Excerpt from Eighth Annual Report of the City of Keene: Containing Inaugural Ceremonies, Ordinances and Joint Resolutions Passed by the City Councils; With Reports of the Several Departments for 1881 In conformity with established usages and the require ments Of law, I in common with yourselves have taken the prescribed oath to fulfil to the best of my ability the obligations Of the Office to which I was so unexpectedly summoned. And, distrusting as I do, my ability, as com pared with that of my worthy predecessors, to perform the duties the trust imposes, I crave and hope to receive that kindly consideration to which an honorable intent to do one's whole duty, unbiased by partisan considerations, would entitle me. In view of the general prosperity that has in the years past attended us, and the exemption from those direful calamities that have fallen on other places, we ought in deed to be a grateful people, and be ever mindful of our dependence on that Almighty Power on which every being, from the highest to the lowest, is dependent And I would especially suggest that a cold and formal recognition alone of our dependence is but hollow mockery if it fails to stimulate within us a sense Of duty to God and our fellow men that shall actuate us to a practical adoption of those grand precepts so beautifully exemplified in the life of the Master. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.