Cosby, just before his death in 1786, to invalidate certain land patents on Long Island and in the Mohawk Valley, was so intense that upon the dissolution of the old Assembly, in 1737, by Lt. Gov. Clark who succeeded him, the radical party carried the election which immediately followed.

_-But the triumph of the opposition was of very short dldesitioh Lt. Gov: Clark, aware that the Council was strongly conser vative, » attempted to take a middle course, which lost him the confidence

1 Smith's History of N. Y.; If., 24

HON. JAMES DE LANCEY. 1045

of that body. Discovering this, he determined, in order to regain it, to break down the opposition by intriguing with their leaders to place them in office.

Lewis Morris, Jr., the Speaker, Mr. Simon Johnson and the other prominent men entered into his views and accepted his offers, but the Council refused to give their consent. In this unfortunate dilemma their intrigues became public, and the lessons of hatred and contempt for men in office which they had taught the people for the last few years, reacted so powerfully upon themselves, that "they instantly fell from the heights of popularity into the most abject contempt."! This proof of the absence of principle in their leaders destroyed the opposition. A dissolution of the Assembly soon followed, and in the new elections the conservatives regained their power. This ascendancy was henceforward maintained, and their party became supreme in the colony. The people, disgusted with their old leaders, gave it a cordial support, and the affairs of the Province continued in its keeping for a long series of years.