Gerrit Van Wagenen and Henry Peters. Vestrymen--Francis Dominick, Isaac Lawrence, Isaac Carow, Robert Wardell, Cornelius Schermerhorn, John Onderdonk, Edward W. Laight, and William Green. After St. George's became a separate parish, its first minister was the Rev. John Brady, who afterward became an assistant under the Rev. John Kewly. St. George's was entirely consuined by fire in the month of January, 1814, nothing being saved but the bare walls. After a proper examination, these walls were decided to be safe enough to bear another roof, and when this was put on the whole interior of the building was renewed. The interior of the church is much more handsomely finished than the exterior, the carved capitals of the Corinthian order presenting a fine specimen of architectural beauty. The groundfloor is divided into three aisles, and on either side a commodious gallery is supported by massive columns. At the west end, and connecting these two, there is another gallery, in the middle of which is located a handsome mahogany organ. Above this end gallery there are two smaller ones, which are used by the Sunday-school pupils. From the center of the ceiling three large magnificent glass chandeliers depend, and these are among the few articles that were saved from the fire. Over the side-galleries three smaller but very beautiful chandeliers are hung above the arches. When St. George's was completed a second time, it was placed by the vestry under the pastoral charge of the Rev. Dr. Milnor, who continued to fill the rectorship until the 8th of April, 1845, when he died. This venerable minister was held in high esteem by his parish, and his death was sincerely lamented. He had been a lawyer in Philadelphia in early life, and for several terms represented that city in Congress. In 1813, he abandoned secular pursuits, and was admitted to priests' and deacons' orders by Bishop White.

"One hundred years after the consecration of St. George's, a grand centenary celebration was held in the church, and hundreds of worhipers knelt in the shadow of the pulpit from which George Washington had often heard the sacred text read and expounded. Dr. Tyng held the rectorship until the new edifice in Sixteenth Street was finished, when the communion service was removed to the new church, and a number of old relics carried away. Now the venerable pile is being gutted from organ-loft to altar, and the hungry doors stand open that all may see the nakedness of the edifice. The old gray flag-stones, worn by the feet of Schuylers, Livingstons, Reades, Van Cliffs, Beekmans, Van Rensselaers, Cortlandts, Moores, and others, well known and respected in the infancy of the metropolis, are to be torn up and converted into lime; the pulpit will go to a junk shop, and the rest of the furniture to the wood-yard. At present the graves of Revolutionary heroes serve as a depository for ashes and rubbish, and vessels are emptied daily from the windows adjoining on places where, a hundred years ago, were carved the sacred words never to be effaced, Requiescat in pace." The old church has to be torn down, and the six lots will be sold to the highest purchasers. The church was the oldest in the city but one, the building occupied as a post-office having been the first building erected as a place of worship. The property purchased from Colonel Beekman for £500 is now worth, it is said, half a million of dollars."*

The site of this building is now (1871) occupied by the elegant marble building of the Oriental and American Stove Works,

CHAPTER V.

1753.

MR. CLINTON was at his country-seat at Flushing, L. I., when his successor, Sir Danvers Osborne, arrived. This was on Sunday, the 7th of October, 1753. The council, mayor, corporation, and the chief citizens met the new Governor on his arrival, and escorted him to the council chamber. The following day Mr. Clinton called upon him, and they both dined with the members of the council. On Wednesday morning Mr. Clinton administered to him the oath of office, and delivered to him the seals; at the same time delivering to James De Lancey his commission as Lieutenant-Governor. As soon as these forms were finished, Governor Osborne, attended by the council and Mr. Clinton, set out for the Town-hall, where the new commission was usually read to the people. Scarcely, however, had the procession advanced a few steps, when the rabble, incited, it is said, by the De Lancey faction, insulted Mr. Clinton so grossly as to compel him to leave the party and retire into the fort. In the evening cannon were fired, bonfires lighted, fire-works displayed, and the whole city was given up to a delirium of joy. Amid all these rejoicings, the new Governor sat in his room, gloomy and sad; and, seemingly averse to conversation, retired early. On Thursday morning he informed the council that his strict orders were to insist upon an indefinite support for the