of the

Board of
Health.

tilence or other public calamity, change the place of meeting of the courts of justice, from the city hall, to some other place within the city. (R. S. vol. 2, 290, sec. 89.)

(7.) The Mayor is President of the Board of Health. (R. S. vol. 1, 422, sec. 1.) Whenever in his judgment the public health shall require it, he may order President vessels from the wharves of the city, or in its vicinity, to the quarantine ground, and may require articles landed to be seized and returned on board, or removed to the quarantine ground. (Ibid. sec. 11.) He may send to the marine hospital, or such other place as the board of health shall direct, non-residents sick with any malignant or contagious fever. (Ibid. 441, sec. 4.) He is to aet in conjunction with the commissioners of health, relative to the arrival of vessels, and the landing of cargoes from vessels coming from infected places; (Ibid. 435, sec. 57, 60, 61.) and he may by proclamation designate infected places, and apply the quarantine laws to vessels coming from such places. (Ibid. 436, sec. 64, 65, 66.)

der.

[8.] The Mayor or Recorder, and any two Aldermen are empowered to inquire into the seizure of gun powder by fire wardens or firemen, and in their Gunpow- discretion to order the same to be restored. So the Mayor is authorized, upon complaint on oath, and reasonable cause of suspicion, that any gun powder has been brought, or is kept within the city, or in the harbor thereof, contrary to law, to issue his warrant, under hand and seal, to any sheriff, marshal, constable, or other fit person, to search for the same in the day time, wheresoever the same may be in violation of law, and to seize the same if found, and to cause the same within twelve hours, in the day time, after the seizure, to be conveyed to any magazine used for storing gun powder, there to be detained until the

question of forfeiture is determined, unless the Mayor or Recorder, and two Aldermen shall order it to be restored as above provided. (Act April 26th, 1830, ch. 291, sec. 31, 32, 33.) As, however, the special justices, or any two of them, as well as the Mayor or Recorder, or any two Aldermen have the like power of issuing the search warrant, the duty will, no doubt, ordinarily devolve upon them.

(9.) At fires, the Sheriff, Deputy Sheriffs, Constables and Marshals, are required to be present, and to be aiding and assisting to extinguish the same, and protect Fires. property. They are to be obedient to the orders of the Mayor, Recorder and Aldermen, or such of them as shall be present, in relation to the execution of their duties. (Act of April 9th, 1813, ch. 86, sec.77.) And if any building be on fire, the Mayor, with the consent and concurrence of any two Aldermen, or any three Aldermen without the Mayor, may order the same or any other building which they shall deem hazardous, and likely to take fire, or convey it to other buildings, to be pulled or Recorder, or any two Aldermen, on application, may order the damages which the owners of such buildings, and all persons having any estate or interest therein, have sustained by the pulling down or destroying thereof, to be assessed by a jury. (Ibid, sec. 81.) So the Mayor and Recorder and Aldermen, or any of them, may order idle and suspicious persons to be removed and kept away from the vicinity of the fire. (Ibid, sec. 82.)

'down or destroyed; and the
MS, and likely

Coaches.

(10.) The Mayor is to license the owners of hackney coaches, and carriages for hire, under the direction Hackney of the Common Council, and who are to pay an annual sum for the same. (Act of April 9th, 1813, ch. 86, sec. 272, and act of February 21st, 1824, ch. 50.) The provision applies to all accommodation stages or coach

es, and undoubtedly includes the new vehicles called Omnibuses, for they are all carriages for hire.

(11.) Heis to license annually every theatre or circus, Theatres. and receive the monies to be paid for the same,and which is to be paid over to the Treasurer of the Society, for the reformation of juvenile delinquents.

April 29th, 1829, ch. 302, sec. 4 and 5.

(Act of

(12.) Every master of a ship or vessel arriving at the port of New-York from any country out of the United States, or from any other of the United States, is directed to report within twenty-four hours after the arrival Emigrants of the ship or vessel, on oath or affirmation, to the Mayor, the name, place of birth, and last legal settlement, age and occupation of every passenger; and of all passengers who shall have landed at any place during the voyage, or gone on board of any other vessel with intention of proceeding to the city of New-York. And the Mayor is authorized to require by a short endorsement on the report, that the master shall be bound with two sufficient sureties to the Corporation for each passenger, not being a citizen of the United States, to indemnify the Corporation and the Overseers of the Poor from all expenses and charges for the maintenance and support of every such passenger, and of the child or " children of such passengers born after such importation, in case such passenger, or child or children shall, within two years from the date of the bond, become chargeable to the city. If any person so brought, and being a citizen of the United States, shall by the Mayor, be deemed likely to become chargeable to the city, the Mayor under his hand may order the master to remove such person without delay, to his last place of settlement. So any person not being a citizen of the United States, who shall enter the city with the intention of residing therein, shall, within twenty-four hours, report himself in writing on oath, to the Mayor, stating his

name, age and occupation, and the vessel he came in, and the name of the master thereof, and the time and places when and where he landed. (Act February 11th, 1824, ch. 37, sec. 1, 2, 3, 4.)

There may be other incidental duties belonging to the office of Mayor, and prescribed by statute, which have escaped my observation; but I trust that they are not very prominent ones, or which will occur frequently. The present sketch may answer all the essential purposes, as regards that office, which were contemplated by the resolution under which I have acted.

CHAPTER II.

ON THE POWER, DUTIES AND AUTHORITY OF THE ALDERMEN OF THE CITY OF NEW-YORK.

I.-As Members of the Common Council.

The legislative power of the Corporation of the city is vested in a board of Aldermen and a board of Assistants, who together form the Common Council.

An Alderman for each ward is elected annually at the election for charter officers, commencing on the second Tuesday in April in each year. He must, at the time of his election, be a resident of the ward for which he is chosen. (Act of April 7, 1830, ch. 122, sec. 1, 2, 3, 4, vide supra pa. 99.)

It is not the object of this essay to give a treatise on the power, duties and authority of the Common Council, in its legislative character. Such a work is

not within the trust assigned to me. The resolution under which I act says nothing about the Common Council. The general powers and duties of that very important municipal body are to be collected from the charter itself, and from the various acts of the Legislature which relate to it, and which enlarge, modify, restrict and explain its provisions. They are designated and sketched in general terms, in the act of April 7th, 1830, ch. 122, amending the charter. In the preceding commentary on the charter, I have endeavored to state the general powers and duties of the Common Council as derived from the charter and the statute law; and we need only look over the volume of laws and ordinances of the Common Council, revised, digested and published in 1834, to be satisfied of the weight of the complicated cares and duties which are confided to that municipal legislature, and which require them to regulate such vast and such minute concerns, and to affect such a variety of interests and pursuits in this great commercial city.

My object will simply be, to point out the powers and duties of the Aldermen and Assistants, individually considered; and I would only observe, in respect to their legislative duties, that they are bound to give a regular and punctual attendance at the Board, and to discharge the duties which devolve upon each member, and impartially. It is a trust of the gravest responsibility, and the good of the city at large, in all its various ties, relations and concerns, so far as they fall within the lawful cognizance of the Common Council, ought to be the grand object of every member's solicitude and efforts.

diligently, intelligentlech