In April, 1783, Sir Guy Carlton instituted a board of commissioners for the purpose of adjusting such demands against the British army, as had not been settled. The accounts of the people of the town of Huntington alone, for property taken from them, for the use of the army, which were supported by receipts of British officers, or by other evidence, which were prepared to be laid before the board, amounted to £7249, 9, 6, and these accounts were not supposed to comprise one fourth part of the property which was taken from them without compensation.

These accounts were sent to New-York to be laid before the board of commissioners, but they sailed for England without attending to them, and the people from whom the property was taken were left, like their neighbors who had no receipts, without redress.

If the other towns on the island suffered half as much in proportion, the whole island must have sustained actual losses by the war exceeding $500,000, besides innumerable other injuries.

The inhabitants suffered great abuse from the British refugees, who, whenever they could shelter themselves under any color of authority, did all the injury in their power. Many of these devoted themselves to robbery and pillage, and if they were detected, they enlisted, and this arrested the arm of justice, shielded them from punishment, and enabled them to bid defiance to those whom they had robbed and abused.

During the whole war, the inhabitants of the island, especially those of Suffolk county, were perpetually exposed to the grossest insult and abuse. They had no property of a moveable nature that they could, properly speaking, call their own; they were oftentimes deprived of the stock necessary to the management of their farms, and were deterred from endeavoring to produce more than a bare subsistence by the apprehension that a surplus would be wrested from them, either by the military authority of the purveyor, or by the ruffian hand of the plunderer.

Besides these violations of the rights of person and property, the British officers did many acts of barbarity, for which there could be no apology

They made garrisons, store houses, or stables, of the houses of public worship in several towns, and particularly of such as belonged to the Presbyterians.

In the fall of 1782, at the conclusion of the war, about the time the provisional articles of the treaty of peace were signed in Europe, Colonel Thompson, (since said to be Count Rum

ford) who commanded the troops then stationed at Huntington, without any assignable purpose, except that of filling his own pockets, by its furnishing him with a pretended claim on the British treasury for the expense, caused a fort to be erect ed in Huntington, and without any possible motive except to gratify a malignant disposition, by vexing the people of Huntington, he placed it in the centre of the public burying ground, in defiance of a remonstrance of the trustees of the town, against the sacrilege of disturbing the ashes and destroying the monuments of the dead.

Hardships imposed by the State Legislature.

Much, however, as the people of Long-Island had suffered from the injustice, cruelty, and oppression of the common ene my, they were not suffered to taste the cup of liberty until it was, in some measure, embittered by the unkindness of their friends.

It was their lot to be abandoned by their country, and left in the power of the enemy. It was their misfortune, and not their fault, that they were not within the American lines; that they were disarmed, and in subjection to the enemy, instead of being in the tented field, and in arms against them.

By an act of the legislature of the state of New-York, passed March 17, 1783, in actions for damages to the property of persons within the American lines, those who had been compelled by military orders, and even by military force, to contribute to the damage, were prohibited from pleading the same in justification, or from giving the same in evidence on the general issue.

By another act, passed May 6, 1784, a tax of £100,000 was imposed on the southern district, £37,000 of which was assigned to Long-Island, as a compensation to the other parts of the state, for not having been in a condition to take an active part in the war against the enemy!!!

Both these acts were violations of public law, and the immutable principles of justice; were partial and oppressive in their operation, and fully proved that an abuse of power was not peculiar to the British parliament, but a common infirmity of human nature; and in conflicts of local interests, fomented by local jealousies, might sometimes occur under the freest forms of government.

APPENDIX.
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Of General Woodhull.

Nathaniel Woodhull was a descendant of Richard Woodhull, esq who is supposed to have left England in consequence of having taken an active part in favor of liberty, under Charles I. a short time before the restoration of Charles II. in 1660.

He is named in the original deeds for Jamaica, as one of the first proprietors of that town, but seems to have settled at Brookhaven soon after the settlement of that place. An original letter, written by Lord Crew, to the said Richard Woodhull, in 1687, in answer to one of his, is among the papers of the late Abraham Woodhull, esq. of Brookhaven, in which he styles him cousin, and speaks of his relations, among whom he enumerates a bishop, and a number of families of the first rank and respectability in society.

Mr. Woodhull had three brothers younger than himself, Richard, Jesse, and Ebenezer. Richard graduated at Yale College in 1752, was a tutor there some years, and died at New-Haven. Jesse and Ebenezer settled in Orange county, and their posterity reside there.

Nathaniel was born in 1722, and spent his youth with his father, who was an opulent farmer at Mastic, in Brookhaven, and his education was such as was calculated to fit him for the duties of active life.

He was endowed by nature with a strong discriminating mind, and a sound judgment, which soon attracted the notice of his fellow citizens, and pointed him out as peculiarly qualified for public usefulness.

His first public employment was in a military capacity, in the war between Great Britain and France, which commenced in 1754, and terminated in 1760.

It is not known that Mr. Woodhull entered the army before 1758. Previously to that year, the war had been conducted without much system or vigor, and the French had the superiority in every campaign.

The defeat of Braddock in 1755-the acquisition of Oswego in 1756, and of fort William Henry, in 1757, gave them the command of lake Champlain, the western lakes, and of the whole country between Canada and Louisana, west of the Alleghany mountains. This secured to them the ascendancy over the Indian tribes, and they threatened to confine the colonies to very narrow limits, or to wrest them from Great Britain.

In 1758, under the administration of William Pitt, it was determined to make more vigorous efforts to limit or reduce the French power in America.

For this purpose, a large body of regular troops, with well appointed officers and a powerful fleet, were sent from England, and the northern colonies were called on to raise their respective proportions of 20,000 men, to aid the regular forces in their operations against the French. Of this number 2680 were allotted to New-York, during the year 1758-59 and 60, of which 657 were assigned to Long-Island-300 to Queens, 289 to Suffolk, and 68 to Kings. The colony had only furnished 800 in 1755, 1350 in 1756, and 1000 in 1757.

During the year 1758, Louisburgh was taken by General Amherst, aided by the fleet under admiral Boscawen. Fort Du Quesne was taken by General Forbes, and its name changed to Fort Pitt. General Abercrombie was repulsed in his efforts against Ticonderoga, the 6th of July; but Fort Frontenac was subsequently reduced by a detachment from his army the 27th of August, under the command of Colonel Bradstreet

The detachment consisted of 3000 men, chiefly provincial troops, and 1112 of them of the New-York levies.

In 1759, General Amherst succeeded General Abercrombie as commander-in-chief, and the conquest of Canada was resolved on. The plan of the campaign was to make the attack at the same time by the upper lakes, Lake Champlain, and by the St. Lawrence.

During this season, Niagara was taken by a detachment under General Prideaux, who was killed by a casualty, and was succeeded by Sir William Johnson, who completed the conquest the 25th of July. Ticonderoga and Crown Point were taken by the troops under General Amherst, June 23, and Quebec was surrendered, September 18, to the army commanded by Gen Wolfe, who fell in the attack.

In 1760, the plan adopted the preceding year was vigorously prosecuted. The French forces were concentrated at Montreal, and the three detachments of the army by way of Ontario, Champlain, and up the St. Lawrence, under the command of Generals Amherst, Haviland and Murray, respectively arrived before Montreal within 48 hours of each other.

The united forces were so formidable, that M. De Vaudreul, the Governor-general, deemed it improvident to risk an action, or to sustain a siege; and on the 8th of September, 1760, he surrendered the whole province of Canada and its dependencies, to the united regular and provincial forces,

under General Amherst, which was confirmed to Great Britain by the treaty of Paris, February 10th, 1763.

In 1758, Mr. Woodhull was a major in one of the New-York battalions. He was with the troops under General Abercrombie at Ticonderoga, the 8th of July, and he accompanied Col. Bradstreet in the expedition, which he conducted against fort Frontenac, and assisted in the reduction of that fortress, the 27th of August ensuing. The army left Schenectady the 28th of July for the Oneida carrying place. On their route on the night of the 5th of August, 150 of the Jersey troops deserted from the encampment, near the German Flats. Major Woodhull was despatched on the morning of the 6th with a detachment of 300 of the New-York troops in pursuit of them, and overtook and returned with them on the night of the 7th. This expedition, both in respect to the splendor of the achievment and its beneficial effects in weakening the influence of the French with the Indians, in interrupting their intercourse with their upper forts, and in lessening their ability to furnish them with military supplies, as well as in diverting the course of the fur trade, was one of the most important events that occurred during the whole war. It contributed, in a great measure, to efface the disgrace which the army had just sustained by their repulse at Ticonderoga. In this expedition the venerable Col. Marinus Willet, who was a lieutenant and one of the party, states, that the conduct of Major Woodhull was that of a first rate officer."*

In 1759, two battallions of the New-York troops accompanied General Prideaux to Niagara; and one went with Gen.

The expedition under Col. Bradstreet consisted of the following troops: Regulars, 135-royal artillery, 30-New-York provincials, 1112-Massachusetts do. 675Ne v-Jersey, do. 412--Rhode-Island. do. 318-batteau men 300, and about 60 rangers→→→ in all 3035. The regulars were commanded by Capt. Ogilvie, and the artillery by Lieutenant Brown.

The New York troops consisted of two detachments. The first commanded by Lieut. Colonel Charles Clinton, of Ulster, amounting in the whole to 440, under Capts. Jonathan Ogden, of Westchester, Peter Dubois of New-York, Samuel Bladgley of Dutchess, and Daniel Wright of Queens. The second was commanded by Lieut. Col. Isaac Corse, of Queens, and Major Nathaniel Woodhull of Suffolk, amounting to 668, under captains Elias Hand of Suffolk, Richard Hewlett of Queens, Thomas Arrowsmith of Richmond, William Humphrey of Dutchess, Ebenezer Seely of Ulster, and Peter Yates and Goosen Van Schaick, of Albany.

The troops left fort Stanwix, August 14th, 1758, and the fort capitulated the 27th, by which the garrison, artillery stores, and two schooners, fell into the hands of the victors. The commander of the fort was exchanged for Col. Peter Schuyler, who had been taken the year before, and enabled the country to avail itself of the experience of that excellent officer during the two ensuing campaigns.

Col. Corse, who had distingnished himself in the three preceeding campaigns, with a part of his troops volunteered to erect a battery in the night of the 26th, in the midst of the enemy's fire, which in the morning commanded their fort, and led to an immediate surrender.

The Col. received a slight wound, but not so severe as to unfit him for duty. The detachment returned to fort Stanwix the 10th of September.