Livingston, on the subject; and, in the mean time, the former of the two, who was never absent when any opportunity for making money was presented, was ordered by the Quartermaster-general to purchase, without the slightest limitation of prices or any check whatever, as to qualitiesor quantities or places or times of delivery, thirty thousand bushels of Grain, onehalf of it to be Corn and the other half to be Oats, one thousand tons of Hay, and five hundred tons of Ryestraw -- as Robert R. Livingston was to be consulted concerning the places where all these should be delivered, it is very clear that the Quartermaster general intended that large liberty, in the expenditure of the public monies, which he had authorized, should be exercised within the Manor of Livingston, where that family and its adherents would enjoy the benefits to be derived from that questionable source, instead of expending those monies within those other portions of the State where the dominant party possessed no interest, although the former was perfectly secure from loss and the latter, very largely , were exposed to the inroads of the enemy. Instructions were also given, also without limitation, for the purchase of Horses and Oxen ; and if they could not be purchased, the lucky agent was authorized to hire them, " at the most rea- "sonable rates." ' It was for the purpose of making

1 Qii irtermaaler-gctieral Mijliii to Willuim Duer, "Mount Washington, " October 20, 1776."

such opportunities as these, that the dominant faction had revolted; and in such bauds as those of William Duer and the Livingstons, such opportunities never failed to be made useful, always to themselves and sometimes to the State and the Country.