Although the quarrel resulted in the dismissal of Morris and his own appointment to the vacated office, he had to suffer for two years the humiliation of extreme unpopularity and of utter failure to compel acceptation for his official orders and rulings in the further developments of the controversy. The grand jury, despite his strenuous and repeated application, refused to indict Zenger, and on the final trial of that arch-libeler the jury in the case contemptuously scorned the urgent instructions given them by the chief justice to find against the accused, and instantly rendered a verdict of not guilty amid the rapturous applause of the assembled populace. But after the subsidence of the passions of that exciting period, the real worth of de Lancey's character became by degrees appreciated. Strong-willed and ambitious, he was yet a man of perfect honesty and openness, free from all meanness and low craft and servility to the great. To the manliest of personal qualities he added brilliant abilities, an extraordinary capacity for public affairs, and an affability and grace of manner which made him an object of general admiration and affection. During the administration of the royal GovernorClinton, father of Sir Henry Clinton, he severed his connections with the "court party" and was consequently regarded with scant favor by the executive and his adherents. He was appointed to the office of lieutenant-governor by the proper authority in England, but Clinton revengefully withheld the commission for six years, delivering it to him only upon the eve of his own permanent retirement. This happened in October, 1753, when the newly appointed governor. Sir Danvers Osboru, arrived. A very few days later Osborn committed suicide, and de Lancey thus became acting governor. He held the po-