the Legislature, the objects of the corporation cannot be attained under general laws.

Neither the credit nor the money of the State shall be given or loaned to or in aid of any association, corporation or private undertaking.

The stockholders of every corporation and joint-stock association for banking purposes shall be individually responsible to the amount of their respective shares or shares of stock in any such corporation or association for all its debts and liabilities of every kind.

In case of the insolvency of any bank (r banking association, the billholders thereof shall be entitled to preference in payment over all other creditors of such bank or association.

or

No county, city, town or village shall hereafter give any money or property, or loan its money or credit to or in aid of any individual, association or corporation, become directly or indirectly the owner of stock in, or bonds of, any association or corporation; nor shall any such county, city, town or village be allowed to incur any indebtedness except for county, city, town or village purposes. No county or city shall be allowed to become indebted for any purpose or in any manner to an amount which, including existing indebtedness, shall exceed 10 per centum of the assessed valuation of the real estate of such county or city subject to taxation, as it appeared on the assessment rolls on the last assessment prior to the incurring of such indebtedness; and all indebtedness in excess of such limitation shall be absolutely void. This provision is not to be construed to prevent the issue of bonds for the supply of water.

PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE IX. Provides for the maintenance and. support of a system of free common schools, and the regents of the University of the State of New-York. The capital of the common school fund, the capital of the literature fund and the capital of the United States deposit fund shall be respectively preserved inviolate. The revenue of the common school fund must be applied to the support of the common schools; that of the literature fund to the support of academies; and the sum of $25,000 of the revenues of the United States deposit fund shall each year be appropriated to and made part of the capital of the common school fund. Neither the State nor any subdivision thereof shall use Its property or credit or any public money, or authorize or permit it to be used, directly or indirectly, in aid or maintenance, other than for examination or inspection of any school or institution of learning wholly or in part under the control direction of any religious denomination, or in which any denominational tenet or doctrine is taught.

or

such appointment longer than the commencement of the political year next succeeding the first annual election after the happening of the vacancy.

The political year and legislative term shall begin on the first day of January; and the Legislature_shall, every year, assemble on the first Wednesday in January.

Provision shall be made by law for the removal for misconduct or malversation in office of all officers, except judicial, whose powers and duties are not local or legislative and who shall be created at general elections, and also for supplying vacancies created by such removal.

The Legislature may declare the cases in which any office shall be deemed vacant when no provision is made for their purpose in this Constitution.

No officer whose salary is fixed by the Constitution shall receive any additional compensation. Each of the other State officers named in the Constitution shall, during his continuance in office, receive a compensation, to be fixed by law, which shall not be increased or diminished during the term for which he shall have been elected or appointed; nor shall he receive to his use any fees or perquisites of office or other compensation.

PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE XI. Provides that all able-bodied male citizens between eighteen and forty-five years of age, who are residents of the State, shall constitute the militia, subject to exemptions under the State and Federal laws. The militia is to be organized and divided into such land and naval, and active and reserve forces, as the Legislature may deem proper, provided, however, that there shall be maintained at all times a force of not less than 10,000 enlisted men, fully uniformed, armed, equipped, disciplined, and ready for active service.

PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE XII.

Relative to the organization of cities, and classifying them, according to the latest State enumeration, as follows: First class-All cities having a population of 250,000 or more. Second class-Having a population of 50,000 and less than 250,000. Third class-All other cities.

Section 3 provides that all elections of city officers, including supervisors and judicial officers of inferior local courts, elected in any city or part of a city, and of county officers elected in the counties of New-York and Kings, and in all counties whose boundaries are the same as those of a city, except to fill vacancies, shall be held on the Tuesday succeeding the first Monday in November in an oddnumbered year, and the term of every such officer shall expire at the end of an odd-numbered year. This section does not apply to any city of the third class, or to elections of any judicial officer, except judges and justices of inferior local courts. PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE XIII. Defining bribery and corruption and providing punishments for persons guilty of either, or for offering or promising to bribe.

No public officer, or person elected or appointed to a public office, under the laws of the State, shall directly or indirectly ask, demand, accept, receive or

consent to receive for his own use or benefit, or for the use or benefit of another, any free pass, free transportation, franking privilege or discrimination in passenger, telegraph, or telephone rates, from any person or corporation, or make ase of the same himself or in conjunction with another. A person who shall violate this law shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and shall forfeit his office at the suit of the Attorney-General. Any corporation, or officer or agent thereof, who shall offer or promise to a public officer, or person elected or appointed to a public office any such free pass, free transportation, franking privilege or discrimination, shall also be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor and liable to punishment.

PROVISIONS OF ARTICLE XIV. Provides that any amendment or amendments to the Constitution may be proposed in the Senate or Assembly, and if the same shall be agreed to by a majority of the members elected to each of the two Houses, such proposed amendments shall be entered on the journals, and referred to the Legislature to be chosen at the next general election of Senators, and shall be published for three months previous to the time of making such choice: and if in the next Legislature so next chosen the amendments shall be agreed to by a majority of all the members of each house, then it shall be the duty of the Legislature to submit them to the people for approval; and if the people shall approve and ratify such amendments

by a majority of the electors voting thereon, such amendments shall become a part of the Constitution from and after January 1 next after such approval. At the general election to be held in 1916, and every twentieth year thereafter, and at such times as the Legislature may by law provide, the question, "Shall there be a convention to revise the Constitution and amend the same?" shall be decided by a vote of the people, and in case a majority of the electors voting thereon shail decide in favor of a convention for such purpose the electors of every Senate district in the State shall elect three delegates at the next general election when Assemblymen are chosen, and the electors of the State voting at the same election shall elect fifteen delegates-at-large. The delegates so elected shall convene at the State Capitol on the first Tuesday of April next ensuing after their election, and shall continue their session until the business of such convention shall be completed. Each delegate is to receive the same compensation and the same mileage as shall then be paid annually to the Assemblymen. Such Constitution or amendments as shall be adopted by the convention shall be submitted to the electors of the State at the time and in the manner provided for such conventions, but not less than six weeks after the adjournment of the convention, and upon the approval of such Constitution or amendments, in the manner above cited, shall go into effect on January 1 next after such approval.

DEPARTMENTS, The Greater New-York Charter Commission reported the proposed charter to the State Legislature February 22, 1897. The bill passed the Assembly March 23 by a vote of 118 to 28. Two days later it passed the Senate by a vote of 39 to 9.

The bill was then sent to the Mayors of the cities affected for their action. They held sessions to hear citizens for and against it. Mayors P. J. Gleason, of Long Island City, and F. W. Wurster, of Brooklyn, signed their approval of the bill; but Mayor W. L. Strong of New-York sent his veto on April 7. Five days later the Assembly passed it over the veto by a vote of 106 to 32; the Senate passed it over the veto by a vote of 34 to 10, on April 14. It was signed by the Governor May 4, 1897.

The following are some of the principal provisions of the Charter:

Chapter one relates to the boundaries, boroughs, powers, rights and obligations of the city of New-York. It provides that the new consolidation comprehends "all the municipal and public corporations and parts of municipal and public corporations, including cities, villages, towns and school districts, but not including counties, within the following territory: The county of Kings, the county of Richmond, the city of Long Island City, the towns of Flushing, Newtown and Jamaica, and that part of the town of Hempstead, in the county of Queens,

SALARIES, ETC.

which is westerly of a straight line drawn from the southeasterly point of the town of Flushing through the middle of channel between Rockaway Beach and Shelter Island, in the county of Queens, to the Atlantic Ocean."

The corporate name is the "City of NewYork," and it is divided into five boroughs, namely: Manhattan, The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Richmond, as follows:

MANHATTAN-Manhattan Island, Nuttin or Governor's Island, Bedlow's Island; Bucking or Ellis Island, the Oyster Islands, Blackwell's Island, Randall's Island and Ward's Island.

BRONX-That portion of the City of New-York lying northerly or easterly of the Borough of Manhattan between the Hudson River and the East River or Long Island Sound, including the several islands. BROOKLYN-The City of Brooklyn. QUEENS-That portion of Queens County as stated in the first paragraph of the principal provisions of the charter. RICHMOND-Richmond County or Staten

Island.

MUNICIPAL ASSEMBLY.

The legislative power of the city is vested in two houses to be known respectively as the Council and Board of Aldermen, together styled "The Municipal Assembly of the City of New-York." The Council consists of twenty-nine members,

including the president, elected on a general ticket at the same time and for the same term as the Mayor. The salary of the president is $5,000 a year, and for other members $1,500 a year. The city is divided into ten Council districts, and each of the first eight (included in Manhattan, The Bronx and Brooklyn) is entitled to three members; that part of Queens known as Long Island City and Newtown, one member; that part of Queens known as Jamaica, Flushing and Hempstead, one member, and two members are allowed to the Borough of Richmond. The term of office of each member is four years. Every ex-Mayor of the city is, so long as be remains a resident of the city, entitled to a seat in the Council and to participate in its discussions, but not to a vote.

The Municipal Assembly must have at least one stated meeting a month, except, in the discretion of the Assembly, in August and September.

ALDERMEN-The Board consists of one member from each of the Assembly districts within the city; Queens County is entitled to the same number of representatives as in the Council, and those parts of the Ist and IId Assembly districts of Westchester County included in The Bronx are entitled to one member. The term of office is two years, and the salary $1,000 a year. The President of the Board is elected from the members. Each head of an administrative department is entitled to a seat in the Board, with the right to participate in its discussions, but not the right to vote.

Ordinances or resolutions require a majority vote of all members elected to each house to pass; if involving the expenditure of money or creation of debts, a threefourths vote of all elected members is required. The Mayor has the veto power, but ordinances may be passed over his veto by a two-thirds vote, or by a fivesixths vote in a case where debt or expenditure is involved.

CITY CLERK-The Council, at its first meeting, must appoint a clerk, who is also the City Clerk; the term is six years, and the salary $7,000 a year. In addition to keeping the records, preparing summaries of resolutions, ordinances, etc., for publication in "The City Record,' he is also to grant licenses to auctioneers.

EXECUTIVE AND OTHER DEPART

MENTS.

MAYOR-The term of office is fixed at four years; annual salary, $15,000, and the incumbent is ineligible for re-election. The Mayor may, within six months after the commencement of his term of office, remove from office any appointed official, except members of the Boards of Education and School Boards, and except also judicial officers, for whose removal other provision is made by the Constitution. After the expiration of six months, appointed officers may be removed by the Mayor for cause, upon charges preferred and after opportunity to be heard, subject, however, to the approval of the Governor.

FINANCE DEPARTMENT-The head of the Department is the Controller: his term of office is four years, and the annual salary is $10,000. He may be removed from

office by the Governor in the same manner as sheriffs. The Department has control of the fiscal concerns of the corporation; it inspects the accounts of other city departments, prescribes the forms of keeping and rendering of city accounts, disburses public funds on vouchers by means of warrants on the Chamberlain and settles or adjusts all claims in favor of or against the corporation. There are also five bureaus in this Department: Bureau for the collection of city revenue and market rents; bureau for the collection of taxes; bureau of assessments and arrears; auditing bureau; bureau of City Chamberlain. It is provided that when bonds are issued they shall be in register form, in denominations of $10 or any multiple thereof, and that preference shall be given to applicants for the smallest amounts and smallest denominations.

CHAMBERLAIN-Appointed

by the

Mayor for four years; annual salary. $12,000. He is required to give a bond in the sum of $300,005. He is charged with the duties of receiving, preserving, depositing and paying out public funds on the warrant of the Controller, when countersigned by the Mayor.

COMMISSIONERS OF SINKING FUND -These are the Mayor, Controller, Chamberlain, President of the Council and chairman of the Finance Committee of the Board of Aldermen. Their duties include the administering of the several existing sinking funds as independent trusts. They may sell or lease certain city property for the benefit of the Sinking Fund. They also provide funds for the payment of interest charges on the city debt, its refunding as "consolidated stock" and its gradual redemption.

BOARD OF ESTIMATE AND APPORTIONMENT-Composed of the Mayor, Controller, Corporation Counsel and the president of the Department of Taxes and Assessments. Their special duty is the preparation of the annual budget of the amounts estimated to be required to pay the expenses of conducting the public

business of the city.

Departments, bureaus, commissions, etc., are required to furnish estimates in detail to the Board of their requirements, and the final budget must contain these items. Before final approval and passage by the Board, opportunity must be given to taxpayers for hearings. The budget when fixed by the Board goes to the Municipal Assembly for action.

LAW DEPARTMENT-The head is the Corporation Counsel, appointed by the Mayor for four years; annual salary. $15,000. He has charge and conduct of all the law business of the corporation and its departments and boards, and of all law business in which the city is interested. He conducts condemnation proceedings in altering streets, is legal adviser of the Mayor, the Municipal Assembly and of all departments, boards, etc.; and all officers are prohibited from employing attorneys except as assigned by the Corporation Counsel.

POLICE DEPARTMENT-The Board is composed of four members, appointed by the Mayor for four years, no more than

two of whom shall belong to the same political party, or be of the same political opinion on State and National politics. The salary of each is $5,000 a year. They have control of the government, administration, disposition and discipline of the Police Department (including the police force) and of the Bureau of Elections. The Department consists of a Chief of Police, five deputy chiefs, ten inspectors, captains not exceeding one to each fifty patrolmen (except in the rural portion of the city); sergeants not exceeding four to each fifty patrolmen; detective-sergeants; doormen not exceeding two to each fifty patrolmen; forty surgeons and 6,382 patrolmen. This number may be increased by action of the Municipal Assembly, upon the recommendation of the Police Board. It is also provided that the police of Brooklyn, Long Island City and Richmond County shall be transferred to the general police force. The force is classified as follows: First grade, five years' service and upward; second grade, four and a half to five years' service; third grade, four years to four and a half years' service; fourth grade, three to four years' service; fifth grade, two to three years' service; sixth grade, one to two years' service; seventh grade, less than one year's service. salary schedule is: Chief of Police, $6,000; deputies, $5,000; inspectors, $3,500; captains, $2,700; surgeon, $3,000; sergeants, $2,000; roundsmen, $1,500; doormen, $1,000; first grade patrolmen, $1,400; second grade, $1,350; third grade, $1,250; fourth grade, $1.150; fifth grade, $1,000; sixth grade, $900; seventh grade, $800.

The

BUREAU OF ELECTIONS-Under the control and supervision of the Police Department. Branches of the bureau are to be established in each of the boroughs. The head of the bureau is known as the Superintendent of Elections, and is appointed for five years, with a salary of $6,000.

a

BOROUGH OFFICERS-In each borough there is to be a president and local board, who are to be elected for a term of four years. The presidents of Manhattan, The Bronx and Brooklyn, respectively, receive $5,000 a year, and the presidents of Queens and Richmond, respectively, $3,000 a year. There are also twenty-two districts of local improve ments, each with a board to decide upon matters which may not be inconsistent with the powers of the Municipal Assembly, and to aid such assembly and departments in the discharge of the duties respecting the district governments.

BOARD OF PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS -Composed of the Mayor, Corporation Counsel, Controller, Commissioner of Water Supply, Commissioner of Highways, Commissioner of Street Cleaning, CommisPioner of Sewers, Commissioner of Public Buildings, Lighting and Supplies, Commissioner of Bridges, the presidents of the several boroughs, and the president of the board. The latter is appointed by the Mayor at a salary of $8,000.

COMMISSIONER OF WATER SUPPLY -Appointed by the Mayor, with a salary of $7,500.

COMMISSIONER OF HIGHWAYS-Ap

BRIDGES-Ap

COMMISSIONER OF pointed by the Mayor for six years; salary, $7,500. He has cognizance and control of the management and maintenance of the New-York and Brooklyn Bridge, its railroads and collection of tolls and fares; the construction, repair, maintenance and management of all other bridges that may be constructed in whole or in part at the expense of the city of New-York, and of the construction, repair and maintenance of all other bridges that are or may be in whole or in part a public charge, not included in public parks, except the East River Bridge.

PARK DEPARTMENT-Three commissioners-one for Manhattan and Richmond, one for The Bronx, and the other for Brooklyn and Queens-salary of each, $5,000.

ART COMMISSION-Composed of the Mayor, the presidents of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Public Library, and the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, one painter, one sculptor, one architect, and three other residents of the city, none of whom shall be a painter, sculptor or architect or member of any other profession in the fine arts. No work of art shall become the property of the city either by gift or purchase, or be erected in any public place, without the approval of the Art Commission.

COMMISSIONERS OF BUILDINGSAppointed by the Mayor from candidates who have had at least ten years' experience as architects or builders. Salary of the commissioner for Manhattan and The Bronx, and for Brooklyn, $7,000 a year, and for Queens and Richmond, $3,500.

COMMISSIONERS OF PUBLIC CHARITIES-Salary for the commissioner for Manhattan and The Bronx and of one for Brooklyn and Queens is fixed at $7,500, and for the one for Richmond, $2,500. They administer the public charities of the city and regulate payments to private institutions, subject to the rules and regulations of the State Board of Charities.

COMMISSIONER OF CORRECTIONAppointed by the Mayor; salary, $7,500. He has charge of the administration of all institutions for the detention of criminals and misdemeanants of the city.

Richmond.

COMMISSIONERS

OF DOCKS-Three appointed by the Mayor; terms, six years; salary, $5,000 each, with the exception of the president, elected from their number, to receive $6,000.

COMMISSIONERS OF TAXES AND ASSESSMENTS-Five, appointed by the Mayor; the president of the board, SO designated in the appointment, to be for six years, and the others for four years. Salary of the president, $8,000; other members, $6,000.

BOARD OF ASSESSORS-The Mayor is authorized to appoint five persons, each with a salary of $3,000 a year.

DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION-The charter provides for the following school boards; For Manhattan and The Bronx, twenty-one members; Brooklyn, forty-five members; Queens and Richmond, each to be of nine members. The term of all members of school boards is three years. A Board of Education for the entire city is provided, to consist of nineteen members, as follows: Of the chairman of each of the four school boards, ten elected by the Board of Manhattan and The Bronx, and five elected by the Board of the Borough of Brooklyn, all from the membership of said boards, respectively. Members of the Board of Education and of the several school boards serve without pay.

BOARD OF HEALTH-President of the Police Board, Health Officer of the Port and three Commissioners of Health, appointed by the Mayor for six years. The annual salaries are: President, $7,500; commissioners, other than the president, $6,000; sanitary superintendent, $6,000; secretary, $5,000; assistant sanitary superintendents, $3,500; register of records, $4,000; assistant registers of records, $3,000; chief clerk, $3,000.

COURTS-The City Court of the old city of New-York is continued under its former name. The Justices' Courts and the office of the justices of the peace of Brooklyn and Long Island City and the district courts of the old city of New-York are abolished and consolidated under the name of the Municipal Court of the City of New-York, For this court the Mayor is authorized to appoint seven additional justices. The boroughs are divided into districts, in each of which sessions of the Municipal Court are to be held. Manhattan has eleven districts; The Bronx, two districts; Brooklyn, five districts; Queens, two, and Richmond, three. The office of Police Justice of Manhattan and The Bronx and the Court of Special Sessions of Brooklyn are abolished. For the purposes of the administration of criminal justice, the new city is divided into two divisions. The first division embraces Manhattan and The Bronx, and the second

CORONERS-Four in Manhattan, and two each in The Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Richmond,

COUNTIES AND OFFICIALS-The wards of Manhattan, The Bronx and Brooklyn are continued the same as before the consolidation. The five towns and all the incorporated villages within Richmond County are abolished, and the territory included within the towns of Castleton, Middletown, Northfield, Southfield and Westfield are to be known as Wards 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, respectively, of Richmond. The towns and villages in that part of Queens County included within the city of New-York are abolished and are designated as follows: Long Island City, Ward 1 of Queens; Newtown, Ward 2; Flushing, Ward 3; Jamaica, Ward 4; Hempstead, Ward 5. The Mayor is to appoint the Corporation Counsel and all the administrative and executive officers of the city except the Controller. In addition to those heretofore enumerated, the Mayor appoints two Commissioners of Accounts, three Civil Service Commissioners and a Chief of the Bureau of Municipal Statistics. It is provided that all veterans, either of the Army or Navy or the Volunteer Fire Department who may be in the service of either the municipal or public corporation, shall be retained in the service.

The area of Greater New-York embraces 306 square miles, and contains (as estimated) nearly 3,500,000 people. In 1893, the year preceding the passage of the act by the Legislature to submit the question of consolidation to the arbitrament of the electors, the assessed valuation of real estate and of personal property in the several counties now embraced in the municipality was as follows:

On January 1, 1898. it had 1,093 church edifices, two great universities and ninetythree other educational institutions, sixtythree libraries, thirty art galleries, fiftyfour theatres, eighty-one clubs, 112 hotels and 218 banks. Its parks have an area of 73,336 acres; its cemeteries have a "silent population" of 4,000,000.

Early in 1898 the Health Board made an estimate of the population of New-York City, with this result: Borough of Manhattan.. Borough of Brooklyn.. Borough of The Bronx. Borough of Queens.. Borough of Richmond.

Total

LAW.

1,911,755 .1,197,100

137,075

128,042

64,927

.3,438,899

for the administration of the affairs of bankrupts and the distribution of their property among their creditors, uniform