ADDRESSED TO 
 
 THE PROPRIETORS OF REAL ESTATE, 
 
 IN THE 
 
 CITY AND COUNTY OF NEW-YORK. 
 
 e 
 
 7?F J LANDHOLDER. 
 
 " I'm glad to hear there's a hill," said Jeanie, " for baith my sight and my very feet are 
 weary o' sic tracks o' level ground — it looks a' the way between this and York as if a' the 
 land had been trenched and levelled."— Heart of Mid-Lothian. 
 
 NEW-YORK : 
 
 PUBLISHED BY J. EASTBURN AND CO. 
 LITERARY ROOMS, BROADWAY. 
 Clayton k Kingsland, Print. 
 
 1818. 
 

 
 
 ?£x IGtbrts 
 
 SEYMOUR DURST 
 
 
 
 FORT NEW AMSTERDAM >VBj5ftf VOBK ) , 1651 
 
 T^ben you leave, please leave this book 
 
 Because it has been said 
 "Sver'thing comes t' him who waits 
 
 Except a loaned book." 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 Avery Arc hitectural and Fine Arts Library 
 (in 1 01 Si ymour B. Di rsi 01 i) York Library 
 
 
AS the proceedings relative to the regulation of the vil- 
 lage of Greenwich form a prominent part of the following 
 statement, the writer thinks it proper to mention that he 
 was not one of those who petitioned or remonstrated against 
 that regulation. Nor did he see the memorial to the legis- 
 lature, or the remonstrance to the corporation, until after they 
 had been presented. It is not, however, his design, to inti- 
 mate that he is an indifferent spectator of the proceedings of 
 our corporation. On the contrary, he freely confesses that 
 he is deeply interested in them ; and that, were it not for 
 f this interest, he would probably not have been patriotic 
 
 enough to attempt the following investigation. 
 
 But, after this confession, it is hoped that those who think 
 it possible for a person to represent with fairness that in 
 which he feels an interest, will weigh and examine with im- 
 partiality the matters herein set forth. 
 
Digitized by the Internet Archive 
 in 2014 
 
 http://archive.org/details/plainstatementadOOmoor 
 
A PLAIN STATEMENT. 
 
 The expenses, inconveniences and oppressions 
 attendant upon the opening and regulating of 
 avenues and streets, have long been a subject 
 of bitter complaint among the owners and occu- 
 pants of real estate in this city and county of 
 New-York. Indeed, so general does this feeling 
 of oppression appear to be, that it, at first sight, 
 seems wonderful that the citizens should not, 
 long since, have taken measures to relieve them- 
 selves from so grievous a burden. This apparent 
 inconsistency, however, may easily be accounted 
 for. 
 
 In the first place, these evils are not endured 
 by very large masses of the community at once. 
 The public authority directs, from time to time, 
 certain parts only of the territory under its juris- 
 diction to be regulated. This regulation may 
 go near to ruin the persons who suffer under it ; 
 but the voice of a few interested individuals is 
 naturally heard with distrust, when opposed to 
 that of the municipal authority. And the only 
 
6 
 
 consolation which may be expected, in such a 
 case, is, to be informed that private convenience 
 must give way to public good. Thus the suffer- 
 ers are obliged to submit; and after they have 
 paid their quota of assessments, and have risen 
 or sunk to their permanent station on the face of 
 the earth, they are glad to rest from their vexa- 
 tions ; and, although they continue to cry out 
 against their oppressors, and to relate their 
 grievances with much anger and indignation, 
 yet they care little about the like sufferings of 
 others ; and, perhaps, in some instances, feel a 
 secret pleasure in seeing their neighbours take 
 their turn of oppression. This is human nature. 
 It is evident that thus the possessors of real es- 
 tate may be oppressed in succession, so as to pre- 
 vent them from rising in a mass, and endeavour- 
 ing to throw off their grievances. 
 
 In the next place, a large class of men are 
 naturally in favour of all measures which serve 
 to afford employment to the labouring part of the 
 community, at the expense of the owners of real 
 estate. The cartmen, carpenters, masons, pa- 
 vers, and all their host of attendant labourers, 
 would find their account in having the streets of 
 the city yearly ploughed up, and dug down, and 
 filled in, and in having the houses pulled to pieces 
 and rebuilt as fast as hands could be found and 
 money obtained for these purposes. Although 
 this would be a real waste of time and labour to 
 
1 
 
 the community, and would eventually tend to its 
 general impoverishment, yet the hands employed 
 in the work of destruction and renovation would 
 find it a source of present emolument; and, of 
 course, would believe, with the utmost sincerity, 
 such measures to be for the good of society at 
 large. 
 
 Another, and, it is to be hoped, the most pre- 
 vailing reason why no remedy has been applied 
 to the evils complained of, is, that few individuals 
 in the community have inquired into the depth, 
 extent and consequences of those evils. 
 
 It is this last reason which has chiefly encou- 
 raged the writer of these pages to attempt a re- 
 view of the powers of our corporation, with re- 
 spect to the opening and regulating of avenues 
 and streets, and of the manner in which those 
 powers are exercised; to point out the evils 
 which are apparent in the whole system, consi- 
 dered merely as a theory ; and to show the mis- 
 chiefs which have actually resulted and which 
 must continue to arise from its application to 
 practice. After thus laying open the disease, it 
 will, perhaps, not be difficult to arrive at the pro- 
 per remedy. 
 
 It is, however, to be understood that the writer 
 has no intention to arraign the moral integrity of 
 the individuals who pursue the measures herein 
 complained of. He is willing to believe that our 
 corporation sincerely think their measures con- 
 
8 
 
 ducive to the public good. But if the whole sys- 
 tem be intrinsically wrong, no uprightness of in- 
 tention in those who blindly follow that system 
 can compensate for the injury sustained in 
 consequence of it And every man who has an 
 interest in the prosperity and happiness of the 
 community to which he belongs ; who is suscepti- 
 ble of indignation at the thought of private pro- 
 perty being invaded by public authority, without 
 necessity and without compensation ; and who 
 thinks it the duty of each individual to use every 
 lawful exertion to prevent all needless waste of 
 time, money and labour to his fellow men, is ear- 
 nestly requested to give his serious attention to 
 the subject presented to his view in the following 
 pages. 
 
 A plan for this city, it is well known, has been \ 
 made by commissioners appointed for that pur- 
 pose by the Legislature of this State, and is exhi- 
 bited on the map commonly called the commis- 
 sioners' map. Supposing this plan to be perfect, 
 as respects the courses, widths and distances of 
 the avenues and streets, still it cannot safely be 
 acted upon until the future alterations necessary 
 to be made in the present surface of the ground 
 be accurately ascertained. One great object in 
 laying out the island was, to enable individuals to 
 know w here to place their buildings, without dan- 
 ger of having them removed at some future day. 
 But the digging down and filling up of land is a 
 
it 
 
 work of vastly greater expense, and attended with 
 incalculably greater inconvenience than the re- 
 moving of buildings and fences from one place to 
 another on the surface of the ground. And the 
 not having both parts of the plan finally arranged 
 before any part was begun to be carried into ef- 
 fect, has been a fruitful source of distress and 
 vexation to the citizens of New-York. 
 
 Not only the execution of this so imperfect plan 
 is intrusted to the corporation ; but to their abso- 
 lute discretion is likewise committed the supply- 
 ing of its defects. The map of the island shows 
 where the avenues and streets are to be ; but the 
 elevations and depressions which must take place 
 before an avenue or street is finally regulated are 
 to be determined by the corporation. Were the 
 whole plan prepared, that is, were the profiles, as 
 well as the courses and widths of the avenues and 
 streets, all determined, and then merely the execu- 
 tion of this plan committed to the corporation, 
 much less inconvenience would ensue. But at 
 present the aldermen and common-council are 
 expected to contrive as well as to execute the most 
 difficult, expensive and obnoxious part attendant 
 upon the making of public ways. 
 
 And let us next look at the constitution and 
 powers of the body to whom this difficult and 
 complicated work is intrusted. The men upon 
 whose will and determination the regulations of 
 our city are Buffered to depend, compose a body 
 
 2 
 
10 
 
 which, being annually elected, is liable to con- 
 stant fluctuation. Before one set of members de- 
 cide upon the adoption of a plan, another set mav 
 succeed to their places, and have to learn the 
 lesson w hich their predecessors had not time to 
 put in practice. Even if a plan be adopted and 
 acted upon, it may be changed and undone by a 
 subsequent board. Thus the public can enjoy no 
 security that any plan shall be carried into full 
 and final effect. And the habits, education and 
 pursuits of men chosen, as our corporation are, 
 by the almost indiscriminate votes of the people, 
 and whose municipal functions are, in general, but 
 secondary to other occupations, render it morally 
 impossible that they can be competent to such a 
 task as to devise and execute proper regulations 
 for the site of a great and rapidly increasing city. 
 They must depend upon their street-commissioner 
 for all their information. And it is almost a thing 
 of course that they should be swayed by his opi- 
 nion in matters with which they are, for the most 
 part, totally unacquainted, but which he is obli- 
 ged by his office to make the subjects of his par- 
 ticular attention. Thus the landed property of 
 the citizens of New-York is, in fact, under the 
 power of one man. This pow er is too great to 
 be intrusted to any one individual. And so many 
 and various are the occupations of a street-com- 
 missioner, that, had he the genius and knowledge 
 
11 
 
 of Newton, the task which he has to perform 
 would be too great. 
 
 The business of a street-commissioner should 
 be, to attend to the execution of plans devised by 
 others : he should not be expected both to devise 
 and to put in effect the regulations necessary for 
 this large city. A man who has to attend to all 
 the details attendant upon the street-commission- 
 er's department, cannot possibly have leisure to 
 obtain and reflect upon the information necessary 
 to give him an enlarged and comprehensive view 
 of the future regulations of this island'. A mo- 
 ment's consideration of the qualifications neces- 
 sary for the task of making plans alone, will show 
 that scarcely any one individual ought to be in- 
 trusted with it. It requires a man to be a good 
 ♦ mathematician, a natural philosopher, or, at least, 
 
 well acquainted with hydraulics ; in short, to be 
 a complete civil engineer; to possess a general 
 knowledge of jurisprudence, in order to have a 
 due sense of the rights of individuals ; and, in ad- 
 dition to this, he should be a man of taste, cul- 
 tivated and improved by an exact knowledge of 
 what has been done in other cities of our own 
 and of foreign countries. 
 
 It is a right principle, not to intrust any em- 
 ployment to those who, however upright and ho- 
 nest in their general character, may thereby be 
 tempted to swerve from the path of rectitude, 
 and to forget the good of the public in pursuit of 
 
12 
 
 their own private advantage. It is a violation of 
 this principle to intrust to a body constituted 
 like our corporation the planning and execution 
 of a work w hich exposes them to the temptation 
 a'nd lays them open to the suspicion of jobbing 
 and playing into each other's hands, and of squan- 
 dering the public money upon favoured individu- 
 als. Sometimes a considerable proportion of the 
 members of our corporation are mechanics, and 
 persons whose influence is principally among 
 those classes of the community to whom it is in- 
 different w hat the eventual result of their indus- 
 try may be to society, if they but obtain employ- 
 ment, and are well paid out of the pockets of their 
 richer fellow citizens. It is wrong to expose even 
 the best men to temptation like this. 
 
 Another reason why the corporation of this city 
 should not be intrusted with the sole power of 
 planning the regulations of the streets and ave- 
 nues, is, that the members who compose it are not 
 always disinterested persons. When a regulation 
 is to be made, a member of the board who may 
 chance to own lots upon the avenue or street in 
 question, will naturally be inclined to think that 
 plan best which best suits his individual interest 
 or convenience ; and, by strenuous and active ex- 
 ertion on his part, aided by the want of an equal 
 stimulus to zeal, on the part of those who may be 
 inclined to oppose him, and by manifesting to 
 his fellow members a willingness to requite their 
 
13 
 
 compliance, when occasion shall offer, he will 
 probably carry his point. Thus there is danger 
 that the general interest will not be attended to 
 with that impartiality and that singleness of re- 
 gard, which is absolutely necessary to the well 
 ordering of so important a business as that of 
 which we are treating. 
 
 When it is determined by the corporation that 
 an avenue or street shall be opened, commission- 
 ers are appointed by the supreme court to appor- 
 tion the attendant expenses among the proprie- 
 tors of land in the vicinity of which the avenue or 
 street is to pass. Of which expenses, the law de- 
 termines that the corporation, that is, the public, 
 shall not, in any case, bear more than one third ; 
 and it is left at the discretion of the commission- 
 ers to impose the whole, if they see fit, upon the 
 adjacent landholders. These expenses, it is to 
 be remembered, are for merely opening the ave- 
 nue or street; for the corporation, after it is 
 opened, may let it remain not worked, as long as 
 they please. The working of a highway is a dis- 
 tinct thing from opening it, according to the inter- 
 pretation given by our corporation to the act of 
 the state legislature relative to the laying out and 
 opening of streets and roads in this city. The 
 expenses alluded to, beside the pay of the com- 
 missioners and surveyors, arise principally from the 
 awards made to those who have buildings which 
 are to be pulled down or removed ; and to those 
 
14 
 
 whose property is so cut up as to be materially 
 injured by the opening of the avenue or street. 
 Those persons whose remaining land is not sup- 
 posed by the commissioners to be injured, are not 
 allowed any thing for the land which they lose ; 
 on the contrary, they pay their quota towards re- 
 munerating those who are considered as sufferers. 
 The operation of the law is simply this; a por- 
 tion of land is transferred from the individual 
 owners of it, to the public, for public use, as a 
 highway or street. For this land, with all the 
 improvements which may be upon it, the public 
 are to make no remuneration, except in particu- 
 lar cases, where the corporation are charged with 
 not more than one third of the damage done to 
 individuals. The general principle is, that the 
 expense shall fall upon those who are supposed 
 to be benefited. And they who bear this burden 
 of expense receive no other immediate compensa- 
 tion, than the hope of a future rise in the value 
 of their property. The proportion of this ex- 
 pense to be borne by each individual is determin- 
 ed by the commissioners, according to the advan- 
 tage which they, by a spirit of divination, it is to 
 be presumed, suppose he will at some future in- 
 definite period derive from the measure in ques- 
 tion. When the expected benefit shall actually 
 arrive, the annual taxes upon the property thus 
 benefited must, of course, be proportionally in- 
 creased. So that, by the operation of this law. 
 
15 
 
 individuals are made to advance immediately a capi* 
 tal, in land and money, to the public, in considera- 
 tion of a future and contingent benefit ; and when 
 that benefit shall actually result, then the same 
 individuals must again pay, in the form of taxes, 
 the price of their advantages. Add to this, that 
 the corporation take upon them to defer this 
 hoped for benefit as long as they please, by not 
 actually opening the street or avenue even after 
 the assessments are paid. And, after the houses 
 and fences are removed, they may suffer the 
 street or avenue to remain useless, and worse 
 than useless, by neglecting to have it worked; 
 which, in some instances, remains the case for 
 years after the forms of the law have been gone 
 through. Thus an individual may be obliged to 
 surrender to the public a large portion of his 
 land ; to suffer much inconvenience from the de- 
 rangement of all his improvements ; to incur greal 
 expense in removing and setting up anew his 
 fences ; to pay, moreover, a heavy assessment. 
 And, in consideration of this loss of property, and 
 this immediate and certain inconvenience, he is 
 to have nothing but the prospect held out to him 
 of a future harvest to be reaped from the enhance- 
 ment in the value of his property. Which en- 
 hancement may be kept at as great a distance as 
 the corporation think proper, by not working and 
 regulating the ground surrendered to them. And 
 when, in the course of time, the property actually 
 
16 
 
 increases in value, it is again forced to pay for 
 that increase, under the form of taxes. 
 
 Let it not be urged in reply, that the public 
 authority does not, generally, open an avenue or 
 street unless a majority of the landholders bor- 
 dering upon it petition to have it opened. Many 
 circumstances may induce individuals to hazard 
 the consequences of an oppressive measure. Each 
 may fancy to himself some mode , of escape, or 
 some peculiar advantage, and, in consequence, be 
 induced to wish for the measure. And each one, 
 in the event, may find himself grievously disap- 
 pointed and oppressed. But supposing the land- 
 holders to be unanimous, and with a full know- 
 ledge of what they have to expect, nevertheless 
 to desire the opening of an avenue or street; 
 still, the badness of the principle is not in the 
 least affected. A man may find it adviseable to 
 purchase what he wants, at an extravagant and 
 unreasonable price; but the transaction may, 
 nevertheless, deserve the name of extortion. It 
 appears to be a dictate of common sense, that 
 when a public work is to be done, however advan- 
 tageous it may promise to be to particular indivi- 
 duals, the public should advance the funds neces- 
 sary for its completion; and when the individuals 
 actually derive the contemplated advantage, and 
 not till then, that they be made to bear a part of 
 the public burdens proportionate to their in- 
 creased ability. Thus the first expense would, in 
 
17 
 
 ordinary cases, be scarcely felt by any one of the 
 community ; and the individual burdens would be 
 imposed only in proportion to the ability to bear 
 them. The reverse of all which is at present the 
 case. It is true that the present mode of assessment 
 favours the kind of oppression hinted at above. By 
 confining the imposition to a few individuals at once, 
 our rulers perhaps imagine the danger of losing 
 their popularity to be diminished. But let them 
 beware — The deep feeling of injustice, cruelty and 
 oppression which is working in many breasts, and 
 for the increase of which, almost daily occasion is 
 administered, does not wear off when the imme- 
 diate cause of it is past, but rankles in the bosom, 
 and is never forgotten. 
 
 The corporation of New-York, by authority de- 
 ♦ rived from an act of the legislature, may raise or 
 depress any street as high or as low as they think 
 proper; then appoint persons to assess the own- 
 ers of land on each side of it for the cost of so do- 
 ing ; they may also oblige those proprietors to fill 
 up their ground to the height of the street so 
 raised. In case an assessment is not paid, it is to 
 be levied by distress and sale of the goods and 
 chattels of the proprietors, or by the sale of the 
 ground. A man may have his house depressed 
 beneath the surface of the earth, or raised into 
 the air, by means of the adopted regulation ; he 
 may feel the measure co be destructive and ruin- 
 ous ; yet, if the corporation assessors think other- 
 
 3 
 
18 
 
 wise, he will be obliged not only to suffer this in- 
 jury, but to pay as though he had received a be- 
 nefit, or to abandon his property. So that every 
 proprietor of houses and lots upon a street to be 
 regulated lies entirely at the mercy of assessors 
 appointed by the corporation, and of their notions 
 of what is advantageous or injurious. The cor- 
 poration thus, in fact, exercise a judicial and an 
 executive power at one and the same time. Thus 
 a widow whose all consists of the lot and house 
 which she occupies, may be reduced to beggary 
 merely because she is proprietor of land which 
 comes within the range of the ordinances of our 
 corporation. For the iron grasp of our city go- 
 vernment does not confine itself to the possessions 
 of the wealthy ; but extends even to the slender 
 portion of the widow and the orphan. The 
 above, it is true, is an extreme case ; but such a 
 power cannot be safe in any hands. Every law 
 which violates the plain dictates of justice and 
 humanity is in opposition to a higher law than 
 any which can be promulgated by a human tri- 
 bunal ; it is contrary to the law of God and na- 
 ture. 
 
 In the above statement of the powers claimed 
 by our city corporation, the writer is not con- 
 scious of any exaggeration or high colouring. 
 And all who feel any interest in the subject, will, 
 it is hoped, examine and judge for themselves. 
 
 Let us next view the effects which are found 
 
19 
 
 actually to result from the commission of these 
 powers to a body constituted like the corporation 
 of New-York. 
 
 The uncertainty which attends the movements of 
 our corporation is an evil , universally felt. No 
 one can tell, after a measure is determined upon, 
 whether it will ever be carried into effect. And 
 if any person applies to the public authority for 
 information, no one can afford him more than a 
 conjecture. If a man wishes to build a house 
 upon ground which has not yet passed the corpo- 
 ration ordeal, and applies for instruction how high 
 or how low he must place the foundation of his 
 house, he cannot obtain the desired information, 
 because, in fact, no one can give it ; the level of 
 the ground is not determined, and nobody can say 
 t what it will be. And even suppose the aldermen 
 
 and common-council to sit down and decide upon 
 the desired regulation, there would still be no se- 
 curity that, at a subsequent meeting of the board, 
 or after a new election, this decision might not be 
 changed. Supposing, moreover, a street to be 
 actually pitched and paved, agreeably to an ordi- 
 nance of the board, and a building to be erected 
 upon it, the owner of the building would not yet 
 be secure ; for, in consequence of the regulations 
 of different parts of the city being made at differ- 
 ent times, and no general plan being laid down, 
 it is sometimes found necessary to alter the eleva- 
 tions and depressions of parts which have alrea- 
 
20 
 
 dy been regulated and even built upon, in order 
 to make them correspond with the elevations and 
 depressions of other parts which are subsequently 
 regulated. 
 
 About ten years ago, some low ground in the 
 vicinity of Richmond hill, held under a long lease 
 from Trinity Church, was filled at the expense of 
 the lessee, so as to render it fit to be built upon. 
 Those who did the work produced certificates 
 that it was done agreeably to the plan (or the di- 
 rection) of the street-commissioner. Since that 
 time, the plan has been altered. Hudson-street 
 has been heaped up seven or eight feet, so as to 
 render the above-mentioned ground useless to the 
 proprietor until it be filled to a height correspond- 
 ing with the street. The water which, by the 
 first plan, descended from the north and the south 
 into a channel running westerly, whence it was im- 
 mediately discharged into the North river, is now 
 to find its way several hundred feet eastward on the 
 surface of the streets, in order to return under 
 ground through a sewer. Good reasons may possibly 
 exist fgr this new regulation; but, to all appearance, 
 there has been in this, as well as other instances, 
 an enormous and wanton waste of labour and mo- 
 ney. And it is incumbent upon those who advis- 
 ed and adopted this plan, to inform the landhold- 
 ers in that vicinity what necessity there is to 
 oblige them to expend thousands of dollars in con- 
 veying water to a great distance on the surface 
 
21 
 
 of the earth, in order to let it flow all that distance 
 back again through a channel into which it might 
 have been made to descend immediately, with 
 little or no alteration in the elevation of the 
 ground. 
 
 The natural interpretation of the law which 
 directs in what manner the corporation are to 
 open a street, seems to be ; that under the term 
 to open, is included whatever is necessary to ren- 
 der the street useful as a public highway. The 
 landholders being assessed in consideration of the 
 benefit which, it is supposed, will result to them 
 from the opening of the street ; and as, in fact, an 
 injury instead of a benefit arises from the mere 
 opening, it cannot be the intention of the law 
 that those who are assessed shall be kept in a 
 ♦ state of suspense and disorder as long as may 
 
 suit the pleasure of our city guardians. But the 
 corporation consider the opening of a street as to- 
 tally distinct from the working of it. And so wide 
 a distinction have they latterly made between the 
 two terms, that they have passed an ordinance 
 imposing upon proprietors, who have paid for the 
 opening of a. street through their land, one third of 
 the expense of working it, that is, of making a 
 road in the middle of it. This ordinance was 
 made in opposition to the opinion of one of the 
 ablest lawyers in this city, who was in the board 
 at the time. A strong instance is here afforded 
 of the propensity which exists in that board to 
 
22 
 
 shift as much of the public burdens as they can 
 upon the shoulders of individuals. 
 
 The following example may serve to show the 
 mode of proceeding adopted by our corporation 
 in opening an avenue or street. 
 
 In the year 1815, the 9th avenue, from Green- 
 wich lane to 28th street, became public proper- 
 ty, by the usual course, for the purpose of a pub- 
 lic highway. The writer of these pages, through 
 whose land the avenue passes, was, in conse- 
 quence, deprived of a piece of ground one hun- 
 dred feet in width, and between thirteen and four- 
 teen hundred in length, more than three acres; 
 he, moreover, paid, in January, 1816, an assess- 
 ment of one hundred and eleven dollars and some 
 cents; feeling, at the same time, satisfied to 
 escape so well ; and, agreeably to the order of the 
 street-commissioner, he had his fences removed, 
 and the trees which stood in the avenue cut down. 
 Thus losing a number of valuable fruit-trees, and 
 being put to a great expense in removing and put- 
 ting up fences. It was expected, as a matter of 
 course, that these injuries would be compensated 
 by having a good road immediately made through 
 the avenue. This hope, however, was found to 
 be delusive. The corporation, after having col- 
 lected the assessments, appeared to give them- 
 selves little farther trouble about the avenue ; but 
 suffered those through whose land it passed to 
 open or keep it closed as they thought proper ; 
 some of whom put up fences across it ; nor has it 
 
23 
 
 been actually freed from fences and other incum- 
 brances until within a few weeks past. The cor- 
 poration, at length, after receiving sundry peti- 
 tions or remonstrances, written and verbal, pass- 
 ed an order, in the summer of this year, 1818, 
 three years after the ground was taken by the 
 public, to work a road through the avenue ; but 
 not until they had passed a previous order, mak- 
 ing the landholders on each side liable for one 
 third of the expense of making the road. 
 
 A piece of land neighbouring to the above-men- 
 tioned, was advertised by the corporation, nearly 
 two years ago, for sale at auction, because the as- 
 sessments for opening a street through it were not 
 paid ; although, at the appointed time of sale, the 
 street remained unopened, and has so continued 
 until this autumn. It is believed that the above 
 is not a solitary instance of the manner in which 
 the proprietors of land have streets opened 
 through their property. 
 
 The plans adopted by our corporation for the 
 regulating of the ground in and about this city, 
 are probably the chief sources of the injury and 
 vexation complained of by a large portion of the 
 community. The great principle which appears 
 to govern these plans is, to reduce the surface of 
 the earth as nearly as possible to a dead level. 
 The natural inequalities of the ground are destroy- 
 ed, and the existing water-courses disregarded. 
 And j in defiance of all the outcries which are rais- 
 
24 
 
 ed, and the remonstrances which are offered, our 
 public authorities seem unwilling to depart from 
 their levelling propensities, but proceed to cut up 
 and tear down the face of the earth without the 
 least remorse, and, apparently, with no higher no- 
 tions of beauty and elegance than straight lines 
 and flat surfaces placed at angles with the hori- 
 zon, just sufficient to suffer the mud and water to 
 creep quietly down their declivities. The effects, 
 upon private property, of these changes in the 
 surface of the ground, are manifest. Some lots, 
 with the buildings upon them, are raised into the 
 air ; some are depressed below the surface of the 
 earth ; while some few remain unchanged. Thus 
 this equalizing system acts most unequally in its 
 operation. And property which, in the estima- 
 tion of the proprietors, is injured by it, is obliged, 
 as well as the rest, to bear its portion of assess- 
 ments; because the principle upon which they 
 are made is, that individuals are to bear the whole 
 burden of the regulations effected in the vicinity 
 of their property. That most of the great chan- 
 ges wrought by the corporation in the surface of 
 our city, are detrimental to its beauty, and not 
 necessary to its cleanliness and convenience, is 
 the opinion of many persons of taste and experi- 
 ence. The levelling of some of the beautiful emi- 
 nences which adorned the suburbs a few years 
 ago, has been a subject of regret to strangers as 
 well as to our own citizens. And it is confidently 
 
25 
 
 maintained, by men of the greatest experience, that 
 all the useful ends proposed by the levelling sys- 
 tem, might be attained, at much less expense to 
 the community, and with comparatively little in- 
 jury to private property, by means of well-con- 
 structed sewers, judiciously placed ; such as are 
 employed in all well-regulated cities of Europe, 
 and in our sister city Philadelphia. 
 
 But a more needless and ill-judged attack upon 
 private property, under colour of law and public 
 utility, was perhaps never attempted by a public 
 body than the regulation of the ground in and 
 about the village of Greenwich, ordered by the 
 corporation in 1817. 
 
 The immediate and remote injury to private 
 property that would ensue upon the execution of 
 this plan, was found to be so great and so exten- 
 sive, that, after it had been partly carried into 
 effect, a numerous and respectable body of free- 
 holders rose in opposition to it. They employed 
 Mr. Randel to examine the plan, and to give his 
 opinion of it. His intimate acquaintance with the 
 ground to be regulated, independent of his known 
 and acknowledged abilities, rendered him pecu- 
 liarly fit to judge of the contemplated measure. 
 The result of his investigation has been, to show, 
 in a manner and w ith a precision not to be resist- 
 ed, that the proposed plan would be attended 
 with an amount of unnecessary expense, inconve- 
 
 4 
 
26 
 
 nience and injury, hardly credible to those who 
 have not examined the matter for themselves. 
 
 Mr. Rand el's calculations are founded upon the 
 surveys made by the surveyors employed by the 
 street-commissioner; these surveys do not agree 
 with one another, and, consequently, do not af- 
 ford sure ground to go upon. " But,*' to employ 
 Mr. Handel's own words, taking the map made 
 by Mr. Doughty as the regulation to be adopted 
 by the honourable the corporation, the following 
 effect will be produced in the vicinity, and north- 
 east of Greenwich lane — An averaged space of 
 more than fifty acres must be filled, averaging 
 upwards of eight feet, which at 3 per house lot, 
 will amount to* 
 
 " But a much greater damage will. I think, be 
 incurred north of thirteenth street — For, when 
 these regulations are adopted, unless the regula- 
 tion is extended as fir north, at least, as Love- 
 lane, and from Broadway to eighth avenue, em- 
 bracing a space of upwards of one hundred and 
 forty acres, then the east branch of Manetta water 
 will set back from thirteenth street to Love-lane, 
 and will form a pond' between Messrs. Burling. 
 
 * A lot of 25 feet by 100. at twelve and a ha'f cents per 
 |oadj would cost, tor filling to the height of 8 feet, $277 75. 
 And, allowing 16 lots to an acre, 50 acres would cost §222,200. 
 1 his is independent of the expense of removing fences and al- 
 tering houses, kr. foe. 
 
'21 
 
 Morcwood, Outhout, &c. and Broadway of up- 
 wards of five hundred feet in breadth and two 
 thousand feet in length, and will be at the deepest 
 place, at thirteenth street, nine feet ; and at Love- 
 lane, three or four feet, averaging upwards of four 
 feet deep for more than twenty acres. 
 
 " Mr. Doughty makes eighth avenue twenty-se- 
 ven feet, and the west branch of Manetta water 
 seventeen feet six inches, at thirteenth street, 
 above common high water; there will therefore 
 be a pond in the vicinity of this branch also, 
 north of thirteenth street, of much greater extent 
 and averaged depth than on the east branch ; and 
 an extensive piece of country, now covered with 
 dwelling-houses and gardens, will be inundated, 
 and require to be drained." 
 ♦ It would be tedious and uninteresting here to 
 
 enter into a farther detail of particulars, which, 
 after all, could not be understood without an at- 
 tentive examination of maps and drawings. It is 
 sufficient for our purpose to know that a special 
 committee of the corporation have lately reported 
 in favour of modifying their plan, so as, in some 
 measure, to meet the views of those who petition- 
 ed against it, and partly to coincide with the al- 
 terations proposed by Mr. Randel. Thus show- 
 ing, by their own confession, that much of the dig- 
 ging and filling, which the first plan would have 
 required, is not necessary ; and, consequently, that, 
 however good their intentions may have been, the 
 corporation were about to commit an unnecessary 
 
28 
 
 invasion of those private rights which ought to bt 
 held, which, in the intention of law, are held 
 among the most sacred ; and which should never 
 be infringed without the most urgent necessity and 
 the most ample compensation. It is well worthy 
 of the serious attention of landholders, how much 
 unnecessary injury they are yet to sustain, even 
 under the present modification of the plan for re- 
 gulating the ground at Greenwich. 
 
 The report of the special committee of the cor- 
 poration, above alluded to, serves as a notable ex- 
 ample of the spirit in which our city regulations 
 appear to be conducted. The whole of this re- 
 port shall 15e here given verbatim, interspersed 
 with such remarks as suggest themselves in the 
 course of it. It is in the following words: 
 
 " The Special Committee to whom was refer- 
 red the remonstrance of a number of persons, own- 
 ers of landed estates lying in the village of Green- 
 wich, against the plan heretofore adopted by the 
 corporation for regulating the surface of the 
 ground of that village; beg leave to report, 
 
 " That the regulation of this village, from its 
 vicinity to the city, is a subject of great public im- 
 portance, as it soon will become united to, and 
 make a component part of the thickly populated 
 part of the city. It is also a subject of much indi- 
 vidual interest to the proprietors on whom the 
 burden of the regulation falls." 
 
 Here a slight alteration in the phraseology of 
 
29 
 
 the report would, if we mistake not, render it 
 much nearer the truth. The regulating of a tract 
 of land requiring an enormous expense, the bur- 
 den of which is to be borne by individuals, is cer- 
 tainly a matter of greater " importance" to them 
 than to the public. The contemplated measure, 
 therefore, may perhaps be one of much public in- 
 terest ; but it certainly is one of great individual 
 importance. The passage above quoted appears 
 to betray the spirit which renders the operations 
 of our corporation so generally odious. We here 
 have the public authorities declaring that a cer- 
 tain measure, directed by themselves, is of " great 
 public importance yet that the burden is to be 
 borne by individuals. One would suppose that it 
 must have stared the framers of this report full in 
 | the face, as a dictate of common sense, that, if a 
 
 public measure be of great public importance, the 
 public ought to bear their part of the burden. But 
 this natural conclusion seems never to have entered 
 the minds of the committee ; for they make not the 
 most distant allusion to it throughout their report. 
 Indeed, the members of our corporation appear to 
 think themselves agents for an employer called the 
 public ; and to consider it their business, to make 
 as great bargains as possible out of individuals, in 
 favour of their employer ; as though those indivi- 
 duals were not a component part of the public ; 
 and as though public welfare could long consist 
 with individual oppression. 
 
30 
 
 — - k Four committee have therefore given thif 
 subject their particular consideration, they have 
 personally inspected and viewed the ground, they 
 hive examined the maps and models, they have 
 heard the gentlemen remonstrating, their surveyor 
 and their counsel, and if the plan which your com- 
 mittee herein reco amend should hereafter be 
 found not to have been the best possible one, 
 which might have been adopted, your committee 
 will only have to regret the want of experience 
 and information on a subject of this nature, which 
 may have led them to a wrong conclusion." 
 
 It is surprising that this consciousness of want 
 of " experience and information," did not induce 
 the gentlemen of the committee to recommend to 
 the corporation, what had been suggested by the 
 Greenwich memorialists. — It was by them pro- 
 posed to refer the examination of the subject to 
 disinterested persons possessed of " experience 
 and information;" and to send for such persons 
 to other parts, if they could not be found here. 
 The writer hopes that these pages may tend to 
 convince the citizens of New-York that there ex- 
 ists great need of having the landed property of 
 this island plnced under the care of men of u ex- 
 perience and information." 
 
 k - The part of the village of Greenwich Which 
 is the subject of the regulation, lies principally 
 between Herring-street, (which may be termed 
 the natural ridge or back-bone of this part of the 
 
31 
 
 village,) and the high ground at and near Broad- 
 way. The water east of Herring-street naturally 
 descends in a direction from the Hudson, forms 
 the stream called the Marietta, (low parallel with 
 the river, then circuitously discharging themselves 
 into the Hudson; the ground covered by the Ma- 
 netta streams, as well as considerable land adja- 
 cent, lies too low to be improved for agricultural 
 purposes, much less for the purpose of building 
 on, to constitute the part of a- populous city/' 
 
 A short answer to this statement of the commit- 
 tee is, that this very tract which is said to lie too 
 low for the purposes of agriculture or building, is 
 covered, up to the channels through which the 
 Manetta streams How, with gardens, meadows, 
 pasture, grounds and houses. But what is the 
 meaning of too low "for the purpose of building 
 on, to constitute the part of a populous city ? r ' If 
 ground is sufficiently elevated to carry off the wa- 
 ter effectually to the river, what more is requisite 
 for the purposes of agriculture or building? Must 
 every part of a city be equally elevated ? Are 
 we to be reduced to a perfect uniformity ? This 
 Manetta stream is, at thirteenth street, upwards of 
 sixteen feet above high water. And if the sewer be 
 continued to Greenwich lane, as Mr. Rand el ad- 
 vises, the whole of the adjacent land may be saved 
 from a great expense of labour upon it. and the 
 
32 
 
 lowest point still be upwards of eight feet above 
 high water: a height greater than that of a large 
 portion of the city where it is most populous. 
 Taking the last quoted sentence in connexion with 
 the praise bestowed, immediately after, upon the 
 street-commissioner's plan, the inference to be 
 deduced from it seems to be, that the committee 
 think that the Manetta streams and the adjacent 
 ground should be heaped up with earth, so as to 
 raise the low ground to a level with the surround- 
 ing country, and finally obliterate the streams. 
 Against this, reason and experience should enter 
 their solemn protest. Let earth enough be em- 
 ployed, if necessary, to render the ground suffi- 
 ciently solid for the purposes of agriculture or 
 building. But. where nature has provided a wa- 
 ter-course, let it not be destroyed without the 
 most absolute necessity. The natural runs of 
 water afford a guide by which to regulate the de- 
 scents with more ease and certainty than any sur- 
 veys and calculations, and with the least possible 
 alteration in the surface of the ground. The 
 writer has been informed, by a gentleman in all 
 respects competent to afford the most correct in- 
 formation, that, in London, the descents desig- 
 nated by the water-courses are. when practicable, 
 carefully preserved, and the natural elevations 
 and depressions of the ground as nearly as possi- 
 ble adhered to. 
 
33 
 
 " A considerable part of the land, however, 
 affected by the regulation, lies sufficiently high 
 for all the purposes of building, but requires to 
 be raised to give its water the necessary descent, 
 whether it is discharged over the surface of the 
 streets, or through sewers ; but as sewers require 
 less descent to carry off the water than the sur- 
 face of streets, it results that the further the sew- 
 er is extended into this village, the less filling in 
 will be required. And on this subject (the ex- 
 tension of the sewer) has arisen the difference of 
 opinion, existing between the major part of the 
 proprietors and the street-commissioner, in rela- 
 tion to the plan remonstrated against. This plan 
 raised Asylum-street, and made the water west of 
 that street flow directly into the Hudson, and ex- 
 tended the sewer to Carmine-street, making the 
 sewer about two thousand six hundred and eighty 
 feet. As the water by this plan has to be carried 
 over streets to the mouth of the sewer at Carmine- 
 street, it results that the ground has to be very 
 considerably raised in many places to give the 
 street the necessary descent. The raising of the 
 ground, and the plan itself of the street-commis- 
 sioner, is, in the opinion of your committee, the 
 best plan which could have been projected to ren- 
 der the surface of this village suitable to be built 
 on, yet it is to be regretted that the low value of 
 property in the village, and its total present un- 
 productiveness, should have made many of the 
 
 5 
 
34 
 
 proprietors Unwilling that a plan should be adopt- 
 ed which would carry with it so extensive and 
 permanent advantages, though it must be admit- 
 ted that these advantages would have been pur- 
 chased at a very considerable expense, but by no 
 means at so gr?at an expense as has been fre- 
 quently stated in formal memorials and petitions, 
 where correctness of information is certainly ex- 
 pected from gentlemen possessing character and 
 reputation in the community. That the board 
 may form an opinion of the real expense of raising 
 the surface of this land, your committee state : 
 
 " That from most of the streets west of Asy- 
 lum-street w hich were regulated the last season, 
 there was a large quantity of surplus earth taken 
 aw ay, and which might have been used to fill in 
 the lots, and regulate the streets of this village, 
 at the expense of from four to eight cents per 
 load. 
 
 w The plan hereinafter mentioned will* pro- 
 duce more surplus ground than the present plan, 
 and your committee are confident in the opinion, 
 that the removal and filling in w ill be done at an 
 
 * It has been suggested that the following would have been 
 a more accurate mode of expression — " The plan hereinafter 
 mentioned will not require the purchase of so much ground as 
 the present plan." 
 
35 
 
 expense of at least from six to twelve and a half 
 cents per load; and your committee further con- 
 fidently state, that from ten to twelve and a half 
 cents per load are the highest prices which hue 
 been given this season, for earth within three 
 fourths of a mile of this situation." 
 
 The committee have not given their reasons 
 why they think the street-commissioner's plan the 
 best, nor what are the extensive and permanent 
 advantages that would be attendant upon it. 
 And, after confessing their want of experience and 
 information, it was certainly unreasonable to sup- 
 pose that the public would be satisfied with their 
 bare opinion. They suppose, perhaps, that the 
 low ground will be made healthier by being raised 
 several feet. If so, they must feel peculiar inte- 
 rest in the health of that part of the city ; for they 
 cut down other parts without mercy. But, after 
 all, if the lower ground be completely drained, 
 there is no reason why it should not be as healthy 
 as that which is a few feet more elevated. And 
 certainly the soil of a country is not improved for 
 the purposes of building, by being covered with an 
 artificial surface. 
 
 They think, perhaps, that the appearance of the 
 ground would be so much improved by their 
 straight-lined plan, that it ought to be preferred. 
 But there is little doubt, in the minds of people 
 of taste, that the preserving of the natural ine- 
 qualities in the ground, when not too great and 
 
36 
 
 too abrupt, is one of the greatest beauties that can 
 be attained. 
 
 The latter part of the paragraph, which insinu- 
 ates that the gentlemen who remonstrated were 
 guilty of incorrectness which did not comport 
 with " character and reputation in the communi- 
 ty,*' has an appearance of want of decorum and 
 dignity in a public body, which betrays a temper 
 of mind totally inconsistent with the calmness and 
 self-possession requisite for the proper perform- 
 ance of the duty imposed upon the committee. 
 And the more so, as the calculations of the gentle- 
 men who remonstrated were offered merely as 
 probable results ; and would, upon trial, be likely 
 to prove as near, if not nearer, the truth than 
 those of the committee ; for it is perfectly natural 
 to suppose that the increased demand for earth * 
 would increase the price of it. 
 
 " Your committee nevertheless recommend a 
 partial alteration of the present plan; in so doing 
 they have been influenced by a desire to meet the 
 views and opinions of the proprietors who have 
 remonstrated, and to lessen the expense of filling 
 in, as much as is consistent with the proper raising 
 and regulating the low lands, and carrying off the 
 water of this village; and your committee think 
 that even the proposed plan should not be carried 
 into execution, until a large majority of the pro- 
 prietors wish the village regulated ; by this delay 
 the property will become more valuable, and the 
 
37 
 
 proprietors consequently better enabled to pay 
 
 the necessary assessments. 
 
 " The plan, or alteration of the present plan, 
 which your committee recommend, is, that the 
 sewer to discharge the water from this village, be 
 laid through Clarkson-street, Carmine-street, and 
 the sixth avenue, to about where Factory-street 
 intersects the said avenue, making the surface of 
 the sixth avenue, at this point, about thirteen feet 
 above high-water mark. This alteration will ex- 
 tend the sewer from Carmine-street eight hundred 
 and forty feet, and will make the whole length of 
 the sewer three thousand seven hundred feet, and 
 will allow a descent on the bottom of the sewer, 
 of about two and three fourths of an inch for every 
 hundred feet. 
 
 I " By this regulation the present surface of the 
 
 ground at the intersection of the sixth avenue, 
 Christopher-street and Greenwich-lane, will be 
 about a proper height, the sixth avenue will have 
 an ascent of seven and a half inches on one hun- 
 dred feet from the sewer to seventeenth street, 
 where the present surface is of a suitable height, 
 between which and twenty-second street the 
 ground is so situated as to allow the water to be 
 conveyed directly to the North river, with some 
 deep digging, between the eighth avenue and the 
 river; but the surplus earth will be required be- 
 tween the sixth avenue and Broadway, or to fill 
 in along the river, when the wharfing out to the 
 
38 
 
 channel is undertaken. According to this plan, 
 all the streets below seventeenth street will at the 
 sixth avenue be depressed, which will increase 
 the ascent to Broadway, to about ten inches on 
 one hundred feet. The line will then rise at ten 
 inches on the hundred feet, from the sixth avenue, 
 for four hundred feet, and then descend in a regu- 
 lar line to the North river." 
 
 This is not the place to enter into minute dis- 
 cussions ; but it must not be forgotten, that by 
 extending the sewer a little farther, so as to reach 
 Greenwich-lane, and by digging down about six 
 feet at that point, a still farther saving of property, 
 to a great amount, may be obtained. Why the 
 corporation are averse to this, we are not inform- 
 ed ; but, as it is, the inhabitants of Greenwich may 
 congratulate themselves upon a saving of many ti 
 thousands of dollars, and of much needless injury 
 to property. 
 
 The committee say that, between seventeenth 
 and twenty-second streets, " the ground is so situ- 
 ated as to allow the water to be conveyed direct- 
 ly to the North river, with some deep digging be- 
 tween the eighth avenue and the river." To a 
 person unacquainted with the abject dependence 
 of the landholders in this island upon the will of 
 the corporation, it would be quite ridiculous to 
 hear these gentlemen talk in this manner of cut- 
 ting and carving the property of others. But it 
 is, in truth, a thing not to be thought of with calm- 
 
39 
 
 ness, that the owners of real property in this city 
 are so much at the mercy of a few men, that the 
 street-commissioner may stand on an eminence in 
 the centre of the island, stretch out his hand, like 
 Moses over the Red Sea ; command all within the 
 reach of his eye to be overwhelmed ; and find men 
 ready to declare publicly that they think his mea- 
 sures the best which could be devised. Not only 
 so, but those who are to suffer must furnish the 
 means of their own destruction ; they must be- 
 come their own executioners. It is to be hoped 
 that the ground which rises from the shore of the 
 North river, between the above-named streets, may 
 be rescued from destructive and ruthless hands, 
 before they direct their movements that way ; and 
 that respect for the rights cf property, united with 
 | true taste, may save from ruin those other parts of 
 
 our island which have not yet suffered. 
 
 " To prevent the lake or pond mentioned in the 
 remonstrance, your committee find that it was 
 proposed to form a temporary drain to convey the 
 Manetta water to the intended sewer, and which 
 will be indispensable until the whole of the regula- 
 tion is completed, as far north as twenty-first 
 street. A permanent culvert may, therefore, (if 
 then thought proper,) be constructed to receive the 
 water of east branch of the Manetta, which will 
 tend to reduce the quantity of filling in at that 
 point, which will be a saving for the present ; but 
 your committee are, of opinion that the best plan 
 
40 
 
 will be to convey the water in a direct line from 
 Broadway to the sixth avenue." 
 
 It appears evident from this that the corpora- 
 tion, if we may judge of the board from their com- 
 mittee, did not know how T the lake or pond was 
 to be guarded against, until they found that a con- 
 trivance might be provided. That is. they trusted 
 implicitly to their street-commissioner, and knew 
 nothing about the matter themselves, until they 
 were forced to it by the just remonstrances of 
 those whom they were about to oppress. And a 
 precious contrivance this temporary drain would 
 be. The w ater would, in that case, be cvrried off 
 both above and below ground. Now, if this drain 
 be made sufficient to carry off the water in that 
 vicinity, why. in the name of common sense, should 
 the ground be heaped up over it ? Why not let j 
 all the water pass through this channel, and thus 
 save the adjacent country from ruinous expense ? 
 
 " Your committee have also paid particular at- 
 tention to the manner in which Asylum-street has 
 been regulated, w ith a view to reduce the height 
 if practicable ; but on examining the different ele- 
 vations, they do not find that it c in now be done 
 to advantage : for if the water is carried to Green- 
 v. ich-lane. and from thence to the sew er, the de- 
 scent will not exceed fourteen inches on the hun- 
 dred feet, and varies to seven and a half, in propor- 
 tion to the distance the different streets are from 
 the sixth avenue. Taking into view the situa- 
 
41 
 
 tion of the property to the southward and east- 
 word, the water of which now goes into the river, 
 they are of opinion it would he inadviseahle to re- 
 duce the present height of Asylum-street, and 
 thereby discharge considerable water now falling 
 to the southward and west of it into the sewer." 
 
 It is difficult to understand the force of the rea- 
 sons here given for not reducing the height of 
 Asylum-street; which, it is to be observed, has 
 been raised so as to put the owners of lots and 
 houses upon it to a great expense, and, as is con- 
 tended, without any necessity. Seven and a half 
 inches on a hundred feet must be a sufficient de- 
 scent ; for, in the next paragraph, the committee 
 give that as the height of one of their own regula- 
 tions. And why the water should not be dis- 
 | charged into the sewer, since for this very pur- 
 
 pose the sewer is to be constructed, and thus ex- 
 tended, appears inexplicable. Mr. Randel ob- 
 serves, in a communication made to the writer, " If 
 the water from Asylum-street, instead of being- 
 taken to Greenwich-lane and thence to the sewer, 
 be taken to Factory-street, -and thence along that 
 street to the sewer; then, the height of Asylum- 
 street may be reduced at Charles-street three feet 
 ten inches, at Perry-street three feet six inches, 
 at Hammond-street three feet nine inches, &c. and 
 there will remain a descent of seven and a half in- 
 ches on one hundred feet to the sewer, where the 
 surface of the ground will be tin r teen feet above 
 
 6 
 
42 
 
 high water. If Asylum-street is thus depressed, 
 then the ridge of ground will be removed about 
 three hundred feet westerly towards Herring- 
 street, and the water from about eight acres of 
 ground will thereby pass into the sewer, instead 
 of descending directly to Hudson's river above 
 ground. The water from about one hundred and 
 sixty-five acres of ground north-easterly of Asy- 
 lum-street and Greenw ich lane, and south of se- 
 venteenth street, must (by the plan recommended 
 by the committee) pass through the sewer ; and if 
 the sewer (south of Greenwich-lane) receives the 
 water from only six hundred feet on each side of 
 it, then, the water from at least two hundred and 
 eighty acres of ground must pass 'through it; so 
 that by depressing Asylum-street as above men- 
 tioned, there will be an increase of only one thir- 
 ty-fifth in the whole quantity of water passing 
 through the sewer/' 
 
 The report proceeds : " By this plan the high- 
 est point on Greenwich-lane will be between 
 Hammond and Bank streets, where it will be 
 about six feet above - the present surface, which 
 will allow a descent of seven and a half inches on 
 one hundred feet from this point to the sewer, and 
 the same to thirteenth street. The length of the 
 sewer being determined, and also the height of 
 the sixth avenue, Asylum-street, seventeenth 
 street and Broadway, of course all the interve- 
 ning streets must be made to conform. 
 
43 
 
 * Your committee therefore recommend, that 
 the street-commissioner be directed to m ike an 
 exact plan and model in conformity to this report, 
 that the proprietors may know the heights and 
 levels agreed upon by the corporation." 
 
 Thus ends the report ; which should not have 
 been given at full length, but to avoid the imputa- 
 tion of making mangled quotations. 
 
 The force of the reasoning opposed by Mr. 
 Randel to the plan first adopted by the corpora- 
 tion, is so great as to defy any thing like a definite 
 answer. So that the committee, as though they 
 think the honour of the board concerned not to 
 acknowledge themselves in the wrong, still main- 
 tain their own plan to be best, without giving any 
 intelligible reason for that opinion; and, at the 
 same time, give up that plan with a very bad grace, 
 and, apparently with much ill-humour towards 
 those who remonstrated against it. 
 
 Such, therefore, is the state of the case. A 
 tract of land large enough for a town to be built 
 upon it, and already containing many houses, is 
 doomed by the corporation of the city to be raised 
 several feet, in order to make it coincide with a 
 plan devised by their street-commissioner. The 
 owners of this tract, seeing themselves likely to 
 be grievously oppressed by this plan, employ a 
 person, of confessedly the first rate abilities and of 
 much experience, to examine it. He pronounces 
 the plan to contain regulations absolutely unne- 
 
44 
 
 cessary, and ruinous, not only to the tract in ques- 
 tion, but to the land beyond it ; and declares that, 
 by such a mode of regulating the ground, no cal- 
 culation can be made of the ultimate mischief that 
 may ensue. He proposes several plans in lieu 
 of the one objected to, and urges his objections 
 with a mathematical precision to which the cor- 
 poration, with all their counsel, have not been able 
 to oppose a direct answer. The corporation, at 
 length, consent to appoint a special committee to 
 confer with these complainants ; which commit- 
 tee, with a very ill grace, agree to depart from 
 their street-commissioner's plan, at the same time 
 declaring that they think it the best that could 
 be devised, without giving any definite rea- 
 son for that opinion; and without showing any 
 disposition to repair the mischief which has al- s 
 ready been done. The above report serves to 
 display the spirit which exists in the corporation. 
 Instead of magnanimously confessing themselves 
 to be wrong, and manifesting a desire to repair 
 the injuries already committed in consequence of 
 their mistakes, they maintain that what they were 
 about to do was best ; and that they yield to the 
 importunity of others, against their own judgment. 
 So that their inclination is still in favour of their 
 oppressive and unnecessary operations ; and they 
 depart from them merely to silence a clamour 
 which has arisen against them. What have pro- 
 prietors of land to expect from such a body, but 
 
45 
 
 a recurrence to its favourite plans whenever an 
 opportunity shall present itself? It is time that 
 the regulations of this island were determined. 
 And they ought to be determined by wiser heads. 
 Few persons seem aware of the reflection neces- 
 sary for regulating a city. The whole plan ought 
 to be made before the regulation of any particular 
 part is carried into effect; because the ultimate 
 consequences of a partial regulation cannot be 
 known without taking into consideration all the 
 ground that is to be regulated. A single foot 
 more or less in the elevation of one part may 
 eventually affect an extensive tract of land, and 
 make a difference in expense of hundreds of thou- 
 sands of dollars. None are competent to a work 
 of this nature who have not a comprehensive view 
 I of the ground to be regulated, and who do not 
 
 give much time and minute attention to every part 
 of the subject. 
 
 A part of the above-mentioned plan for the re- 
 gulation of Greenwich, was carried into effect be- 
 fore the corporation would listen to the remon- 
 strances made against it. Among the instances of 
 oppression which attended that plan, as far as it 
 was executed, the following, as a prominent one, 
 is selected. 
 
 The proprietors of the wire or card manufac- 
 tory at Greenwich employed every method they 
 could devise to ascertain how their buildings 
 should be placed in security against the regula- 
 
46 
 
 tions to which the ground about them might he 
 subjected. The buildings were erected at a cost 
 of upwards of thirty thousand dollars, indepen- 
 dent of the ground on which they stand. But not- 
 withstanding their supposed security, Asylum- 
 street, which forms the western boundary of the 
 ground in question, has been heaped up, so as to 
 rise several feet above the base of the manufacto- 
 ry. The injury which is thus sustained is self- 
 evident. But, in addition to this, the proprietors 
 have been obliged to pay one hundred and thirty- 
 three dollars and some cents, as their quota of the 
 assessments for raisins; the street. When the 
 streets on the other three sides of the plot in 
 which the manufactory stands are raised, the as- 
 sessments for so doing must likewise be paid; 
 and the corporation may then order the box thus * 
 made by their regulations to be filled to the level 
 of the streets around it, without regard to, and 
 without being accountable for, the ruin to the 
 buildings which must ensue. This cannot be 
 right. No law can make it just for individuals to 
 give up their rights, and sacrifice their property 
 to public convenience or public whim, without any 
 remuneration on the part of that public. 
 
 This is but one instance, among others, of the 
 actual operation of our laws. It is plain that no- 
 thing but the most imperious necessity can justify 
 the adoption of plans which lead to consequences 
 such as the above. That some members of the 
 
47 
 
 corporation think such necessity exists, may be 
 true. They may deem it absolutely necessary to 
 carry off the water upon the surface of the ground, 
 and in straight courses ; and, for this purpose, to 
 change the whole face of the earth. But if it 
 should be found that this labour and these changes 
 are useless, and worse than useless, our rulers 
 would have a lame account to render to the pub- 
 lic, as well as to individuals, for an exercise of 
 power more arbitrary than was ever endured by 
 any people pretending to the faintest shadow of 
 liberty. 
 
 Beside the above-stated effects, other conse- 
 quences, not less important to individuals and to 
 the community at large, result from this enormous 
 and ill-directed power. 
 
 The value of property which has not jet been 
 attacked by the corporation is so much depressed 
 as to prevent all demand for it, and to render its 
 worth, except for agricultural purposes, merely 
 nominal. No one dares to purchase, except at a 
 price so low as to invite speculation ; because no 
 one can foretell the future condition of the pro- 
 perty which he may buy, nor the future assess- 
 ments with which it may be burdened. It is all a 
 lottery, in which the tickets are so high, and the 
 chances of gain so few, that people dread to ven- 
 ture. 
 
 But not only does he who wishes to dispose of 
 his land suffer by the existing state of things ; he 
 
48 
 
 also who wishes to improve his own property is 
 cramped and harassed in his operations; for no 
 man dares to erect costly buildings upon ground 
 which is not regulated; nor can he regulate it 
 himself, as no general plan is laid down, nor has 
 he any w ay of discovering what the regulation is 
 to be. He knows, moreover, that no compensa- 
 tion is to be expected for any damage w hich he 
 may sustain in consequence of the future opera- 
 tions of the public authorities. 
 
 Thus the growth of the city is retarded, and the 
 price of ground, in the regulated parts of it, raised 
 so as to be entirely disproportionate to that of 
 ground within a few hundred yards, but which has 
 not yet suffered under the hands of the corpo- 
 ration. There is a constant struggle between 
 the efforts of the town to extend itself, and the in- 
 ability of the property in its vicinity to endure the 
 expenses attendant upon the measures which are 
 pursued for that purpose. 
 
 Whenever a plan is carried into effect, which 
 involves unnecessary expense, that expense is an 
 unnecessary burden upon a part or the whole of 
 the community. Let it not be said, that the mo- 
 ney which is paid by one portion of society to ano- 
 ther is not a loss to the community, if it serves to 
 give employment to a number of hands who de- 
 pend on their own labour for subsistence. All need- 
 less labour is a public waste. This proposition is 
 too evident tp require any arguments to enforce it. 
 
49 
 
 And, happily, the state of our country is such that 
 no necessity exists to devise fictitious modes of 
 employment for the labouring parts of the com- 
 munity. It is worthy, too, of serious considera- 
 tion, that every hill which our corporation order 
 to be levelled ; every hollow which they require 
 to be filled, and every alteration which they cause 
 to be made, without absolute necessity ; in short, 
 that every unnecessary work for which hands are 
 paid, tends, without producing an equivalent, to 
 enhance the price of labour, and, consequently, 
 of every article which is the product of labour. 
 
 The changes wTought in the face of this island 
 by the present mode of levelling and filling, and 
 thus reducing it to a flat surface, are lamented by 
 persons of taste, as destructive to the greatest 
 beauties of which our city is susceptible. Al- 
 though our corporation may be so devoted to this 
 system, that they cannot think any beauty to ex- 
 ist without it, they might, at least in some in- 
 stances, yield to the taste of others. But, to 
 judge from appearances, they seem resolved to 
 spare nothing that bears the semblance of a rising 
 ground ; nothing is to be left unmolested which 
 does not coincide with the street-commissioner's 
 plummet and level. These are men, as has been 
 well observed, who would have cut down the 
 seven hills of Rome, on which are erected her 
 triumphant monuments of beauty and magnifi- 
 
 7 
 
50 
 
 cence, and have thrown them into the Tyber or 
 the Pomptine marshes. 
 
 In whatever way the powers of our city corpo- 
 ration and their effects be contemplated, whether 
 with the eye of a jurist, of a political philosopher, 
 of a philanthropist, or of a man, of taste, they ap- 
 pear productive of evil. We live under a tyran- 
 ny, with respect to the rights of property, which, 
 it is firmly believed, no monarch in Europe would 
 dare to exercise. And, in respect to its opera- 
 tion, it is a tyranny of the worst kind ; for it is 
 under the sanction of laws which shield those 
 who exercise it from being called to legal account. 
 It is time for all who are interested to arouse, 
 and to unite themselves for the maintenance and 
 preservation of their rights. 
 
 A remedy for these evils may probably be ob- i 
 tained, if unanimity prevails among those imme- 
 diately interested, and if an ordinary sense of jus- 
 tice exists in the breasts of those by whom the 
 remedy must be applied. 
 
 The course most adviseablei;o be pursued, ap- 
 pears to be this : Let the corporation be request- 
 ed to apply to the legislature to appoint commis- 
 sioners, whose business it shall be to adjust the 
 final regulations of the levels of the streets and 
 avenues on this island. 
 
 Let the owners of real estate on this island also 
 unite in a petition to the legislature, praying for a 
 revision of the laws relative to the opening and 
 
51 
 
 regulating of avenues and streets. We can see 
 no good reason why the corporation should object 
 to such a revision, or to having the business of 
 planning the regulations of this city transferred 
 to other persons ; unless they be actuated by a 
 mistaken pride, or, which it is sincerely to be 
 hoped is not the case, by an undue desire of main- 
 taining their importance and influence among cer- 
 tain classes of people who find tliejr account in all 
 the havoc which is made upon the houses and 
 ground of the freeholders of New-York. They 
 would be spared much trouble, and be relieved 
 from a great load of odium, by having a part of 
 their present business placed in other hands. 
 
 In the petition to the legislature, let it be sta- 
 ted ; That much discontent is caused by the man- 
 ner of regulating our city. That, in consequence 
 of the want of judicious and extensive plans, much 
 unnecessary injury is committed upon property, 
 and much superfluous labour and expense occa- 
 sioned to the community. That, in addition to 
 this expense, it is believed, the appearance of our 
 island is injured by the prevailing system of cut- 
 ting down the eminences and filling up the hol- 
 lows. That, after much consideration and inqui- 
 ry, the petitioners rest satisfied, the true principle 
 upon which the site of a city ought to be regula- 
 ted, is, to preserve the natural surface of the 
 ground as closely as a regard to utility will per- 
 mit; to depress the elevations no more than is 
 
52 
 
 absolutely required by convenience; and, as 
 much as possible, to avoid the necessity of filling 
 the lower parts, by the use of well-constructed 
 sewers. That, by adhering to this rule, the most 
 desirable ends would be attained with the least 
 possible injury and expense ; agreeably to a lead- 
 *ng principle which appears to pervade the uni- 
 verse; and which must have presented itself to 
 every observing mind, — in all the operations of na- 
 ture or art, the greatest results are attained by the 
 simplest means. Let it be urged upon the legisla- 
 ture to take into their serious consideration whether 
 the following be not plain dictates of justice : That 
 all public works should be done at the expense of 
 the public. That, when the public and an indi- 
 vidual are placed in the situation of two distinct 
 parties, and it is required of the individual to sur- j 
 render any right or sustain any immediate loss, by 
 which the other party is benefited, that immediate 
 reparation should be made to the individual for 
 the right surrendered or the loss sustained ; and 
 that he be not obliged to pay for a benefit to him- 
 self until that benefit arrives ; in other words, that 
 an individual be not forced to become a capitalist 
 for the public ; the part for the whole, the poor 
 for the rich. Let the legislature be desired to 
 state explicitly what is to be understood as com- 
 prehended under the term to open a street or ave- 
 nue. Whether it is meant to include in that term 
 all the advantages naturally to be expected from 
 
53 
 
 so doing, or whether it is intended that landhold- 
 ers shall pay for opening the avenues and streets, 
 and then see them remain closed for years after 
 the assessments are paid, and at length be obliged 
 to pay again when they are opened for any prac- 
 tical purpose. Finally, let the legislature be in- 
 treated to inquire into these matters as speedily 
 as possible, and appoint persons of science, expe- 
 rience and taste, to devise plans, which, after re- 
 ceiving legislative sanction, may be offered to 
 public view, as exhibiting the permanent surface 
 of the whole contemplated extent of our city. 
 
 The benefit which would result to the commu- 
 nity at large, and to owners of landed property 
 in particular, from the success of such a petition, 
 would be incalculable. Beside the uncertainty 
 and vexation which would be spared to individu- 
 als, the public labours would probably be much 
 diminished ; for, if exact models were made of the 
 present surface of the island, and of the destined 
 regulations, so as to enable proprietors of land to 
 ascertain how much any portion of ground on the 
 island is to be altered from its present level, the 
 operations and improvements of individuals on 
 their own property would be constantly directed 
 so as to reduce the surface of the ground to a con- 
 formity with the elevations and depressions point- 
 ed out by the public plan ; and thus, in the course 
 of time, much would probably be done in antici- 
 pation of the ordinances of the common-council. 
 
54 
 
 The writer is aware that a diversity of senti- 
 ment exists, on some points, among those who, in 
 the main, think the measures of our corporation 
 grievously oppressive, and unnecessarily destruc- 
 tive of property, both public and private. Some 
 persons who dislike the assessments for the dig- 
 ging and filling of streets, still think the beauty of 
 the city improved by its being reduced to a uni- 
 form flat surface. Tastes, it is true, are various ; 
 but it may be observed to such persons, that they 
 already have ample room to gratify their love for 
 plane surfaces. The environs of Hudson's square 
 are fast coming to a level ; and, ere long, we shall 
 see nothing but a dead flat from Spring-street to 
 Greenwich-lane. It is, therefore, but fair that the 
 taste of other people should likewise be gratified. 
 We do not, however, wish to undo what has al- * 
 ready been done ; but to preserve what has not 
 already been destroyed. 
 
 Much prejudice exists against sewers. On this 
 subject, the reader is referred to the following let- 
 ter from Dr. Hosack, addressed to the writer of 
 this statement. 
 
 "New-York, Nov. 15th, 1818. 
 
 " DEAR SIR, 
 
 " During my late visit to Philadelphia I was not 
 unmindful of your request relative to the benefits 
 or evils that may have arisen from the introduc- 
 tion of common sewers in that city. I conversed 
 
55 
 
 with several gentlemen upon that subject, particu- 
 larly with Mr. John Vaughan, Mr. Cammack, Dr. 
 Mease, and the late Dr. Dorsey ; they all concur- 
 red in stating the beneficial results that had been 
 derived from that measure adopted by their po- 
 lice ; that it not only had materially added to the 
 comfort of the citizens, but that it had been the 
 means of freeing the air from many impurities, 
 and essentially had contributed to the health of the 
 inhabitants. 
 
 " Mr. Vaughan promised me an account of the 
 size and construction both of the large trunks and 
 of the numerous branches that open into them j 
 but as the corporation of this city are in posses- 
 sion of the necessary facts upon this subject, I 
 need not trouble you with the details to be fur- 
 nished by Mr. Vaughan. 
 
 " Fully convinced that similar measures in this 
 city would be attended with the same addition to 
 the comfort and health of its inhabitants, I hope 
 your application to the corporation, or to the state 
 legislature, may receive that attention which its 
 importance demands; for in no city can such 
 sewers be with more facility constructed, nor in 
 any can they be introduced with more beneficial 
 results. 
 
 " I am, dear Sir, with sentiments of esteem and 
 respect, yours, 
 
 • DAVID HOSACK." 
 
56 
 
 The following extracts from Roberton's Medi- 
 cal Police may serve to show the opinion of that 
 writer with respect to the effect of sewers upon 
 the health of a city. 
 
 " Within the city" (of London) " much is effect- 
 ed in the prevention of disease by the soil being 
 kept moderately dry and healthy, by drains and 
 common sewers in almost every part of it." 
 
 Again — " From the well-constructed drains and 
 sewers, and from the contiguity of the Thames to 
 London, even the disadvantages arising from its 
 being built almost on a plane, are greatly ob- 
 viated." 
 
 With regard to the expense of constructing sew- 
 ers, it has been urged, that if the expense of a 
 sewer be imposed upon those inhabitants through 
 whose street it passes, the burden must be great- * 
 er upon each individual than would be imposed 
 for the regulating of the street alone. But some 
 idea may be formed of the difference of expense 
 between digging down and filling in a whole tract 
 of land, to carry off the water, and the construct- 
 ing of a sewer for that purpose, by the following 
 extract from a letter written by a gentleman in 
 Philadelphia, who was applied to some months 
 ago, to obtain information respecting the sewers 
 in that city. " I have understood that, by a for- 
 mer regulation of a certain part of this city, the 
 expense of filling up the ground would have 
 amounted to at least % 300,000, and which would 
 
57 
 
 have fallen upon the proprietors of the land, to 
 obviate which three culverts were constructed last 
 year of the following dimensions : 
 
 " One of them 870 feet in length, 6 feet in diameter clear. 
 
 Anotherof them 767 .. .. 5 .. .. ..and 
 
 Another of them 780 ., .. 4 .. 
 
 44 The whole expense of these amounted to ten 
 thousand one hundred and thirty-five dollars and 
 ninety-eight cents, including four inlets, which cost 
 one hundred and fifty dollars each." 
 
 The expense of sewers may also be rendered 
 greater than is necessary, if they are built by con- 
 tractors who make as great bargains out of the 
 corporation as are said to be sometimes made by 
 those who contract for filling up streets. If a man 
 engages to fill a certain street for twelve and a 
 half cents per load, and then hires cartmen to do 
 it at the rate of from three to eight cents, the 
 contractor makes clear gain of a large proportion 
 of the money which is assessed upon the proprie- 
 tors of lots on each side of the street. And it is 
 not easy to give a good reason why the cartmen 
 themselves should not be hired immediately by 
 the corporation, and a person employed to over- 
 look them, and at least half the expense be thus 
 saved to the landholders. 
 
 An objection is sometimes raised against paying 
 the expenses of public works out of the public 
 funds, upon the ground that it would not be just 
 towards those who have already borne the whole 
 
 8 
 
58 
 
 weight of assessments for public improvements 
 made in the vicinity of their property, to oblige 
 them now to bear any part of the expenses for 
 works by which their property is not immediately 
 benefited. To this it may be replied ; That, if the 
 principle upon which the first assessments were 
 levied was unjust and oppressive, it cannot be right 
 to continue injustice and oppression for the pur- 
 pose of making the whole community suffer equal- 
 ly. Rather let those who have, in the first in- 
 stance, been unfairly treated receive such remu- 
 neration, or be permitted to enjoy such immuni- 
 ties, as to set them upon an equality with their 
 fellow citizens. If equality is to be attained, let 
 it be done by compensating the injured, not by 
 extending oppression to those who have not yet 
 suffered. 
 
 It is sometimes urged in favour of the levelling 
 plan, that it renders the city more convenient for 
 commercial purposes ; that cartmen can transport 
 their loads with more ease to their horses, and 
 with more rapidity, over level ground than over 
 that which is uneven. The writer of this state- 
 ment is as much disposed to show mercy to brute 
 animals as any of those persons can be who offer 
 this reason for altering the face of the earth. But 
 supposing that the whole of this city is to be regu- 
 lated for commercial purposes, which no one, it is 
 to be presumed, can think necessary or proper, it 
 is more than probable that the time saved to the 
 
59 
 
 cartmen, and labour spared to their horses, would, 
 if any thing, be a very small fraction in the amount 
 of commercial advantages enjoyed by this city. 
 For, the length of time required to ascend an emi- 
 nence is usually compensated by the rapidity with 
 which the descent is made. And it is well known 
 that horses are more fatigued by drawing a load 
 upon even ground than upon that whose irregula- 
 rity of surface obliges them to vary the action of 
 their muscles. But, after all, no one pretends 
 that the eminences in the business parts of a city 
 should be so great as to offer any real obstruction 
 to the pursuits of industry. It is only contended 
 that private rights ought not to be invaded and 
 public money expended to attain supposed advan- 
 tages which have not been found necessary to the 
 growth and prosperity of any of the oldest and 
 greatest cities in the world. We have in this 
 country an overweening conceit of our own supe- 
 riority to the rest of mankind ; which, it is to be 
 feared, will eventually not only render us, in many 
 instances, extremely ridiculous, but will tend to re- 
 tard our progress in all kinds of improvement. Too 
 many of us think that we have no need of the expe- 
 rience of former times and of other countries in any 
 thing which we undertake ; but that the native vi- 
 gour of our genius is, unassisted, to strike out inven- 
 tions superior to all that ever before entered into 
 the mind of man. It is the duty of every rational 
 and considerate person to manifest a decided dis- 
 
60 
 
 approbation of this vapouring spirit, which too of- 
 ten betrays the youth and inexperience of our 
 highly favoured country. 
 
 Far be it from the writer of these pages to wish 
 to excite any disrespect for the constituted autho- 
 rities of the city. But where it is believed that 
 in the constitution and exercise of any public 
 authority a radical and dangerous defect exists, it 
 is plainly the duty of every man to do all in his 
 power to have that defect remedied. That such 
 is the case in the present instance, will hardly be 
 denied by any one who takes into one view the cir- 
 cumstances detailed in the course of the preced- 
 ing pages. 
 
 Proprietors of real estate on this island are sub- 
 ject to the will of a corporation invested with for- 
 midable and unprecedented powers. To the un- 
 limited control of that corporation are committed, 
 by law, the most important and expensive regula- 
 tions of ground, which are not yet ascertained and 
 determined. From the nature and constitution of 
 that body, it is morally impossible that it can be 
 competent to the performance of this difficult and 
 important duty; and, supposing the members of 
 that body competent, it is not safe to trust them 
 with such a duty, because they are not always 
 disinterested persons — The corporation must, of 
 necessity, depend upon their street-commissioner, 
 for the plans to be adopted ; and thus the entire 
 control of the landed property on this island, in 
 
61 
 
 fact, resides with one individual, who must natu- 
 rally be supposed to have the ear of his own em- 
 ployers — The business of devising plans would 
 alone be too much for any ordinary man ; but, in 
 addition to this, the street-commissioner has other 
 duties which are sufficient to employ his whole 
 time and attention. It has also been shown that 
 the actual results from this state of things are, — 
 The utmost uncertainty, throughout the communi- 
 ty, with respect to the future condition of property 
 to which the regulations of the corporation have not 
 yet reached, as well as of some of that also which 
 has been regulated ; the adoption of plans involv- 
 ing an enormous expense to individuals, and a dan- 
 gerous encroachment upon the rights of property ; 
 plans, too, which, upon farther examination, prove 
 to be unnecessary, and in favour of which, the 
 strongest reason appears to be, the peculiar ideas 
 of beauty and convenience entertained by the in- 
 ventors of them. The proprietors of land beyond 
 the paved streets know not how to regulate their 
 ground ; nor on what level to build ; they dare 
 not apply to the corporation to have the regula- 
 tions made, lest the expense should be greater 
 than the value of their land ; and because, if a 
 regulation be determined upon by the corporation, 
 even that is no security against its being changed, 
 at a future time, to suit the fancy of the street- 
 commissioner, or some member or members of the 
 board. 
 
62 
 
 In whatever way the subject here presented be 
 viewed, it appears to be one not only of immediate 
 and vital importance to the owners of landed pro- 
 perty, but tending to consequences of the greatest 
 moment to every individual who holds any stake 
 in society. If a public body be invested by law 
 with power to invade private property, without 
 even the tyrant's plea of necessity ; if that body 
 be found, in fact, thus to exercise the power com- 
 mitted to them ; and if the community still remain 
 passive under this legalized overthrow of the main 
 foundation upon which civilized society is built, 
 we are, as respects our property, the veriest slaves 
 that now exist upon the globe ; we are slaves to 
 our own servants, and self-devoted victims to the 
 cruelty of our own laws. We know not the 
 amount nor the extent of oppression which may be 
 yet reserved for us. In the midst of unexampled 
 freedom, we behold a monstrous tyranny. A ty- 
 ranny erected and sanctioned by the authority of 
 public law ; a cold-blooded murder of some of our 
 unquestionable rights. 
 
 In the name, then, of justice, of humanity and of 
 common sense, let all who feel for themselves or 
 for their fellow men, unite in vindication of those 
 rights, upon the due maintenance of which the 
 freedom and the prosperity of individuals and of 
 sdtiety depend. 
 
 FINIS.