New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1858-05-07

e ole ofktepipg books Stree tbis .oos~.e" ma. In
him 1t the mercy o. any scoundrel who Chooses %
impose upon him aLd rob 70 city through MS con-
fdence.
Going 70 the County Clerks cfhce. they frd
o-.at deal Of disorder among the paper' as we'll IS
much difficulty of getting held Of documents ordered
bv ,.v 70 be filed there. Here they we've 10 search
tf facts in regard TO a warrant to psy an award n
tie matter Of opening Beekman street, amouodog
70 81. OO3, in which tie figure four seems to have
teep Transmitted into a seTen, msklng 3 swLdle oil
$1,000.
In the Street Department, owing to the legal
difficulties between Conoyer and Devo, the CON-
u;t,ee have ade but little research; but what
they have observed is not particularly favorable To
,he officials who have had charge of that branch OF
tie Go7eIr ment and the result of their exan'na-
tion does rtt differ materially from that OF the re-
SEARCHES made BY Mr.. Conovcr, which We have
slready printed aud explained AS specimen oil
,hsrp practice We liza! mention the habit OF tue
Assessors including their fees IN the assessment
lis,r, 10 that they get the Assessors percentage
upen their own b ls: or, in yther CORDS, charging
a handsome percentage rr m&i1g on! tcer
own accounts. The specimen case offered
from tbs DepartBent 10 the regulating and
grading Of Second avenue from T"en'y-eighth
to Ore hundred and twenty-thrd Street. Ihere
we're rec contractors: from TSenty.elghth
q Fifty third street Daniel Gallagher; from
FIT TO Eigbty.slxth, James Gallagher
spd from Ninety third to One hundred and twenty
third. Jt hb NcAIthur, VITO assigned to John Pett-
grew. one of bis suretes. Subsequently the Street
Copuissioner made several illegal supplementary
contracts for cu,yeIts, &c. Upon Daniel GSua-
pttIs contract, The Surveyors return shows "a
excess over the estimate Of $4,000; upon John
Gallseher's contract an excess OF so. 363; while
On J, hn Pettigrew's job it comes up to the med
crate sum of 1921 ,O76, which is made up OF
1913 6l4 cubic yards Of earth filling more than IN
cluded in the original estimates, at "A cents per
yard. The anouLt returned against the city on
unauthorized contracts in | this work was POS.
But We cannot pursue this smart operation more
part suSry at present.
Toe Committee cay that $4,000 was allowed 70
Pettigrew for interest which WAS just so much IN
Justice to the tax payers. Next We have table
embracing large number of Items Of this swlnd-
ling character. Something like the exposition
made by 10 from the Controller and Mr. Ccncyers
reports the other day.
After lock at the looks Of the Receiver of
Taxes, where things are badly mixed up, the Com
mittee conclude by recommending that the Counsel
to tie Corporation be instructed to take steps to
recover all SUNS which msy have been improperly
and Illegally paid from the City Treasury, and re-
ferred to in this report.
And 80 we CO. Every dip into the secret hd-
tory of The City Government for the past ten years,
discloses come new swindle urOn the people.
Almost every conceivable form Of fraud has been
boldly practiced false estimates, false measures,
false entries orgeres in contracts, contracts with
out even the form of legality, alterations of figures,
perjury, lying theft, and every degree Of felony has
characterized tie operations of the III convicted
who Rave pIeyed upon us. The very enormity of
the robbery the host Of men who must have been
ccenizant of the facts, the high social aud political
stanoirg Of some of them make hesitate whether
il is worth while to try to save such desperately
corrupt Sodom Of city, or burn it down aid com.
MERGE anew.