SECTION 1. Washington City and Georgetown shall continue to have and exercise all the powers and privileges, and be subject to all the duties and liabilities, mentioned in the several acts of the State of Maryland, and of the Congress of the United States, now in force, specially relating to said cities, unless where otherwise expressly provided. Nothing in this Code contained shall be construed to repeal or impair the existing charters of said cities, or the laws passed by the State of Maryland, or by the Congress of the United States, now in force, specially relating to said cities, or either of them, unless so expressly declared.

SEC. 2. The corporation of Washington shall contribute one-half of the expenses incurred by the levy court of the county of Washington, on account of the orphans' court of this District, and for opening and repairing, in that part of said county which lies outside of Washington City and east of Rock creek, the roads which lead directly to said city of Washington.

SEC. 3. The corporation of Georgetown shall contribute one-fourth part of the expenses incurred by the said levy court on account of the orphans' court of this District, and one-half of the expenses of opening and repairing, in that part of said county of Washington which lies outside of Georgetown and west of Rock creek, the roads which lead to Georgetown.

SEC. 4. The corporation of Washington shall forever keep in good repair, and at the expense of said corporation, the bridge over Rock creek, at the western termination of K street in said city.

SEC. 5. The corporation of Georgetown shall forever keep in good repair, and at the expense of said corporation, the bridge over Rock creek, at the eastern termination of Bridge street in said Georgetown. SEC. 6. The corporations of Washington City and Georgetown, jointly or separately, may erect permanent bridges across Rock creek at such sites as may be determined upon. If it should be necessary to obtain private property on which to fix the abutments, and the corporation attempting such bridge cannot agree with the owner for the purchase of said property, the same proceedings, as near as may be, may be had for the condemnation of such private property, as is provided in chapter ten for the condemnation of land for the purposes of a public road; and to that end, the mayor of such corporation shall proceed as the levy court is therein directed.

FIRE COMPANIES.

SEC. 7. The fire companies of Washington City and Georgetown now formed, and those which hereafter may be formed in said cities, shall severally have power to frame their own constitutions, adopt by-laws for their regulation, and elect their own officers.

SEC. 8. The officers and members of fire companies shall be exempt from the performance of military duty in time of peace, so long as they continue actively as such; provided, however, that no company possessing an apparatus of the value of five hundred dollars shall exempt more than seventy-five persons; and no company possessing an apparatus of the value of one thousand dollars and upward shall exempt more than one hundred persons.

SEC. 9. No company now or hereafter formed shall be deemed a fire company within the meaning of the sections of this chapter relating to fire companies, unless it shall first obtain a fire apparatus of the value of at least five hundred dollars.

SEC. 10. The corporate authorities of Washington City and Georgetown shall each, annually, appoint an inspector of fire engines, whose duty it shall be to examine into the conditions of the fire apparatus belonging to each fire company in his city, at least once in every month, and to report its state to a fire department, to be composed of the presidents of the fire companies of his city, who are hereby constituted a fire department for that purpose, to sit monthly at the town house of the city to which they belong.

SEC. 11. If the inspector shall report that the fire apparatus of any fire company is so defective, or out of repair, as to be of less value than five hundred dollars, or unfit for service, and the company whose apparatus shall be thus reported to be so depreciated in value, or out of repair, shall permit the same to continue so for one calendar month, said company shall thereupon forfeit all the rights, privileges, and immunities granted by the sections of this chapter relating to fire companies, and it shall be the duty of said inspector to communicate such fact to the assessors of the city to which such company may belong.

SEC. 12. Each fire company shall have power to enforce obedience to its constitution and by-laws by fine and forfeiture, and to collect all such fines by warrant, to be issued by a justice of the peace in the city where such company belongs, in the name of such company.

SEC. 13. The certificate of the president of any fire company, that a member has been fined for disobedience to the constitution or bylaws of the company, attested by the secretary of such company, shall be sufficient evidence upon which the said justice may issue his warrant. Such justice, after having the party so charged before him, and upon the production of the record of the fine, proved by the secretary, shall enter up judgment against such party, and issue execution accordingly.

SEC. 14. If any fire company shall expel any member thereof, such expelled member shall forfeit all the rights, privileges, and immunities of a member of a fire company, and it shall be the duty of the secretary of the company from which he shall be expelled, immediately to inform the assessors within whose limits said expelled member shall reside, that he has been so expelled.

SEC. 15. Every sum of money collected by virtue of sections twelve and thirteen of this chapter, shall be paid over, by the officer or other person collecting the same, to the treasurer of the fire company in the name of which the warrant shall have been issued, or the money collected. If such officer or other person shall fail to pay over the same, said treasurer may recover it, and twenty per cent. damages, before any justice, in his own name, for the use of his fire company.

SEC. 16. Every fire company shall provide a fund for the relief of the indigent members of such company who may receive corporeal hurt, or contract disease at, or in consequence of, any fire, and for the relief of the indigent families of members who may be killed at, or die in consequence of any injury received, or disease contracted at, or in consequence of, any fire. The treasurer of each company shall, after having paid all the expenses which his company shall lawfully have incurred, pay over to said fund the residue of all fines collected by virtue of the foregoing provisions.

SEC. 17. Nothing in the sections of this chapter relating to fire companies, shall be construed to interfere with the right of the corporate authorities of Washington City and Georgetown, severally, to provide for the prevention and extinguishment of fires. Each of the said corporate authorities shall have full power and lawful authority to make all necessary provisions for the prevention and extinguishment of fires; for the preservation of order and protection of prop

erty at any fire; for the removal from any fire of suspicious persons, and those who are disobedient to the regulations of the said corporations, severally; for the punishment, by fine and imprisonment, of such persons as, being present at, refuse to assist and obey the commands of the proper officer in extinguishing any fire; for the removal of such property in the vicinity of fires as may be necessary to be removed; to prevent and arrest the progress of any fires; to aid, protect, and obtain obedience to the officers in command of the several fire companies, and to protect the members thereof while in the discharge of their duty at any fire.

SUBDIVISIONS OF SQUARES AND LOTS IN WASHINGTON CITY.

SEC. 18. Whenever the proprietor of any square or lot in Washington City shall deem it necessary to subdivide such square or lot into convenient building lots, pieces or portions for sale and occupancy, and alleys for their accommodation, he may cause a plat of the same to be made, on which shall be expressed the dimensions and length of all the lines of such portions as are necessary for defining and laying off the same on the ground, and may certify each subdivision under his hand and seal, in the presence of two or more credible witnesses, upon the same plat, or on a paper or parchment attached thereto.

SEC. 19. At the request of said proprietor, the surveyor of said city shall examine whether the lots, pieces, or parcels, into which any square or lot may be subdivided as aforesaid, agree in dimensions with the whole of the square or lot so intended to be subdivided, and whether the dimensions expressed on the plat of subdivision be the true dimensions of the parts so expressed. If, upon such examination, he shall find the plat correct, he shall certify the same under his hand and seal, with such remarks as appear to him necessary for the further illustration thereof, and record the said plat, as examined, in a book or books to be kept for that purpose.

SEC. 20. When such subdivision of any square or lot shall be so certified, examined, and recorded, the purchaser of any part thereof, or any person interested therein, may refer to the said plat and record for description, in the same manner as to squares and lots divided between the commissioners and the original proprietors; and the ways, alleys, or passages, laid out or expressed on such plat of subdivision, shall be and remain to the public, or subject to the uses

declared by the person making such subdivision, at all times, under the same police regulations as the alleys laid off by the commissioners on division with the proprietors.

SEC. 21. Whenever the said surveyor shall lay off any lot in said city, or any of the parts into which a square or lot may be subdivided as aforesaid, he shall measure the whole of that front of the square on which such lot or part lies; and if, on such admeasurement, the whole front of the square exceeds or falls short of the aggregate of the fronts of the lots on that side of the square, he shall apportion such excess or deficiency among the lots or pieces on that front agreeably to their respective dimensions. Whenever, on such admeasurement, the wall of a house, previously erected by any proprietor, shall appear to stand on the adjoining lot of any other person in part less than seven inches in width thereon, such wall shall be considered as standing altogether on the land of such proprietor, who shall pay to the owner of the lot on which the wall may stand, a reasonable price for the ground so occupied, to be decided by arbitrators or a jury, as the parties interested may agree. But if the wall of any house, already erected, cover seven inches or more in width of the adjoining lot, it shall be deemed a party wall, according to the regulations for building in said city as promulgated by the President of the United States; and the ground so occupied, more than seven inches in width, shall be paid for as above; which fact the said surveyor shall ascertain and certify, and put on record, at the request and expense of any person interested therein.

SEC. 22. It shall be the duty of the said surveyor to attend, when requested, and examine the foundation or walls of any house to be erected, when the same shall be level with the street or surface of the ground, for the purpose of adjusting the line of the front of such building to the line of the street, and correctly placing the party wall on the line of division between that and the adjoining lot; and his certificate of the fact shall be admitted as evidence, and binding on the parties interested.

SEC. 23. The said surveyor shall be authorized to receive from the persons for whom he shall perform said services, the following fees: For examining the plat and calculations of any subdivision of a square or lot, twelve and a half cents for each of the lots or portions into which it may be subdivided; provided that no more shall be paid for