President, Hon. JOHN BIGELOW.

First Vice-President, Rt. Rev. HENRY C. POTTER, D. D.

Second Vice-President, JOHN S. KENNEDY, Esq.

Secretary, GEORGE L. RIVES, Esq., 32 Nassau Street.

Treasurer, EDWARD KING, Esq., Union Trust Company, 80 Broadway.

Director, JOHN S. BILLINGS, LL.D., 40 Lafayette Place.

THE

REGULATIONS

HE Astor Building, 40 Lafayette Place, and the Lenox Building, Fifth Avenue and 70th Street, are open daily, Sundays and legal holidays excepted, from 9 A. M. until 6 P. M.

The Reading rooms and the Exhibition rooms are free to all persons; but children under the age of fifteen years must be accompanied by an adult.

In the Reading room of each Library Building certain shelves are set apart for books of reference, which readers are allowed to take down and examine at their pleasure. For all other books an application must be made by filling out and signing one of the blanks provided for the purpose.

Published monthly by The New York Public Library, No. 40 Lafayette Place, New York City

Subscription One Dollar a year, single numbers Ten Cents

Entered as second-class matter at the New York, N. Y., Post Office, January 30, 1897

During the month of March there were received at the Library by purchase 1,049 books and 363 pamphlets, and by gift 810 volumes and 2,831 pamphlets. There were catalogued 7,960 books and 8,368 pamphlets, for which purpose 27,541 cards and 1,438 slips for the printer were written.

The following table shows the number of readers and the number of volumes consulted in both the Astor and Lenox branches of the Library during the month:

Among the important gifts received this month were 7 volumes and 1 pamphlet relating to litigation, from the General Electric Company; 44 volumes from the Grand Lodge of Kentucky; 4 rare pamphlets from the Howard Memorial Library, New Orleans; I volume from the Duc de Loubat; 101 volumes and 723 pamphlets from the Boston Medical Library; 38 volumes from the Toronto Public Library; 42 volumes from the Superintendent of Public Property, Wisconsin; 27 volumes and 207 pamphlets from the Rev. E. W. Gilman. Two English cities have forwarded copies of their public documents during the month, and there have been received 20 volumes and 11 pamphlets from the Governor of Trinidad; 3 volumes and 4 pamphlets from the Governor of Grenada, and 1 volume from the Governor of British Honduras.

Your letter of the 5th inst', and the Receipt for the second payment of the lots I purchased on the Eastern March in the Federal City came duly to hand.

You are perfectly at liberty to examine my Presses and Trunks at Mount Vernon for any papers I may have respecting the transactions of the Directors of the Potomack Compa, or any matters & things which may concern the navigation of that River.

Mrs. Fanny Washington has the master key of all the others, from whom you can get it; but whether the papers you are in pursuit of are to be found in the press, or in any trunk I am unable to inform you.—The keys of the locked trunks

if I remember rightly, in my writing table; the key of which remains in it. For many very important reasons (unnecessary to enumerate to you) the navigation of that River ought to be pushed forward with all the celerity which the nature of the work will admit.-viewing the matter as I do, I shall not neglect any fair opportunity of facilitating a visit from Mr Weston to that quarter-but (under the rose, I must say it) however fair the assurances of his going thither may be, you may take it for granted, that from motives of jealousy there is a counter side to that measure;—and I wish you may not find something similar to it in an other quarter, if the operations on the Shenandoah are postponed much longer. Do not forget how the trade of Fredericksburg, Falmouth, Hanover too with York River, and indeed Richmond itself will be affected by the opening of this Navigation-I should not be at all surprized therefore, if future applications to the Assembly of Virga (if there be occasion to make any) respecting it shd meet with much coldness & difficulty.

I should not, any more than you be disposed to confide in the opinion of Mr Claiborne's Engineer; nor (in confidence to you) to Mr. Claiborne him self; but as he speaks in exalted terms of this man (for you must know Claiborne is now in this City, and has mentioned the matter also to me) a little money might not be misapplied in obtaining the opinion of this Engineer; to see how far it would accord with Mr Weston's-if he can be got there; without, if he shd follow afterletting him know what his opinion is-'Tis possible, this person may unite (as Claiborne says he does) both science and practice.-If so, & he should possess other requisites, he might be useful-Tryal of, without a reliance upon him, cannot be injurious.

Mr. Jonathan Trumbull has once or twice asked me what reply the ComTM. of the Federal City have made to the letter of his brother John which I sent to them,

be so good as to remind them, or either of them wch, you may first see, of this

The day following the one on which I wrote to you last, your letter of the 10th instt. was received.

It is to be regretted exceedingly, that delegated powers are, oftentimes, so little regarded; and trusts of an important nature, the neglect of wch, may be attended with serious consequences, should be suffered to sleep in the hands of those who ought to carry them into activity.-such, from your representation, appears to be the case of the petition which ought in behalf of the Potomac Company, to have been laid before the Assembly in Virginia in due Season.

The notice of the presentment of such petitions (which is required by law) can not, I presume, be dispensed with, and if there be any dereliction to the measures prayed for, the limitation, & expiration of the time for the reception of them, will be urged as a plea for postponemeut.

The propriety of my writing to individual members, or even to the Assembly itself on this subject, is, in my mind, a matter that may be questioned;-but supposing the case to be otherwise, I do not know who the members are, and such indeed has been the change of things since I mixed in the politics, or much with the people of that State, (out of the neighbourhood of Alexandria) that an entire new set, unknown to me personally, are in the exercise of the powers of government. Tomorrow, however, I will communicate this matter to Mr Randolph, & know if he has any acquaintances in the Assembly to whom he could introduce the subject and there by aid your personal exertions. It is to be lamented however, that in plain matters-a little ticklishly circumstanced-such hazards (at least of delay) should be unnecessarily encountered.—We are all well, & join in best wishes for you—and I am

MR LEAR.

[Endorsed:] To Tobs. Lear 14 Dec. '94

Affectionately Yours

Go WASHINGTON

[No. 21. TO TOBIAS LEAR.]

PHILADELPHIA Dec 21 st 1794.

MY DEAR SIR,

Your letter of the 17th inst was received yesterday, and I am glad to find that an act of the Virginia Assembly has been obtained for prolonging the term for the

completion of the inland navigation of the Potomac.-The like I hope has been, or will be obtained this Session, in the Assembly of Maryland

A good opportunity presenting itself on Thursday last, I embraced it, to enquire of Mr. Morris, if the Directors of that company might entertain any hope of deriving aid from Mr Weston's opinion respecting the Lock seats at the Great fall of that river;-his answer was "M! Weston, from some peculiar circumstances "attending their own concerns, had been prevented from visiting that spot as was "intended, but that he was now expected to be in this City in a few days (as I "understood) when he wa propose & urge his going thither."

The plan of M! Claiborns Engineer, as far as I understand it, is to avoid locks altogether. The vessels are received into a basket or cradle, and let down by means of a laver & pullies; and raised again by weights at the hinder extremity of the laver, which works on an axis at the top of a substantial post fixed about the centre of the laver.-On this principle, but differently constructed, Mr. Greenleaf a few months ago showed me a model, the efficacy of which he seemed to entertain the most exalted opinion. -My doubts of the utility of both arise, first from the insufficiency of any machinery of this sort to bear the weight of the cradle when charged with water & a loaded boat there in; and its aptness to get out of order by means thereof-secondly I do not find that they are in general use—and thirdly because, if I recollect rightly M: Weston has told me (but of this I am not certain) that no method of raising & lowering boats, had been found equal to that of Locks-Still, as I observed in my last I should be for hearing the opinions, & explanations of any, and every Scientific, & practical character that could be easily got at, on this subject;-& therefore, would hear Claiborn's Engineer, as well as M: Weston;-especially as he professes to be particularly skilled in the application of them in propelling boats (in an easy & cheap manner) against the stream-& in conducting of water to cities, or for any other purpose whatsoever.—

The Bill you allude to has not passed, nor do I know what shape it will take if it does-& therefore can say nothing more on the subject, at this time, than that there will be no precipitancy in engaging either the agent or the means of carrying the law into effect, if the measure which I have recommended should be adopted; with the importance of it I am strongly impressed, consequently, if any thing should be required of the President towards carrying it into execution, I shall feel it in a particular manner my duty to set it a going under the most favorable auspices.

I now have & for some considerable time have had, twenty five Hogsheads Tobo in the warehouses in Alexandria, [which] at some times I have [forgot?], and at other times have been indisposed to take the prices which were given for Potomac Tobacco on the Virginia side.—Originally this Tobacco was of the best sort-put up dry-& the quality of it reported to be exceedingly good-if the latter is the case still, it will in some respects, & for some purposes, have the advantage of new Tobacco;—but what to do with it I know not.-In Alexandria it might bring me 18/ per [100]-when in George Town (I mean the ware houses at these places) it might bring a guinea. I have thought, but whether it be practicable to accomplish it with out difficulty, I am unable to decide, that if the Tobacco could be removed from the Warehouses in which it now is, to those in George Town, & be reinspected at the latter, that I might be a considerable gainer by it.—But