Edmund Andros was sent to govern New York for the Duke of York.  The people complained a good deal because he acted as though he were a king with absolute power.  They asked that they have some voice in the direction of their affairs.  They got up a petition and sent it to the Duke in England.

“What do the people want?” said the Duke.  “If they are not satisfied, they can always appeal to me.”  He did not see that they had just appealed to him, and in vain.

Captain Manning, who had been in charge of the province when the Dutch recaptured it, came again to New York with Andros.  Many who had lost their property by the coming of the Dutch, complained bitterly to Andros.  So the Governor, and his council, and the officers of the city held many conferences, with the result that Captain Manning was arrested.  He was found guilty of cowardice, and his sword was broken in front of the Stadt Huys in the presence of the citizens, and he was declared, on the good authority of King Charles II., unfit ever again to hold public office.

Although disgraced, Captain Manning did not seem to care much.  He owned a beautiful wooded island in the East River, to which he now retired.  He was wealthy, and there he lived and entertained royally during the remainder of his life.

Andros did many things for the general good.  When he had been Governor four years, and when the most important product of trade was flour, a law was made by which no one was permitted to make flour outside of the city.  This was called the Bolting Act.  Flour cannot be made unless it is “bolted”—­or has the bran taken from it—­and so the act came by its name.  The right to grind all the grain into flour may not now seem very important, but it really was, for it brought all the trade to the city.  So you see the Bolting Act was a very good thing for the city, and very bad for the people who did not live in the city.  The city folks became very prosperous indeed, but the others, because they could not make or sell flour, became poorer day by day.

This went on for sixteen years, and then the law came to an end.  But by that time all the business of the entire province had centred in the city so firmly that it could not be drawn away.

[Illustration]

So, after this, when you look at a picture of the Seal of New York, and see a windmill and two barrels of flour, you will remember that the windmill sails worked the mill, and the barrels were filled with flour which laid the foundation of the city’s fortunes; and were put on the seal so that this fact would always be remembered.  The beavers on the seal suggest the early days when the trade in beaver skins made a city possible.  At one time there was a crown on the seal—­a king’s crown—­but that gave way to an eagle when the English King no longer had a claim on New York.