Little by little, therefore, under the leadership of, probably, not more than half a dozen shrewd and able and ambitious men, generally of higher social and political standing than themselves, these " In- " habitants " began to grow uneasy and insubordinate, if not radically revolutionary; and the confederated " Merchants and Traders " and the more aristocratic portion of the citizens who were not in Trade were as quickly made sensible that a power had been created and fostered, by themselves, for their own lawless purposes, which, because of its tendency towards a radical Eevolution in both the social and political relations of the Colony, they were no longer able to control-- a power, indeed, which, if it were not speedily and effectually checked, would surely overwhelm them and, probably, involve the Colony and the Continent in revolution and disaster. At the same line, it was clearly seen by those careful observers of the signs of the times, that any attempt to abridge the existing power of the unfranchised " Inhabitants '' of the City, and, especially, that of those who were less scrupulous in the selection of their means, by open and direct measures, would, probably, induce the latter to employ, in their own behalf, that system of violence which they had been taught to regard as commendable and praiseworthy, when they had employed it in behalf of others ; and it was seen, also, by those who had become alarmed by the strength and the audacity of that new element in Colonial politics, strengthened, as it evidently was, by its affiliation with the radically revolutionary elements in New England, the machinery of the by-gone Committees of Correspondence being controlled by it, that, in order to check its growing power, or to secure any change whatever, in the control of it, or to retain the control of the politics of the Colony, great caution and great tact, if not great promptness and great boldness, at some auspicious moment, would be absolutely necessary.