Ordered, That the Treasurer be, and he hereby is, authorized to borrow, under the direction of the Committee on Finance, the sum of fourteen hundred thousand dollars, the same to be appropriated for the extension of Washington street from Cornhill to Haymarket square and the extension of Portland street from Hanover street to Washington street (extended), including grade damages, and other damages incidental to the extension of said streets, to be called the Loan for the extension of Washington and Portland streets. In Common Council, December 9, 1869. Laid on the table, and ordered to be printed. Attest: W. P. GREGG, Clerk of the Common Council. CITY OF BOSTON. SAMUEL C. COBB, ESQ. 3 PEMBERTON SQUARE, Dec. 7, 1869. DEAR SIR, I see, from your Minority Report, and from what you have been doing in the City Council, that you are opposed to building a new hospital for the insane at Winthrop. I agree with you; and as I have a very deep interest in the management of the insane, and a citizen's interest in the expenditures of the City Government, I take the liberty of addressing you upon the subject. I have lived a part of nearly every year for twenty years in Winthrop, not far from the Winthrop Farm, on which it is proposed to build the asylum. I have walked, ridden or driven many times, in almost every month of the year, along the side of the hill, and have walked over it, and am perfectly familiar with everything about it. The climate of Winthrop during the summer months is very healthy and delightful; but every part of Winthrop is necessarily, from its exposure, very windy. At my house, on ground only thirty feet above the sea level, the winds are always fresh, and in the winter excessively violent. We tried one winter's residence there, and found it almost constantly so boisterous that it was seldom agreeable to take a walk, and the wind often so strong as to make it nearly impossible for a woman to walk at all. On the top of the hill, on the Winthrop Farm, the air is delicious in the hottest days of July and August, and in the |