and to adopt and establish such measures and regulations for the prevention or suppression of fires, as the said common council shall deem expedient; to compel the owners and occupants of houses and other buildings, to have scut tles on the roofs of any such houses and buildings, and stairs and ladders leading to the same; to regulate the dimensions of chimneys so as to admit chimney-sweeps to sweep and clean the same; to appoint watchmen, and prescribe their powers and duties; to authorize any ma gistrate, constable or other person, to stop any person riding or driving immoderately through or in any street of the said city, or otherwise to prohibit such offences; to abate or remove any nuisances in said city; to regulate the market and markets in said city; to establish a slaughterhouse, and to regulate the killing of any animals for market in said city; to appoint firemen to take the charge and management of the fire-engines and apparatus thereunto belonging, under such regulations as they shall deem necessary, and remove the same firemen and appoint others in their stead, which firemen shall be exempt from serving as constables or jurors, or in the militia, except in case of insurrection, invasion or other imminent danger, and the names of such firemen shall be entered with the clerk of the said city, whose certificate shall be sufficient evidence of such exemption in all courts and elsewhere; to authorize the mayor, recorder, or any alderman or fire-warden, to remove or keep away from the vicinity of any fire, all idle and suspicious persons during such fire, and to compel any person or persons to aid in the extinguishment thereof, or in the preservation of property exposed to the danger of such fire; to require the sheriff and his deputies, the marshal, watch and consta bles, to be aiding in the extinguishment of all fires, and in preventing goods from being purloined thereat, and in securing the same; subject to the orders of the mayor, recorder, or any alderman present at such fire; to require the inhabitants of said city respectively to provide such and so many fire-buckets, and in such manner and time as they shall prescribe, and to regulate the use of them in times of fire; to prevent persons from selling fruit and cakes, unless licensed in the manner they shall direct; to regulate the police of said city; to direct the paving, flagging or repairing of any of the streets in said city; to regulate the assize and quality of bread, and to provide for the seizure and forfeiture of bread baked contrary thereto; to prevent the incumbering of the streets, sidewalks, walls or alleys, with wheel-barrows, carriages, carts, casks, boxes, lumber, stone or any other things whatsoever; to restrain the running at large of cattle, horses and

swine; to compel the sweeping of chimneys, and to pre vent chimney-sweeps, unless licensed as they shall direct, from sweeping or cleaning of chimneys; to restrain all vagrants, mendicants, street-beggars, or persons soliciting alms, or subscriptions for any purpose whatsoever, and all persons from harboring them without giving previous notice thereof to a member of the common council, or one of the board of magistrates; to light the streets of the said city; to preserve the aqueducts in said city; to regulate the pumps and wells in the streets of said city, and to prevent the unnecessary waste of water, which may be needed for the use of the inhabitants of said city; to establish and regulate one or more public pounds in said city; and for regulating, making, amending and maintaining partition and other fences; to ascertain, fix, establish and settle the boundaries of that part of the said city, called the "Police," and the boundaries of all streets, alleys and lots in said city, and to prevent and remove all encroachments into and upon said streets and alleys; to prevent and restrain any riot, rout, noise, disturbance or disorderly assemblages in any tavern, grocery, street or place in said city; to regulate the burial of the dead; to regulate the vending of meat and vegetables in said city; for requiring the due and punctual attendance of the officers and members of the said common council at their several meetings, and generally to make all such rules, regulations, by-laws and ordinances, for the good government, order and safety of the said city, and the trade and commerce thereof, as they may deem expedient, not repugnant to the constitution or laws of this state but no sale, lease, gift or disposition whatever of the lands, quitrents or other property of the said city, shall be valid, nor shall any appropriation of any of the moneys or property of the said city be made for any purpose whatever, unless by and with the assent of at least two-thirds of all the members composing the common council of the said city; and the said common council may enforce the observance of any by-laws or ordinances to be made or passed by them, by inflicting penalties for the violation of the same, not exceeding fifty dollars for any one offence, recoverable with costs, in an action of debt, by and in the name of the treasurer of the said city, for the use of the said mayor, recorder, aldermen and commonalty, before any court having cognizance thereof; in which action the first process may be by warrant, and there shall be no stay of execution after judgment upon any pretence whatever, without the consent of the said treasurer, and there shall be no exemption allowed thereupon; and in which action.

Trials.

Taxes.

Treasurer.

Clerk.

it shall be lawful to declare generally in debt for such penalty, and give the special matter in evidence.

$30. Upon the trial of any issue, or upon the taking or making of any inquisition, or upon the judicial investigation of any facts whatever, to which issue, inquest or investigation, the mayor, recorder, aldermen and commonalty of the said city are a party, or in which they are interested, no person shall be deemed an incompetent witness or juror, by reason of his being an inhabitant, freeholder or freeman of the said city: and if any person shall be sued or impleaded by reason of any thing done by virtue of this act, it shall be lawful for such person to plead the general issue, and give this act and the special matter in evidence at the trial.

S31. The common council of the said city may, from year to year, levy and collect a tax upon the taxable inhabitants residing within the bounds of the "police district," to defray the expenses of lighting the streets of said city, and supporting a night watch therein, in such manner, at such times, and to such an amount, not exceeding six hundred dollars for either of the purposes aforesaid, as the said common council shall deem expedient and proper; which sums so directed to be levied and collected by the said common council, shall be assessed by the assessors of the several wards of said city, upon the said taxable inhabitants, according to the last assessment roll, and a warrant issued for the levying and collection of said tax, under the common seal of the city, shall have the like power and effect as if issued by the board of supervisors; and that the collectors in the several wards shall have the like power and authority in the collection of the said tax, as they have in the collection of any other tax, and shall give such security for the faithful discharge of their duty therein, as the said common council shall direct.

$ 32. The treasurer of the said city shall, as soon as may be after his appointment and before he enters upon the duties of his office, execute a bond to the said mayor, recorder, aldermen and commonalty, with two sureties, to be approved of by the said common council, in the sum of five thousand dollars, and filed in the office of the clerk of said city, conditioned that he shall faithfully execute the duties of his said office, which security, in case of a reappointment of the same person as treasurer, shall be renewed annually, and before the said treasurer shall enter on the duties of his office.

S33. It shall be the duty of the clerk of said city to provide and keep a book or books of minutes of the proceedings of the said common council; which shall be open

at all proper times for the inspection of any of the inhabitants of the said city: and the clerk, treasurer, superintendent and marshal of the said city, shall severally be paid out of the city treasury, such compensation for their services, as the said common council shall deem reasonable and proper. The treasurer of said city shall annually, between the first and fifteenth days of March in every year, publish a detailed statement of the funds of the said city, with a full account of the expenditures and receipts for the last preceding year.

$ 34. The common council of the said city may, from Streets. time to time, make and establish by-laws and ordinances, ordering and directing any of the streets or lanes in the said city, or any parts of them, to be pitched, levelled, paved, flagged, Macadamized, or covered with broken stone, gravel or sand, or for the altering or repairing the same, within such time, and in such manner as they may prescribe, under the superintendence and direction of the city superintendent; and in case the owners or occupants of any houses or lots in any such streets or lanes, shall neglect or refuse to comply with the requisitions of any such by-laws or ordinances, it shall and may be lawful for the said common council to cause so much of the said streets or lanes in front of the houses or lots of the person or persons so neglecting or refusing, to be conformed to such by-laws or ordinances, under the direction of the said superintendent; and upon the production by the said superintendent of the said common council, of an account certified under his oath of office, of the expenses incurred in conforming the same to such by-laws or ordinances, and the allowance and payment thereof by the said common council, it shall and may be lawful for them to sue for and recover from such owners or occupants, or their legal representatives, in the name of the treasurer of the said city, the amount of such expenses, with interest and costs, in any court having cognizance thereof, in an action on the case for so much money paid, laid out and expended for such owners or occupants, by the said mayor, recorder, aldermen and commonalty; and the said account, and proof of the payment of the amount, shall be presumptive evidence for the plaintiffs in every such action.

vacant lots.

$35. In case any lots, in front where the streets or In front of lanes shall have been directed to be pitched, levelled, paved, flagged, Macadamized, gravelled or repaired, by any by-law or ordinance of the said corporation, shall be vacant, and the same shall have been conformed to any such by-law or ordinance, by and at the expense of the said mayor, recorder, aldermen and commonalty, in conse

quence of the neglect or refusal of the owners of such lots to comply with the requisitions of such by-law or ordinance, it shall be lawful for the said mayor, recorder, aldermen and commonalty, if they shall see fit, instead of pursuing the remedy by action provided by the last preceding section, to cause such vacant lots to be advertised in one of the public newspapers printed in the said city, and in one of the public newspapers printed in the city of Albany, for six months, requiring the owners of such lots respectively to pay to the treasurer of the said city of Schenectady, the amount of the expenses that may have been incurred and paid by the said mayor, recorder, aldermen and commonalty, in conforming any such streets or lanes in front of any such lots, to the said by-laws or ordinances, and that if default shall be made in such payment, such lots will be sold at public auction, at a day and place therein to be specified, for the lowest term of years at which any person shall offer to take the same, in consideration of advancing the amount of the said expenses; and if, notwithstanding such notice and demand, the owner or owners shall refuse or neglect to pay the same, with the interest and the costs and charges of the advertisement, then it shall be lawful for the said mayor, recorder, aldermen and commonalty, to cause the said lots to be sold at public auction for a term of years, for the purposes and in the manner expressed in the said advertisement, and to give a declaration of such sale to the purchaser thereof, under the common seal of the said city; and such purchaser, his executors, administrators and assigns, shall, by virtue. thereof, and of this act, lawfully hold and enjoy the same for his and their own proper use, against the owner or owners thereof, and all claiming under him or them, until his term therein shall be fully complete and ended, being at liberty to remove all the buildings and materials which he or they shall erect or place thereon, but leaving the ground in sufficient fence, and with the street or streets fronting the same, in the order required by the said bylaws or ordinance: and further, the amount of the expenses incurred and paid by the said mayor, recorder, aldermen and commonalty, for conforming the streets or lanes in front of any such vacant lots, shall remain a lien thereon from the time of the payment thereof by the said mayor, recorder, aldermen and commonalty, in manner aforesaid, until paid or otherwise satisfied.

$36. If the expenses that may be incurred and paid by the said mayor, recorder, aldermen and commonalty, for conforming the streets or lanes in front of any such vacant lots, to any such by-laws or ordinances, shall be paid by any person, when, by agreement or by law, the same