^ Orange then inchuleJ wliol is now Rockland County.

THE ORIGIN AND HISTORY OF THE MANORS.

II. The second cliiuse enacts that " The Middle of the said (Hudson) River shall be, and is hereby dci-hired to bo, the Boundary Line between the said (bounties of (>ranc/r and Westchester," and tliat the western half "is declared to be included in, and annexed to the said County of Oranf^c, together with all , the Islands included within the said Rounds."

III. And be it further Enacted by the Authority aforemiid. That from and after the I'ublication of this Act, all the Islands and I'reniises hereby included in, and aiuiexcd to the said County of Wesfehexter, shall be taxed and subject to all such Laws, Rules, and Regulations, with those Manors, Towns, or Districts, to which they are nearest in Situation."

The effect of this law was to remove all doubt that might arise in relation to the subject of the act. It all'ected the coast-line of every Manor in the County. From the ninth day of July, 177(), when the Provincial Congress sitting then at White Plains, accepted, while " lamenting the necessity which rendered that measure unavoidable," ' the Declaration of Independence, until 1781), when the Government of the United States, framed by the convention of 1787, went into operation. New York was an independent Sovereign State, mistress of herself, and as such was one of the thirteen independent Sovereignties so acknowledged by the British Treaty of Peace in 1783. While in this condition her Legislature divided her territory into counties and townships, and made some changes in the former from what they had been under the Province of New York. This was done by two acts pa.ssed on the 7th of March, 1788, chapters 63 and ()4 of the Laws of 1788.- Both acts, however, were only to take effect from and after the first day of Ajjril, 1789.