That the Petitioner on Enquiry is since informed tliat the said Justices had no Dedimas Potestatim Commission or Authority to Compel him to take or autliorize them to administer the said Oaths; But that they being the Heads of one of the Parties wdio were in Difference in the said Church: And the said Johannis Hardenbergli being the Father in Law of the said Hermanns Myer, had under Colom* of their Office arbitrarily and unwarrantably assumed and exerted that Power, merely to serve the purpose of their Party.

That your Petitioner witliout any just Cause, having thus been restrained of his Liberty while he was in the Conciencious and Peaceable Discharge of what he considered a Christian office and his bounden Duty, cannot refrain from Complaining of the Insult he has received, as being calculated to terrify him from the Lawful exercise of his Function ; and as being a presumptions perversion and abuse of the Power intrusted with the said Justices for the Public Good, to Sinyster and Party purposes.

Wherefore as your Petitioner Humbly conceives the Govern-

ULSTER AND DUTCHESS COUNTIES. 993

ment will not suffer those to remain cloathed with the Authority of tlie Law, who arbitrarily pervert their Power to partial & Illegal purposes, to the advancement of their own private Interest and sinister Views, and to the oppression and abuse of others ; and as he presumes that the Ministers of the Blessed Gospel who demean themselves peaceably and worthily are entitled to the protection of the Government, and ought to be secured in the exercise of their Function, he humbly Prays that the Conduct of the said Justices may be enquired into ; And if they shall be found guilty of the Matters charged against them by the Petitioner, which he is ready to prove, that they may be remoyed from their Ofiices, or otherwise dealt with as the Law directs.