The New Hampshire Gazette

The following is the latest news from Albany about the manor war. It is copied from a Postscript in the N. Y. Com. Adv. of Wednesday evening:

We learn, verbally, by a gentleman who came down in the boat, that during Monday night, a detachment of the Burgesses' corps, which had taken shelter from the pelting of the storm in a barn, were driven out by the insurgents, and the barn destroyed. The forces were so unequal that the sheriff directed the soldiers not to fire upon the assailants.

The only additional, official, from Albany, since yesterday, is a brief letter from the adjutant general, stating that no returns had yet been received from the sheriff, and that of course the troops detailed for service from New York would not be required to embark without further orders.
The Patroon Tenantry.—The State of New-York, being originally settled by the Dutch, was parcelled out in large grants, made by the Government of Holland, to several great proprietors, who were styled "Patroons." These Patroons in their turn granted their land in smaller lots to tenants, on long leases, on the payment of a small annual rent in the produce of the land. In process of time, and under a change of circumstances, the lands have nearly all been sold, and are now held in fee simple by numerous owners, as in other states. The large estate of the "Patroon" Stephen Van Rensselaer, however, was an exception. His property had never been alienated; but had come down to him from his ancestors, with the tenantry upon it; and his rents were always paid to him, until his death, which took place a few months ago. Since that event, the new Patroon, his heir, attempting to collect his annual rents, was repulsed: the tenants saying they had paid rent enough, and would not pay any more. He sent the Sheriff next, but they would not pay him, but drove him from the ground. The Sheriff summoned a civil posse of 1000, to aid him in his duty; but the tenants proved too strong for them. Lastly the Sheriff applied to the Governor for military aid, and he has ordered 2000 militia from New-York city to be ready to march at moment's warning.
THE MANOR WAR.

Considerable excitement has been evinced in Albany and vicinity, during the past week or two, in consequence of the tenantry on the extensive estate belonging to the heirs of the late Mr Van Rensselaer, in Albany and Rensselaer Counties, refusing to pay the annual tribute or rent for their farms, which had been paid ever since the original settlement of the county, and the efforts of the sheriff and posse in attempting to collect them.

The tenantry are said to number several thousands, and with few exceptions had resolved not to submit to the exactions any longer, considering them too servile and anti-republican, and that it was time they should enjoy their lands in fee simple, and for a moderate sum.

They therefore refused to pay rent any longer, and resisted the sheriff and his posse consisting of several hundred citizens of Albany, by blocking up the roads and presenting a solid front.

The sheriff without attempting to force his way, wheeled about, returned to Albany and laid the matter before the Governor, who ordered out the militia of the County of Albany and vicinity to aid the sheriff, and several brigades in the city were also called out and ordered to be ready for service at a moment's notice.

Martial law was proclaimed, and some of the troops advanced to the scene of disturbance, matters really began to look squally and apprehensions were entertained of a serious collision between the tenantry and the militia; but the people of this country are a moral and reflecting people, slow to anger, and it seems by the following from the Albany Journal of Thursday evening, that on sober second thought the tenants have abandoned their purpose of resisting the execution of the law, and the troops have been ordered to return.

THE PATROON WAR ENDED.

"Gen. Ayerill of Montgomery County, with 500 troops ordered on Monday evening last, arrived in this city last evening. We are happy to announce that communications have been received from the towns interested, which authorise a confident hope that all further resistance to the execution of the law has been abandoned. The information received from the Sheriff, last evening, is, that he was successfully executing his process without resistance. Under these circumstances, Gen. Ayerill has been ordered to return with the troops under his command.

"Notice has been given to the troops in New York that there is reason to believe that their services will not be required, and we hope soon to be able to announce the determination of the Manor difficulties, so far as resistance to the law is concerned. We understand meetings have been held among the tenants of the
Manor, and resolutions adopted to petition the Legislature. This is the right and wise course, and we have no doubt that their petition will receive due consideration."

A letter from Albany published in the Chenango Telegraph, gives the annexed statement of the causes of the present dissatisfaction among the tenants of the Patroon :—

"You are probably aware that all the lands in the counties of Albany and Rensselaer were owned by the late Patroon, who, in disposing of them, granted, not the fee simple but perpetual leases, conditional for the payment, by the purchaser, annually, of a certain number of bushels of wheat, (about 12 bushels to a hundred acres,) of our fowls, and the rendering, of one day's service in the month of January, of himself and team, and perhaps some other services. Each purchaser was also required by his lease to pay a "quarter sale" on disposing of his land, that is, one-fourth of the money for which a farm was sold by a lease, was to be given to the Patroon, and no sale could be made until the refusal was first offered to the Patroon, upon the terms offered to the intended purchaser. Such are the conditions upon which all the lands in this country are owned, and occupied, with very few exceptions.

"As this is not much of a wheat growing country, the old Patroon converted the delivery of wheat, for its market value in cash, on rent day, and received two dollars for the day's service and 50 cents for the fowls. He did not often exact the "quarter sale" in full, taking generally some thirty or forty, and occasionally one hundred dollars, in satisfaction of his claim for a much larger amount. He was proverbially indulgent and numbers were in consequence indebted at the time of his death, for many years back rent.

"All the arrears of rent due on the first of January and February, immediately preceding his death, were by his will bequeathed to D. D. Barnard, Jacob T. B. Van Vechten, and J. Stevenson, in trust, to collect the same in their own names, or the names of his executors, with all reasonable indulgence to the persons indebted who are poor, or otherwise unfortunate, and apply the money, when collected, to the payment of his just debts. An attempt was made last summer to carry this into effect. This aroused a state of excited feeling among large bodies of the tenants, who thought that the Patroon should, in justice, sell them the fee simple for a moderate sum: that he had realized a fortune from his leases, and should not exact the pound of flesh, and they refused to pay."