CHAFTEfi   VL
 

(1730-1734.)
 

First Court of Common Pleas—First Fire Bepftrtmettt—The ''ITew York

Weekly Journal''—First Criminal Libel Case—

fitagfi Between Boitou and Hew York.

The mors one delves Into the manuscripts that tell of the beginning of
Kew York, with four wretched huts, up to the time she held her bead erect
and proclaimed herself the commercial metropolis of the Western Hemi¬
sphere, the more one wonders how the transformation was wrought. Brook
snd rivulet babbled where are now large office buildings. Qrapea and straw^
berries grew where st the present time men rush to achieve success in busi¬
ness. Forests with abundance of game and ponds swarming with fish ex-
Isted where the Harlemltes live, l^ie take over whose waters the Indian
guided his canoe is to-day the site ef a municipal building. One might
enumerate similar changes that would Include all the downtown district,
but the student with an observing eye and persistence in research has a
field before him, the tilling of which will reveal phases of the city's growth
that are overwhelming In interest. The duty of picking here and there
only those bits of Information tucked away In voluminous and dusty old
manuscrlpta for the amusement and Instructloa ef the student devolves on
the writer, but through them other vistas of surpassing Interest will be
revealed.

To resume the chronology of the little city. The principal event in
Governor Mentgomerle's administration, in 1730, was the grant of an
amended city charter. By it tho sole power of establishing ferries at>out the
Island was vested in the corporation, all the profits accruing from them to
go to the city. Tbe market houses, docks, slips and wharves were also
granted to IL A Court of Common Pleas was estsbllshed. Provision was
made for a new division of tbe city Into seven wsrds, the limits to be de¬
termined by the council, each ward to choose Its officers annually and
whatever number of constables the council might direct, and to be the sole
Judge of their election and qualification. The Justices of the peace for tbe
city and county woro to bo the Mayor, Becorder and Aldermen. They were
to be empowered to hoar and determine all pleas of 40 shillings and under,
to administer oaths to freemen and officers of the city, and to make as
many freemen as they saw fit. The people were not allowed, however, to
elect their principal officers, such as Mayor, Recorder, Sheriff, Coroner and
Town Clerk.    These were the Governor's so-called perquisites.

The lower part of the city began to change after the charter went into
effect.   What was known before 1730 as the Strand, bounded by Whitehall,