And one principal reason why tlie friends to government did not assemble in greater numbers than they did, on Tuesday last, was that many of them had already, by signing those resolves, testified their loyalty to the king, their attachment to the constitution, their enmity to the committees, and their acquiescence in tlie prudent measures taken by the Assembly in the late session, for accommodating the unhappy differences between the mother country and the colonies, and consequently thought they had done their duty. The committe that was chosen may with some kind of propriety, be said to represent those particular persons who chose them ; but how they can be denominated the Representatives of the County of Westchester, who, in general, abhor committees and committee men, and are determined to take no steps that may lead them inio rebellion, we cannot conceive ; certainly the friends to government who were collected at Captain Hatfield's had a better right from their number to determine that there should be no committee than the opposite party had to appoint one, and might with much greater propriety be said to show the sense of the County than the few who acted without authority and in direct opposition to government, and to the determinations of our worthy Assembly ; and we doubt not but the impartial publick will consider the matter in this light, and not esteem the act of a few individuals, unlawfully assembled,

356 HISTOR Y OF THE

as the act (which most assuredly is not,) of the very respectable, populous, and Loyal County of Westchester. »