No American had greater influence in the colonies than the subject of this sketch. Circumstances, it is true, aided in raising him to this elevation, such as education, connections, wealth, and his high conservative principles ; but he owed as much to personal qualities, perhaps, as to all the other canses united. Gay, witty, easy of access, and frank, he was personally the most popular ruler the Province ever possessed, even when drawing tightest the reigns of government.

It was this unusual admixture of the popular spirit with that of the incumbent of office, that rendered him so obnoxious to the assaults of his enemies. There are few instances in our history, of attempts to destroy a public man, such as those which were made by the enemies of James De Lancey. When Sir Danvers Osborn was found suspended in a garden, dead, it was whispered that he had come to his end through the ambition of his successor, the new head of the colony.?. Subsequently it was proven beyond a cavil, that Osborn, borne down with grief

1 Thomas James, the eldest son of this gentleman, died a judge of Westchester county, at the age of 82; William Heathcote, his younger son, is the present Bishop of Western New York; Edward Floyd, another son, died in early manhood, His eldest daughter, Anne Charlotte, married John 'Loudon McAdam, immortalized by his system of making reads; the second, Susan Augusta, the wife of the late J. Fennimore Cooper, Esq., died 20th Jan'y, 1852; and the two youngest are still living unmarried. :