stalments; and that in case of a recovery against the sureties of the late treasurer, the said sum now proposed to be raised or the amount recovered, if any, may be applied to defray the contingent expenses of said county.

Your committee deem the petition reasonable, and are of opinion the same ought to be granted; they therefore direct their chairman to prepare a bill, and ask leave to introduce the same.

IN ASSEMBLY,

January 12, 1831.

REPORT

Of the Select Committee on the petition of the Board of Supervisors of the county of Jefferson, for an act authorising them to levy and collect a tax on said county for the purpose of building a fire-proof clerk's office.

Mr. Keith, from the select committee to which was referred the petition of the board of supervisors of the county of Jefferson, praying for the passage of an act authorising them to levy and collect a tax of one thousand dollars on said county, for the purpose of building a fire-proof clerk's office,

REPORTED

That the petition sets forth that the clerk's office in said county is in a rapid state of decay, and that in the opinion of said board, the public interest of the county requires that a new fire-proof clerk's office should be immediately erected.

The committee are satisfied that the statements set forth in the petition ought to be granted, and have therefore prepared a bill, which they ask leave to introduce.

IN ASSEMBLY,

January 13, 1831.

REPORT

Of the committee on claims on the petition of Michael Anthony.

Mr. J. C. Spencer, from the committee on claims, to whom was referred the petition of Michael Anthony,

REPORTED

The petitioner claims to be allowed the sum of £200, which was credited to this state by the United States for damages done by its army in the winters of 1779 and 1780, in cutting and using timber which was upon a farm in Peekskill, Westchester county. The farm had belonged to Joseph Anthony, who is said to have mortgaged it to one George Folliot. Anthony died in the early part of the war, and the farm descended to his eldest son Joseph Anthony, who was the owner of it at the time the damage was done. In September 1786, Joseph Anthony the younger, conveyed it to the petitioner. Folliot, the supposed mortgagee, is said to have been attainted for treason, and if so, the state became vested with his interest in the mortgage. The presumption is, that the state never collected the debt secured by the mortgage, as it seems to have been supposed that all mortgages to attainted persons, were discharged or cancelled by the operation of the act of 1807, in relation to those mortgages.

Your committee are satisfied that the state received the £200, and that it belonged to the owner of the land in fee, and not to the mortgagee. It would seem that a certificate for the amount had been issued, but there is no evidence that it was ever paid; and on the contrary, the evidence induces a belief that it could not have been paid. If there was a mortgage, of which there is no evidence, and [A. No. 20.]

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if it was cancelled by the state, of which also there is no evidence, yet such a donation to the mortgagor could scarcely be considered a payment of the £200 received by the state. The fact of indebtedness on account of having received that sum, was probably unknown at the time. In the view of your committee, the £200 does not belong to the state, but to the person who was owner of the land at the time the injury was committed on it. That owner was Joseph Anthony the younger, who is understood yet to be living. The conveyance of the land by him to Michael Anthony, six years after the injury was sustained, did not transfer his claim to compensation for that injury or to the money which the state had received in trust for him. And as Michael Anthony shows no other evidence of a transfer of that claim, any payment or satisfaction of it to him, would not prevent Joseph Anthony or his representatives from making the same claim.

Your committee therefore recommend to the house the adoption of the following resolution:

Resolved, That the prayer of the petition of Michael Anthony, ought not to be granted, and that he have leave to withdraw his petition and the accompanying papers.