The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1853-03-24

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the last six months, could have been brought
against the hired servants or clerks Of any
private individual! The law has provided too
fully against embesxlement and corruption in
these cases for any but the most reckless or the
most vicious to attempt it. We cannot but re-
gard this omission as fatal to the character Of
the bill as measure of reform.
Again, the bill does not strike at the root of
any of the sources whence civil corruption is
likely to spring The committee seems to have
satisfied itself with having rendered it rather
more difficult matter than it was formerly to
buy up the Common Council votes. No provi-
sion is made for the prevention of corrupt and
wasteful expenditure in the opening Of new
streets and avenues. Under the present law
they are frequently opened, at vast expense,
long before any general necessity for the outlay
has been felt; and that expense, owing to the
provision prohibiting an assessment Of higher
than one-half it's value being laid on any lot, is
borne by the city treasury in every case,
where worthless swamp or rocky land is ira
versed by the street. 1t was thus that the
some 5000 600. If all petitioners for opening
new street were obliged to become RESPONSE
BILE for its cost. then indeed we might con-
graduate ourselves on prospect Of economy /:
and if to this provision another were added
prohibiting leeches, in the shape Of commits
of the city, we should really acknowledge our
obligations to the committee. Unfortunately
on both these points the bill is silent.
Nor does it afford any guarantee that the cor
ruption hitherto alleged to have taken place in
the sale of real estate the grants Of water lots.
will be in any measure diminished. The mode
of proceeding is slightly altered-and Of this
more anon For the present we are noticing
what the bill does not do
Another fruitful source of complaint is the
wasteful expenditure of public money in pa
Our readers will thank us for sparing them the
repetition of the oft-told tales of the Kossuth
reception, the tea room petty cash expenses,
and the many other bills which have aroused
the wrath Of taxpayers. They remember them
well-too WE'LL indeed to vouchsafe their favor
to bill which does nothing to alleviate or pre-
vent them. Funerals. too, are not a light item in
our municipal disbursements. Not word
of all these matters in the bill
We turn. not without sense of relief, from
the negative to the positive defects of the bill.
In mitigation of the latter at least one may
10, Ill ind ha
part Of its trainers.
1t is very questionable whether the provi-
sions requiring the city council to dispose of
water lots by auction is constitutional. Own
ers of beach property have always enjoyed a
presumption right to the adjacent water lot
1t requires some ingenuity to reconcile the pre-
scriptive right thus acquired with the risk of
being outbid at a public auction. The dis
position Of ferries in the proposed manner is
also Objectionable, because such leases are for
short periods, and the parties who take them
lay cut large sums of money, in the purchase
Of ferry boats, some of the modern boats costing
$4,000 and 100000. If when the lease ex-'
pires, the parties are outbid at auction, should
not the new lessees be required to purchase the
boats and fixtures, at a fair valuation? If.this
feature is not incorporated ferry companies
would object. and omit to make those extensive
outlays essential to the comfort, convenience
and safety of the community.
The aldermen are Invested of their judicial
powers, and no provision is made for the trial of
police magistrates for malfeasance in Office. Is
it the intention of the Legislature that they
shall not be tried in future?
We might add much more on this and kindred
defects but we think we have said enough to
show that. however effective as agitators. the
members of the committee have not given US
any tangible evidence of their skill as practi-
cal reformers. The subject of municipal reform
is not one to be settled with dash Of the pen.
Deep deliberation. and most scrupulous care.
are both essential requisites for the task. or we
shall find that our time and breath have been
lost. The first aim of reform bill ought to be
to put an end. once and forever, to the posi-
bility of official corruption. That end can be
attained by three measures of precaution The
first las been adopted by the committee. who
deserve some credit for having discovered that
it was more difficult to bride eighty men than
twenty. The second is the adoption Of COM
plete system of checks. The third is the in6ic-
ton of severe penalty on all who are concern
ed in an act Of bribery. With the help of these
safeguards we may possibly expect to hear no
more Of official corruption. Without them, re-
form bills had better be abandoned
CAPT. r. 3. MARcY's RED RIVER ExpLoRA-
TIoNs.-We published yesterday the highly
interesting paper read by Captain Marcy, of
the Army, before the American Statistical
and Geographical Society. descriptive of
the Red river and the vast country watered
by that stream and its tributaries, from the
Rocky Mountains to the Mississippi; and from
its freshness, and the original and instructive
facts which were embodied in this discourse, we
arc ouite cure that II hoo hoe roruead hy our