The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1858-05-27

The application for the widening and extension
OF Holiday street. which is pending before the CITY
Council appears to have created considerable ex-
citement on the floor and in the Hobbies of that au
gust body, as well as among the parties interested
or enlisted out of doors We are not at all surprised
at this let the merits of the question be what they
may. On the contrary it seems to be but the ne
cessary result of what we have always regarded as
radical wee in our street legislation So long as
we continue to assess upon one set of property
holders, under the name of ''beneGts" what is to
be paid to another set in the guise of damages"
we may rely, with perfect certainty, whenever an
important Improvement is in contemplation, upon
the recurrence ofhe natural struggle between those
who desire the change and those who expect to nav
for it. Patriotism and public spirit, no doubt, are
often very controlling motives, but they rarely de-
scend to the mere municipal sphere and the balance
of opinions, in such everyday matters as streets
and highways, is very apt in the main, to coin
eide with the balance of accounts
Many of our readers have been taught, we pre-
sume by their own experience the practical opera
ton of the existing street system Its ingenious
absurdity, however, hardly be understood
fully, without having personally witnessed its ac-
ton in detail
Whenever authority is given by ordinance for the
exercise of the powers which the corporation DOS
seSses In respect to the streets of the city, it is
made the duty of the Commissioners to assess the net
amount of damage which the improvement will
cause to the owners ofadacent property and to make
an estimate, likewise of the expenses which will at
tend the execution of the project These damages and
tba
qulred, by the Act of Assembly, to assess and levy
ION the whole assessabe property within the cty.''
The general ordinance, by which the Act of As
sembly is carried out-avang itself of the loop
hole which the law affords-directs the Commits
soners to assess and levy the aggregate damages
and expenses, not upon the city at large, but,
specially, upon the property, the owners of which
they shall decide and deem to be benefited" Hav-
ing discharged this somewhat difficult duty, with
the aid ola surveyor and according to their peculiar
ideas of the proportions in which the neighboring
population is to be damaged and bettered by the i'm
provement in hand, the Commissioners are required
10 put 1t all down in book, with an explanatory
map and accurate descriptions of all the parcels
OF property upon which they have passed sentence
This is deposited in the Registers office for public
inspection, and those who are dissatisfied with tbe
result have the right of appeal TO the Criminal or
the Superior Court. Should an appeal be taken,
the matter is heard before jury, and either du.-
ing the progress of the trial. when it is over or
perhaps several times, both before and after the
submission, the ''good men and true'' go out and
view the premises. They take with them sur
veyor, if they need one, which of course they
generally do
sloners, even TO the extent of one hundred dollars
IN their estimate of the damages benefits assessed
to single individual, the whole house that Jack
built has often to be built over An infinite num-
Der of new sums in the single rule of three have
to be worked out-new grist must 90 TO the sur
veyors mill-and many days must be consumed in
these laborious and complicated operations With
much wandering TO and fro All this. of co,rSo
has to be paid for, and somebody must foot the
bill. The per diem of the jurors and their bailif
the refreshments" at some neghboring "saloon. ),
and the charges of the surveyor, must all be add
ed to the expense If it were railroad these
would 60 into the ''sinking fund.-" and not only
pay themselves, but, some day or other build a
new track and extnguish nobody knows how
much debt. As it is only a street however, these
additional demands must be provided for in some
less transcendental way, and as there is no other
way provided by the street-laws, they are added
TO the damages" and collected from somebody
rs additional benefits! The singular phenome-
non is thus regularly and invariably developed-
that there is always some person or collection Of
persons benefited to the precise identical amount
in which it is discovered that some other persons
are damaged-and that when additional expenses
come in no matter to what amount, to increase
the demand, the supply spontaneously and mirac-
ulously expands, in the identical ratio-not a
quarter of cent more, not quarter OF cent
less .tas
Nor is this the whole of the wonder. The
books of the Commissioners and of the juries