The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1855-10-13

Inoie uhiaif VI aosufO proceeding, even on the
part Of our BOARD of Aldermen, than the ac-
ton Of the majority with reference to the rails
ing of the ship Joseph Walker.
The circumstances are yet fresh in the pub
lie mind. The ship was sunk, with cargo on
board, at her dock, near one of the most popu-
to the Mayor that there was danger Of pesti-
lenee if the wreck and the partially decom-
posed cargo we're not removed. He took the
initiative steps in the matter-wr0te to several
contractors to ascertain the probable cost of
the removal and summoned the Board of
Health. The Board ratified the contract which
had been arranged between the Mayor and Mr..
Walter r. Jones, and payments to the amount
of 81 500 were made on account of the work
after it had been commenced.
In this action the Mayor was justified by the
laws of hesitate, and his conduct was endorsed
by the Board of Health. The conviction is IT.
resistible that he acted from what he considered
to be the best interests Of the city and the pre-
servation Of the public health.
At this time the Board Of Aldermen was
equally divided in its political complexion,
but soon after the Alderman Of the Nineteenth
ward--Mr. Herrick-went over to the whig
side. He had been mortally offended by the
refusal Of the Mayor to appoint q pet of the
Alderman's as Captain of Police. The Alder
mans influence in his ward was almost ruined,
and he joined the Mayors opponents, led by
the Alderman OF the Seventeenth ward-Mr.
Ely-who may be Mayor himself some fine day.
A desperate onslaught was made upon Mayor
making a job for his friends and sharing in the
spoils, and an organized attempt was set on foot
to ruin him with the people. A special COM
mittee was appointed to investigate the affair,
and after q long interval they have made a
report, signed by two of their number This
report has already been given to our readers
It's salient point is that the Mayor acted ille-
gally in initiating the proceedings for the re-
moyal of the ship, but no charges ore made
against him. He stands to-day unimpeached,
even by his enemies who could find nothing to
report against him. The report is very care
fully drawn up, and endeavors to show that the
contract was illegal 1t says nothing about
the State law which gives the Mayor the power
to remove nuisances which endanger the pub
lie health, and although it states clearly that
one contractor was found who would do the
work at a less price than that promised to Mr.
Jones, it carefully omits another fact, that this
contractor made it condition that the city
should guarantee to him the ship and cargo,
unincumbered. The city could not do this, be-
cause when the vessel is raised she becomes
the property Of the underwriters, and the con-
tractor has only claim for salvage. In con-
cluson, the committee report resolution d.
recting the Counsel to the Corporation to COM
already payed on this contract. This is absurd
in the extreme. No such suit could be enter
tanned; and if the resolution should be adopted,
the city will only have the satisfaction of pay
ing bill of costs.
So much for the report, on its own merits.
But the individual action of the committee
will receive universal condemnation. The re-
port is signed by the Aldermen Of the
Seventeenth and Ninth wards-Messrs. Ely
and Voorhis But the third member of
the committee-the Alderman Of the Twenty
first ward, Mr.. Varan-protested against its
reception, on the ground that he had no time
to read it. His protest was overslaughed, and
the report is now put forth in an unfair man
ner, and by body against which there are
many grave suspicious and some positive
charges, intimating that its members are guilty
of the msdemeanors which they have failed
to prove against the Mayor,
While all these things are going on, the
wheels of reform are stopped, and the city is
disgraced before the country and the world.
Instead of a wise, prudent, practical govern
ment, the legislative branch is made up of
set of politicians who are eagerly scrambling
for the spoils of office, laboring earnestly to
defeat the efforts Of the Executive to cause
thorough reform in all the departments, quar-
relng about petty contracts, while thousands
are being wasted on political partisans, and
occupying the public time with such invest-
cations as that to which we have alluded
above.
Such is briefly the state of things at the City
Hall. The Mayor is almost powerless to do
good, the coming election engrosses the atten-
is utterly neglected or grossly mismanaged.
W. II. SEWARD IN THE FEID.-When w. H.
Seward takes the stump there must be some
thing in the wind. Heretofore he has been the
invisible areh-agitator, never seen anywhere,
but working everywhere, through the agencies
Of bis big and little villains" runners, tide
walters and pipe layers Like the old rat in
the fable his policy has been to keep out Of
harms way. But the present agitation has
uDearthed him, and he turned up in propria
pesone at the Albany black repu blican rat-
fcation last night, and made speech on the
occasion. We have brief report Of it, indi
eating that it is but the repetition of the old
story, modified for the exigencies of the day
sophomore speech, not spontaneous stump
speech, fresh from the heart and the lips of the
orator, like that of Gen. Nye, but deliberate
and carefully studied speech, adroitly avoiding
the full exhibition of the cloven hoof, but In