work done, supplies, or materials furnished by mechanics, tradesmen and others, for or on account of or towards the building, repairing, fitting, furnishing, or equipping such steamboat, or engine, tackle, or furniture, shall be liable for the same, and the proceedings on all these liabilities shall be in rem. Chap. 1088, § 1.

The second and third sections of the same statute provide for the remedy and the proceedings in the cases specified in the first. The third section gives a remedy in rem against steamboats for injuries to other steamboats, flat boats, and other craft, in consequence of trespass or negligence.

The fifth section provides, that the liens given by the act shall not be enforced against a purchaser without actual notice, unless suit is instituted within a year from the accrual of the cause of action.

Reversionary legatees. Persons having a life-estate in slaves are required to file the names of such slaves with their ages, once in every year, in the clerk's office of the county within which they reside, to be recorded therein. Chap. 1174.

Duel. When any person shall be killed in a duel, either within or without the state, and shall leave a wife and minor children, or either of them, the latter may have an action of trespass against the principal, and all concerned, in the duel; in which action, the jury is authorized to give vindictive damages. Any of the parties concerned in the duel may be left out of the writ, and used as witnesses. Chap. 1214.

Attachments and absconding debtors. All the laws on these subjects are reduced into one. Chap. 1294.

LOUISIANA. The fourteenth legislature of this state, at the first session thereof, held in the months of January, February, and March last, passed sixty-eight statutes, and several joint resolutions. Among these legislative proceedings, we find very little of general interest.

Commercial court of New Orleans. A court by this name is established, to be held by one judge, at such place within the city of New Orleans, as he shall appoint. The salary of the judge is

fixed at five thousand dollars. This court is to have concurrent jurisdiction with the parish court of the parish and city of New Orleans, except in certain enumerated cases. No. 17.

Betting on elections is prohibited under the penalty of not less than the amount or value staked, nor more than double the same. No. 39.

Code of practice. The governor is authorized to purchase five hundred copies of the new edition of the code of practice, proposed to be published by E. Johns & Co., at a price not exceeding six dollars a copy; provided he shall be satisfied with the manner of the execution of the work. No. 52.

The code of practice is also amended in several particulars. No. 53.

RHODE ISLAND. A pamphlet before us contains the public laws of the "state of Rhode Island and Providence plantations," passed since January, 1837, and including February, 1839. The most important of these is the "act concerning

Crimes and punishments," passed February 3, 1838, which, in eleven chapters, embraces the whole statute law on the subject of crimes and punishments. It cannot be called a penal code, inasmuch as it contains but a part of the criminal law. The definitions of the several offences made punishable thereby must still be sought in the vast abyss of the common law; and it is further expressly provided, that every act or omission, which is an offence at common law, and for which no punishment is provided by the act, may be prosecuted and punished as an offence at common law; but, in all such cases, the punishment, when by imprisonment, must be for less than a year, and, when by fine, cannot exceed one thousand dollars.

This statute is the same, without any material alteration, we believe, which was reported by commissioners appointed to revise the penal code of Rhode Island, and adapt it to penitentiary punishments, whose labors we noticed in our nineteenth volume. The penal code of Rhode Island provides the punishment of death only in the case of murder.

MARYLAND. The general assembly of this state, at their last session, which commenced December 30, 1838, and terminated April 6, 1839, passed four hundred and eighteen statutes, and eighty-five resolutions.

Power of attorney. One partner is authorized to make and seal, in the name of the partnership, a power of attorney to transfer stock standing in the name of the firm. The instrument must be acknowledged. Chap. 49.

Fugitive slaves. The escape of a slave out of the state, is made punishable, as a felony. Chap. 63.

Slander. All words spoken maliciously touching the character or reputation for chastity of any female (if a married woman, spoken subsequent to the marriage, and in relation to her character previous thereto) and tending to the injury thereof, are to be deemed slanderous, and treated as such. Chap. 114.

Mechanic's lien. Every building erected within the city of Baltimore is subjected to a lien for the payment of all debts contracted for work done, or materials furnished for or about the erection or construction of the same. Chap. 205.

Manufacturing and mining corporations. By the first section of chapter 267, it is provided, that all companies thereafter incorporated for the purposes of manufacturing, or for the purposes of exploring and mining for gold, coal, copper, iron, or other minerals, shall be established with the rights and privileges, and under the rules, regulations and restrictions contained in the act. The subsequent sections set forth the rules and regulations referred to.

Physicians. An act "to authorize the Thomsonians or botanic physicians to charge and receive compensation for their services and medicine," provides, that every citizen of the state may charge and receive compensation for his services and medicines, in the same manner as physicians are authorized to do. Chap. 281.

Betting on elections is prohibited under a penalty of not less than fifty or more than five hundred dollars. Chap. 392.

Constitution. An amendment of the constitution is proposed, which provides that all future sessions of the general assembly

shall close on the tenth day of March in each year, or sooner. Chap. 411.

Revised laws. A resolution, passed March 5, 1839, authorizes the treasurer of the western shore to subscribe for one thousand copies of the revised code of laws, "proposed to be published" by the Hon. Clement Dorsey, at ten dollars a copy; "provided the work shall be approved of by two persons, to be designated by the governor, without any expense to the state for such revision, or examination, and also that the work shall be published and printed in chronological order, with a copious index, including the public statutory law of the state, with the public local law appended thereto, and arranged among the counties in alphabetical order." No. 28.

NEW YORK. The legislature of this state, at the 62d session thereof, begun and held in January 1839, passed three hundred and ninety statutes, very few of which are of a public or general character.

Apothecaries in the city of New York. No person is allowed to commence or practise, in the city of New York, the business of an apothecary, or that of preparing and dispensing medicine, or of preparing or putting up physicians' prescriptions, without previously obtaining a diploma from the college of pharmacy of the city of New York, or from some other regularly constituted school of pharmacy or medicine, or a certificate of his qualifications for the business of an apothecary, from the censors of the medical society of some county in the state. Chap. 67.

Speed of steamboats. If the captain or person in charge of any steamboat, navigating any waters within the jurisdiction of the state, and used for the conveyance of passengers, or if the engineer or other person, in charge of the boiler of such boat, or of any other apparatus for the generation of steam, shall, for the purpose of excelling any other boat in speed, or for the purpose of increasing the speed of such boat, create or allow to be created an undue or an unsafe quantity of steam, every such captain, engineer, or other person, shall be deemed guilty of a misde

meanor, and, for such offence, forfeit the sum of five hundred dollars. Chap. 175.

Duties of judges. No judge shall directly or indirectly take any part in the decision of any cause or question, which shall be brought or defended in the court of which he is a judge, by any person with whom he shall be interested or connected as a partner in any other court. Chap. 303.

Chancery proceedings. An act passed April 18, 1838, "to regulate the trial by jury and the taking of testimony in chancery," of which we gave an abstract in our last October number, (vol. xx, p. 196), is repealed, and provision made to effect the same general objects, in a somewhat different manner, by chapter 317. Fugitives from justice. This subject is one of so general importance, that we publish the statute (chap. 350,) at length:

§ 1. The officers, respectively specified in section first of title second of chapter second of part fourth of the revised statutes, shall have power to issue process for the apprehension of a person charged in any other state or territory of the United States with treason, felony or other crime, who shall flee from justice and be found within this state.

2. The proceedings shall be in all respects similar to those under title second, chapter second, part fourth of the revised statutes, for the arrest and commitment of persons committing offences within this state.

3. If, from such examination, it shall satisfactorily appear, that such person has committed a criminal offence and is a fugitive from justice, such magistrate by warrant, reciting the accusation, shall commit such fugitive from justice to the common jail, there to be detained, for such time to be specified in said warrant, as the said magistrate shall deem reasonable to enable such fugitive to be arrested, by virtue of the warrant of the executive of this state, issued according to the act of congress, upon the requisition of the executive authority of the state or territory in which such fugitive committed such offence, unless such person shall give bail as this act is provided for, or until he shall be discharged according to law.