Treason has always consisted, and still consists, of something else than a mere misdemeanor or a simple felony ; and the subject of another .Sovereign, although a violator of the lex loci, to which he properly owed obedience, could not, then nor since, have been legally tried and convicted of Treason, for any such violation of the local Law, in the State of New York or elsewhere, else, under these Resolutions, every officer and soldier of the Royal Army, whether British or Irish or German, who were within the State of New Y"ork, on and alter the sixteenth of July, 1776, were Traitoi-s "against the State." liable to be tried for that very capital offence, and to "sufl'er the pains and " penalties of Death," therefor.

The Convention, in its eagerness to secnr* the State, made itself ridiculous by the passage of such Resolutions, especially since it was exercising despotic authority, unrestrained by any Law, and needed no such Resolution as a warrant for declaring any one, no matter whom, either with or without a reason, to have been a traitor, and to have hung and quartered him after the most approved fashion of despots, had it inclined to have done so.

THE AMERICAN REVOLUTION, 1774-1783.

' such persons, whose going at large, at this critical " time, they shall deem dangerous to the Liberties of " this State ;" ' and the measure of its zeal was filled by asking a loan from General Washington, for the payment of what it had undertaken to do, promising to '• take the earliest care to replace what nothing " but urgent necessity would have induced it to bor- " row ;" by requesting him to send an immediate supply of Ammunition for the troops who were already in motion and " but ill-supplied " with that very necessary article ; by expressing a fear to him that the enemy would attempt " to cut oft" the communication " between the City and country, by landing above " Kingsbridge," and its desire to " have some force " ready to hang on his rear, in case such a step should " be taken ;" and by suggesting to the General, also, that if Governor Trumbull would form a Camp of six thousand men, at Byram-river, the westernmost limit of Connecticut, any designs which the enemy might have, to land above Kingsbridge, would become " ex- " tremely hazardous." -