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.

6 Minutes of the Committee, "New -York, Monday, May 23, 1774."

6 Bancroft, (History of the United States, original edition, vii., 41, 42 ; the same, centenary edition, iv., 327,) said " the control fell into the "hands of men who, like John Jay, still aimed at reconciling a contin- "ued dependence on England with the just freedom of the Colonies."

The principal purposes of the Committee, in all which related to national politics, were the protection of those who were constantly employed in Smuggling ; the exemption of the Colonies from the payment" of Import Duties and Direct Taxes levied by the Parliament ; and the continued military protection of the Colonies, at the expense of the Mother Country, unless the unlikely contingency should arise of a voluntary taxation of themselves, for that purpose. Besides these, the . chief purpose of the Committee was to relegate the unfranchised masses of the City of Now York, of all classes, to the obscurity and dependence of vassals ; and to place itself at the head of all the political elements of the Colony, as the autocratic, anti-revolutionary ruler of both the Colonists and the Government-- in all of which, unquestionably, James Duane's and John Jay's were the master minds, within the Committee and William Smith 's that which was not within it.