52 ' INTRODUCTION. 



diction of exchequer, similar to those of the court of exchequer in England, 

 in order to facilitate a recovery by the governor of his claims against his prede- 

 cessor. Smith and Alexander, of counsel for Van Dam, excepted to the exche- 

 quer jurisdiction of the court. Lewis Morris, then chief justice, supported the 

 exceptions, but waa overruled by judges De Lancey and Phillipse. This decision, 

 overruling the plea of Van Dam, excited high indignation among the people. 

 The governor, nevertheless, removed the chief justice, w^hom he could not over- 

 awe, and the subservient De Lancey was, without consulting the council, appointed 

 chief justice ; a promotion for which he manifested his gratitude, by directing all 

 his efforts to procure the indictment and conviction of Zenger for the libel be- 

 fore mentioned, and the detection of the authors of other libels in the Weekly 

 Journal. In 1735, Alexander and Smith, who appeared as counsel for Zenger, 

 filed exceptions to the commission of the judges, De Lancey and Phillipse, on 

 the ground that the tenure specified in the commission was during pleasure, and 

 not during good behavior, and for other causes. The judges met the exceptions 

 with the answer, " You have brought it to that point that either we must go from 

 the bench, or you from the bar," and excluded the contumacious lawyers, as has 

 been already mentioned. These proceedings, together with those on the sub- 

 sequent trial of Zenger, gave new violence to the political dissensions already 

 raging in the colony. 



A bill was passed in the assembly for the frequent meeting and calling of the 

 general assembly ; but the council amended it in such a manner as to change its 

 effect, and it failed to become a law. In 1735, Mr. Garretson, a member from 

 Kings county, submitted a report to the effect, that the maintenance of a court 

 of chancery within the colony, without consulting the general assembly, was con- 

 trary to law, unwarrantable, and of dangerous consequence to the liberties and 

 the property of the people, and the house concurred in the report. Still gover- 

 nor Cosby, finding the assembly more practicable than he had a right to expect, 

 from the temper of the times, a succeeding one would be, continued that body, 

 for a period of six years, refusing to dissolve it, or issue new writs of election ; 



