It is believed by your subscriber, that the plan proposed will make the Fire Department and also the present active Police Department, the most useful and honorable bodies of men in our city. The hearty co-operation of the members of the Fire Department, and also the members of the Police to secure for our city the blessings which must naturally result from this arrangement, will entitle them not only to the pecuniary advantages that must result to themselves and their families, but to the lasting gratitude and respect of every worthy inhabitant of our city. It is worthy of remark that the insurance companies of this city have now in their employ eighty (80) men, at an expense of thirty (30) thousand dollars a year, to watch against fires. I am informed that they intend greatly to increase this force; in addition, your subscriber, with a great number of merchants and private families, have for years constantly employed private watchmen, to guard our stores and watch our dwellings from robbery and fires. All that these cost, and more, would be gladly contributed to a body of police who would, by a faithful performance of duty, secure the necessary relief for our Fire department, by lessening annually the number of fires, and also by reducing the amount of property stolen below the average agreed upon. I have taken the liberty to invite the attention of your honorable body to an ARRANGEMENT AND PRINCIPLE by which a large majority of all the officers in the employ of the city will become pecuniarily and otherwise interested in a faithful performance of their duty. Such performance will not only secure to them the large fund provided by the Corporation, and in addition the fund to be recovered from the insurance companies, as a reward for reducing the loss by fire below the average agreed upon, but they would, in addition, find the faithful performance of duty the surest relief from excessive labor, by diminishing the number of fires and the amount of crime that now form so great and so unpleasant a part of their present labor. The principal idea in the foregoing communication, was presented by your subscriber to a previous Common Council, some twelve years since, under a full sense of the great advantages that would result by saving millions of property annually from destruction, and what is of more value, it would save the health and morals of thousands of the best and most enthusiastic young men of our city from being broken down and destroyed by their loss of time and the excessive labor occasioned by the numerous fires that take place, and which would mainly be prevented by adopting the arrangement proposed. All of which is most respectfully submitted. Yours, with great respect, PETER COOPER. ------------------------------------