A Military Magazine established in the midst of a community who was hostile to those who gathered and established it, without ample provision for its protection, and depending, largely, if not entirely, for its safety, on the forbearance ol those among whom it was placed, was an anomaly in Military Science; but the farmers of Westchestercounty were not inclined to retaliate ; and those who were leaders in the Rebellion could, therefrom, have learned something which would have been useful to themselves and to their " common cause," had not they been besotted in their greed for Office and its emoluments and for the authority and the opportunities for personal aggrandizement which office-bearing, in a revolutionary era, always affords to those who are the greater zealots.

The Deputies from Westchester-county were not slow in their movements, homeward, as soon as that Report and that Resolution had been adopted, leaving the Deputation in the Congress without the requisite quorum, in their eager pursuit of the advantages, to themselves, which were offered in J;heir purchases of barrelled Pork. The reason for the embargo

* Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Sabbuti, 10 ho., A.M., March "9, 1776."

which had closed the foreign markets against the producers and which had monopolized the trade in favor of the local buyers and at their own prices, was then made manifest to all observers ; and the favored Deputies, who were the official buyers, and their personal friends were provided with an outlet, at favorable prices, not only for the surplus of their own products, but for those additional stocks which the rigidly enforced embargo and their more accurate knowledge of what the future was to develope, had placed within their control ; and that without any limitations concerning prices to be paid, and without any danger, concerning the quality of the article to be sold, from the adverse reports of a sworn Packer and Inspector, from the City of New York.