with the Common Seal affixed and sub- scribed by Mr. Mayor, on behalf of the Board, be delivered to the Treasurer or Chamber- lain. Ordered, That a loan of $5000 be made of the Bank of New- York, and that a bond for the payment thereof, with interest at 6 per cent., be made with the Common Seal affixed and subscribed by Mr. Mayor on behalf of this Board. - Thus for the contingent profit upon 2000 shares of the stock in this Company, the Corporation parted with the power, which, from 1785 up to 1799, repeated expressions of opinion, both by the people and by the Common Council, had declared, should of right, CROTON AQUEDUCT. 99 be exercised only by the public authorities of the city — that of procuring and distributing a supply of pure and wholesome water. From this time forth, for many years, no serious attempt was again made to effect the great object, which had so long occupied the attention of the citizens, and their rulers. It was indeed soon felt that the promise of a supply from the Manhattan water was delu- sive. Although privileged by their charter to go over the whole island of New York, and into West Chester County, to seek for good water, the Company contented them- selves with sinking a large well at the corner of Duane and Cross-streets, in one of the most thickly settled portions of the city, and thence pumped up that which they called pure and wholesome water, but which was necessarily most impure. This Company, moreover, confined the supply to the letter of the contract, for at a season when pestilence was apprehended, the water, by order of the then Mayor, Ed- ward Livingston, being used to cleanse the streets, we find this entry in the minutes : Common Council, 19th August, 1802. A resolution was passed appropriating $750, to compensate the Manhattan Company for cleaning the gutters with water from their reservoir. In 1804, indeed, under the mayoralty of De Witt Clinton, another effort was made, and a committee was appointed to report upon the practicability of supplying the city with pure and wholesome water, and especially to confer with the Manhattan Company as to the terms upon which they would cede to the Corporation their works and privileges of supplying water ; but nothing seems to have come of it. "From that period up to the year 1816, the whole subject was apparently lost sight of, notwithstanding that for several of the intervening years, the growth of the city was more rapid, and its prosperity, and increase in wealth, more obvious than ever before. In 1812, the causes of dissatisfaction between this country and Great Britain, which had long been gathering strength and irritation, resulted in war. At such a season all local enterprises requiring credit and capital were postponed. Early in 1816 — peace having been concluded at Ghent, in December, 1814 — the subject of supplying the city with water was resumed, and at a meeting of the Com- mon Council in March — Jacob Radcliff being Mayor — a committee was appointed, " to consider and report upon the propriety of making an application to the Legislature at their present session, to invest the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the city with all necessary powers and authority to supply the city with water." This movement would seem to have had no results, at least the minutes show no report from the committee, nor is there, until 1819, any farther mention made of the gene- ral subject. !00 MEMOIROPTHE In August of that year, C. C. Golden being- Mayor, a memorial from Robert Macomb was presented, for permission to supply the city with water for all domestic purposes, and asking the appointment of a committee — and one was appointed — to confer with him. Early in the ensuing spring, the committee reported that they had repeated confer- ences with Mr. Macomb, and being satisfied that he and his associates had the requisite means to carry their project into effect, they reported resolutions to this effect: Resolved, That Robert Macomb, and his associates, be permitted to lay down pipes in the roads and streets of this city, whenever it appears to the Common Council that a sufficient quantity of water is collected at a reservoir at Harlem river; provided, that in so doing, they do not interfere with the rights of others. Resolved, That Robert Macomb, and his associates, shall bind themselves and their successors, in a contract with the Common Council, to transfer at any time when required, after the expiration of 40 years from the completion of the water works, all right and interest therein, to the Mayor, Aldermen, and Commonalty of the city, for which, they shall