From such widely dissimilar constituencies, in town and country, therefore, even from those who were not widely separated and differently situated, there could not be expected Delegations to the Provincial Congress who were homogeneous in their characters and dispositions and inclinations ; and as all those rural Delegations possessed more or less of the elements which prevailed among those who were nominally their respective constituencies, it was to be a work of time and patience and skill, in partisan and factional discipline, to bring all of them into " working order,'' in the interest of the controlling, or revolutionary, faction of the aristocracy -- a work of which notice will be taken, hereafter.

The City and County of New York, of course, was represented in the Provincial Congress by the extremes of both conservatism and of radicalism, with a generous sprinkling of those who favored that political association which promised the greater pecuniary profits ; and the several Delegations from Albany and Queens and Westchester and Duchess-counties, respectively contained, also, more or less of mixed memberships. From the remaining nine Counties, the Delegations were generally smaller in number; and, very largely, especially in the earlier days of the existence of the Congress, they were composed of those who had honestly come for the purpose of pro-, tecting the Colony from the wrongs to which the

1 Vide page 91, ante.

Home Government was said to have subjected it ; but, at the same time, their inclinations were peaceful; and they preferred a reconciliation with Great Britain, instead of a Civil War, which had been already commenced; and, because they had not yet been corrupted by the social influences of life in the City nor by the allurements of official plunder, they were ready to join with all or with any, regardless of their factional affiliations, who entertained similar views, in the practical establishment of those fundamental principles.