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 Zenger, who had been one of Bradford’s workmen.  Each week it was filled with articles assailing Cosby, and all who were in sympathy with him.  Very soon Zenger was arrested, charged with publishing libels against the city officials and the King.  He was locked up in one of the cells in the City Hall.