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company armed and uniformed under the provisions of this chapter, to furnisd to each one of the regular members of such company, once in every year, a certificate of membership, which shall entitle such member to exemption from the commutation charge for that year. If any member of such company shall have served seven years, a certificate to that effect shall be given him by the commandant of such company, upon the application of such member, which shall have the effect provided in the chapter next preceding.

SEC. 20. Volunteer companies, armed and uniformed under the provisions of this chapter, shall be formed into regiments and brigades, separate from the ununiformed militia, under the direction of the commanding officer of the militia of this District. The captains and lieutenants of each volunteer company composing a regiment shall nominate the regimental officers, who shall be appointed and commissioned by the President of the United States, if approved of by him. Each company in any such election shall have one vote. The regimental officers of each uniformed regiment composing a brigade shall nominate a brigadier general, who shall be appointed and commissioned by the President of the United States, if approved of by him. Any person not subject to enrolment and the performance of military duty may be nominated, appointed, and commissioned. under this section.

SEC. 21. Majors general, brigadiers general, and commanding officers of regiments or separate battalions, may appoint the staff officers of their respective divisions, brigades, regiments, or separate battalions.

SEC. 22. Any officer who shall be guilty of disobedience of orders, of a neglect of duty required of him, or of misconduct on duty, or who shall at any time be guilty of conduct unbecoming the character of an officer, shall be subject to arrest by his commanding officer, and to be tried by a court-martial; and for the regulation of the proceed. ings of such courts-martial, the rules now or hereafter to be established by the President of the United States or the War Department for the regulation or government of courts-martial in the army or militia of the United States, are hereby established, so far as practicable, for the militia of this District. Courts-martial may censure, cashier, or acquit such arrested officer.

SEC. 23. If any bystander at any muster or meeting of any company or corps, or board of officers, shall interrupt, molest, or insult

any officer or soldier while on duty, or encroach upon any parade ground, the commanding officer of such company, or corps, or board, may cause him to be arrested and carried before a justice of the peace, who may fine any such offender a sum not exceeding ten dollars.

SEC. 24. The board mentioned in section ten of chapter fourteen may prescribe all regulations not herein provided, necessary for an efficient organization of the uniformed militia, provided the same are not inconsistent with the laws of the United States or of this District.

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SECTION 1. All fences five feet high, and in good repair, and all rivers, creeks, ditches, and hedges equivalent thereto, shall be deemed lawful fences.

SEC. 2. The respective occupants of lands enclosed with fences shall keep up and maintain partition fences between their own and the next adjoining enclosures, in equal shares, so long as both parties continue to improve or use the same, unless otherwise agreed between them.

SEC. 3. If the owner or occupant of any land shall have made a fence upon the line dividing said land from the adjoining land of another person, and the latter person shall desire to use the said fence, or any part thereof as part of his enclosure, it shall not be lawful for him so to do, or to join his fence thereto, until he shall have paid to the other party one-half the value of such fence at the time he shall so wish to use the same, or one-half the value of so much thereof as he shall so wish to use. If the parties cannot agree as to such value, each

party may choose an arbitrator, and, if necessary, such arbitrators may choose a third disinterested party, and the award of any two of them, ascertaining the value, and designating what part of said fence shall belong to the party desiring to use the same, shall be final. If said party desiring to use such fence shall use the same without paying therefor what is properly due from him, the other party may recover such sum by action.

SEC. 4. When any party shall cease to improve or use his land, or shall lay open his enclosure, he shall not take away any part of a fence which forms a partition fence between him and the enclosure of any other person, if the owner or occupant thereof will pay to such party the reasonable value of so much of said partition fence as belongs to him.

SEC. 5. If any domestic animal shall break into any grounds enclosed by a lawful fence, the owner of any such animal shall be liable to the owner or occupant of any such grounds for any damages sustained; and for every succeeding trespass as aforesaid by such animal, the owner thereof shall be liable for double damages. And after having given at least five days' notice to the owner of said animal, or to the agent of such owner, of the fact of two previous trespasses, the owner or occupier of such grounds shall be entitled to such animal if it be found again trespassing as aforesaid on such grounds.

SEC. 6. If any person, without permission of the owner, but not feloniously, shall take away any boat or other vessel; or shall take up any horse, mare, or gelding, not trespassing as aforesaid, or estray, shall forfeit to the owner ten dollars, and also be liable to an action for damages.

SEC. 7. No swine, goat, or goose, or other domestic fowl, shall be suffered to go at large; any person may kill, or cause to be killed, any such animal coming without his consent upon his premises.

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SECTION 1. When any person owning lands on one side of and adjoining any water course, the bed whereof, in whole or in part, belongs to him, desires to build a mill, or other machine useful to the public, on such land, and to erect a dam across or in such water course, for working said mill, or other machine, if he shall not own the land on the opposite side against which he would abut his dam, he may make application to the circuit court, having given ten days' notice to the proprietor thereof, if he be found in this District, or to his agent therein, if any he has, for a commission to three disinterested freeholders, to examine the land proposed for the abutment; to locate one acre thereof, and appraise the same at its true value; to examine the lands above and below, being the property of other persons than the applicant, which may probably be overflowed, and to say what damage the several proprietors will suffer, and whether the dwelling-house of any such proprietor, or the outhouses, yard, garden, or orchards belonging thereto, will be overflowed or taken; and to inquire whether, and in what degree, ordinary navigation and the passage of fish will be obstructed; whether and by what means such obstruction may be prevented; and whether, in their opinion,

the health of the neighborhood will be injured by the stagnation of the waters, or otherwise.

SEC. 2. Such commission shall be issued and executed accordingly, the commissioners having first each taken an oath to execute and return the same, with a true report of their proceedings thereon, to the circuit court, and having given reasonable notice to all parties. interested of the time when they would proceed to execute the same.

SEC. 3. Upon the return of such commission, the circuit court shall direct all the parties interested to be summoned to show cause, if any they should have, why the party applying therefor should not have leave to build the said mill, or machine, and dam, and to have condemnation of said acre of land.

SEC. 4. In like manner, if the person proposing to build such mill, or machine, and dam, shall own the land on both sides of such water course, application shall be made to the circuit court for a like commission, except as to the location and appraisement of the acre of land for an abutment; which commission shall be issued, executed, returned, and proceeded upon as aforesaid.

SEC. 5. If, upon the report of the commissioners, or by other evidence, it should appear to the circuit court that the dwelling-house of any person other than the applicant, or the outhouses, yard, garden, or orchards thereto belonging, will be overflowed or taken, or that the health of the neighbors will be injured, the said court shall not give leave to build said mill, or machine, and dam. But if it should not so appear, the said court shall then grant or refuse the leave as may seem to it proper. If it be granted, the said court shall lay the applicant under such terms and conditions as shall seem to it right.

SEC. 6. The applicant to whom any such leave may be granted shall, upon paying to the several parties entitled thereto the compensation so ascertained, become seized in fee simple of the acre of land so located, and be authorized to proceed according to such leave.

SEC. 7. No person shall, by means of any such leave, draw the water from any mill pond of another, existing at the time of such leave, or do any thing in conflict with any vested right in any water works erected on such water course.

SEC. 8. If the applicant shall not begin his work within one year, and so far finish it within three years, after such leave, as then to

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