er shall suffer the pains and penalties directed for wilful and corrupt perjury.

CII. No supersedeas or writ of error shall be granted, to any judgment in the district or county, or other inferior court, after the expiration of twelve months from and after the date thereof.

CIII. Writs of habeas corpus may be granted without a seal, pursuing in other respects the act, intituled "An act directing the mode of suing out and prosecuting writs of habeas corpus."

CIV. The sessions of the high court of appeals shall in future commence on the twenty ninth day of May, and the twenty ninth day of October, in every year; or when either of those days may happen to be Sunday, then on the Monday following, and use the same jurisdiction over the district courts as it has heretofore exercised over the general court, and shall moreover establish rules of practice to be observed at the district courts, provided the same be in support of, and not contrary to this act.

CV. The sessions of the high court of chancery shall hereafter commence on the thirteenth day of June, and on the thirteenth day of December, in every year; or when either of those days may happen to be Sunday, then on the Monday following.

CVI. The sessions of the general court shall hereafter commence on the twenty-fourth day of May, and on the twenty-fourth day of October in every year; and when either of those days may happen to be Sunday, then on the Monday following, and shall sit six juridical days successively each time, unless the business depending before them be sooner dispatched.

CVII. And that henceforth all executions, or other process issuing from the general court, shall be made returnable to the first day of the said court: and that writs of scire facias may issue from and be tried in the said general court on all judgments which heretofore have been or hereafter may be obtained therein; and may enter up judgments against any sheriff, deputy sheriff, or coroner, for all monies received by them upon any execution issued, or which may issue from the said court, and to award execution upon, all replevy bonds, or bonds taken to see goods forth coming upon any execution which has issued or may hereafter issue

from the said court; any thing in this act to the contrary notwithstanding.

CVIII. The said court, while in session, is hereby authorized and required, without fee or reward, to examine into the fitness and capacity of such as may apply for license to practice law in the superior or inferior courts of this commonwealth; and without the approbation of the said court, no person, who is not licensed at the passing of this act, shall be admitted to practice; the judges shall be governed in the examination by the rules prescribed by an act, intituled "An act regulating the practice of attornies."

CIX. But the said court shall exercise no power, jurisdiction or authority, which by this act is given to the district courts or its judges; any law to the contrary notwithstanding.

CX. The judges of the district courts shall have authority to superintend and regulate the jails of the counties where their sessions are to be holden, in the same manner that the general court might heretofore regulate and superintend the public jail.

CXI. The jailor in the said counties shall also be equally amenable to the judges of the district court as the keeper of the public jail has been to the judges of the general court; and the several counties in which the district courts are established, shall defray all necessary expences of erecting, repairing, and keeping in repair proper jails and court houses.

CXII. All the penalties hereby inflicted, and not otherwise appropriated, shall be, one moiety to the use of the commonwealth, and disposed of as the general assembly shall direct, and the other moiety to the informer, and be recovered by action of debt or information in any court of record where the same is cognizable; and where fines shall be laid by the district court on any person or persons for not attending as jurymen, the clerks shall annually before the last day of January, transmit to the sheriff of each county a list of all such fines, and all others imposed, to the use of the commonwealth, by the district courts, on persons residing in the county; and such sheriff shall collect and levy the same in like manner as is provided for county levies, and account for and pay the money, deducting five per centum for commission, and also insolvents, to the treasurer of this commonwealth, on or

before the first day of September, or the solicitor may recover the same with costs, by motion in the district court, on ten days previous notice given in writing of such motion: And the clerks of the district courts shall deliver copies of all lists so sent to the sheriffs to the solicitor, to enable him to call such sheriffs to account.

CXIII. Replevin bonds may be given by a responsible person, and a security in the clerk's office, or to the sheriff before seizure; in the former of which cases the clerk shall take a fee of five shillings only, in the latter the sheriff shall take a fee of five shillings only.

CXIV. The causes depending in the general court on the first day of January, in the year one thousand seven hundred and eighty-nine, shall be arranged, by the clerk thereof, according to the districts herein described, taking for his rule the county in which the original or other writ may have been executed, or from which judgment shall have been removed, and with the papers therein delivered by him to the clerks of the different districts hereby established, together with a state of the costs which may have accrued in each suit to the time of such delivery. And the counsel then retained in such suits shall be answerable for the prosecution and defence of the same, as the case may be.

CXV. All laws whatsoever contrary to the purview hereof, and especially those vesting the general court with powers similar to those now given to the district courts, shall be, and the same are hereby repealed.

CXVI. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after the first day of July, in the year of our lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-eight, and not before.

CHAP. XL.

An act for the more speedy recovery of debts due to this commonwealth.

[Passed January the 7th, 1788.]

Land of shie- I. BE it enacted by the General Assembly, That riffs and pnb lands and tenements shall and may by virtue of writs may be taken of fieri facias be taken and sold in satisfaction of all

lic collectors

judgments to be hereafter obtained on behalf of the on a fieri fa commonwealth against any sheriff, coroner, or other cias on judg public collector, or against his or their security or se- monwealth. curities, Provided, That the same shall not extend to

any such security or securities who shall have become so before the passing of this act.

ments of com

II. Every judgment obtained against any sheriff, Judgments coroner, or other public collector shall bind the pro- to bind the perty of the lands and tenements of such public debtor lands, from from the date thereof.

their date,

III. When the goods and chattels taken in execu- Rules, as to tion to satisfy a judgment of the commonwealth by levying exe virtue of a fieri facias, shall not in the opinion of the cutions on officer levying the same be sufficient to satisfy the debt lands. with damages and costs, the sheriff or other officer shall at the same time give public notice at the churches, and meeting-houses, if any there be, and court-house of his county on the next court-day, and shall moreover give notice to the owner if he be in the county, or o therwise to his agent, if any such be known, at some time appointed in the notice, not less than ninety nor more than ninety six days from the time of levying the execution, that the said lands and tenements will be exposed to sale by auction on the premises, or at such other place in the county as the owner shall by writing under his hand delivered to the officer direct.

lands to be

.sold.

IV. If the public debtor against whom a judgment Debtor may shall be entered have several parcels of land which lie specify the in one and the same county, he or his agent may by writing under his hand at any time before the day of sale, require the sheriff or officer to whom a writ of fieri facias upon the judgment shall be directed to make the debt or damages and costs of such of the said parcels of land as the owner or his agent shall think proper; and if the parcels lie in different counties, the clerk shall and may at the like request in writing direct the fieri facias to the sheriff or officer of any county which the party or his agent, making oath or solemn affirmation that he hath lands there, shall particularly mention at any time before the writ shall be delivered to the officer. And if the debt, damages and costs be made of any other parcel of land, or of land lying in any other county than that mentioned in such written requisition, the sale of such other parcel of the land in such other county shall be void. If the owner

old.

Lands how of the land before or at the day of sale shall not make payment of the debt due to the public, the sheriff or officer shall proceed to sell the said lands and tenements, or such estate and interest as the party convict shall have therein, or so much thereof as will be sufficient, laid off in one intire parcel if it may be done, in such place and manner as he or his agent if he think proper shall direct, for ready money or other property as the demand may be, and the costs; but if the estate cannot be sold for three fourths of its value in the opinion of the valuers of the county, he shall sell the same upon three months credit, taking bond of the purchasers with sufficient surety or sureties for payment to the chief magistrate of this commonwealth for the time being. Every bond thus taken shall mention on what occasion the same was taken, and shall by the sheriff or officer be immediately returned to the clerk's office from whence it issued, there safely to be kept, and when due, execution thereon may be awarded in the same manner, and on the same conditions that executions are now awarded on replevy bonds, and shall in like manner be indorsed by the clerk that no security is to be taken.

How convey. ed.

V. In all sales of lands by virtue of an execution the sheriff or other officer shall convey the same to the purchaser at his costs by deed in writing, indented, sealed, and recorded as the laws direct for other conveyances of land, which deeds shall recite the execution, purchase, and consideration, and shall be effectual for passing to the purchaser all the estate and interest which the debtor had and might lawfully part with in the lands.

VI. If the lands and tenements, goods and chattels If lands &c.of of any sheriff, coroner, or other public collector, are sheriff are in insufficient to satisfy the debt, damages and costs due sufficient, to the public, judgment shall be obtained against his judgment that security or securities in the same summary way may be ob tained ajudgment may by law be obtained against his or their gainst secu. principal, and the lands and tenements, goods and lities. chattels of such security or securities, except as before excepted, shall be taken in execution to satisfy the balance of such debt, damages, and costs, in the same manner as the lands and tenements, goods and chattels of his or their principal may be taken and sold agree

able to this act.