COLONIAL GOVERNMENT 183

unlawful privileges won from Fletcher and now
stripped from them by Bellomont; but the Gover-
nor pursued his course undaunted either by the
threats or by the taunts cast against him as a
partner of the pirate, Captain Kidd. So beloved
was Bellomont by the people and so strongly in-
trenched by influence in the Government at home
that he could probably have carried through the
reforms which he had at heart; but his untimely
death in 1701, after a brief rule of three years, put
an end to all his far-reaching schemes for the good
of the colonies.

His death was followed by a condition approach-
ing civil war between the followers of Leisler and
their foes. In 1702 Queen Anne, who had recently
ascended the throne, appointed as Governor her
relative, Edward Hyde, Lord Cornbury. He sup-
pressed the Leislerians and exalted the aristocratic
party, thereby restoring order but at the same time
bringing odium upon his cause by his personal
vices. Cornbury was a type of everything that a
colonial governor should not be, a scamp, a spend-
thrift, and a drunkard. Relying upon his rela-
tionship to Queen Anne, he felt himself superior
to the ordinary restraints of civilization. He took
bribes under guise of gifts, was addicted to all