The letter from Philadelphia being only a reflex of what had been written to that Committee by those who had subsequently been confirmed as members of this, it received no official attention, at that time ; but those from Boston, which included the Vote of the Town of which mention has been made, were referred to a Sub-committee, composed of Alexander McDougal, Isaac Low, James Duane, and John Jay, with instructions to consider the subject to which those letters were devoted ; to prepare a draft of an answer thereto ; and to report the same, to the Committee, at eight o'clock on the same evening, to which hour the Committee then adjourned. 5

The disposition of the majority of the Committee of Correspondence, as well as the line of action which those who controlled it 6 intended to take, as far as it related to the great body of the unfranchised inhabitants and their rapidly increasing influence in the control of the political affairs of the Colony, was clearly defined and boldly presented, at that first opportunity to do so, in the formation of that very important Sub-Committee, in which the well-known

"fee-House on Thursday last, the Merchants and Mechanicks, who were " opposed to the Committee of Correspondence consisting of Fifty-one "Persons, have, for the Salutary Purpose of Union among ourselves, " agreed to that Number ; and that the Gentlemen whose Names were " published in Mr. Gaine's last Paper, be the Committee for this City."

The correspondence of Lieutenant-governor Colden with Governor Tryon and with the Earl of Dartmouth very clearly indicates that that remarkable old man was not deceived by the doings, in politics, of the " Merchants and Traders" and Gentry of New York ; that their social and commercial and professional standing did not warrant what he regarded, very reasonably, their tendency toward rebellion ; and that, while he hoped their influence would restrain the violence of those with whom they were associated, he never regarded them as, truly, friends of the Home Government nor of the Sovereign.