"A few years," he writes, "will put us all in the dust, and then it will be of more importance to me to have governed myself than to have governed a State."

The self-sacrificing character of Mr. Jay's patriotism was exhibited by his acceptance of the office of Minister to England to negotiate the treaty of 1794. The bitter feelings between Great Britain and the United States, created by the Revolutionary War, were so strong as to interfere with the commercial prosperity of the youthful nation. Mr. Jay, among other statesmen, recognized that it was necessary that a treaty should be made with England. Urging his views upon some friends, he said that so intense was the popular hostility towards the English, that the Minister who should negotiate the treaty would be an object

a Doc Col. Hist, of N. V., vol. Till : p. 469.

b Seammonda Political Hist, of N. Y., Vol. li, p. 310.

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HISTORY OF THE COUNTY OF WESTCHESTER.

of public execration. A gentleman remarked that be bad good reasons for thinking Mr. Jay would be selected by President Washington for that position. "If my country demands the sacrifice,'' replied Mr. Jay, "I am read}'."

Mr. Jay was appointed. He went to England, negotiated the treaty, which, though much opposed, was at last ratified by the Senate. But Mr. Jay was for years an object of strong popular hostility. -- The Boston True Flag, test June 24, 1876.

In the same room died on Thursday, Oct. 14, 1858, his second son, Judge William Jay. He was born June 16, 1779, graduated at Yale College in 1807, and studied law at Albany; but having injured his eyes by intense study, relinquished his practice and retired to Bedford. Upon the death of his father in 1829, he acquired the Bedford estate.