[Ald. Delvecchio appears to have]

image 1image 2image 3image 4cropped image 1

ALD. DELVECCHIO appears to have a very foggy idea of the relative duties of public officers. A few weeks ago he astonished the public by the proposal that the Corporation Counsel should be deputed to act as Inspector General of our Senators and Assemblymen; last evening he broached the still more astounding idea that it was the province of the Common Council to investigate the causes of the late school catastrophe. Some men have greatness and distinction forced upon them, and others succeed in earning a notoriety for themselves. We congratulate this enterprising civic father on his promising attempts in the latter direction.

Setting aside the fact that the entire charge of the schools and school-houses is vested by law in the Board of Education, and that the Common Council have nothing more to do with the matter than appropriating the necessary funds, it may well be asked whether the administration of the Common Council’s own affairs is so exemplary as to authorise it to set itself up as the censor of the Board of Education. We have yet to learn that the condition of the Station Houses, the Fire Department houses, or any other buildings in charge of the Common Council, is anything like comparable with that of the school-houses, either for safety, repairs, or cleanliness. The active mind and fertile resources of the versatile representative of the Sixth might find ample employment within the sphere of his legitimate duties, were it not that he so persistently confines his attention to matters extraneous to the proper functions of the body to which he belongs. He seems, indeed, to possess peculiar qualifications for the post which he desired to thrust the Corporation Counsel into—that of a busy-body, and a meddler in other people’s affairs. We suggest, if the seat of honor once prepared at Albany by Senator Spinola for Mr. J.X. Browne be still vacant, that it constitutes the very berth for which the inquiring mind and restless energies of our friend of the Sixth peculiarly qualify him.

Apropos of this, the meddling with other people’s business is the cardinal blunder of all public bodies at this time. The President must needs usurp the function of the people of the territories, in deciding what their institutions shall be; the Senate meddles with a New York election, by removing an official for voting against Wood; the Legislature undertakes to pass resolves about national politics, instead of legislating for the State. Why then should not an Alderman feel impelled to assume the supervision of the schools and the oversight of the legislators? Ald. Delvecchio has plenty of example to warrant his escapades: he sins in company with a good many others; and we pass by his offence, therefore, with a glance of pity for the superfluous trouble he is giving himself, instead of with the stern rebuke which, though the circumstances would justify, we do not find it in our heart to administer.