In July, 1673, the Dutch repossessed themselves of the province, by attacking it suddenly when in a defenceless state. By the peace in February following it was restored. The validity of the grant, while the Dutch were in quiet possession having been questioned, the duke of York thought it prudent to obtain a new one the following June, and _Edmund Andros_ having been appointed governor, the Dutch resigned their authority to him in October. Thus was New-York regained; but the inhabitants were again enslaved to the will of the conqueror; for, being admitted to no share in the legislature, they were subject to laws to which they had never assented. [1681.] To be relieved from a servitude that had degraded the colony, and now gave dissatisfaction to every one, the council, the court of assizes, and the corporation of New-York, concurred in soliciting the duke, “to permit the people to participate in the legislative power.” The duke, though strongly prejudiced against democratic assemblies, yet in expectation that the inhabitants would agree to raise money to discharge the public debts, and to settle such a fund for the future as might be sufficient for the maintenance of the government and garrison, informed the lieutenant-governor, in 1682, that “he intended to establish the same frame of government as the other plantations enjoyed, particularly in the choosing of an assembly.” Mr. Dongan was appointed governor in September, and instructed to call an assembly, to consist of a council of ten, and of a house of representatives, chosen by the freeholders, of the number of eighteen members. The assembly was empowered to make laws for the people, agreeable to the general jurisprudence of the state of England, which should be of no force, however, without the ratification of the proprietary. “Thus the inhabitants of New-York, after being ruled almost twenty years at the will of the duke’s deputies, were first admitted to participate in the legislative power.” [1683.] An assembly was called on governor Dongan’s arrival, which passed an act of general naturalization, in order to give equal privileges to the various kinds of people then inhabiting the province; together with an act “declaring the liberties of the people;” as also one “for defraying the requisite charges of government for a limitted time.” The legislature was convened once more in August 1684, when it explained the last act. These seem to have been the only assemblies called prior to the revolution. When the duke became king of England, he refused to confirm that grant of privileges to which, as duke, he had agreed. He established a real tyranny, and reduced New-York once more to the deplorable condition of a conquered province.