three citizens
whose houses were nearby to be used as a Bowling Green. Its name came
from this and it still keeps it.

A fire department was organized and two engines were imported and room
made for them in the City Hall. Before this the department had consisted
of a few leather buckets and a few fire-hooks.

In 1731 Governor Montgomery died, and for thirteen months after, Rip Van
Dam, oldest member of the council, and a wealthy merchant, looked after
the province until the coming of William Cosby.

CHAPTER XVI

THE TRIAL of ZENGER, the PRINTER

Cosby arrived; a testy, disagreeable man who loved money above
everything else. The colonists received him with favor, because they did
not know these things about him. The Assembly granted him a revenue for
six years, and gave him a present of L750 besides. The Governor thought
this a very small sum and said so. He presented an order from the King
which said that he was to have half the salary that Rip Van Dam had
received for acting as Governor.

[Illustration: Dinner at Rip Van Dam's.]

But Van Dam would not part with his money, and the people sided with
him, for they had long been weary of governors who looked upon the
colony simply as a means to repair their fortunes. Cosby was determined
to get the money, so he sued Van Dam. This suit was conducted in a court
where there were three judges, and two of them were friends of Cosby.
One of them was James De Lancey, a son of that Stephen De Lancey who had
given the clock to the city. The Chief-Justice was still Lewis Morris,
who had been appointed by Governor Hunter. So with two judges, friends
of the Governor, he won his suit, and Van Dam was ordered to pay him
half his salary.

More than this, Chief-Justice Morris, who had disagreed with the other
two judges, was removed from office, and James De Lancey became
Chief-Justice.

The mass of the people disapproved of these doings, and there were
murmurs of discontent. But the Governor had his money, and had made his
friend Chief-Justice, and was running matters pretty much his own way,
so he was satisfied.

There was still only one paper, the _New York Gazette_, published by
William Bradford. As Bradford was the Government printer, it was quite
natural that he should side with Cosby. But just at this time another
paper came into existence, a rival to the _Gazette_, which took up the
people's cause. This was the _New York Weekly Journal_, published by
Peter Ze