Such a Plan, had it been submitted to the Home Government and to the Parliament, would, unquestionably, have aggravated instead of conciliated, and have widened the breach which then separated the Colonies and the Mother Country, instead of closing it. It is serviceable, however, to the careful student of the history of that period, to indicate, how much the Rebellion had already palled upon the senses of even those who were its local leaders ; how much a reconciliation was secretly hankered for, even among those who were blustering in fictitious bravery ; how much of hypocrisy there was among those who were loudly pretending to be "patriots," in harmony wilh similar "patriots" in each of the other Colonies, all of them zealously and noisily crowding the entire Continent into an open and unqualified Rebellion, while, at the same time, they were secretly determining, among themselves, by how slight a bond they were bound to their associates in crime, how delicately constructed

1 Journal of the Provincial Congress, i ho., I>. M., Die Murtis, June 27

1770.

were their honor and their patriotism, and at what price the Home Government could purchase their adherence and their " patriotism " and their sympathy with their compatriots, whenever that Home Government should incline to enter the market of "patriot- " ism," for such a purpose.

At a very early period, the security of the pass at Kingsbridge appears to have attracted the attention of the revolutionary faction ; and measures were taken with the evident intention of throwing up some defensive works, at that point, for the protection of the City.