The ensuing year, war was declared, between England and France, and the colonists prepared to carry it on with vigor.

In 1745, the colonies of New England and New York united in an attack upon the French fortress, at Louisburg; and New York furnished ten pieces of cannon, and £8000 towards the expedition. It was surrendered in June, of that year.

The colonies were seriously molested, during the year 1746, by the Indians, in the pay of the French, who attacked and reduced the English fort at Hoosick, and also made an incursion upon the settlement at Saratoga, murdering and plundering all who fell in their way. It was therefore determined to make a vigorous attack upon the French fortresses at Crown Point and Niagara, and also to send an army to capture Quebec. For this purpose New York raised £40,000, and solicited aid from England, which was promised, but not furnished. The enterprise proved unsuccessful.

The peace of Aix la Chapelle was concluded in 1748, and the colony, in the prosperity which followed for a few years, began to recover from its losses by the wars.

In 1746, the assembly appropriated £2250. towards founding a college.

During the years 1746-9, there were constant contentions, between the governor and assembly; but in 1750 both parties manifested a more conciliating spirit, and during the remainder of Governor Clinton's administration, they were on better terms.

Governor Clinton resigned in 1753, and in October of that year, Sir Danvers Osborne arrived, as his successor. Deeply afflicted at the loss of an excellent and amiable wife, the cares of the government seemed, to this unfortunate gentleman, an intolerable burden; and on the 12th of October, 1753, five days after his arrival, he put a period to his own existence.

Mr. De Lancy, the chief justice, was appointed lieutenant governor, a short time previous to Governor Clinton's resignation, and now assumed the reins of government.

Desirous of retaining the affections of the people, and disposed to side with their representatives in those measures which were advantageous to the colony, while at the same time he held his office at the will of the English government, Mr. De Lancy had a difficult task to perform; but the skill with which he conciliated both parties, does honor to his ability, as a statesman.

In 1754 a convention of delegates from the colonies of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland and New York, met at Albany, to devise some plan of common defence against the French, who had again commenced hostilities.

At this convention Dr. Franklin, afterwards so eminent in the history of the Revolution, proposed a plan- for political union, which was rejected by the provincial assemblies, on the ground that it gave too much power to the crown, and by the English government, because it gave too much power to the people.

In September, 1755, Sir Charles Hardy, an admiral in the British navy, arrived in New York, as governor. Being unacquainted with civil affairs, he gave the management of these to Mr. De Lancy. In the spring of this year, the colonies had made extensive preparations for an attack on the enemy, but, owing to the ignorance of the commanders of the English forces, of the tactics of Indian warfare, the campaign was utterly unsuccessful. Braddock, who was sent against Fort Du Quesne, (now Pittsburgh,) was killed, and his army routed, by a small body of Indians. Crown Point, and Niagara, both French posts, although assailed, were not captured.

Nor was the campaign of 1756 more successful. The English fort at Oswego was captured, 1600 men taken prisoners, and a large quantity of stores seized, by the French.

The campaign of 1757 was still more unsuccessful. Fort William Henry, on Lake George, with a garrison of 3000 men, was compelled to surrender. These repeated misfortunes awakened the energies of the English.

In 1758, William Pitt (Lord Chatham) was placed at the head of government, in England, and a new impulse was given to the energies of the nation. Success soon followed. In July, Louisburg, which at the former peace had been restored to the French, was recaptured. Fort Frontenac, on Lake Ontario, (now Kingston, C. W.) was captured soon after, and the French compelled to abandon Fort Du Quesne. General Abercrombie attacked Fort Ticonderoga, but unsuccessfully.

Stimulated by this success, New York, in 1759, exerted herself to the utmost, and raised $625,000 in five months, and levied a force of 2680 men. Ticonderoga was captured by General Amherst, early in the season, and Crown Point surrendered a few days later. In July, General Prideaux invested Fort Niagara, and though he was killed in the attack, Sir William Johnson, his successor in the command, succeeded in reducing it. On the 13th of September, the brave General Wolfe laid down his life, in the moment of victory, when the English banners floated over the towers of Quebec.

The ensuing year the French, made an unsuccessful effort to recapture Quebec; and on the 8th of September of that year, all the French possessions in Canada were surrendered to the British Government, and the French power extinguished there. Two small islands at the mouth of the St. Lawrence, St. Pierre and Miquelon, alone were preserved to them, of their former vast possessions.

During the progress of these events, in July, 1760, Governor De Lancy suddenly deceased. He was succeeded by Dr. Cadwallader Colden, the president of the council, who in August, 1761, was appointed Lieutenant Governor. In October of the

same year, General Robert Monkton arrived, with a Governor's commission, but left on the 15th of the ensuing month, to command an expedition against Martinique, and the government again devolved upon Dr. Colden.

It was during his administration, that the difficulties between New Hampshire and New York commenced, relative to the territory, now known as the state of Vermont.

By the original patent, granted to the Duke of York, this tract was included. New Hampshire, however, claimed it under her charter; and, contending that the charter of the Duke of York was obsolete, proceeded to make extensive grants of land, to the settlers on the west side of the Connecticut. Emigration progressed rapidly, and in 1763, 138 townships had been granted, by New Hampshire, covering a large portion of the present state of Vermont.

Governor Colden was not the man to sit by, and tamely submit, to what he deemed injustice to his colony. He issued a proclamation, claiming jurisdiction as far east as the Connecticut, and ordered the sheriff to make returns to him, of any persons, who had taken possession, under the authority of New Hampshire.

The Governor of New Hampshire issued a counter proclamation, and the matter was referred to the Crown, which decided in favor of New York. The attempt to enforce this decision, and to induce the inhabitants to take out new deeds under New York, was, with some exceptions, ineffective, and led to constant hostilities between the Vermont settlers, and the government of New York. In 1764 the news of the passage of the Stamp Act, (which rendered all deeds, bonds, notes, &c., invalid, unless written on stamped paper, which should pay a duty to the Crown,) excited universal indignation among the people. An organization was soon formed in this, as well as some of the adjacent states, called "The Sons of Liberty," which offered the most daring resistance, to this aggression upon the rights of the people.

Governor Colden attempted to enforce the act, but the attempt called down the hostility of the people upon him, and but for his age, he would undoubtedly have suffered in person. As it was, his effigy was carried about the city, and hung upon a gallows erected for the purpose, and his carriage and other property destroyed.

When the stamps arrived, he was obliged to surrender them to the city corporation, and await the action of the Governor, Sir Henry Moore, who arrived in July, 1765, and by the advice of his council, was deterred from attempting farther to enforce the act.

On the 1st Tuesday in October, 1765, a Congress composed of delegates from Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, and South Carolina, met at New York, to take into consideration, the invasion of the rights of the colonies, by the Stamp Act.

New Hampshire, Virginia, North Carolina and Georgia, did not send delegates, but two of them expressed their sympathy with the Congress, and the others had no meeting of their legislatures, in time to appoint delegates. This Congress made a declaration of the rights and privileges of the colonies, and petitioned for redress.

The Stamp Act was repealed on the 18th of March, 1766; but

the offensive declaration accompanied the repeal, that "Parliament possessed the power, to bind the colonies in all cases, whatsoever."

In 1767, Charles Townsend, chancellor of the English exchequer, proposed a new bill, levying duties on glass, paper, paints and tea. This passed, and the inhabitants entered, as they had previously done, into non-importation agreements, by which they pledged themselves to use none of these articles, nor, so far as it could be avoided, other articles of British manufacture. In 1769, five-sixths of these duties, and in 1770, all of them, were repealed, except the duty on tea. The people of New York, as well as of the other colonies, rigidly abstaining from the use of this beverage, no excitement was produced; and from 1770 to 1774 a period of calmness ensued, although the English government and the colonists regarded each other with jealousy.

Attempts were made, in 1767, to settle the boundary between Massachusetts and New York. Massachusetts, under her charter, claimed to the Pacific Ocean, and had repeatedly attempted to make settlements within the bounds of New York. The attempt to establish these settlements, had produced collision, and in several instances, bloodshed. Commissioners from the two colonies met at New Haven, in October, 1767, and determined that the Massachusetts line should run twenty miles east of Hudson river, but could not agree in regard to the manner of running that line.

In September, 1769, Sir Henry Moore deceased. His course, during the period in which he acted as Governor, had been prudent, mild, and dignified. He had, as far as possible, abstained from controversy with the assembly and people, interpreting his instructions from the government in England, as liberally as lay in his power. His death was much lamented. Governor Colden again occupied his place, although very much advanced in years.

Governor Dunmore assumed the government in November, 1770; but his administration continued only a few months, and was marked by no important event. He was the first Governor supported by the Crown, a measure against which New York protested, as calculated to make the executive independent of the popular branch of the government. During his short continuance in office, a contest took place with the legislature, in regard to quartering the King's troops, to which the assembly were wholly averse, but to which, under the threats of the British govern nent, they were obliged to submit.

Liberty poles had, at this period, been frequently erected in New York city, and as often cut down and destroyed by the British soldiery, who entertained the bitterest hostility to the citizens. After repeated efforts, the inhabitants erected one upon private grounds, so frmly encased in iron, that the soldiers could not destroy it.

Lord Dunmore having been appointed Governor of Virginia, Governor Tryon succeeded him on the 8th of July, 1771.

In 1772, the New Hampshire grants became a renewed source of serious disquietude to the colony. Governor Tryon offered a reward of fifty pounds for the apprehension of Ethan Allen, Seth Warner, and six others of the most obnoxious of the settlers; and the New York assembly passed an act, declaring the opposition of these citizens to the government of New York, felony. Allen and his coadjutors, in return, hurled their defiance at the Governor, and those who were sent to arrest them. In the Spring of 1775, matters appeared to be approaching a crisis, in regard to this territory. A collision took place, between the officers of New York, and the citizens of Westminster county, Vermont, in which one man was killed, and several wounded. But for the occurrence of the battle of Lexington, at this juncture, probably a serious civil war would have ensued.

The British government resolved, in 1773, to accomplish by cunning, what they had failed to attain by force. They remitted to the East India Company, the customary English duties on tea, and permitted them to ship it for America, with only a duty of three pence per pound, to be paid, on landing it, at any American port. They supposed that as this would make the price of tea lower than in England, the colonists would not object to it; but the colonists saw, in this measure, the same principle, against which they had been contending.

The course adopted by the different colonies, is well known. In New York, a meeting of "The Sons of Liberty" was called, on the receipt of the intelligence, and resolutions passed, that the tea should not be landed. Accordingly, when, in April, 1774, the tea ship, (the Nancy, commanded by Captain Lockyier,) arrived off Sandy Hook, the pilots, who had already received their instructions, refused to bring her any nearer the city. The captain however came up, and was waited upon, by a committee, who informed him, that he must return immediately to England, with his cargo; and for the purpose of preventing his sailors from deserting, a strong guard was stationed near his ship at Sandy Hook. Finding it useless to resist, he submitted to their commands.

Meanwhile information was received that Captain Chambers, of the ship London, a man loud in his professions of patriotism, had brought out eighteen chests of tea, as a private venture. Being questioned by the committee, he denied it; but upon their assuring him, that their evidence was so strong that they should search the ship, he confessed it, but attempted to apologize. His apologies did not avail. His tea was emptied into the harbor forthwith, and he permitted to withdraw. Embarking on board Lockyier's ship, he sailed for England, to hide his shame and disgrace.

About this period a committee of observation was organized in New York, consisting of fifty persons, who were invested with discretionary powers, with regard to the administration of government.

On the 5th of September, 1774, a congress from the different