means in proportion to the numbers engaged or to the magnitude of the victory; for the redcoats ran away with laudable activity, and their own legs rather than the mercy of the Gael saved them from annihilation. But Dundee lay mortally wounded with a bullet in his side upon the field, and the harsh yells of the triumphant clansmen were the requiem of the dying warrior.

In one sense, it was an untimely death; for he was at the very threshold of those years which are usually called the prime of life, and full of the vigorous health and the high hope of youthful days, already scarcely passed fairly away, and the talent which he was allowed to possess was now, perhaps for the first time, about to find a field large enough for its due exercise, and prominent enough for its fit display. Still, it was the death of the soldier; it was generous, and therefore beautiful; it was loyal, and therefore honorable. Had he lived longer the tale might have been more brilliant, but must have been more sad. The poet tells us that his is the only death which can be met with pleasure; and his last words were of joy at the gallant victory.

"Thus, amid the battle's thunder,

Shot, and steel, and scorching flame,
In the glory of his manhood,

Passed the spirit of the Græme."

ART. IV.-Communication from the Comptroller to the Common Council, January, 16, 1865, relative to Gas Contracts. Pamph let 8vo. pp. 15. New York.

It is a singular characteristic of our people that while none set a higher value on justice and liberty, none submit so quietly to imposition and fraud. We have a horror of despotism in name; but, in general, we rather admire despotism in reality. If we had a personage in Irving Place who called himself a prince, or a grand duke, a shah, or a sultan, who levied a heavy tax on every house, raising that tax whenever he thought proper, without putting himself to the least trouble as to whether we were willing to pay it or not, we should be apt to think that we were badly treated, even though he might condescend to tell us, if we sent in our petition in due form, that instead of grumbling we ought to be very thankful for the valuable services which he rendered us-services which, far from being dear, were remarkably

cheap; especially when we take into consideration the fact that they were such as we could not do without.

Let us suppose, for the sake of illustration, that the following colloquy takes place: Citizen: "Your Highness, I think it very hard that my taxes have been raised three times during the present year without as much as giving me a day's notice of the fact." Grand Duke: "But we could not take proper care of you without doing so; even at the increased rate of which you complain we lose rather than gain by the service we render you." Citizen: "That is rather bad, your Highness; but if you are losing instead of gaining, how is it that you admit, yourself, you are worth nearly $5,000,000, whereas when you first commenced you were worth only $500,000? Indeed, your Highness, it is more than suspected that your accumulation is much greater than your ministers proclaim, the same as it was suspected when you commenced that your treasury did not contain half the amount represented." Grand Duke: "You are impudent, sir! you must pay the full amount or my gendarmes will deal with you as you deserve."

This does not in the least exaggerate the conduct of our gas monopolies; or the despotic control they exercise over our citizens. They are allowed to manufacture as bad gas as they choose, and to charge our citizens their own price for it; but not content with this, they bribe Aldermen and Councilmen, to enable them to violate their contracts with the city, so that they may charge as exorbitant a price for lighting the public lamps as they do for lighting private houses. If any one dares to comment on the fraudulent and oppressive conduct of our gas monopolies, the distinguished officers of the latter, like the authors and publishers of stupid books, are sure to discover that he is actuated by malice prepense; he is but a calumniator and a libeller; but they, conscious of their own rectitude and fair dealing, treat him with an air of injured innocence, and magnanimously decline to prosecute him for libel. Even if a member of the Legislature, endowed with more courage than his neighbors, and disposed to protect his constituents from imposition, attempts to introduce any measure to control our monopolies, he, too, is charged with being actuated by vindictive motives. For the present we can only allude to these facts; but we will note some particulars as we proceed in this article which, we think, will satisfy any intelligent person that we do no injustice to the monopolists. We prefer

to let one of our public officers give his impressions first; because it cannot be pretended that he is actuated by any malice, since the very nature of his office requires that he exercise a careful supervision over the public expenditure. The duty of a comptroller is not merely to certify accounts, as certain parties seem to think; it is also his duty to examine those accounts, and see that they are not only accurate per se, but that they have resulted from legal contracts. We are aware that it is one thing for an-officer to be supposed to perform a certain duty, but another very different to reduce that supposition to reality. None understand this better than our gas monopolists; they are, however, but little used to restraint of this kind. Hitherto they have had all their own way, although, no doubt, they have sometimes had to pay more or less for the privilege. It is but natural therefore that they should feel somewhat indignant against those who venture on so serious an innovation as to thwart them in their speculations; and we learn that accordingly they feel very much disgusted and annoyed. But we will allow the spoiler of their recent plans to state the case in his own words. The communication of the Comptroller to the Common Council commences as follows:

"GENTLEMEN-Having carefully considered the resolutions adopted by your predecessors the late Common Council, providing that the existing contracts for lighting the streets of the city of New York with gas shall be terminated, and new contracts made according to the terms which the Gas Companies having the exclusive control of the business shall offer, and having come to the conclusion that the resolutions are not only a viola tion of the rights and interests of the Corporation and against public policy, but are an invalid act of municipal legislation, and that it is my duty to prevent them from going into operation so far as falls within my province to do so, I herein lay before your Honorable Body the reasons which control me in this decision.".

The resolutions by which the existing contracts were sought to be set aside, and which were passed by the late Common Council, on the 30th day of December, 1864, are here given by the comptroller; but it is needless for us to reproduce them, although they are curious specimens of English as well as of legislation. Suffice it to say that they did all they could for the gas companies. We now let the comptroller proceed with his remarks:

"The first branch of the subject-that which relates to the right of the Corporation to annul a contract beneficial to the city, having several years to run, in order that another contract may be made, to the sacrifice of the interests of the city, and for the benefit of the contractor, and praetically on his own terms, without reserve or limit relates to the Man

hattan Gaslight Company, that being the only company with which the Corporation now has an outstanding contract. The other parts of the subject will be considered in their order.

"The Manhattan Gas-light Company was incorporated by a special Act of the Legislature, on the 26th day of February, 1830. On the 8th day of May, 1833, the Corporation entered into a contract with that Company to light all the streets, avenues, and public places north of a line commencing at the East River, at the foot of Grand street, and running through Grand street to Sullivan street, through Sullivan street to Canal street, and through Canal street to the North or Hudson River, at a yearly expense not exceeding fifteen dollars for each lamp. This contract

contained numerous provisions for the protection of the interests of the city, and by its terms was to continue until the 12th day of May, 1853. On the 1st day of May, 1848, five years before the time fixed for the expiration of this contract the Manhattan Company obtained another and a better contract from the city, virtually abrogating that then existing, by which the Company contracted to light the streets of the city, from the same line at Grand and Canal streets, but limiting the northerly boundary to Forty-second street from river to river, it having been found unprofitable to the Company to be under an obligation to light the outer portions of the city, then sparsley occupied. This contract stipulated that the same price per lamp, fifteen dollars per annnm, should be paid, but fixed the number of hours during which each lamp should be kept lighted at two thousand three hundred. By the terms of the first mentioned contract, all repairs of the streets, when broken or opened to lay or repair pipes, were to be made under the direction of an Inspector appointed by the Street Commissioner, whose services should be paid for by the Company. The new contract stipulated that the Inspectors appointed to superintend these repairs of work done for the benefit of the Company should be paid by the Corporation of the city-an important item of expense each year, if the innumerable occasions for inspection were properly attended to. Other provisions of this contract, having relation to another branch of the question, will be referred to in their appropriate place.

"The last-mentioned contract was to continue until the 12th day of May, 1868, and has three years to run from the 12th day of May next. I may mention, incidentally, that the calculation of two thousand three hundred hours for each lamp per annum was made on the basis that the moon furnished light at certain periods to an extent which rendered gas-light unnecessary, but on the 31st day of December, 1853, the Common Council passed an ordinance which ignored the existence or utility of the moon, and arbitrarily fixed the hours during which the gas should be kept burning-moonlight nights and others the same-by which the number of hours each lamp was to burn was increased to three thousand eight hundred per year, and the Manhattan Company under the carefully guarded provisions of their last-mentioned contract, became thereby entitled to receive twenty-four dollars and eighty-seven cents for each lamp, instead of fifteen dollars, and have practically received twenty-five dollars for each lamp from that date to the present time. The operation of that ordinance of 1853 in the whole City was to increase the cost of lighting the same number of lamps one hundred and thirty-one thousand dollars in a single year, at that period of a comparatively limited number of burners."

From this we see that the Manhattan Gas Company knew from experience that even if it cost them some fifty thousand dollars in the shape of "presents," to set aside the existing

contract, the amount would be safely invested. We exaggerate nothing when we say that if the job could have been completed, as contemplated by our late worthy Common Council, it would have been worth a million dollars to the monopoly at Irving place. Let those who doubt this only reflect for a moment, how long it would take to amount to that sum, even at the rate of $130,000 a year, the sum realized, according to official statistics, by the bargain of 1853. The comptroller continues to explain :

"The position of the question, so far as the Manhattan Company is concerned, is simply: That the City, by solemn contract, had the right, on the 30th day of December, 1864, the time the resolutions under consideration were passed, to have all the public lamps lighted at a cost for each lamp of a fraction over half a cent per hour, and this right, by the terms of the contract, was to continue until the 1st day of May, 1868, the resolutions of the Coinmon Council, without any consideration, cause, or reason, for none is expressed or pretended to exist, surrenders and gives up to the Company this obligation, proposes to forfeit all the benefits and advantages acquired by the contract, and which are to continue so long, and practically surrenders all the interests of the City to the Company, authorizing it to charge such amounts as it shall choose, for there is no competition there can be none-under the proposed arrangement. The Company, for aught that appears to the contrary, may charge ten or a hundred times as much as at present, an 1 thus saddle the City with burdens and increase of taxation to a correspondiug extent."

The closing observations of this extract form a sad commentary on our laws. There is not one of the great cities. of Europe whose gas companies are allowed similar power. Even in St. Petersburg they are bound to allow a certain number of cubic feet of gas for a certain amount of money; and if they attempt to transcend this rate they are liable to be prosecuted as extortioners. The same is true of Paris and London. A literary gentleman who has resided in the latter city for several years, and who has fully investigated the subject writes to us as follows, in reply to certain inquiries: "In London five cubic feet of gas, estimated at an hour's fair consumption, is expected to produce a flame equal to the light from twelve sperm candles, each burning 120 grains per hour. In Scotland where more cannel coal is used than in London, the flame from five cubic feet of gas must be equal to eighteen sperm candles. In England and in Scotland, the law is that the gas supplied shall not be below that illuminating power, and any consumer who thinks the gas of inferior quality can call in a sworn examiner to test it. If it be below the legal standard the consumer may summon an appointed officer of the gas company before the magistrate of his district, prove his case by the examiner's re