given me opportunity to form ideas of your behav- " iour and sentiments, I believe you, in a general "sense, firmly attached to loyalty and our admirable "constitution ; that you wish to live and die subjects " only to the British empire ; but how is this to be "manifested, and that it should be declared, there is ' an absolute necessity, without delay, for the follow- "ing reasons: That the colonists of New-York are "under the same dilemma with the other provinces " and the continent throughout, considered as com- "binants in a general plan, which gives so much " offence to the supreme authority, whose dignity " cannot, nor will not, be insulted. Let us of Cort- " landt's manor, clear ourselves of the general impu- "tation; we do not deserve it, then, why should we "suffer it? We never consented to congresses nor " committees, we detest the destruction of private " jJroperty, we abhor the proceedings of riotous and " disorderly people, and finally, we wish to live and " die the same loyal subjects we have ever been, to his " most sacred Majesty Geor(je the Third. Let us " my friends, declare, and acknowledge this, our in- " dispensible duty, by signing our names to the paper I " now circulating in this manor, wrote and adapted "for the subscription of none but Royalist.s.-- It is

not enough for a man to say, that I am a b.yal sub- "ject, no more than to say I am a jiious and true "christian; it must he his work, his dependance on, " his energy, his indefatigable effort; to promote honor "and glory to the true system of his preservation. As " chanty, my friends, is a characteristic of a good man " and a christian, I wish by no means it should be im- " paired, in this our manor of Cortlandt ; permit me, " my neighbours, to instance one point in particular "to which I hope you will pay strict adherence, viz.