aggravations, since the want of the Arms of which they had been robbed would nothavebeenahindrance to any one who had desired to destroy a Powder-mill; and it shows, also, how unwise that revolutionary policy had been, which had tended not only to impair the industrial usefulness of such a community, at a time when the results of its agricultural and other industrial labors were most needed, but to make that element, in the Colony, permanently antagonistic, which, under a peaceful and conciliatory policy, might have been made passive and useful, if not friendly and co-operative.

After the autocratic General Lee was ordered to the South, in March, 1776, the military command of the Continental forces in the City of New York was vested in General Lord Stirling ; and, on the thirteenth of that month, that commanding General requested the Provincial Congress to appoint a Committee, to confer with him on various subjects connected with the defense of the City and Colony. 1

On the following day, [March 14, 1776,] for the purpose of putting the City into a proper condition to sustain an attack, " all the male inhabitants, capable " of fatigue," were ordered to " be immediately em- " ployed on the fortifications of the City, and as well '' all the negro men in the City and County of New " York " were similarly ordered ; and, at the same time, the inhabitants of Kings-county were ordered to be similarly employed on the defences of that County ; while levies were made on the southern part of Orange, or what now constitutes Rockland, County, and on the County of Westchester, for detachments from the Militia of those Counties, respectively, forthe support and assistance of the working parties in the City of New York. 2