passage of a bill to improve the sanitary condition of New York an easy matter. Toward the end of the session the bill incorporating the Manhattan Company was accordingly passed by the Legislature, and passed without a suspicion on the part of the majority of those who voted for it that it contained a grant of banking privileges. But the real purpose of the scheme was soon made manifest. The discovery created great excitement and indignation. It was charged that the Legislature had been cheated so as to enable Burr and his friends to control a majority of the stock of the company and use its capital for their own purposes.

The plans of the persons interested were speedily carried out, and notice was given that the banking operations of the company would commence in September with a capital of $500,000.

A special meeting of the directors of the Bank of New York was called by the President on the 22d of August to consider the propriety of taking the notes which might be issued by the Manhattan Company, and it was resolved that such notes should not be taken. But upon further consideration it was thought best to adopt a different policy, and on the 15th of April, 1800, the resolution was rescinded.

The sudden death of Gulian Verplanck, on the 20th of November, 1799, deprived the bank of the services. of the distinguished citizen who had been its President