Eight days after the Provincial Congress had received and read the Petition of Godfrey Haines and his fellow-prisoners, that body received the following Resolution from the Continental Congress, which probably served to intensify rather than to ameliorate the prevailing partisan animosities; and it was certainly not well-constituted for the relief of those who were already imprisoned on similar charges :

" Resolved, That it be recommended to the several "Provincial Assemblies, or Conventions and Coun- " cils, or Committees of Safety, to arrest and secure " every person, in their respective Colonies, who is

3 Journal of the CommiUee of Safely, "Die Sabluti, 9 ho., A.M., Sep- " tember 30th, 1775." * Historical Jlanmcriplf, etc.; Petitiow, xxxi., 70.

^Journal of the Provinrial Congreu, " Die Mercurii, 9 ho., A.M., Octo- "ber 4 th, 1775. '

HISTORY OF WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

"going at large, as may, in their opinion, endanger " the safety of the Colonies or the Liberties of "America." '

Appended to the copy of this Resolution wliich was laid before the Provincial Congress of New York, was a memorandum, not included in the official transcript of the Resolution, and without a signature, which was in these words : " To be kept as secret as " its nature will admit ;" and it was accompanied by extracts from letters which the Continental Congress had received from London, in one of which the Governor of New York, William Tryon, was mentioned ; and in which, also, it was said that " it would be a " capital stroke to get possession of Tryon." The same good fortune which Lieutenant-governor Colden had enjoyed, in receiving early information of what was proposed or done in the secret sessions of the Continental Congress of 1774, was enjoyed by Governor Tryon, concerning the private correspondence and the secret proposals and doings of the Continental Congress of 1775 ; ' and he took refuge, first, on board