The head of the court party, he was termed a demagogue--a gentleman, a scholar, affluent, and of a peculiarly gay and social temperament, he is accused of the sordid vices of the miser and extortioner,--delicate, a martyr to asthma, and obliged to be abstemious, he is charged with low excess--beloved by all around him, he is denounced as hateful--and approved by the ministry in England, even when opposing their policy, he is pointed out to posterity as a political sycophant.

The near approach of the Revolution, and the uncontradicted odium that the popular writers of this country lavished, as a matter of course, upon the servants of the crown, contributed to the success of the false character thus given to Lieut. Governor De Lancey. The representations of defeated opponents have been received for historic truth, and an almost village littleness of gossip accepted for an analysis of character.

James De Lancey was the fourth, and last, native of New York that administered the affairs of that colony. He corresponded personally, as well as officially, with Pitt, afterwards Earl of Chatham, during the critical period of the war of 1756. At his death, his sister, Lady Warren, applied to that statesman to put her yougest brother, Oliver De Lancey, in the office he had filled ; but finding the minister turning a cold ear to her application, she cried with warmth, "T hope, Mr. Pitt, you have had reason to be satisfied with the brother I have lost." " Madam," was the answer, "had your brother James lived in England, he