ir William Alexander.

[Sidenote: Affairs of New York.]

In New York, the Leislerian and anti-Leislerian parties continued to
persecute each other. To this calamity was added, in the year 1702,
the still heavier affliction of a malignant fever, imported in a
vessel from the West Indies, which, in almost every instance, proved
mortal. A similar disease raged, about the same time, in several other
sea port towns; and was probably the same which has since produced
such fatal effects under the name of the yellow fever.

In the same year, lord Cornbury, a needy and profligate nobleman, was
appointed governor of the province. He embraced the anti-Leislerian
party, that being then the strongest. On meeting the assembly, he
urged the necessity of providing money for the public exigencies; and,
as he had arranged himself with the ruling party, the vote of supply
was liberal.

It was soon perceived that the confidence in the governor was
misplaced. Considerable sums levied for objects of great interest,
were applied to his private use. The system adopted in New York, for
collecting and keeping public money, was calculated to favour this
peculation. The colony having no treasurer, its revenue came into the
hands of the receiver general for the crown, whence it was drawn by a
warrant from the governor. Contests soon arose, between his lordship
and the legislature, on the subject of money; the house requiring a
statement of disbursements, and the appointment of a treasurer, to be
controlled by them. At length, in 1706, an act was passed raising
three thousand pounds for fortifications, and directing the money to
be placed in the hands of a person named by the legislature. The
assent of the governor to this act was not given till the succeeding
year, and was then accompanied with a message stating, that he had it
in command from the Queen "to permit the general assembly to name
their own treasurer when they raised extraordinary supplies for
particular uses and which are no part of the standing and constant
revenue."

The continual demands of the governor for money, his misapplication of
it, his extortion in the form of fees, and his haughty tyrannical
conduct increased the irritation subsisting between him and the
legislature. At length, the Queen yielded to the complaints of both
New York and New Jersey, and consented to recall him.

During these altercations, some spirited resolutions were entered into
by the assembly; one