18. There shall be an Executive Department, known as the "Law Department," which shall have the charge of and conduct all the law business of the Corporation, and of the departments thereof, and all other law business in which the City shall be interested, when so ordered by the Corporation; and shall have the charge of, and conduct the legal proceeding necessary in opening, widening, or altering streets; and draw the leases, deeds, and other papers connected with the Finance Department, and the chief officer thereof shall be called the "Coun sel to the Corporation." There shall be a bureau in this department, the chief officer of which shall be denominated the "Corporation Attorney." There shall be a bureau in this department, the chief officer of which shall be called the "Public Administrator." 19. It shall be lawful for the Common Council of said City to establish such other departments and bureaux as they may deem the public interest may require, and to assign to them and those herein created, such duties as they may direct, not inconsistent with this act; but no expense shall be incurred by any of the departments or officers thereof, whether the object of expenditure shall have been ordered by the Common Council or not, unless an appropriation shall have been previously made concerning such expense; and no member of the Common Council, head of department, chief of bureau, deputy thereof, or clerk therein, or other officer of the Corporation, shall be directly or indirectly interested in any contract, work, or business, or the sale of any article, the expense, price, or consideration of which is paid from the City Treasury, or by any assessment levied by any act or ordinance of the Common Council, nor in the purchase of any real estate or other property belonging to the Corporation, or which shall be sold for taxes or assessments. 20. The heads of departments, except the Croton Aqueduct Board, shall be elected every three years by the people. In case of vacancy of any of said heads of departments, by removal from office or otherwise, the Mayor, by and with the advice and consent of the Board of Aldermen, shall appoint a person to fill the same, until the vacancy shall be filled by the electors at the next charter election. The heads of departments shall nominate, and by and with the consent of the Board of Aldermen, appoint the heads of bureaux in their several departments, except the Chamberlain of the City of New-York, the Receiver of Taxes, and the Chief Engineer of the Fire Department. The heads of departments shall also in like manner appoint the clerks in their immediate offices. The heads of bureaux shall nominate, and with the consent of the Board of Aldermen, appoint all clerks in their respective bureaux. The Mayor shall nominate, and by and with the consent of the Board of Aldermen, appoint the Chamberlain of the City of New-York, the chief officers of the Croton Aque. duct Department, and the Receiver of Taxes. The Chief of the Fire Department shall be elected in the same manner as is now, or may hereafter be prescribed by law. The number of officers and clerks in the several departments shall be prescribed by the Common Council. The terms of all charter officers, not prescribed by law of the state. shall be fixed by the Common Council. All officers whose appointments are not otherwise provided for, shall be elected or appointed in such manner as the Common Council shall by law prescribe. Any officer of the City Government, except the Mayor and members of the Common Council, may be removed from office by concurrent resolution of both branches of the Common Council; provided that no removal shall take place until the party sought to be removed has had an opportunity to be heard in his defence, and unless two-thirds of the whole number of both branches vote therefor; and provided, also, that the cause of such removal shall be entered at large upon the journals of both branches of the Common Council. Any head of department may remove any clerk in his department, or any bureau thereof, with the consent of the Mayor. 21. The several Executive Departments, and the officers and clerks thereof, shall be subject to the legislative regulation and direction of the Common Council, so far as the same shall not be inconsistent with this act; and the duties thereof shall be performed in accordance with the charter and laws and ordinances of the City. The Mayor, and each Board of the Common Council, may at any time require the opinion in writing of the head of any department, upon any subject relating to his department, or any information possessed by him in relation thereto. And every head of department shall report in writing to the Common Council, at the commencement of each stated session, the state of his department, with such suggestion in relation to the improvement thereof, and to the public business connected therewith, as he may deem advisable. 22. Whenever a vacancy shall occur in the office of assessor, by death, removal from the ward, resignation, or otherwise, the Board of Assessors shall fill the same by the appointment of a citizen of the Ward in which the vacancy shall occur, until the vacancy shall be supplied by the electors of the Ward, at the next election. And all assessments and awards shall be open to public inspection at least twenty days, by public notice thereof, before being certified to the proper department; and the assessments made by the assessors for all taxes, shall be made between the first day of January and the first day of April, in each year. § 23. All contracts to be made or let by authority of the Common Council for work to be done, or supplies to be furnished, and all sales of personal property in the custody of the several departments or bureaux, shall be made by the ap propriate heads of departments, under such regulations as shall be established by ordinances of the Common Council. Every person elected or appointed to any office under the City government, shall take and subscribe an oath or affirmation before the Mayor, faithfully to perform the duties of his office, which oath or affirmation shall be filed in the Mayor's office. 24. All officers or other persons to whom the receipts or expenditures of the funds of the City, or fees or funds payable into the City Treasury, shall be en trusted, shall give sufficient security for the faithful performance of their duty, in such form and amount as the Common Council may by ordinance prescribe, which shall be annually renewed. No security shall be deemed cancelled or lost for want of renewal or re-appointment. 25. Any officer of the City government, or person or persons employed in any department thereof, who shall wilfully violate any of the provisions of this charter, or commit any fraud, or convert any of the public property to his own use, or knowingly permit any other person so to convert it, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and in addition to the penalties imposed by law, shall forfeit his office, and be excluded forever after from receiving or holding any office under the City Charter. And any person who shall wilfully swear falsely in any oath or affirmation required by this act, shall be guilty of perjury. 26. The first election of officers to be elected under this act, shall be held at the next general state election. The Mayor who shall be elected at the charter election, on the second Tuesday in April, one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, shall hold his office until the first Monday of January, 1851, and the Aldermen and Assistant Aldermen who shall be elected at that election, shall hold their offices until the first Monday of January, 1850, and no longer. All officers of said City government, who shall be in office when this act shall take effect, shall hold their offices and execute the duties thereof, until their successors shall be duly qualified. 27. The seventh section of the act entitled "An act to amend the Charter of the City of New-York," passed April 7th, 1830, and all provisions of law and of charter, which are inconsistent with this act, are hereby repealed. 28. All such parts of the Charter of the City of New-York, and the several acts of the Legislature amending the same, or in any manner affecting the same, as are inconsistent with this act, are hereby repealed; but so much and such parts thereof as are not inconsistent with the provisions of this law, shall not be construed as repealed, altered or modified, or in any form affected thereby, but shall continue and remain in full force and virtue. The 29. This act shall be submitted for the approval of the electors of the City and County of New-York, at an election to be held in said City, on the second Tuesday of April, one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, for which the Common Council of the City shall make the necessary arrangements. tickets which shall be polled at the said election, shall contain either the words, "In favor of amendments to Charter," or "Against amendments to Charter," and if a majority of all the persons voting thereon at the said election shall vote the ticket "In favor of amendments to Charter," this act shall become a law; if a majority of such persons shall vote "Against amendments to Charter," this act shall be void. 30. In case this act shall be approved of by a majority of the electors of said City, as aforesaid, and become a law, it shall go into effect on the first day of June next; and the terms of office of all the officers elected at such election on the second Tuesday of April next, shall expire on the days and in the manner hereinbefore provided. MANUAL OF PARLIAMENTARY PRACTICE. IMPORTANCE OF RULES. [THE Compiler has deemed it advisable to insert JEFFERSON'S MANUAL OF PARLIA MENTARY PRACTICE, believing that it will not only enhance the value of the work, but also prove eminently serviceable as a reference to all interested in Parliamentary debates.] The rules and practices peculiar to both the Senate and House of Representatives, are printed in smaller type. SECTION I. THE IMPORTANCE OF ADHERING TO RULES. MR. ONSLOW, the ablest among the Speakers of the House of Commons, used to say, "It was a maxim he had often heard when he was a young man, from old and experienced members, that nothing tended more to throw power into the hands of administration and those who acted with the majority of the House of Commons, than a neglect of, or departure from, the rules of proceeding; that these forms, as instituted by our ancestors, operated as a check and control on the actions of the majority; and that they were, in many instances, a shelter and protection to the minority, against the attempts of power." So far the maxim is certainly true, and is founded in good sense, that as it is always in the power of the majority, by their numbers, to stop any improper measures proposed on the part of their opponents, the only weapons by which the minority can defend themselves against similar attempts from those in power, are the forms and rules of proceeding, which have been adopted as they were found necessary from time to time, and are become the law of the house; by a strict adherence to which, the weaker party can only be protected from those irregularities and abuses, which these forms were intended to check, and which the wantonness of power is but too often apt to suggest to large and successful majorities.-2 Hats. 171, 172. And whether these forms be in all cases the most rational or not, is really not of so great importance. It is much more material that there should be a rule to go by, than what that rule is; that there may be a uniformity of proceeding in business, not subject to the caprice of the Speaker, or captiousness of the members. It is very material that order, decency, and regularity be preserved in a dignified public body.-2 Hats. 149. SECTION II. LEGISLATURE. ALL Legislative powers herein granted, shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.-Constitution of the United States, Article I. Section 1. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a compensation for their services, to be ascertained by law, and paid out of the treasury of the United States.-Const. U. S., Art. I. Sect. 6. For the powers of Congress, see the following Articles and Sections of the Constitution of the United States :-Art I. Sec. 4. 7. 8, 9.-Art. II. Sec. 1, 2.-Art. III. Sec. 3 -Art. IV. Sec. 1. 3. 5.-And all the Amendments. SECTION III. PRIVILEGE. THE privileges of the members of Parliament, from small and obscure beginnings, have been advancing for centuries with a firm and never-yielding pace. Claims seem to have been brought forward from time to time, and repeated, till some example of their admission enabled them to build law on that example. We can only, therefore, state the point of progression at which they now are. It is now acknowledged, 1st, That they are at all times exempted from question elsewhere, for anything said in their own house: that during the time of privilege, 2d, neither a member himself, his wife,* or his servants, [familiares sui] for any matter of their own, may bet arrested on mense process, in any civil suit: 3d, Nor be detained under execution, though levied before the time of privilege: 4th, Nor impleaded, cited, or subpoenaed, in any court: 5th, Nor summoned as a witness or juror: 6th, Nor may their lands or goods be distrained: 7th, Nor their persons assaulted, or characters traduced. And the period of time, covered by privilege, before and after the session, with the practice of short prorogations under the connivance of the Crown, amounts in fact to a perpetual protection against the course of justice. In one instance, indeed, it has been relaxed by 10 G. 3, c. 50, which permits judiciary proceed. ings to go on against them. That these privileges must be continually progressive, seems to result from their rejecting all definition of them; the doctrine * Order of the House of Commons, 1663, July 16. |