace met the Conncil at Bergen December 20, 1708, then published his commission and summoned the fourth Assembly to meet him at Perth Amboy on the 3d of March, 1708, O. S.

colonists in New York After he was released at the instance of his

Cornbury had become so obnoxious to the that they also had remonstrated to the Queen. from the prison, where he had been confined creditors, he returned to England, assumed his position as a peer of the realm, and died in 1723.

It is a suggestive fact that Lewis Morris, one of his principal antag onists in the Assembly, had been mentioned for the office of Governor just before Cornbury was appointed, but the affection of the Queen for her relative triumphed over her regard for the interests of her subjects.

The administration of Cornbury gave the people of the colony a fair opportunity of comparing the rule of the Proprietors with that of a royal government. Under that of the Proprietors, the Colonists elected the members of the Legislature, which the Governor could not dissolve, and it is very doubtful whether he could prorogue it. Philip Carteret, during the whole of his governorship, adjourned the Assembly only once and that was near the close of his term. During all his controversies with the Legislature, and they were many and continu

ous, he never dared dissolve it. and adjourned when it chose.

The Assembly sat as long as it pleased
But under the royal rule, the Legisla

ture might be adjourned or dissolved at a moment's warning, without cause or notice, and in the most abrupt manner.

Under the rule of the Proprietors, the widest toleration was guarantied to all religions; no one could be molested on account of his faith. Under the new Government, there was a limited toleration only, to all Protestant denominations, Roman Catholics were directly excepted. But every possible opportunity was afforded for the growth of the Church of England. Queen Anne, in her instructions to Cornbury, required him to take especial care that "God Almighty be devoutly and duly served throughout your Government, the book of Common Prayer, as by law established, read each Sunday and holyday and the blessed sacraments administered according to the rules of the Church of England." Other directions from the Queen to her cousin, in these "Instructions," show conclusively that her great desire was that the State Church of Great Britain should be fostered and patronized, to the exclusion of all other denominations.

It is true that while the Proprietors ruled the province, there were no newspapers in the colony and therefore there could have been no muzzling of the press. The "Grants and Concessions" were silent on the subject, though it is manifest from many of its provisions that no restrictions would have been placed upon the press under any circumstances. But, under the royal rule, there was no liberty of the press. This is the clause of the Instructions" referring to that subject: "Forasmuch as great Inconvenience may arise by the Liberty of Printing in our Said Province, you are to provide by all Necessary Orders; that no Person keep any Press for printing, nor any Book, Pamphlet or other matters whatsoever be printed without your special Leave or License first obtained."

While the Proprietors governed, all freeholders, or their agents, without limit as to value or amount of land owned by them, could vote at every election for members of the Legislature and any inhabitant who was a freeholder of any amount of real estate might be elected. But under the royal rule, a citizen, to be an elector must have owned at least a hundred acres of land, or be worth £50, and no one was qualified to serve as Representative unless he were the owner of a thousand acres of land, or were worth £500 of real or personal estate.

Other comparisons might be made showing the great difference be

tween the two governments, but enough has been quoted for the present purpose.

The colonists entertained great hopes that their condition would be improved with the change in the administration. Lord Lovelace came with an excellent reputation and was an entirely different man from his predecessor. Lord Cornbury had filled all the offices within his patronage with his own favorites and the Assembly was perfectly correct in its charge that these men were mean and despicable. But matters were entirely changed under the rule of Lovelace. He was impartial in his administration of public affairs and in his selection of men to fill the offices. He was of great candor and mild and amiable in disposition and manifested throughout the whole of his short career as Governor an earnest desire to conciliate all classes, to advance the interests of the colony and to serve the Queen in all possible ways. His first meeting with the assembly was in the month of March, 1708, -the close of the year, according to the method of computing time at that period. Eighteen representatives only were present on the first day, eight from the eastern division and ten from the western; six afterwards appeared. Thomas Gordon was elected Speaker. On the 4th of March, the new Governor made his first address, which was very short and seemingly prepared with all caution so as not to excite any jealousy or irritation in the minds of the representatives. He made but two recommendations, one for the passage of a law providing for the expenses of the government, and the other for the putting of the militia upon a better footing. The speech was in direct contrast with those made by Cornbury; there was an absence of all arrogance and dictation; it was conciliatory, and suggestive, merely, and by no means authoritative.

The Assembly at once made a short reply to the Governor's address, and on the 7th of March resolved to introduce fifteen bills, the first of which was to provide for the support of the government. The proceedings of the Assembly went on smoothly, its first attention being given to the bill first introduced.

The Assembly did not lose sight, however, of its old quarrel. The Lieutenant Governor, Ingoldsby, and the Council had addressed a letter to the Queen, in which they had spoken harshly of the Assembly. The Legislature requested Lovelace to obtain a copy of this address for its use, which he did; after receiving it, they desired him to appoint a time and place and invite the authors of the letter to appear before

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