During the greater portion of the period in which had occurred the various transactions of which mention has been made, herein, the General Assembly of the Colony of New York had not been permitted, by the Colonial Government, to meet for the consideration of the public affairs and for the transaction of the public business of the Colony ; but a large proportion, if not a majority, of the Members of the House, in their individual characters, were known to have sympathized, to a greater or lesser extent, with the less radical portion of the party of the Opposition, in the Colony, while the Committee of Correspondence of the House, in which was vested, ad interim, much of the authority of the House, was also known to have united with the local Committees of Correspondence, iu New York and elsewhere, in proposing the conven-

1 Vide pages 43, 44, 45, ante.

tion of a Congress of all the Colonies, for consultation and advice, in the matter of the great grievances to which the Colonies were said to have been subjected, unconstitutionally, by the Parliament and the Ministry of Great Britain. It was a matter of deep concern, therefore, both in the Colonial Government and among the Colonists, generally, when, on the tenth of January, 1775, that body was permitted to assemble, in an Adjourned Session ; 2 and, in the absence of more exciting occurrences and in view of many anxious hopes that that Assembly, which had not been concerned in any of the extraordinary occurrences of the preceding twelve months, might, possibly, become instrumental in restoring harmony between the Mother Country and the Colonies -- " most ardently " desired by all good men " 3 -- the eyes of all careful observers, in Europe and America, were directed, wistfully, toward the little chamber, in the old City- Hall, in Wall-street, in the City of New York, in which that General Assembly was assembled.