notable, reasonable, honest and respectable of our subjects, from which we might select a single number of nine men, to confer with us and our Council, as their tribunes, on all means to promote the welfare of the Commonalty, as well as that of the country; wherefore a double number of our good and lawful subjects having been proposed, we with our Council did select from said nomination nine men to wit: (three from the merchants, three from the citizens, and three from the farmers, all named,) as interlocutors on behalf of the Commonalty."

Then follow provisions as to their powers and duties most jealously guarded, and reserving almost entire control to the Director and Council.

NOTE 2.-Page 18.

Burgher-recht.-February 1, 1657.

Dr. O'Callaghan (vol. 2, p. 338) says, "The exclusive right to trade was confined, almost from the beginning of the city of Amsterdam, to the Burghers. These were constituted by birth, purchase, intermarriage, or a vote of the city." Very important privileges, commercial, political, and legal, resulted from the possession of this right; which the learned author states in detail. The Burgomasters, however, pursuaded the Council to divide the Burghery into two classes, the greater and small citizens; "giving to those who should pay the sum of five hundred guilders the privilege of enrolling their names on the list of the great,

who alone were to be invested with the monopoly of offices. The lessor citizenship conveyed only freedom of trade, and the privilege of being received into the respective guilds.”

This law was received with very little favor, and was abolished by an edict of the 25th of March, 1668. "Unfortunately for New Amsterdam, it was after the establishment of these unwise distinctions at home, that Burgher right was conferred upon her. Governor Stuyvesant divided the citizens into two castes-the great and the small burghers. The members of the Council-all burgomasters and schepens, all ministers of the gospel and officers of militia, with their descendants in the male line-were enrolled in the first class, and all others could obtain the same on payment to the city treasury of fifty guilders, Holland currency."

It may reasonably be concluded, that after the example of Amsterdam, the chief officers were exclusively given to the higher class.

NOTE 3.-PAGE 19.

Charter of Nicolls, 12th of June, 1665.

This charter is set forth in the records of the Burgomasters and Schepens, of 1665. On the 14th of June, of that year, the Governer Nicolls appeared in the Assembly, and delivered to the clerk his act of revocation, dated the 12th of June, of the form of the old government of Schout, Burgomasters and Schepens; and declared that a commission should be instituted for the city government, "to consist

of the Mayor, Aldermen, and Sheriff, according to the custom of England, in other his Majesty's corporations.'

This was followed by his new charter, also dated the 12th of June, 1665, which is as follows: "Whereas, upon mature deliberation and advice, I have found it necessary to discharge the form of government late in practice within this his Majesty's town of New Yorke, under the name and style of Schout, Burgomasters, and Schepens, which are not known or customary in any of his Majesty's dominions -To the end that the course of justice may be legally, equally, and impartially administered for the future, to all his Majesty's subjects, as well inhabitants as strangers.Know all men by these presents, that I, Richard Nicolls, Deputy-Governor of his Royal Highness, the Duke of York, by virtue of his Majesty's Letters Patent, dated the 12th day of March, in the sixteenth year of his reign, do ordain, constitute and declare that the inhabitants of New York, New Harlem, and all other his Majesty's subjects, inhabitants upon the island, commonly called and known by the name of Manhattan Island, are and forever shall be accounted, nominated and established, as one body politique and corporate, under the government of a Mayor, Aldermen and Sheriff; and I do by these presents constitute and appoint, for one whole year, commencing from the date hereof, Mr. Thomas Willet, to be Mayor; Mr. Thomas De La Vall, Mr. Oloff Stevenson, Mr. John Brugges, Mr. Cornelius Van Ruyven, and Mr. John Lawrence to be Aldermen; and Allard Anthony to be Sheriffe; giving and granting to them, the said Mayor and Aldermen, or any four of them, whereof the said Mayor or his Deputy shall be always one, and upon equal divisions of voyces, to have always the casting and decisive voyce, full power and.

authority to rule and governe as well all the inhabitants of this Corporation as any strangers, according to the general laws of this government, and such peculiar laws as are or shall be thought convenient or necessary for the good and welfare of this his Majesty's Corporation; as also to appoint such under officers as they shall judge necessary for the ordinary execution of justice. And I do hereby strictly charge and command all persons to obey and execute, from time to time, all such warrants, orders and constitutions as shall be made by the said Mayor and Aldermen, as they will answer the contrary at their utmost perill; and for the due administration of justice, according to the form and manner prescribed in this commission by the Mayor, Aldermen and Sheriffe, these presents shall be to them, and every of them, a sufficient warrant and discharge in that behalf.

"Given under my hand and seal, at Fort James, in New York, on Manhattan Island, this 12th day of June, 1665. "RICHARD NICOLLS."

NOTE 4.-PAGE 19.

Acts of the Corporation under the Charter of 1665.

On the 9th of May, 1676, an ordinance was passed as follows: "Ordered, that all persons living within the street, called the Heer Graft (Broad street), shall fill up the Ditch, Graff, or Common Sewer, and make the same level with the street, and then pave and pitch the same before their doors with stones, as far as every inhabitant's house shall be front

ting towards the said Graff or Ditch, upon pain of having such fines inflicted upon them as the court shall see fit.”[English Records, Com. Council.]

On the 24th of July, 1677, a rate was laid upon the inhabitants' houses and vacant lands in the city. This was done by the authority of the Mayor and Aldermen. It is stated to be laid for defraying the city debt, and was to be paid one half immediately, and the other half by the 26th of October ensuing.

The names of probably all the principal inhabitants may be found in this document. We find also the names of the following streets, &c.:

The Heer Graft, the Stone street, Marvelt street, Winkle street (Broadway), Marketfield street, The Wall, the High street, Mill street lane, Smith street lane, Beavers Graft, Field street, and the water side.

February 16, 1676. It was ordered that the several persons named build wells in certain streets, of which they were inhabitants.

And on the 23d of February, 1683, a committee, before appointed to search the records for ordinances, laws, &c., for the government of the city, made a report; and a committee was appointed to draw up orders relating to the several heads of such report. On the 15th of March, 1683, a large body of ordinances was adopted.

They comprehended a great variety of subjects-the observance of the Lord's day-the registering of strangers— the regulation of cartmen, their number, fees and various rules for their conduct, among them, that they were not to ride upon their carts in the streets-that freemen only should keep shops-the licensing of public houses-appointment of surveyors, without whose sanction no build