Attorney and Surveyor, and fixes the per diem compen- 

 sation of the Commissioners, but fails in the opinion of 

 the Commissioners of Assessment to point out or provide 

 the manner ot payment of these officers. Unless it shall 

 be deemed necessary to remedy this supposed accidental 

 omission, no necessity exists for any further legislation. 



The expenses incurred for the surveys, for the maps and 

 reports of the Engineer, for Counsel fees, and for a tem- 

 porary Watchman or Superintendent of the park grounds, 

 amount in the whole to about the sum of three thousand 

 dollars. The whole of this amount remains unpaid. No 

 other expenses whatever have been incurred, nor any other 

 debt contracted. 



While the Commissioners have been careful to comply 

 with all the requirements of the law — by the due organi- 

 zation of their Board, by the observance of all necessary 

 duties imposed upon them as Commissioners, and by vigi- 

 lantly guarding the rights of the public in the grants con- 

 tained in the acts relating to the park — they do not con- 

 sider themselves as having faltered in their duty to the 

 public in not making any perceptible progress since their 

 last report, in the actual development of their plans. 



The year 1861 was not a propitious year for carrying 

 forward such improvements as are contemplated in the 

 establishment of the Prospect Park. The commerce of the 

 country suspended; the industry of the nation checked, 

 and the hearts of the j^eople crushed by a wicked attempt 

 to destroy the benign government under which they lived 

 and prospered, all public improvements became necessarily 

 paralyzed. The Commissioners therefore make no apology 

 for not pushing forward this greatest and noblest of 

 Brooklyn enterprises during such a period. When the 

 gloom which now spreads over our land shall have been 

 dispersed, and when peace and prosj)erity shall awaken to 



