Alexandria Gazette

COMMUNICATIONS.

To the Justices of Fairfax.

Gentlemen:—The death of your late Clerk has devolved on you the duty of electing another to supply his place; and, as one who has had some experience not only of the inconveniences, but of the serious evils, arising from the inattention and the incompetency of Clerks, I will take the liberty of suggesting to you some rules, which it would be well to consider in making the election.

I am not influenced by a desire to promote the election of any particular individual, from personal considerations. My sole object is to obtain a Clerk who will faithfully and carefully discharge the duties of the office, and thereby promote the interest and convenience of the public.

To obtain such an one, we should be careful in selecting a man who will give himself up altogether to the office, and not attend to other business while the duties of the Clerk are left to an incompetent agent who has no motive above a limited salary to discharge them well. We should select some one wholly dependant on the office, whose income would be commensurate with the business of the Court, and, of course, whose interest it would be to discharge with fidelity. He should also be a young man, who can give to the public the energies of his prime, and who will be likely to improve for a long time, and will not in a short period become unfit by age for the performance of his duties.

You have several such in the county, I have no doubt; and you are best qualified to make the selection. I shall propose no one. Some of you, gentlemen, have, I am sure, been familiar, for a long time, with the business of the Courts, and are well aware of the importance of having a good Clerk to enable the Courts to administer speedy justice to suitors. My object in addressing you at this time, is, to draw you to the consideration of the importance of the act you are about to perform, before you commit yourselves to any candidate from personal regards for the individual. Who they are I do not know.

C.