and, with equal resolution and consistency, it evidently determined, also, that the Assembly should take no omcial action on any of the occurrences of the preceding year, except such as should be brought before it, officially, or such as might have arisen from some prior action of the Assembly itself; and, more important than all else, it determined that, with all the weight of its legitimate and omcial authority and influence and with all the personal influence of its individual members, but after a fashion and in terms of its own selection, and without any violation of official or individual propriety or of the Laws of the Land- -especially without officially recognizing the existence of any other opposition to the Ministry or the existence of any other organized body which had been, which was, or which might become, similarly employed -- it would vigorously oppose the obnoxious Colonial policy of the Home Government, earnestly seek a redress of the serious grievances under which the Colonies were then laboring, and honestly endeavor to effect that honorable and permanent reconciliation of the Colonies and the Mother Country, which all factions, and all parties, and all sects, and all classes of society, throughout the Colony, professed to consider necessary and desirable ; and which, some in one manner and some in others, each faction for itself, they were endeavoring to secure, for the common weal. 2

The County of Westchester was ably represented on the floor of the Assembly, in the persons of Colonel Frederic Philipse and Judge John Thomas, who represented the body of the County; Pierre Van Cortlandt, who represented the Manor of Cortlandt ; and Isaac Wilkins, who represented the Borough of Westchester. Of these, Thomas and Van Cortlandt were of the minority of the Assembly, of which mention has been made ; and Philipse and Wilkins