The portion of the fines (not by statute appropriated for other purposes) assessed upon, and collected from, this class of unfortunates by the justices, is required by the ordinances to be paid to the city at the close of each and every month, and is to be apportioned by the city authorities as the statutes and ordinances require. The salaries of the police magistrates are fixed by agreement with the city. These magistrates are chosen bi-ennially after the election of a Mayor, by that officer, from the appointed justices of the peace, and are generally of the same political faith as is the appointing authority. The system is a blot upon the impartial administration of justice. It has become a byword among the people as a malodorous cesspool. From the evidence heard before a legislative committee, that committee reported "that the present system of justice, or police courts, as run, is a disgrace to the present civilization. It shows that justice courts will open in the night time, policemen will go out and drag in men and women, 100 and 200, and even more at a time; that they are refused a trial at night, required to give a bond for which the justice charges them one dollar; that professional bondsmen are in attendance who will collect another dollar, and oftentimes much more, from the poor unfortunate to go on his or her bond until morning, thus making several hundred dollars ofttimes in a night to the police justices and other officers connected with the court, and this is done, as your committee believe, from the evidence, for the purpose of making money for the police justice, the professional bondsman, and the police officer in charge of the arrest." These magistrates are required to report at the "close of each day's business," but their night arrests are construed by them as not following within the definition of "a day's business." The fees arising from them are not, therefore, reported. Civic bodies have denounced in the bitterest terms the evils of this system, and in a recent mayoralty message to the Common Council, in itself the hotbed of boodleism, it is said, "The justice shop system with all its necessarily attendant scandals is about to be wiped out." That desirable result awaits legislative action. The general assembly, if it has any respect for human rights, for commendable municipal government, for the performance of its sworn duty, will lay aside the struggle in legislative halls for political ascendancy, and hasten the day when this festering sore shall have applied to it an instrument of eradication which it alone can wield. It is proper to add that since the foregoing lines were written the night fees are better accounted for, under an agreement between the magistrates and the city by which the magistrates' salaries are raised, as an inducement to them to be honest. The appropriations for the year 1897, for the maintenance of the police force, amounted to $3,356,910. Other sources of income amounted to $17,635.03.