The first section directs the Comptroller to charge to the Water Works, all the Water Commissioners, for or on account of the Cr"oton Water Works, requisitions of the north of,and including, the distributing reservoir, and the requisitions of the Croton Aqueduct Commissioners, for or on account of the procuring and laying down water pipes in the city of New York, south of the said distributing reservoir. The concluding sections are in these emphatic words :

3. No contract that may hereafter be entered into by the Water Commissioners, shall be binding upon the Common Council until ratified by the Common Council. 4. The powers of the Water Commissioners shall not extend to the making of any contracts for materials or labor, to be used or employed in the city of New York, or in procuring and laying down water pipes in said city, south of the distributing reservoir :

and they are hereby instructed not to enter into any contract for the procuring or laying down mains and water pipes in said city south of said line this duty having already been invested in the Croton Aqueduct Commissioner and Croton Aqueduct Committees of the Corporation.

Approved by the Mayor, September 24, 1840.

A long and somewhat angry controversy was the result of this ordinance. It will not be either useful or agreeable to renew the details of it in these pages. We content ourselves, therefore, with a single statement of the points on which it turned.

136 MEMOIR OF THE The Water Commissioners maintained that the laws of this State direct that all the moneys raised from the sale of the Water Stock, issued for supplying the inhabitants of this city with water, shall be expended " by and under the direction of the said Commissioners."