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Rh of instructions from England to the commanders of the garrisons. There is no record, however, to prove that the extraordinary authority was ever exercised.



The presence of Congress brightened social as well as business aspects. Wall Street was the great center of interest, and was brilliant with showily dressed ladies and gentlemen, in all the colors of the rainbow, every sunshiny afternoon. Brissot de Warville found here every English fashion—the richest "silks, satins, velvets, gauzes, hats, and borrowed hair." Equipages, he tells us, were rare, but very elegant. The diplomatic and distinguished foreign personages, together with "the concourse of strangers," he says, "contribute much to extend the ravages of luxury." But he thought the inhabitants preferred the splendor of wealth, and the show of enjoyment, to a simplicity of manners and the pure pleasures