1 Letter to the Committee of Orange-comity, " New- York, December 1st, "1775."

2 Letter from Paul Mieheau to Robert Benson, " Kichmonb-county, De- "ceraber 1st, 1775." .

» " The evil consequences that will attend the not having a Provincial " Congress to determine on the measures necessary to be adopted and " carried into execution, at this unhappy crisis, are more easily con- " ceived than expressed ; and rest assured, Gentlemen, that the neigh " burning Colonies will not remain inactive spectators, if you show a " disposition to depart from the Continental Union. Confusion and dis- " order, with numberless other evils, you must suppose, will attend the " want of a Congress for the government of this Colony, until a recon- ' "ciliation with the Mother Country can be obtained," (Letter to the CommMeeof Bielmond-county, "New-Yohk, 2d Dec. 1775.")

4 It is very well known that the Morrises were zealous loyalists, in Europe as well as in America, until the family lost its hold on the Colonial Government, by the removal of the elder Lewis, from the ofBce of Chief Justice of the Colony. The appointment of Thomas Hutchinson to the Bench, to which James Otis, the elder, aspired, transferred the weight and influence of the Otis family from the side of the Government to the leadership of the Opposition, in Massachusetts. Israel Putnam was too highly appraised for the Boyal shambles, and so remained in the market, until, on the demand of the Livingstons, he was placed where he could do no further harm. The greater success of Benjamin Pratt, of Boston, and, subsequently, that of Daniel Horsmauden, in the race for the place of Chief Justice of the Colony of New York, when James De Lancey died, added fresh bitterness to the Morrises, in the disappointment of Kobert Hunter Morris ; and the disappointment of William Smith, on the same occasion, threw the Smiths into the front rank of the malcontents, in New York.