Previous service of Senators.. The new Senate and Assembly districts.... The new Congressional districts..... Officers elected by the Senate.. Officers appointed by Clerk of Senate.... Rules of Senate for 1897....... Committees of the Legislature...... Speakers of the Assembly, 1872 to 1897. Clerks of the Assembly, 1777 to 1897.... T! INTRODUCTION. E State of New York has a population, according to the State enumeration of 1892, of about 6,500,000. It also contains within its limits the city of the largest population in the North American continent, the city of New York, and the fourth city in population in the United States, Brooklyn. The first of these cities, New York, is also the greatest manufacturing city upon the continent and unquestionably the financial center of the new world. The State geographically is situated between 40° 29′ 40′′ and 45° 0′ 2′′ north latitude, and between 71° 51′ and 79° 45′ 54′′ .4 west longitude. It is a State of very irregular outline; its shape being triangular. Its greatest breadth east and west is 326.46 miles; while from New York harbor to the boundary line of Canada it is 325 miles in length. In this estimate is not included Long Island, which extends along the Atlantic ocean for 100 miles to the north eastward from New York harbor. The area of the State is 49,170 square miles. Of this, 47,620 square miles is land, embracing 30,476,820 acres. The State is bounded on the south by the Atlantic ocean and the States of New Jersey and Pennsylvania; on the west by the State of Pennsylvania, Lake Erie and the Niagara river; upon the east by the Atlantic ocean and the States of Vermont, Massachusetts and Connecticut, and upon the north by Lake Ontario, the St. Lawrence river and the border line of Canada. It is a State that has great diversity of surface. In its northern portion are the Adirondack mountains, one of whose summits, Mt. Marcy, has an altitude of 5,344 feet, and thus approaches in height Black Mountain, among the moun 1 tains of North Carolina. Upon the border of the Hudson river, in the central-eastern part of the State, are the Catskill mountains, having an average altitude of 2,500 and 3,000 feet. Still farther to the south are the Shawangunk mountains, with an average altitude of 2,000 feet, which can be considered the outposts of the Blue Ridge of Pennsylvania and Virginia. The State's surface also is beautified by a large number of fine lakes: Seneca, Cayuga, Oneida, Keuka, Canandaigua, Skaneateles and Owasco. Beyond this it is bounded by Lake Erie, 573 feet above the level of the sea, and Lake Ontario, 245 feet above the level of the sea. Within the borders of the State, also, is the world-renowned cataract of Niagara Falls, 164 feet high and a mile broad. The territory of the State of New York is supposed to have been first discovered by Verrazano in 1524, when he entered New York harbor. There is no question that Hendrick Hudson did enter the bay of New York in 1609 and explored in his vessel, the Half Moon, the Hudson river to near the vicinity of Albany. In 1610 the first settlements were upon New York harbor, and in 1613 the first huts were put up on Manhattan Island by Dutch settlers. The Province of New Netherland was soon established by the Dutch government, and settlements were established along the Hudson river. By 1664 the population numbered 16,000 persons. In 1664, Charles II, king of England, resolved upon the conquest of the territory, and on August twenty-nine of that year an English squadron, under Colonel Richard Nicholls, appeared in New York harbor and demanded of the Dutch authorities the surrender of the province. Governor Stuyvesant, the last of the Dutch Governors, was obliged to surrender, and did so on September eighth. The province was then renamed New York, in honor of the Duke of York, a brother of Charles II, to whom a patent for the lands of the province had been granted. In 1673 the Dutch recognized the province, |