a warrant of distress for the arrears of any preceding quarter; and the said court may further order with whom of such kindred who may desire it, such pauper shall live and be relieved, and for such time with one and for such time with another, as they shall judge proper, having regard to the comfort of the pauper, as well as to the convenience of the kindred; and upon suggestion, other kindred of ability not named in the complaint may be notified, and the process may be continued ; and upon due notice, whether they appear or are defaulted, the court may proceed against them in the same manner as if they had been named in the complaint; but if such complaint be not entered, or be discontinued or withdrawn, or be adjudged groundless, the respondent shall recover costs; and said court may take further order from time to time, in the premises, upon application of any party interested, and may alter such assessment and apportionment as circumstances may vary.

SEC. 4. Said overseers hereby are empowered from time to time, with the advice and consent of the town council, to bind out, by deed indented or poll, to any citizen of this state or of Massachusetts, or of Connecticut, as apprentices, to be instructed and employed in any lawful art, trade or mystery, or as servants, to be employed in any lawful work or labor, any male or female children whose parents are lawfully settled in and become chargeable to their town; also those whose parents so settled shall be thought by said overseers to be unable to maintain them, whether they receive alms or are so chargeable or not, provided they be not assessed in any town tax; and also all such who, or whose parents, residing in their town, are supported there at the charge of the state; also those whose parent or parents having no legal settlement in this state are residing in such town and are adjudged by the town council of such town to be unable to maintain his or her children; and also to bind out such male or female children in their respective towns, not having estate sufficient for their maintenance, as have no parents living or residing therein, and have no legal settlement within this state: that is to say, male children until they come to the age of twentyone years, and females until they come to the age of eighteen years, or are married; which binding shall be as valid and effectual in law as if such children had been of the full age of twenty-one years, and had by a like deed bounden themselves, or their parents had been consenting thereto; and provision shall be made in such deed for the instruction of all children so bounden out, to read, write and cypher, and for such other

instruction, benefit and allowance, either within or at the end of the time, as to the overseers may seem fit and reasonable.

SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of said overseers to inquire into the usage of the children who shall be bounden out by them by force of this act, and to defend them from injuries; and said overseers shall have the same remedy in behalf of the persons so bounden out as is extended to other apprentices by an act entitled "an act to secure to masters and to apprentices and minor servants bounden by deed, their mutual privileges ;" and the masters of such apprentices bounden out by overseers as aforesaid, shall have the like remedy against such apprentices, and for the like causes as are prescribed in the aforesaid act.

SEC. 6. All parties as aforesaid shall be entitled to an action for the damages they may sustain for any breach of contract entered into by such deed, and in the same manner as is prescribed in and by the afore mentioned act.

SEC. 7. The said overseers of the poor shall have power to set to work or bind out to service by deed as aforesaid, for a term not exceeding one whole year at a time, all such persons residing and lawfully settled in their respective towns, and those who have no such settlement within this state, married or unmarried, upwards of twenty-one years of age, as are able of body but have no visible means of support, who live idly, and use and exercise no ordinary and daily and lawful trade or business to get their living, upon such terms and conditions as such overseers shall think proper: provided, always, that any person thinking himself aggrieved by the doings of said overseers in the premises, may apply by complaint, to the supreme court in the county where they are bounden, or where the overseers who bound them dwelt, for relief; which court, after due notice to the overseers and to the master of such person, shall have power, after due hearing and examination, if they find sufficient cause therefor, to liberate and discharge the party complaining from his master, and to release him from the care of the overseers; or otherwise to dismiss the complaint, and to give costs to either party or not, as the said court may think reasonable.

SEC. 8. If any person shall reside in any town in this state, not being legally settled therein, and shall become or be likely to become chargeable to such town, it shall be lawful for any one of the overseers of the poor of such town to make complaint thereof to the town council; and in case such overseer shall judge it necessary that an order should be made sooner than the town council are likely to meet of course, he shall

give a notification to the town sergeant to notify the town council to meet at a time and place therein named; who upon such notification are required to meet, and are hereby fully empowered to inquire, either by the oath of such poor person, or otherwise, in what town he was last legally settled; and upon the best information they can obtain, to adjudge and determine to what town he lawfully belongs within this state, or in which he was last legally settled; which being done, the town council shall make an order under their seal, to be signed by their clerk, for the removal of such person to such town; which order being directed and given to the town sergeant or one of the constables of such town, he shall proceed forthwith to remove such person and such of his family, if any he hath, as by law ought to be removed with him, to the town or place to which he is adjudged by such order to belong, and there deliver him to one of the overseers of the poor of such town, and leave an authentic copy of the order with the said overseer; and if such overseer shall refuse to accept such poor person, he shall forfeit the sum of fifty dollars; to be recovered by an action of debt by the town treasurer of the town from which such poor person was sent, to and for the use of said town.

SEC. 9. If any overseer of the poor of any town in this state to which such poor person shall be removed as aforesaid, shall think his town aggrieved at the determination and order of the town council for the removal of such person, it shall be lawful for him in behalf of his town, to appeal to the next supreme court to be holden in the county in which the town from which such poor person was removed lies; and the party appealing shall file reasons of appeal in the clerk's office of the court to which the appeal shall be brought, twenty days before the sitting of said court; and the clerk of said court shall forthwith send a copy of such reasons of appeal to one of the overseers of the poor of the town from which such poor person was removed, who upon receipt of such copy is hereby fully empowered to appear at the court where the appeal is brought, and to defend and maintain said order of the town council; which court shall have full power upon hearing the cause, to confirm or reverse such order as to them shall appear agreeable to law, which judgment shall be final; and in case the said order shall be confirmed, the town which appealed shall pay the whole cost of court, in which shall be included the charges of removing such poor person; and in case the said order shall be reversed, then the town from which such poor person was removed shall pay the cost of

the court, and also the charges that the town to which he was removed shall have been at for his support between the time of the removal and the determination of the appeal; and such poor person shall be removed back to said town at the proper cost and charges thereof, which shall be levied by an execution against the town treasurer of such town.

SEC. 10. The town sergeant or constable who shall be charged with an order for the removal of any poor person as aforesaid, shall have power to go into any town for putting such order into execution: and shall make return upon said order to the town council who granted the same, at their next meeting, which shall be lodged in the clerk's office; and he shall give copies thereof to any person who shall desire them, and shall take the same fees therefor as in other cases; and in case any town sergeant or constable shall refuse or neglect to put such order in execution when delivered to him, he shall, for every such refusal or neglect, forfeit the sum of twenty dollars; to be recovered by the town treasurer, before any justice of the peace in said town, to and for the use of said town; and the town sergeant or constable who shall remove any poor person as by this act is directed, shall be allowed and paid at the discretion of the town council, for his trouble, out of the treasury of the town from which such poor person shall be removed.

SEC. 11. It shall be in the power and at the discretion of every town council, to refuse any bond or certificate which may be offered for keeping their town indemnified from charge, by any person who shall come into it of bad fame and reputation, or such as the town council shall judge unsuitable persons to become inhabitants thereof; and upon their refusal to accept the bond or certificate offered, to proceed in manner as aforesaid to remove such person out of such town for whom bond or certificate may have been tendered and not accepted.

SEC. 12. If any person who has been or may hereafter be removed by an order of removal from any town in this state to any other town therein, shall voluntarily return to the town from which he was so removed without leave first obtained of the town council of such town for so doing, and the town council of such town shall subsequently cause such person to be again removed to the same town, the town to which such person shall have been so subsequently removed shall pay to the town the costs of every such subsequent removal, not exceeding twenty cents per mile; to be recovered in an action of the case, in the name of the town treasurer of the

town to which such person shall have been removed, before any court proper to try the same: provided, however, that eight days notice of the intention of such second removal shall be previously given through the post-office by the overseer of the town where such pauper may be, to the overseer or overseers of the poor of the town in which such person shall be legally settled, for the purpose of giving such town an opportunity to remove such person in its own manner at its own proper expense; or such person may be fined by the town council not exceeding seven dollars, to and for the use of such town.

SEC. 13. The respective town councils shall have power in their discretion to remove as aforesaid, all persons not settled in their respective towns who are of bad fame and reputation, or such as said town council shall determine to be unsuitable persons to become inhabitants thereof, though such persons shall not at the time of such removal have become or shall not then be likely to become chargeable to such town.

SEC. 14. If any person in any town in this state shall admit into his house or possessions, any person who has been removed or ordered to depart, as in this act is provided, from such town by the town council thereof, or shall wilfully suffer or permit any person to occupy or reside in his house or possessions, after notice of such removal or order of departure given by the town sergeant or any one of the constables of such town by order of the town council thereof, such person shall forfeit and pay the sum of fifty dollars for every such offence; to be sued for and recovered by the town treasurer of such town in an action of debt, before any court of competent jurisdiction, for the use of such town.

SEC. 15. If any person shall bring and leave any poor and indigent person in any town in this state, wherein such pauper is not lawfully settled, unless by an order of removal made by a town council in this state, knowing him to be poor and indigent, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of one hundred dollars for every such offence; to be sued for and recovered in an action of debt by the town treasurer, to and for the use of such town.

SEC. 16. If any master or other person having charge of any vessel, shall bring into and land or suffer to be landed in any place within this state, any person before that time convicted in any other state or in any foreign country of any infamous crime, or of any crime for which he hath been sentenced to transportation, knowing of such conviction or having reason to suspect it; or any person of a notoriously dissolute, infamous and abandoned life and character, knowing him