In New York Lieutenant-Governor Nicholson, having by unguarded behavior and unbecoming language provoked popular resentment and distrust, found himself confronted by the determined hostility of the captains of the training bands, who, in June, compelled him to vacate his office and return to England. The province was thus left without a head, and the people were quite unwilling to intrust affairs to the council, composed as it was of the old royal favorites. The training band captains, assuming temporary authority in the name of the people, called a convention of delegates from all the counties, which assembled on June 26, and appointed a committee of safety. By this committee Jacob Leisler, one of the captains and a prominent member of the

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community, was placed in military command of the province, and the citizens were called upon to come together and choose by popular election a successor to Stephanus Van Cortlandt in the mayoralty of the city, which they did accordingly. Finally, in December, by virtue of a letter from their majesties, addressed to " Francis Nicholson, Esq., Lieutenant-Governor and Commander-in-Chief in our Province of New York, and in his absence to such as for the time being take care for preserving the peace and administering the laws" Leisler, at the direction of the committee of safety, assumed the functions of lieutenant-governor pro tempore, in addition to those of military commander. The committee, consisting of eight members, now transformed itself, at Leisler's request, into a gubernatorial council. This unprecedented and peculiar regime lasted for a little more than a year after Leisler's elevation to the executive office, or nearly two 3^ears from the time of Nicholson's deposition. Born of a popular uprising, it was in its entire character, spirit, and conduct a people's government. This was one of the principal charges brought against it by the opposing aristocratic party, who, however, did not vouchsafe it so reputable a name, but styled it an organization of " the rabble." The leading members of Nicholson's council -- Bayard, Philipse, and Van Cortlandt -- not only lent no countenance to the training band captains, the committee of safety, or the popularly chosen lieutenant-governor, but boldly opposed each step in the new order of things.