second reading, which took place on the 29th, and was then committed to the committee of the whole of the senate. On October 3 Senator Jonathan Lawrence reported that the bill had made some progress in the committee of the

* Appendix I: Laws, Feb. 5, 1778.

Introduction

whole, but that leave to sit again was desired. On that afternoon the senate, having again resolved itself into a

committee of the whole, requested permission for further

consideration of the bill. On the next day the bill was reported with several amendments, was read and ordered to be engrossed. Senator John Morin Scott, on October 6, was ordered to carry the amended bill to the assembly for its concurrence. That was as far as it got for some time, because the news of the reduction by the British of Fort Montgomery and its dependencies in the Highlands reached both branches of the legislature at noon of October 7, which induced many of the senators and assemblymen, who held military commissions, to leave Kingston forthwith for service, whilst others went away to conserve the safety of their own households. But the legislature, on that day, revived all of the county and district committees and the former commissioners for conspiracies, both as to powers and persons. Governor Clinton, on December 15, 1777, issued a proclamation for reconvening the legislature on January 5, 1778; but quorums of both houses did not materialize before the 15th. On January 28, the assembly again took up the engrossed amended bill, referred back to it by the senate in the preceding year (October 6, 1 777), and concurred on the next morning. The amendments had so defaced the bill that the assembly, on January 31, ordered a newly engrossed copy, and on February 2, in its new form, it was transmitted to the senate, where it passed the next morning.