At the outset, Great Britain, having complications on the European continent, was very anxious to conciliate and secure peace. When Admiral Howe was sent with his fleet to New York he was directed by his government to treat for peace with the rebellious subjects. Acting upon his instructions, after landing at Staten Island, and placing his fleet in close proximity to the city, he opened negotiations to this end. At the start he made a great blunder, by mistaking the character of the general-in-chief with whom he had to deal. An autocrat in temper and disposition, and infused with the traditional pride of a British commander, he neglected to address Washington by his military title. He looked upon the people as rebels, and not as an independent nation, and addressed the commander of the American forces as George Washington, Esq. The letter was returned unanswered. Another missive directed to George Washington, Esq., met the same fate. The spirit thus manifested by Washington in refusing to receive or reply to any letters, unless addressed to him as the head of an independent army, representing a nation seeking to throw off the yoke of despotism and break its chains, proved to Admiral Howe that his mission of peace was too late, and that if England desired to retain her possessions in the new world she would have to do so at the point of the bayonet. Howe made his last effort to secure peace on the 17th day of August. Failing, he at once commenced warlike preparations. Washington realized the necessity of careful and energetic action. He anticipated that the rebuff he had administered to the admiral's overtures would lead to an immediate attack upon New York. In order to circumvent the attack, and prevent aid and assistance to the enemy from the Tories in the city, he at once caused the removal of the adherents of the Crown to Connecticut, where they were placed under the surveillance of that sturdy patriot, Governor Trumbull. Measures were adopted to weaken and destroy existing Tory sentiments in New Jersey and Long Island. The legislative committee, assisted by a committee from the Continental Congress, went to work to disarm all suspected persons on Long Island, and to suppress every exhibition of Tory spirit. The public records were placed in the care of Congress, then in session in Philadelphia; and women and children, and all persons not needed for the defense of the city, were quickly removed to safe quarters. A corps of riflemen was stationed at Fort Hamilton to prevent the landing of the enemy in that quarter, to watch the approach of their fleet, and to give information as to their movements.