may be thereunto empowered, for the purpose of preve and redressing any mismanagement, waste, or breach of t Section vi. The said trustees shall elect one of number to preside over their board, who shall hold such during their pleasure, and they may also appoint, and a time remove a secretary and any other officers which their ness may require. The acts of a majority of the trustees a meeting duly notified according to the by-laws, shall be y Any vacancies in the number of said trustees occurrin death, resignation, incapacity, or removal from this State, be filled by persons to be appointed by the remaining tru or a majority of them, except that the mayor of the city of York, during his continuance in office, shall always trustee. The trustees shall not receive any compensation their services, except that if any one of their number sha any time be superintendent, he may receive compensatio such. Section vii. The said corporation may take and hold additional donations, grants, devises, or bequests, which ma made in further support of the said library or the lecture literary and scientific objects connected therewith. Section viii. The property, real and personal, of the said poration shall be exempt from taxation, in the same manne that of the other incorporated public libraries of this state; an shall be the duty of the said trustees to effect such insura as they shall think sufficient in amount, and as can be obtained u such buildings and library, and other property against loss fire or otherwise, and pay the expense thereof out of the f described in the fourth sub-division of section second of act.* Section ix. The said trustees shall in the month of Ja ary in every year, make a report to the Legislature for the y ending on the thirty-first day of December preceding, of condition of the said library, of the funds and other prope * Amendment of 16 July, 1881; see Laws of 1881, Chapter 653. of the corporation, and of its receipts and expenditures during such year. Section x. If any debts of the said corporation lawfully contracted, shall not be paid out of its funds when due, the trustees shall be individually liable for such funds, to the creditors in such cases, and to such extent as they would be if not incorporated. III. DECLARATION OF THE TRUSTEES SELECTING THE ORIGINAL ASTOR LIBRARY SITE, ETC. DATED, 13 APRIL, 1849. LIBER 521 OF CONVEYANCES, PAGE 582. To all to whom these presents shall come, The Trustees of the Astor Library send Greeting: Whereas prior to the incorporation of the said Trustees they on the second day of November last selected the land hereinafter described as a site for their Library Edifice, and in the act of selection did also express that the Library edifice was also to have the advantage of light and air from the rear by having twenty-five feet in the rear extending of the same width and embraced in a continuation of the same said lines unoccupied by buildings and subject to an easement in favour of the said Library building for these purposes And whereas difficulties have been suggested as to the said proposed easement, and thereupon the said Trustees determined to relinquish the purpose of obtaining the said easement and with this alteration to continue the selection of the site heretofore made. Now these Presents witness That the Trustees of the Astor Library acting in execution of the powers to them given by the codicils of the will of John Jacob Astor Deceased have selected and do hereby select the lands hereinafter mentioned as the site of the said Library being bounded as follows: Beginning on the easterly side of Lafayette Place where the Northerly line of the lands belonging to William B. Astor Esquire strikes Lafayette Place which line divides those lands from the lands of the said testator and running thence along the Easterly side of Lafayette Place Sixty-five feet Northerly thence Easterly in a line at right angles to Lafayette Place one hundred and twenty feet thence on a line parallel to the Easterly side of Lafayette Place sixty-five feet to the land of William B. Astor Esquire thence Westerly along that land and perpendicular to the line of Lafayette Place one hundred and twenty feet to the place of beginning. And these presents further witness that The Trustees of the Astor Library do hereby certify the site so selected to the Executors of the will of the said John Jacob Astor to the end that the lands so selected may be fairly and justly valued by the said executors and that the amount of the said valuation shall be apportioned among the devisees of the lands out of which the said selection has been made and held and disposed of as the land was both as to capital and income according to the codicils of the said testator. And the Trustees of the Astor Library do hereby abandon and relinquish all purpose of claiming the easement aforesaid originally proposed to be acquired and they discharge all other lands of the said testator from being chosen as the site of the said Library Edifice. In witness whereof the said Corporation have caused these presents to be sealed with their common seal and signed by their President and Secretary this thirteenth day of April in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty nine. (CORPORATE SEAL) WASHINGTON IRVING (SEAL) President, SAML B. RUGGLES (SEAL) Secretary IV. DEED BY THE EXECUTORS OF JOHN JACOB ASTOR, DECEASED, OF THE ASTOR LIBRARY SITE. DATED, 19 APRIL, 1849. LIBER 523, OF CONVEYANCES, PAGE 379. To all to whom these presents shall come: William B. Astor, Washington Irving, James Gallatin, Daniel Lord, and John Jacob Astor only qualified Executors of the Will of John Jacob Astor deceased, and the Trustees of the Astor Library incorporated by a law passed January one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine, send greeting: Whereas the said John Jacob Astor now deceased, by a codicil bearing date the twenty-second day of August in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and thirty-nine to his Will, did appropriate four hundred thousand dollars out of his residuary estate to the establishment of a public library in the city of New York, and in the said codicil appropriated certain lands to be the site of the Library edifice, and directed his executors to convey to the said Trustees in fee simple the said land by such proper assurances as should secure the land for the purpose of the Library and on condition to be |