COMPENDIUM AND DIGEST OF THE LAWS OF. MASSACHUSETTS. BY WILLIAM CHARLES WHITE, Counsellor at Law. MISERA SERVITUS EST, URI JUS EST VAGUM, AUT INCOGNITUM " VOL. 1....PART II. BOSTON: PRINTED BY THOMAS B. WAIT & Co. Court-street. 1809. 2. U.S. A 13 d6 DISTRICT OF MASSACHUSETTS, TO WIT: BE it remembered, That on the seventeenth day of July in the thirty-fourth year of the Independence of the United States of America, WILLIAM CHARLES WHITE, of the said district, has deposited in this office the title of a book, the right whereof he claims as author, in the words following, to wit: "A COMPENDIUM and DIGEST of the LAWS OF MASSACHUSETTS, By WILLIAM CHARLES WHITE, Counsellor at Law. "Misera servitus est, ubi jus est vagum, aut incognitum." Vol. I....Part II. In conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, intitled, "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such copies, during the times therein mentioned ;" and also to an act intitled, “An act supplementary to an act, intitled, an act for the encouragement of learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the authors and proprietors of such copies during the times therein mentioned; and extending the benefits thereof to the Arts of Designing, Engraving, and Etching Historical, and other Prints." WILLIAM S. SHAW, Clerk of the District of Massachusetts. DIGEST OF THE Laws of Massachusetts. TITLE XVIII. ATTORNEY GENERAL, SOLICITOR GENERAL, 9. How the attorney rals are appointed. Stat. 1800, c. 29, sec. 1. THE attorney general and solicitor general are appointed Const. c. 2. sec. 1. art, by the governor by and with the consent of the council; and solicitor geneduring whose pleasure they hold their respective offices. The business of advocating suits and prosecutions in be- Stat. 1799, c. 82, sec. t. half of the commonwealth is equally participated by these officers; they have similar powers and duties, and are allowed precisely the same compensation, each having a Stat. 1789, c. 45, sec. 1. salary of one thousand dollars per annum, payable quarterly. To enable the supreme judicial court to perform its Stat. 1799, c. 82, sea 2. increased business, the commonwealth (except the county of Suffolk) is divided into two circuits, called the eastern and western circuits. The former comprehends the county of Essex and all the counties in the District of Maine, and the latter comprehends all the other counties in the commonwealth, except the county of Suffolk. The present solicitor general transacts the business of the commonwealth in the eastern circuit, and the attorney general in the western circuit. But besides these general powers and duties which are necessarily and inseparably incident to their office, they Fees of attorney and solicitor general. 2, and 1800, c. 29, sec. 2. have certain specific powers and duties particularly pointed out by statute. And 1. In all bills of costs, in criminal prosecutions, before Stat. 1789, c. 45, sec. the supreme judicial court, the sum of two dollars and fifty cents shall be taxed for the fees of the attorney general, without any allowance of travel. The same fees must be taxed by the solicitor general, in all cases wherein he acts. But this sum cannot be taxed by both Fees to be annually officers, in the same bill. All fees thus received by either the treasurer of the of these officers must be annually accounted for with the treasurer of the commonwealth. accounted for with commonwealth. Attorney general and county attorneys clerks of courts in certain cases. 2. The attorney general and county attorneys are didirected to prosecute rected to prosecute for all fines and forfeitures incurred by clerks of courts for any breach of the statute of 1783, c. 44, s. 2. This breach consists in their not returning into the office of the treasurer of the state, within fifty days after the end of their courts respectively, a certificate of all fines, amercements, issues and forfeitures, arising or imposed to the use of the commonwealth. 3. The attorney general is directed to prosecute for the penalty which is provided by the statute of 1791, c. 53, s. 5, against any county treasurer who does not make out and transmit under oath, to the treasurer of the commonwealth, his account, in the manner and within the time directed by law. County treasurers to be prosecuted in certain cases. Stat. 1791, c. 59, sec. 4. Bond of the treasurer of the commonwealth to be sued in certain cases. Stat. 1798, c. 43, sec. 1. Inquest of office. 4. The attorney general may, in behalf of the commonwealth, upon the order of the governor and council, or of the general court, commence any action upon any bond of the treasurer and receiver general; and pursue the same to final judgment, execution and satisfaction. 5. When it shall be found by the attorney general, that there are any lands, tenements or hereditaments, which, for want of legal heirs, have accrued to the commonwealth; in such case, it shall be his duty to prosecute a suit by inquest of office in the supreme judicial court, in the county wherein such estate is situated, in order to cause the commonwealth to become seized thereof. It is also provided by statute, that in all cases where lands, tenements, or hereditaments have been granted, or confirmed by the late province or colony of Massachusetts Bay, or by this commonwealth, on certain conditions in such grants or confirmations mentioned, and the commonwealth shall claim to be revested in the same, for the breach of one or more of the said conditions, an inquest of office shall thereupon be taken, in the supreme judicial court, in the county where the estate lies. It is hardly necessary here to observe that the duties above enumerated as belonging to the attorney general, belong also to the solicitor general. Besides the attorney and solicitor general, there is in each county an officer called the county attorney, whose business it is to manage prosecutions in behalf of the commonwealth, in the common pleas. These officers were formerly appointed by the respective courts in which they acted; but now, by virtue of a late statute, they are appointed by the governor and council. Stat. 1791, c. 13, sec. 1. County attorneys. By this statute, it is enacted, that the attorneys for the commonwealth, in the several counties, shall be ap-1807, c. 18, sec. 1. pointed, commissioned and sworn, in the same manner as the attorney general and solicitor general are; and it shall be the duty of the said county attorneys, within. Power and duty of their proper counties, to appear and act in behalf of the county attorneys. commonwealth, and of their said counties respectively, in all cases in which the commonwealth or a county may be a party, in the courts of common pleas, the municipal court, and the supreme judicial court, in the absence of the attorney general and solicitor general, and in such other prosecutions in behalf of the commonwealth, as may be pointed out to them by instructions from the attorney general or solicitor general; Provided, that the attorney general, when present, and, in his absence, the solicitor general, if present, shall, in any court, have the direction and controul of prosecutions and suits in behalf of the commonwealth; and, provided also, that |