The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-11-20


ing:
MAYORS OFFICE,
Baltimore, Nov. 10, 1860
To the Honorable the Members of the
First and Second Branches of the City Council:
Gentlemen Your honorable body has been
called together before the period designed by law
In order that, through your regular organization,
provision may be made for the occurrence of any
disability on the part of the Mayor and shall,
therefore, at present refrain from asking your con-
slderation of any measures which will require pro-
tracted deliberation.
| subm it herewith communication addressed tn
me by the Board Of Police, by which it will be seen
that an appropriation of $4,000 is necessary to
pay the expenses of the last two elections. The
cost OF future elections may be somewhat reduced
by dlmlnution of the number of precincts mas
much as the result of the late election has shown
that the number of voters in the city is considera
bly, less than the estimate made by the Commission.
ers appointed to divide the wards, which the
Board Of Police felt itself bound to act in establish
ing the precincts.
The expenses OF advertising under the existing
law are unnecessarily large, but change in this
respect can only be effected through an Act of
Assembly, which can doubt be obtained without
difficulty at the next session Of the Legislature
The Judges of elections are allowed per diem of So
each, fer their services. Those services include
not only the duties of all the judges the day of
election, but on the part of the presiding iudpe in
each precinct the duty of making the return which
he is required to do on the following day As
such return necessarily occupies a considerable
part OF day, recommend that an ordinance be
passed, authorizing the payment of one per diem
of 81 to each Judge making such returns at every
election. The law as it stands is perhaps broad
enough to warrant such additional COMPENSATION
but as doubts have been expressed on the subject
it will be better that ordinance should be passed
to remove the difficulty.
An additional appropriation of 81, 900 is necessa-
ry In order to complete the important improve
ment OF deepening Jones' Falls. from the Back Ba-
SIN to Canton avenue, and | respectfully recon-
that
this improvement will enable the city to increase
the profit which it derives from its wharves on the
BACK Basin, and enable the Basin to be kept in ma
vigable order at a much smaller cost than hereto
'ore' Respectfully, yours,
~, GEO. WIN. BRowN, Mayor.
The following is the communication of the Board
OF Folce Commissioners, which accompanied the
Mayors message:
OFFICE BOARD OF PoLIcE, !
Baltimore, Nov. II, 1860.
Hon. George Wm Bro,cn, Mayor of the Citv:
SIR: The Board of Police ask leave to submit the
present communication to your consideration and
respectfully request that the subject to which it re-
lers, may be brought to the notice of the Honor
able the City Council, at such time and in such |
mode as you may deem proper.
.,a by m sn act OF the General Assembly, passed at
thelr last session, 1t was provided that every ward
in the city should be divided into election precincts
IN each OF which the Board of Police were re-
CURED to appoint three judges and two clerks of
erection. Inc act referred to, will be found ncor-
art. A, secs. l99 to 229. '
BY different sections of said act, various duties
were imposed as we'll on the Board of Police as on
tn election, for the neglect ofwhich they
we -cuvely made liable to serious penalties
In ages were required to select the places for
voting in their several precincts to give by adver-
tlsement public notice of the same and to make all
such arrangements as in their Judgment MIGHT he
necessary and proper to prevent obstructions at
the polls, and to secure the peaceful conduct of
81 Sucn en- elections as they might hold. The Board of
fohee were, among other duties, to divide the
wards INTO precincts, and to cause description of
each OF the same to be published daily three times
IN "ail the daily papers of the city of Baltimore"
which should be willing, for proper comnensa
oh, 10 insert the same And it was enacted, that
the compensation of the judges and clerks of cleo
uon, and all expenses of said judges, according to
law, as well as all expenses incurred by the Board
OF Police, in the division of the wards into pre-
clncts as aforesaid, and in recording and publish
ing the same, or otherwise under the said law or
In the execution thereof should be paid BY, and
recoverable c from the Mayor and City Council.
1aking as their guide the report made
apPo'n'eo ny tne city to .he same
anew into wards, of the numbe ,ters residing
in each, the Board of Police were compelled bv the
aforesaid act OF Assembly lay off every ward into
lour election precincts, making eighty in all; and
consequently to appoint the aggregate number of
z4O Judges and l60 clerks of election
The only appropriation which has been made by
the Mayor and City Council to meet the EXPENSES
ABOVE referred 10. is tnat made by ordinance No. 81
approved July 18th, 1862 of $780, for 'expepses Of
charter elections" This is the amount required for
one days compensation of the judges and clerks |
/ heir per diem allowance for holding the Presi-
Dental election, well all the proper and neces-
sary expenses incurred by the Judges and by the
Board OF Police, in obedience to the law thus re-
main unprovided for
The Board of Police have been called ON bv n
number ofJudges and clerks and urged to take the
earliest opportunity of bringing this subject to the
notice of the city authorities With the Settlement
OF their accounts, the Board have nothing to do;
that being exclusively the province of the proper
officers of the city. To enable them, however. to
form some estimate of the amount that will be re-
luired, the Board have conferred with the Comp
roller of the city, to whom of these bills have
been presented, and the conclusion at which they
have arrived is that to defray all the expenses in
,urred under the election laws by the Board of
Police, and by the judges of elections there will
oe required, in addition to the appropriation of
soVU p already made, further appropriation of
pa ,o0o. This is inclusive likewise Of the claim of
ne sheriff, for ballot-boxes and poll books which
ie was required by law to furnish to the Judges
l nave the honor to be, sir, very respectfully,
Vour obedient servant,
CHARLES HOWARD,
President.
ARREST OF THIEvEs.-Y esterday afternoon two
11egro men, named George Henry Anderson and
,ohn Ohm henry Smith, were passing along Baltimore