Eastern times. [volume] (Bath, Me.) 1846-1857, 1855-02-01

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but one-third annually, as provided in section
8, which refers to experimenting COMMITTEES
only, and as such, only.
| II these are facts, and the records Of the
city may be consulted in proof, then by what
authority are our teachers hired, or is the fuel
for our schools provided. Is it not plain that
no person in the city is lawfully authorized to
employ teacher or to expend the school
money in any way! The fact is, the city
council of 1851 overlooked the necessity of a
standing rote under which, until rescinded
school committees could be invested with the
powers of school agents; or they may have
supposed that vote under law then repealed
was still in living force; and the blunder has
been ignorantly followed up, no one even
dreaming perhaps that all was not right and in
accordance with the statute. We wish it
distinctly borne in mind that no authority has
existed for choosing the Sup. Committee as
school agents, one-third annually, or for choos-
ing them for more than one year, for the law
provides not only that agents shall be chosen
for one year, but the section providing for the
investment of committees with the powers of
agents, expressly says that they shall be elect
persons If more evidence were needed that
this is the intent and meaning of the law, we
have only to appeal to an additional act passed
April 20, 1854. Section 4, of the act re-
ferred to, says: "Any city or town which
shall determine to elect a experimenting com
mite, as prorided By The elerenM section of the
first article Of the act 10 proride for the educd-
lion of youth (the section ALREADY quoted)
passed Aug. 81, 1850, may elect said commit
tee annually or may elect one-third of said com
n,ftee each year, in the same manner as towns
elect their experimenting school committees,
under the provisions of the eighth section of
the first article of the same act.''
| Here is a section, the special and only OBJ
ject of which is TO authorize the election of a
committee with the powers of agents in the
same way that school committees are chosen
by law. Is it not plain then, that in electing
our committees under the said eighth section,
as we have done invariably, and in all cases,
we could not confer upon them the powers of
agents! If we could, choosing them one
third each year, why pass such an additional
law as that last quoted Can any legal gen.
tleman answer!
| In this connection let me remark that dur
ing the past summer. in July, l think, the
City Solicitor was consulted in reference TO
this very matter, and his opinion was that the
course OF the city had not been correct one,
and that the committee, in acting as agents,
had acted without lawful authority. He
therefore drafted an order which passed the
city council, and now may be regarded as a
''standng vote" which will bind the council
until rescinded, to choose one-third annually,
three persons as Sup. Committee, who shall
be invested with all the powers of school
agents. This vote, so far as the election of
one member each year goes, is in conformity
to the act of 1854, quoted above. As the city
government can neither pass ca post facto votes,
nor legalize any unauthorized act, the vote of
July can have no effect upon the existing
school committee, every member of that COM
mittee having been elected prior to the adop-
ton of the standing vote; prior, indeed to the
passage of the act which gives authority to
choose one each year.
The following then, are the conclusions to
which we are conducted, to wit:
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no legal school agents.
I'd. Having no legal school agents, the
money raised for schools by taxation, as well
as that arising from other sources, has been
disbursed by individuals unauthorized by law
to perform any such labor
3d. Having no school agents and no per
sons legally invested with the powers Of
agents, the teachers employed in our schools
have been hired by persons having no legal au-
thority for their acts in this respect. and their
salaries could not by law be collected of the
city.
4th. The city council should forthwith pc
tition the Legislature to legalize its past acts
in relation to the matters in question, not on
ly that the acts of its committee may have
binding force, but that the treasurer NAV be
held blameless in paying over the school
money to persons Unauthorized to receive it.
5th. In the present posture of affairs, it
will become the duty of the next city council
lit may well be questioned if it is not the duty
of the presently to proceed to elect school
agents for the city separate from and indepen-
dent of the Sup. School Com, Tin which case
the vote of July would need to be rescinded)
or, if they prefer TO impose the duties of
agents upon the Sup. Com, and let the July
vote remain unchanged, they will have to
commence de moro, and elect three persons,
who are to decide by lot who of their number
shall stand for three, and who for two years,
the remaining one to stand for one year only.
9th. The vote of July provides for three
members of the committee but as the elev-
enth section of article first of the law allows a
larger number, the city council may change
that vote and substitute any other number,
larger than three, that they think proper.
The foregoing may be secuted by some,
ridiculed by others, and perhaps provoke no
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