« Although the Provincial Congress was seated at a distance from the City of New York, this Committee preferred to hold its meetings in that City ; and, with the unlimited authority with which it was vested, with nothing to control its own estimate of a "necessity," and with the strong arm of the military power to support, that estimate, that Committee was, in fact, an oligarchy of absolute power, possessing greater means for oppression and outrage than was held by the Provincial Congress which had created it and by whose warrant it acted.

WESTCHESTER COUNTY.

On Wednesday, the tenth of July, the Provincial Congress " resolved and ordered that the stylo or " title of this House be changed from ' The Provin- " ' cial Congress of the Colony of New- York', " which it had previously borne, to that of ' The " ' Convention of the Representatives of the " ' State of New- York -,''' 1 and, thenceforth, there was no open pretension that the King of Great Britain was the Sovereign of that portion of America or that those who were within thebounds of her territory owed the slightest allegiance to him or obedience to his commands.

The fourth Provincial Congress, notwithstanding the momentous events which were evidently rapidly approaching, was immediately zealous in continuing the remarkable policy which had distinguished the preceding three of the series and which had served to keep alive and to intensify the feuds of former days, separating the Colonists into factions, bitterly antagonistic in feelings and in actions, instead of seeking to conciliate those who differed ; to pacify those who were discontented ; to bring into harmony, the thoughts and opinions and desires which were discordant and jarring ; and to secure concert of action, for the promotion and support of " the common cause," among those who had previously differed only on the means which should be employed for the accomplishment of the common purpose.