Sometime between Monday morning and Tuesday afternoon, [May 20, 21, 1776,] -- as no entry of its appointment was made on the Journals of the Provincial Congress, nothing is known concerning the time nor the circumstances of the appointment, unless from inference '--that body appointed a Committee " to con- " sider of the ways and means to prevent the dangers " to which this Colony is exposed by its intestine " enemies." Beyond the single fact that John Alsop, one of the most determined enemies of Independence and subsequently a recognized Loyalist, 8 was a member, if not the Chairman, of that Committee, there is no record of the names of those who constituted it ; and, beyond the information which was contained in its title, there is quite as much obscurity surrounding the purposes for which it was created.

On Tuesday afternoon, {May 21, 1776.] as we have said, Mr. Alsop submitted the Report of the Committee ; 9 and it was duly debated, with several motions for amendments, until the following Friday, [ May

Q Journal of the Provincial Congress, "Die Mercurii, 9 ho., A.M., May "29, 1776 ; " the same, " Friday Afternoon, June 14, 1776."

See, also, the Provincial Congress to the Delegates in the Continental Congress, "In Provincial Congress, New York, July 28, 1775," and the " really anxious " reply of James Duane, John Alsop, John Jay, Robert R. Livingston, Junior, and Francis Lewis, " Philadelphia, 20th Sept. 1776 ; " General Washington to the Provincial Congress, " New- York, 13 May, 1776," enclosing a letter from Isaac Sears, concerning those who were underselling their teas j and what shall he, hereafter, said on the subject.