The scheme of kingcraft to make the authorities independent of the people,by securing a permanent revenue, was again and again introduced by the ColonialGovernors, but as often resisted by the Assembly. Sir George Clinton, having alienated the people by his unfortunate administration, was superseded in 1753 by Sir Danvers Osborne, who had received royal instruction to insist on a permanent revenue. This being emphatically resisted, the dispirited Governor, who had just buried his wife, seeing nothing but trouble and failure in the future, terminated his existence by hanging himself with a handkerchief from the garden wall of John Murray''s house in Broadway. He was succeeded by Lieutenant-Governor James Delancey, whose accession was hailed with delight. It was under his administration that Kings (now Columbia) College was founded, the charter being signed by Delancey, October 31, 1754. The same year the scheme for a public library was projected, and the Walton House, long the palace of the city, erected. This building, erected by William Walton, a son-in-law of Delancey, was four stories high, built of yellow Holland brick, with five windows in front; and a tiled roof encircled with balustrades. This edifice, which would attract no unusual attention now in a country village, was then considered the wonder of America, and had a wide European fame. It is still standing on Pearl street, and contrasts sadly with the magnificent iron-fronted business palace of the Harpers, now nearly opposite. The city was now being enlarged; new streets were laid out and constructed, and piers and ferries established. But the most exciting topic of this period was the war with France, which resulted finally in the conquest of Canada. The establishment of French and English colonies on this continent resulted in incessant friction between these rival powers, and led ultimately to a gigantic struggle between the two most warlike nations of the world. The English, having planted themselves on the Eastern seaboard, advanced westward, claiming all between the Atlantic and the Pacific oceans, while the French, possessing Canada in the north, and the mouth of the Mississippi in the south, claimed all lying between. These incessantly interfering claims for rich territory, which neither owned, led to numerous bloody wars, extending in their influence from the St. Lawrence to the Ganges, for the possession of a country which, twenty years after the cessation of these struggles, passed from under the control of both. The peace of Aix-la-Chapelle, in 1748, closed the third colonial war, which had been prosecuted with great vigor, and which had resulted in the capture of Louisburg by the English arms. By the treaty, however, this captured territory was restored to France, leaving things again in etatu quo, and ready for new hostilities. In 1749, George II. chartered the Ohio Company, granting six hundred thousand acres of land, in the vicinity of the Ohio river, to certain persons of Westminster, London, and Virginia, thus paving the way for new national troubles.