(ACT of April 9th, 1814.) ful on one libel or information, whatever may be the number of owners or consignees therein concerned; but allowance may be made on one libel or information for the costs incidental to several claims: Provided, That in case of a claim of any vessel or other property seized on behalf of the United States, and libelled or informed against as forfeited under any of the laws thereof, if judgment shall pass in favor of the claimant, he shall be entitled to the same upon paying only his own costs. SEC. III. Whenever causes of like nature, or relative to the same question, shall be pending before a court of the United States, or of the territories thereof, it shall be lawful for the court to make such orders and rules concerning proceedings therein, as may be conformable to the principles and usages belonging to courts, for avoiding unnecessary costs or delay in the administration of justice; and accordingly, causes may be consolidated, as to the court shall appear reasonable. And if any attorney, proctor, or other person admitted to manage and conduct causes in a court of the United States, or of the territories thereof, shall appear to have multiplied the proceedings in any cause before the court, so as to increase costs unreasonably and vexatiously, such person may be required, by order of court, to satisfy any excess of costs so incurred. ACT of March 24th, 1814. 4 Bioren, 665, 109. SEC. 1. Instead of the time heretofore prescribed by law for the sessions of the district court of the United States for the Virginia district, the said court shall hereafter commence its sessions on the following days in each year, that is to say: on the twelfth day of April, and on the fifteenth day of October, in the city of Richmond; and on the first day of May, and on the first day of November, in the borough of Norfolk. [Infra, 120.] SEC. IV. If, at any time, the day prescribed by this act for commencing a session of the said court shall be a Sunday, the said court shall commence and hold its session on the following day. ACT of April 9th, 1814. 4 Bioren, 679. 110. SEC. I. For the more convenient transaction of business in the courts of the United States within the state of New York, the said state shall be, and the same is hereby, divided into two districts, in manner following, to wit: the counties of Rensselaer, Albany, Schenectady, Schoharie, and Delaware, together with all that part of the said state lying south of the said abovementioned counties, shall compose one district, to be called the southern district of New York; and all the remaining part of the said state shall compose another district, to be called the northern district of New York; and the terms of the district court in the said southern dis (ACT of March 3d, 1815.) trict shall be held in the city of New York, at the several times at which they are now by law directed to be held in the said city. [See Infra, 122.] SEC. II. Matthias B. Tallmadge, one of the district judges of the district of New York, is hereby assigned as the judge to hold the said district court in the said northern district of New York, and to do and perform all the duties appertaining to his office. within the said northern district; and William P. Van Ness, the remaining district judge of the district of New York, is hereby, assigned as the judge to hold the said court in the said southern district of New York, and to do and perform all the duties appertaining to his said office within the said southern district. And it is hereby also made the duty of the judge of the said southern district to hold the several district courts hereinbefore directed to be holden in the said northern district, in case of the inability, on account of sickness or absence, of the said Matthias B. Tallmadge to hold the same. 111. SEC. III. The circuit court of the United States shall be held, in and for the said southern district of New York, at the city of New York, at the times and in the manner now directed by law to be held in and for the district of New York, and that the district court in the said northern district of New York, shall, besides the ordinary jurisdiction of a district court, have jurisdiction of all causes, except of appeals and writs of error, cognizable by law in a circuit court, and shall proceed therein in the same manner as a circuit court; and writs of error shall lie from decisions therein to the circuit court in the said southern district of New York, in the same manner as from other district courts to their respective circuit courts. ACT of March 3d, 1815. 4 Bioren, 842. 112. SEC. 1. The president of the United States, by and with the advice and consent of the senate, is hereby authorized to appoint one person as marshal and one as district attorney for the northern judicial district of the United States, within the state of New York, created by the act to which this act is a supplement, [Supra, 110.] bearing date the ninth day of April, in the year one thousand eight hundred and fourteen; and the terms of appointment and service, together with the duties, responsibilities and emoluments of the said marshal and district attorney, respectively for the district aforesaid, shall be in all respects the same within their said district, as the terms of appointment and service, the duties, responsibilities and emoluments of all other marshals and district attorneys respectively, within their respective districts in the United States of America. [Infra, 122.] ACT of March 3d, 1815. 4 Bioren, 854. An act to vest more effectually in the state courts, and in the district courts of the United States, jurisdiction in the cases therein mentioned. 113. SEC. 1. The respective state or county courts within or next adjoining a collection district, established by any act of congress now in being, or hereafter to be passed, for the collection of any direct tax or internal duties of the United States, shall be, and are hereby, authorized to take cognizance of all complaints, suits, and prosecutions, for taxes, duties, fines, penalties, and forfeitures, arising and payable under any of the acts passed, or to be passed, as aforesaid, or where bonds are given under the said acts; and the district attorneys of the United States are hereby authorized and directed to appoint, by warrant, an attorney, as their substitute or deputy, in all cases where necessary to sue or prosecute for the United States, in any of the said state or county courts, within the sphere of whose jurisdiction the said district attorneys do not themselves reside or practise; and the said substitute or deputy shall be sworn or affirmed to the faithful execution of his duty. SEC. II. The jurisdiction conferred by the foregoing section shall be considered as attaching, in the cases therein specified, without regard to the amount or sum in controversy, and that it shall be concurrent with the jurisdiction of the district courts of the United States; but may, nevertheless, be exercised in cases where the fine, penalty, or forfeiture, may have been incurred, or the cause of action or complaint have arisen, at a less, as well as a greater, distance than fifty miles from the nearest place by law established for the holding of a district court of the United States. But in all suits or prosecutions instituted by or on behalf of the United States in any state or county court, the process, proceedings, judgment, and execution, therein shall not be delayed, suspended, or in any way barred or defeated, by reason of any law of any state authorizing or directing a stay or suspension of process, proceedings, judgment, or execution: Provided, That final decrees and judgments in civil actions, passed or rendered in any state court by virtue hereof, may be re-examined in the circuit court of the United States, in the same manner, and under the same limitations, as are prescribed by the twenty-second section of the act to establish the judicial courts of the United States, passed the twenty-fourth of September, seventeen hundred and eighty-nine. SEC. III. The state or county courts aforesaid, and the principal or presiding judge of any such court, shall be, and are hereby, authorized to exercise all and every power, in cases cognizable before them by virtue of this act, for the purpose of obtaining a mitigation or remission of any fine, penalty, or forfeiture, which may be exercised by the judges of the district courts of the United States, in cases brought before them by virtue of the law of the United States, passed on the third of March, one thousand seven hundred and ninety-seven, entitled "An act to provide for (ACT of March 3d, 1817. mitigating or remitting the forfeitures, penalties, and disabilities, accruing in certain cases therein mentioned;" and in the exercise of the authority by this section given to the said state or county courts, or the principal or presiding judge as aforesaid, they shall be governed, in every respect, by the provisions of the law last mentioned, with this difference only, that instead of notifying the district attorneys of the United States, the said courts, or the presiding judge as aforesaid, shall, before exercising said authorities, cause reasonable notice to be given to the substitute or deputy, who may have been appointed to sue or prosecute for the United States, as aforesaid, that he may have an opportunity of showing cause against the mitigation or remission of such fine, penalty, or forfeiture. 114. SEC. IV. The district court of the United States shall have cognizance, concurrent with the courts and magistrates of the several states, and the circuit courts of the United States, of all suits at common law, where the United States, or any officer thereof, under the authority of any act of congress, shall sue, although the debt, claim, or other matter in dispute, shall not amount to one hundred dollars. ACT of March 22d, 1816. Pamphlet edit. 16. 115. The circuit court of the United States within and for the district of Vermont, instead of the first day of May, shall hereafter be helden on the twenty-first day of May, and the district court of the United States, within and for the said district, instead of the seventh day of May, shall hereafter be holden on the twenty-seventh day of May, at the place now fixed by law for holding the said courts. SEC. IV. At any time hereafter the day or days prescribed by this act, for holding either of the said courts shall be a Sunday, such court shall commence and be holden on the following day. ACT of March 1st, 1817. Pamphlet edit. 212. 116. The commissioners who now are, or hereafter may be, appointed by virtue of the act, entitled "An act for the more convenient taking of affidavits and bail in civil causes, depending in the courts of the United States," are hereby authorized to take affidavits and bail in civil causes, to be used in the several district courts of the United States, and shall and may exercise all the powers that a justice or judge of any of the courts of the United States may exercise by virtue of the thirtieth section of the act, entitled "An act to establish the judicial courts of the United States." ACT of March 3d, 1817. Pamphlet edit. 247. An act to provide for reports of the decisions of the supreme court. 117. SEC. I. The reporter who shall, from time to time, be ap (ACT of March 3d, 1817.) pointed by the supreme court of the United States, to report its decisions, shall be entitled to receive, from the treasury of the United States, as an annual compensation for his services, the sum of one thousand dollars: Provided nevertheless, The said compensation shall not be paid unless the said reporter shall print and publish, or cause to be printed and published, the decisions of said court, made during the time he shall act as such reporter, within six months after such decisions shall be made, and shall deliver eighty copies of the decisions so printed and published, to the secretary of state without any expense to the United States; and which copies shall be distributed as follows, to wit: to the president of the United States, the judges of the supreme court and the judges of the district courts, the attorney general of the United States, the secretary of state, the secretary of the trea sury, the secretary of war, the secretary of the navy, the comptroller of the treasury, the post master general, the commissioner of the revenue, the commissioner of the general land office, the judg es of the several territories of the United States, the secretary of the senate, the clerk of the house of representatives, the auditor of the treasury, the register of the treasury, the treasurer of the United States, the pay master general, the accountants of the war and navy departments, and to the commissioners of the navy, one copy each; and the residue of said copies shall be deposited in, and become part of the library of congress. SEC. II. In case of the death, resignation, or dismission from office of either of the officers before mentioned, the said copies of the decisions delivered to them as aforesaid, shall belong to and be delivered up to their respective successors in the said offices. SEC. III. This act shall be and continue in force for three years and no longer. [Continued, Infra, 133.] ACT of March 3d, 1817. Pamphlet edit. 276. 118. SEC. I. All the laws of the United States, which are not locally inapplicable, shall have the same force and effect within the said state of Indiana as elsewhere within the United States. SEC. II. The said state shall be one district, and be called the Indiana District; and a district court shall be held therein, to con sist of one judge, who shall reside in the said district, and be called a district judge. He shall hold, at the seat of government of the said state, two sessions annually, on the first Mondays in May and November, and he shall, in all things, have and exercise the same jurisdiction and powers which were, by law, given to the judge of the Kentucky district, under an act, entitled "An act to establish the judicial courts of the United States," He shall appoint a clerk for the said district, who shall reside and keep the records of the court at the place of holding the same; and shall receive, for the services performed by him, the same fees to |