comes in like a flood, can lift up a standard against him."

"Ye shall receive power," said Jesus, "after that the Holy Spirit is come upon you ;" and when did earth in all her previous and subsequent experience, witness such a manifestation of " power" as was seen in the preaching and acts of the apostles, after our other Comforter came upon them ? What are all the achievements of earth's greatest warriors on the field of battle, compared with those accomplished by the apostles under their invisible Leader? When we contemplate their miracles, their boldness of speech, their incessant labors, their amazing success, we should almost forget that they were men of like passions with ourselves, and cry out with the people of Lystra, "the gods are come down to us in the likeness of men," did not the inspired historian assure us, they are filled with the Holy Ghost." Those days of success will return when the power returns; and the power will return when we come to honor our other Comforter and lean on his strength, as did the apostles of our Lord.

There is something, as it seems to us, highly dishonorable to the Holy Spirit, in the practical estimate in which he has long been held by the church. We have been

too much accustomed to consider him a sort of impersonal and unconscious influence, descending at certain times and seasons upon the church and the world, like the rain and dew of heaven. Christ however told his church that when this other Paraclete came, he would “abide with them forever"-uninterruptedly to the end of this dispensation. In him the church was to have an unfailing, ever-present dependence, in all times and seasons; that she might be incited to a course of unremitted exertion in the service of God. The church is ever to be under the guidance and government of this divine and omnipresent Head. Her rules of order and her course of life she is to learn from the word which He has inspired. Her peace, her security, her conquests, she is to draw from his indwelling influence-the secret power by which he corrects the obliquities of the human heart. She is to acknowledge no other supreme Head. No canons may be enacted for her government opposed to his enactments, and no authority exercised unless sanctioned by his revelations. She is always to look to him as her Head, to obey his laws, and to cherish his presence. Then shall her light rise in obscurity, and her darkness be as the noon day.

WHILE We write, a part of the state of New York is in an actual state of insurrection, declared so by the executive authority. The cause of such a proclamation is found in the fact, that the civil power was shown to be insufficient for the just and prompt execution of the laws, and the military has been called out to sustain it. In other parts of the same state, like fearful disturbances, aris

ing from ebullitions of misguided popular feeling, have threatened breaches of the law, but have fortunately passed by, unattended by any calamitous circumstance. And in a far distant state of our general confederacy, civil war has been wildly stalking through her borders, burning the property, and sacrificing the lives of her citizens, while the majesty of the civil law was tram

pled in the dust, and her officers and their authority scouted and derided. The protection of the law has been valueless-popular feeling has usurped its prerogatives, and become for the time being the su preme authority; and in obedience to its dictates, a portion of her citi zens have been compelled to announce their determination to leave their rightful homes and firesides, and seek anew a resting place, where they can peaceably live and worship God according to the dic. tates of their own consciences. And in another sister state of the mighty West, the wild and uncontrollable mob has scarcely ceased from the destruction of private property, because in this loud boasting land of liberty, the owner dared to speak as he thought, and to publish what his conscience and enlightened reason told him was right and true. Surely such events as these are full of earnest and vital interest. The question whether there is a natural tendency in democratic institutions to degenerate into lawless anarchy-whether the people, when left to govern themselves, will eventual ly fail of retaining any governmentis now irresistibly forced upon us, claiming our careful and attentive consideration.

In many counties of New York, turbulent and disguised mobs have placed themselves in open and or ganized opposition to her laws, and have, in too many cases successfully, trodden under foot the rights of her civil authority. But in none has the misguided populace exhibited so much fury, and at times ferocity, and nowhere have such calamitous consequences been produced as in the county of Delaware, heretofore noted for the simplicity and good order of its inhabitants, and distinguished for their general and prompt obedience to the laws. There a few citizens combined and associated themselves to resist a portion of the established law, which

they considered as founded in injustice, and from a small number increased to nearly one third of the population, and advanced from step to step in their treasonable acts, till as a closing part of the game they were playing, they murdered a val uable and honest public officer, while in the discharge of his duty. While discharging those duties, which his oath of office imposed upon him, the sheriff of the county was surrounded by two hundred and fifty, or more, armed and disguised men, and in the broad glare of the light of day was deliberately shot down. In view of this state of things, the governor was induced to issue his proclamations, declaring the county in a state of insurrection, and in obedience to the directions therein contained, an armed force has been gathered, to assist in the execution of the civil law, and to keep secure. ly those who have been arrested as participators in these outrages. In the little village of her shire town, while we write, the piercing notes of the fife, and the deep roll of the drum are heard, and the measured tread of a military force falls upon the ear, impressing upon the observer, that he is in the midst of rebellion, and that the marching soldiery and not the law are the only protectors of the people.

But sad as is the scene, where heavy cannon, in time of peace, guard the prison doors, and bristling bayonets are the supports of the court of justice, a more gloomy view meets the eye in those portions of the county, where the excitement has existed with the least restraint, and where nearly all have been drawn within its fatal influence. Although months have already passed since the murder of the sheriff, the harvests still remain ungathered as they were on that fatal day. Hay heaped together on that morning lies rotting in the meadow unmade and unstacked. Fields of grain have ripened and

fallen down because the reapers are fugitives from justice. Indeed a curse seems resting upon the land, and a blight to have passed over it. But why is this? Why has the husbandman forsaken his field, the mechanic his shop, and fled to the recesses of the mountain, to the depths of the forest, and to distant states, from the arm of the law? The cause is expressed in a word of recent coinage-Anti-rentism.

A brief narrative of those com. motions which have produced a partial state of anarchy, will give us a better understanding of the reasons generally alleged in excuse. The first agitation of any impor tance, during later years, was in 1840, when the tenants of the west half of the manor of Rensselaerwick, living among the Helderberg mountains, (whence the name of the Helderberg war,) refused to pay rent for the use of the soil on which they lived. The sheriff of the county was prevented by large assemblages of men from levying executions, and although no actual violence was offered him, the or dinary process of law was fully stopped. Conciliatory measures were tried, but in vain, for those resisting felt the law was powerless. As a dernier resort the militia of the state was called into service by Governor Seward; and this force combined with other instrumentali. ties, eventually sustained the laws, and after a time order seemed to be restored. It was however only a deceptive calm. The disease still remained. The festering sore was only concealed by a healthy surface. The spirit of resistance continued at work, and evidenced itself in such exhibitions, as almost effectually to prohibit the collection of any rent, and continued to gain power, until it broke forth in 1844, and far ex ceeded its former bounds and limits. It spread into the neighboring counties of Rensselaer, Schenectady, Columbia, Otsego, Delaware, Ul.

ster, Greene, and indeed generally found its way whereever leasehold tenures existed, and the occupier was not owner of the right of soil. Compared with the shape it had assumed four years previous, it seem. ed to spring forth with tenfold fury and power. The years in which it had been forced to assume an ap pearance of rest, seem to have been a time, in which it was gathering its energies and strengthening its for. ces, preparatory to the occasion which should next call it forth-to have been only the calm which precedes the storm. Upon its second ap. pearance, it discovered a new characteristic, which to the reflective mind rendered it more fearful and alarming, and which has probably, more than any other part of its ma chinery, contributed to those terrible results which have flowed from it.

Under disguises publicly worn, the power of the law was more ea. sily rendered impotent, because the probabilities of detection were much lessened. Those who wore them were often unknown, not only to the great portion of the community, but even to one another. With this safeguard against recognition, the worst acts were committed, and seemingly without hesitation. They exercised a strict espionage over every lessee. Whoever acknowl edged title in the landlord, under whom they all had held their farms for many years, provoked their wrath. An instance in the county of Rensselaer is in point. A labor. er contracted with one of the patroons for the timber of an unimproved lot, and commenced its removal. For daring to make an agreement with a landlord, now odious, he was warned by the natives to desist from its execution. Continuing however to secure the wood, he was surrounded while on his way to market to dispose of it, by armed and disguised men, when a contest arose in which he was shot dead. And nearly at the same

time another fearful tragedy was acted in another, Columbia county. While the officers of justice were in pursuit of a culprit, a large collection of men provided with arms, and with faces and forms so disguised that none could know them, offered resistance. On the one hand, were the ministers of the law, striving to do their duty, and against them a treasonable mob, in open defiance, both of them and the law they represented. A wrangling contest ensued, and from words the mob had recourse to deadly weapons, until the affray ended in the death of one of the company. Only a few days previous, in the same county, the sheriff while attempting to collect rent was opposed by an assemblage of the same character, and robbed of his papers. It was in the attempt to arrest those who were, on this occasion, engaged in taking the sheriff's papers, that the murder last mentioned was committed. The law once broken by forcibly taking her precepts from her officers, an attempt to screen the guilty natural ly followed, and in that attempt a deeper crime was committed. After the arrest of the supposed criminals, threats that those in confinement would be rescued, and other outrages committed, induced Governor Bouck to place a military force at the disposal of the civil power, and the city of Hudson became like a garrisoned town. By this union of civil and military power, arrests were soon made and further outbreaks prevented, and ere long, quiet was again sufficient ly restored to warrant the withdraw al of the forces thus temporarily furnished. This event, which was almost new in the annals of our country, and which attracted great public interest, did not prevent the spread of the excitement. In other counties, particularly in Delaware, anti-rent associations were formed, and in many of the towns, tribes of Indians (so called) were collected,

equipped, armed and sworn by an oath, to be faithful to the cause and to one another. The ignorant, the worthless, and the vicious, flocked together in these disguised bodies, under the promise of daily wages and daily rations, and were easily transformed into suitable material for the accomplishment of any bad object. And they soon showed themselves obedient to the trust reposed in them; for they resisted the officers of the law, while in the performance of their duty; took from them their papers; tarred and feathered them; heaped abuse upon them; and detained them as prisoners; insulted them and threat. ened them with death. To rescue these prisoners and to ensure the due execution of the laws, it became necessary to call upon the civil posse of the county, and enough were found ready to enter with alacrity and determination upon the unpleas. ant and dangerous duty. Having accomplished their object, they were again restored to their homes, with the hope that the energy manifested in sustaining the law and her officers, would convince all of the folly of arraying themselves against the constituted authorities, and prevent any future disturbance. But the hope proved fallacious, for soon the Indian tribes again assem bled to prevent the collection of rent, and an under sheriff was murdered. It now appeared that the civil posse was insufficient to maintain the supremacy of law; and hence Governor Wright declared the county in a state of insurrection, and quartered an armed force within it. Since then additional jails have been built to retain those arrested for murder, and many have been tried, found guilty, and condemned to death or imprisonment.

The causes which have produced these events will need a more par ticular and careful consideration. The counties to which we have al

luded, and perhaps others, are mainly occupied and improved by leaseholders, and not by those who are owners of the soil in fee. The sections of country, comprised within their boundaries, have been so held since the commencement of our government, and in some cases the original title dates back antecedent to that event. A correct history of this kind of title must needs, therefore, commence "in the olden time."

The oldest manor or proprietary where this leasehold tenure is in existence, is the manor of Rensselaerwick, and it claims an origin almost as early as the first discovery of New York. A short account of this, the oldest, may not therefore be inappropriate or uninteresting.

The first recognition we have of the manor is a grant from the Dutch government to Killian Van Rensselaer in 1631, of a territory within the following boundaries-"On the west side of the North River, having its length a little higher than Beeren Island, up the river till unto Smackey Island, in breadth two days' journey into the country." These boundaries are spoken of, as being the same recognized in deeds from the Indians, of a previous date, to the same Killian. By reference to history, it will be seen that this was but a comparatively short time after the first discovery of this continent by that nation. A general statement of the prominent acts of that government from the time of discovery to the giving of this patent, may help us better to understand what will follow. In September, 1609, Hudson discovered that river "to which time has given his name," and asserted title in his government. In 1621 "The Dutch West India Company" was incorporated, possessing the exclusive privilege of planting colonies on this continent from the "Straits of Magellan to the extremest north." Five branches of this Company were established

in the principal cities of the Netherlands; and to Amsterdam it was given to have the charge of New Netherlands. Nineteen directors had superintendence of the whole government of the Company. In 1629 this college of nineteen adopted a charter of privileges for pat rons who desired to plant colonies in New Netherlands. The colonies were to represent the lordships in the Netherlands. "He that would within four years plant a colony of fifty souls, became lord of the manor or patron, possessing in absolute property the land he might colonize." The extent of one manor for fifty souls, was "sixteen miles in length; or if they lay on both sides of a river, eight miles on each bank, stretching as far into the interior as the situation might require, yet it was stipulated that the soil must be purchased of the Indians." (2 Ban. 279.) His power was to extend over growing cities, subject to appeals. Under such inducements, many emigrated to New Netherlands and commenced colonies. Among the most prominent were the ancestors of the late Stephen Van Rensselaer, or as he was generally termed, "The Patroon." Killian Van Rensselaer, the origi nal ancestor, " was a large proprie. tor and director in the Amsterdam branch of the Dutch West India Company. He was also one of the college of nine instituted by the di rectors in 1629 to direct affairs in the New Netherlands. In 1630, the year previous to the grant from the Dutch government, he had, through his agent, purchased the land round Fort Orange, that is, from Albany to the mouth of the Mohawk, of five Indian chiefs. A few years after, the purchase was extended twelve miles further south; and from time. to time he increased his boundaries, until in 1637 his full territory was made out, forming a tract twenty four miles in breadth north and south, by forty eight in length from