respective towns, who are not employed in some lawful business, and whose parents are unable or neglect to maintain them. The males may be bound out until they arrive at the age of twentyone years, and the females until they arrive at the age of eighteen years.

SEC. 6. Such contract shall be in writing, shall be made equitably, and as much as may be for the interests of the persons bound out, and shall provide that they shall be instructed to read, write and cipher, and to do such work and business as is suitable to their condition. The overseers shall inquire into the usage of all persons so bound out, shall see that said contract is fulfilled and that all wrongs or injuries are redressed, and the rights and obligations of such master and apprentice shall be the same as in the case of other apprentices.

SEC. 7. If any pauper shall die in any town in this State having a settlement in such town or otherwise, the overseers of the poor shall cause such person to be decently buried at the expense of the town.

SEC. 8. The relations of any poor person in the line of father or grandfather, mother or grandmother, children or grandchildren, of sufficient ability, shall be liable to maintain such person when standing in need of relief. If such person has no such relations of sufficient ability, the town wherein such person has a legal settlement, shall be liable for his support.

SEC. 9. If any town in this State shall expend any sum for the support or burial as aforesaid of any poor person having a settlement in some other town in this State, or having any relations of sufficient ability, such sum may be recovered of the town or person so chargeable by law with the support of such poor person.

SEC. 10. No action shall be sustained against any town or person chargeable as aforesaid, unless a notice in writing signed by the overseers of the poor stating the sums so expended, shall first have been given to such town or person.

SEC. 11. Such notice shall be served upon such town by the sheriff or his deputy, by leaving an attested copy thereof and of his return thereon with one at least of the selectmen or overseers of the poor, and with the clerk of such town; and upon any person chargeable as aforesaid, by giving him in hand or leaving at his usual place of abode a like copy.

SEC. 12. The officer making such service shall, within twenty days thereafter, make a return of the original notice with his doings therein, to the clerk of the court of common pleas in the county in which the town or person chargeable may be, and shall receive the same fees for his travel and service as by law are allowed for serving writs.

SEC. 13. Such notice shall be sufficient for all sums so expended within ninety days previous to such service, and for any sum so expended within one year thereafter.

SEC. 14. No action aforesaid shall be sustained unless com

menced within three years from the time of the service of such notice upon the town or person chargeable, nor for any sum that may have been expended more than ninety days previous to such notice.

SEC. 15. When any county in which any action for the support of a pauper is pending, may eventually be liable for the support of such pauper under any law of this State, the court shall on motion transfer such action to an adjoining county for adjudication.

SECTION 1. When any poor person for whose support no person or town in this State is chargeable, shall be relieved or buried at the expense of any town, the overseers of the poor within one year thereafter, or in case a suit therefor has before the termination of said year been commenced against any town or person within six months after the termination thereof, may present an account of all moneys so expended to the court of common pleas of the county in which such town is, with proper vouchers, and said court shall allow such sum as they shall think reasonable, to be paid out of the treasury of the county.

SEC. 2. The court of common pleas in any county, upon a recommendation of a majority of the representatives to the legislature from the several towns composing said county, may provide at the expense of such county all such lands, buildings and articles as may be necessary for the accommodation, support and employ. ment of the poor who may be chargeable to such county, and may appoint suitable officers for their management and establish necessary rules and regulations therefor; but in no case shall the punish

ment for any offence exceed that allowed by law in the house of correction.

SEC. 3. The court of common pleas may bind out, or may authorize the overseers of the poor of any town to bind out or employ any person chargeable or liable to be chargeable to the county, in the same manner that such overseers might do in case of a person chargeable to such town; and the rights and obligations of all parties shall be the same as in such case.

SEC. 4. When any town in this State shall cease to be organized as a town, all paupers who may have a legal settlement in such town and who have no relations by law bound to support them, shall be maintained by the county in which such town is situate, until the same shall be reörganized.

SEC. 5. If any person shall bring from any other state and leave in any town in this State, or shall so bring with intent to leave, any poor and indigent person having no visible means of support and no settlement within the State, knowing such person to be poor and indigent as aforesaid, he shall be punished by fine not exceeding three hundred dollars nor less than fifty dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding six months.

SEC. 6. If any person shall bring from any other state and leave in any town in this State, or shall bring with intent to leave, any poor and indigent person having no visible means of support, and having a settlement in such state from which such poor and indigent person may be brought, knowing such person to be poor and indigent as aforesaid, or shall counsel him or procure such poor and indigent person to be so brought, or shall aid or assist therein, he or they shall be punished by fine not exceeding five hundred dollars nor less than one hundred dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year, and shall be further liable to any town or county in this State for all such sums of money as may be expended by any town or county for the support and maintenance of such poor and indigent person. (Laws of 1845, chap. 239.)

SEC. 7. No master of any vessel having passengers on board who have no settlement within this State, shall suffer such passengers to land, until he shall give bond to the State in a sum equal to two hundred dollars for every such passenger, with sufficient sureties to the satisfaction of the selectmen of the town in which such passengers are landed, conditioned to indemnify and save harmless such town and every town and county in the State, from all expenses which for three years thereafter may arise from such passengers, whose names shall be inserted in said bond.

SEC. 8. If any master shall suffer any such passenger to land before such bond shall be given, unless the same shall be dispensed with by such selectmen on application therefor, he shall be punished by fine not exceeding two hundred dollars for each passenger so landed, or by imprisonment not exceeding one year.

SEC. 9. Said bond shall be filed by the selectmen who approve the same, in the office of the clerk of the court of common pleas

for the county, and may by leave of the court be prosecuted for the benefit and at the expense of the party applying.

SEC. 10. If any person shall bring and leave, or bring with intent to leave, any poor and indigent person having no visible means of support, into any county in this State, from any other county in which such poor person may have resided or have been supported, such poor person not having a legal settlement in any town nor any relation chargeable for his support within the county into which such poor person is brought, knowing him to be thus poor and indigent, he shall be punished by fine not exceeding two hundred dollars nor less than thirty dollars, or by imprisonment not exceed. ing six months.

SEC. 11. Every such poor and indigent person may be removed from said county by order of the court of common pleas into the county from which he was so brought as aforesaid.

SECTION 1. If any woman is pregnant with a child which, if born alive, may be a bastard, she may make complaint in writing under oath to any justice of the peace in this State against any man, charging him with having begotten such child; and said justice may thereupon issue his warrant commanding the person so charged to be brought before some justice of the peace in and for the county in which the offence is alleged to have been committed, or in which the person so charged may reside.

SEC. 2. The justice before whom such person shall be brought, if he see fit, may order such person to give bond to the complainant in a reasonable sum, with sufficient surety or sureties to the satisfaction of the justice, conditioned to appear at the term of the court of common pleas next to be holden within and for the

county in which the offence is charged to have been committed, to answer to such complaint and to abide the order of said court thereon, and in default thereof may commit him until such order is performed.

SEC. 3. Said justice shall make a certified copy of each paper in said case, and shall deliver the same to the complainant or return the same to said court on or before the first day of the term aforesaid; and said complaint shall be entered at said term, and the person charged may be ordered to give bond as aforesaid to the satisfaction of said court, for his appearance at any future day or term and to abide the order of the court. The complaint shall be tried by the court, unless either party requests a jury, in which case it shall be tried by a jury, and the issue shall be chargeable or not chargeable.

SEC. 4. Any woman who shall have made her complaint in the manner aforesaid, charging any man with being the father of the child and stating the time when and the place where the same was begotten, and shall have declared in the time of her travail the same person to be the father of the child to the persons attending her, if any person did attend her, and shall have continued constant in such accusation, shall be a competent witness on the trial of such complaint, her credibility being left to the court or jury who try the cause; but no woman shall be admitted as a witness as aforesaid who shall have been convicted of any crime rendering her incompetent to testify in any other case.

SEC. 5. If any man is found chargeable as aforesaid, the court shall order him to pay such sum as they shall deem reasonable, to the mother of the child or the selectmen of the town liable by law for the maintenance of the child, to be applied for such maintenance, and also to pay costs of prosecution, and may order him, or the mother or both to give security to save such town harmless from all charge for the maintenance of such child. Any person who shall neglect or refuse to obey any such order, may be committed until the same is obeyed.

SEC. 6. If any woman after having made her complaint as aforesaid, shall abandon the same, the town liable by law as aforesaid shall, upon application to the court or justice in writing made for that purpose by their selectmen, agent or attorney, be admitted to prosecute said complaint, a record whereof shall be made; and all subsequent proceedings thereon shall be the same as if said complaint had been instituted originally by such town.

SEC. 7. If the mother of a bastard child neglects or refuses to make complaint as aforesaid, or having made a complaint shall neglect to prosecute the same in the court aforesaid, or shall in the opinion of the selectmen of any town liable by law as aforesaid make a false complaint, any justice of the peace to whom complaint may be made by said selectmen against any man, charging him with having begotten such bastard, may issue his warrant under his hand and seal directing such person to be brought before some