hood; the substance of which examination shall be put into writing, and be subscribed by the person so examined, or if he cannot sign, mention will be made of that circumstance; and the said examination shall likewise be signed by the justices, or one of them and by them transmitted to the clerk of the county or superior court, at the end of the writings, to be there filed and kept on record; and if such person shall not make it appear to such justice that he has a lawful way of getting his livelihood, or shall not procure some responsible house-keeper to appear to his character; and to give security for his appearance before such justice, or before the said county court, at some day to be fixed by the said justices, it shall be lawful for the said justices to commit such person to some prison or house of correction for any time not exceeding fifteen days; and in the mean time the said justices shall order that an advertisement be inserted at the expense of the state, in two of the public papers of the city of New Orleans, if the vagabond is arrested in the county of Orleans, in the English and French languages, mentioning the name, sirname, age, native place, residence and description of such suspicious individual arrested and imprisoned, the motives of his arrest, the articles which may have been found upon him, and which he shall be suspected not to have come honestly by, the place to which he is committed, and the time and place when and where such person is to be brought again to be examined before the said justices or before the county court. But if said vagabond is not arrested in the county of Orleans, the said advertisement as aforesaid, shall be posted up at the church door or at any other convenient public place.

SEC. 6. At the expiration of the time granted by the said jus tices, the individuals arrested and committed as expressed in the foregoing section, shall be conducted again before them, or before the county court of the place of such commitment, and if no charge of crime or offence is brought against them, they shall be discharged and set at liberty; but if they are found to be in any of the cases mentioned in the second and third sections of this act, they shall be condemned to the punishment therein expressed, accord ing to the circumstances, and at the discretion of the said justices or of the county court; in which county court the prosecution shall be made on a simple information, filed by the person acting in the capacity of public prosecutor in such county.

SEC. 7. If the vagrant or suspicious person thus convicted, be found to have effects sufficient to pay all, or part of the expense of his arrest, the said justices of the peace or judge of the county, may order the same to be sold and employed for that puspose up to that amount; the balance to be returned to the offender.

SEC. 8. Persons harbouring vagrants or suspicious persons, knowing them to be such, shall, upon, conviction, be fined in a sum not exceeding five hundred dollars, nor less than one hundred dollars, and be condemned to pay the whole expense accruing to the state.

SEC. 9. Women convicted to be vagabonds or suspicious persons. shall be liable, as men, to imprisonment.

SEC. 10. All fines accruing by virtue of the present act, shall be recovered at the expense of the county, before any justice of the peace or the judge of the county; according to the amount, of such fines, and the order of competency between the said justices.

SEC. 11. No individual shall be suffered to beg within the extent of the parish where he dwells, without an express permission, signed by two justices of the peace of the parish, and granted upon the certificate of two credible housekeepers, testifying to the good conduct and morals of such individual, and that on account of his age or his infirmities, he is disabled from working; and the said permission. shall not be extended beyond the limits of the said parish, otherwise the beggar shall be deemed a vagabond and treated as such.

SEC. 12. In all cases where any person may be sentenced to any punishment under this act, the judge of each county, save the county of Orleans, where such person shall have been convicted, and the of the city of New Orleans, shall have power to discharge mayor the person so sentenced from such punishment, on such person giving bond, with one or more good and sufficient sureties, in a sum to be fixed by the said judge or mayor, according to the nature of the case, conditioned that the person so sentenced will depart and forever remain out of the state: provided however, that such sureties shall only be responsible in case such person shall not depart out of the state within the time specified in said bond, and in case the person so convicted and sentenced, as aforesaid, shall be found at large within the state, after the time mentioned in said bond for departing the state, such person shall be liable to his former sentence, and moreover, to one year imprisonment at hard labor in addition thereto.

SEC. 13. Whenever any person shall, on conviction, be sentenced under this act to imprisonment at hard labor, it shall be the duty of the sheriff of the county in which such conviction shall have been had to carry such sentence into execution: pre however, that such sheriff shall have power, by and with the vice and consent of a justice of the peace of said county, to bind out such person so sentenced as aforesaid, to any house holder in the county, to serve at hard labor during the term of time for which he shall have been sentenced to imprisonment: provided moreover, that said sheriff shall take sufficient security, to be approved of by a justice of the peace of the county, for the good behaviour of such convict, and for the payment of the costs and fines to which such convict may be liable, which shall be recovered by the sheriff, and accounted for as by this act is provided.

SEC. 14. The power given to the sheriff in the preceeding section, shall be exercised in the city of New Orleans only by and with the consent of the mayor of the said city.

March 16, 1818, M. D. II, p 512.

SEC. 1. Every master of any ship or vessel arriving from a foreign country, or from any other of the United States, who shall enter his vessel at the custom house in the city of New Orleans, shall, within twenty-four hours after such entry, make a report in writing, on oath, to the mayor, or in case of sickness or absence, to the recorder of the said city, of the name, age, occupation and means of subsistence of every person who shall have been brought as a passenger in such ship or vessel on her last voyage, upon pain of forfeiting for every neglect or omission to make such report, the sum of one hundred dollars for every alien, and the sum of fifty dollars for every other person neglected to be so reported as aforesaid.

SEC. 2. It shall be lawful for the said mayor, or in case of his sickness or absence. for the said recorder, to require every such master of such ship or vessel to be bound with two sufficient sureties to the state of Louisiana, in such sum as the said mayor or recorder may think proper, not exceeding three hundred dollars for each passenger, in case such passenger shall at any time within two years thereafter, become a vagrant, according to the meaning and definition contained in the first section of the act to which this is a supplement, or be found guilty of any crime, misdemeanor, or breach of the peace; and if such person so brought as aforesaid, and not being a citizen of the United States, shall be permitted or suffered to land within the said city or in any other part within the state, from any such ship or vessel, before such bond shall have been given, and without a permission in writing from the said mayor or recorder, the master or commander of such ship or vessel shall be subject to the penalty of two hundred and fifty dollars for every person so suffered or permitted to land as aforesaid.

SEC. 3. Before granting the said written permission, it shall be the duty of the said mayor or recorder, to cause every alien who may have been a passenger in any such slip or vessel, to be brought before him, to examine every such alien upon oath, as to his name and sirname, native country, last place of residence, occupation, trade, and means of subsistence, and also to take the description of the person of said alien, as accurately as possible, so as to be able to identify him in case of necessisy, and at any time within the two years thereafter, which examination and description shall be taken down in writing, on a book kept for that purpose, and signed by the party, upon pain for every alien who shall refuse to submit to these formalities, of forfeiting the sum of two hundred dollars, and of being re-transported out of this state in the same ship or vessel.

SEC. 4. If any person who may have been a passenger in any such ship or vessel, and not being a citizen of the United States, shall be suffered to land from any such ship or vessel, at any place whatever, with intent to proceed to the said city, otherwise than in the said ship or vessel; the master or commander thereof shall be

liable to the like penalty of two hundred and fifty dollars for every such person so suffered or permitted to land.

SEC. 5. If any householder in the city and suburbs of New Orleans, shall knowingly entertain in his house or family any alien so landed as aforesaid, and shall not report such alien to the said mayor or recordor, within twenty-four hours after such entertainment commenced, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of one hundred dollars for every such alien so entertained.

SEC. 6. All and singular the said penalties and forfeitures arising in the said city and suburbs, shall and may be sued and recovered with full costs of suit, by action of debt in the district court, of the first judicial district, in the name of the state, and when recovered shall be applied towards the support of the charity hospital, and the defendant in every such suit, shall be held to a special bail, and upon every such trial for any penalty or forfeiture supposed to be incurred by the landing of any such alien passenger as aforesaid, the same landing shall be presumed unless the defendant shall prove that the said person was taken or sent to some foreign country without having been suffered to land as aforesaid.

SEC, 7. Whenever it shall satisfactorily appear to the said mayor or recorder, from any substantial document, other than a common passport, duly authenticated by the American consul, residing in the port of departure of any said ship or vessel, that any alien passenger on said ship or vessel is of good moral character, and an active and useful mechanic, it shall be lawful for the said mayor or recorder to dispense the master or commander of the ship or vessel in which' such an alien, being the bearer of such authenticated document, may have been a passenger, with the bond and securities mentioned in the second section of this act.

SEC. 8. In and for the county of Orleans, the district court shall be vested with all and singular the powers and jurisdiction which by the act to which this is a supplement were vested in the justices of the peace and mayor of New Orleans, aud it shall be the duty of the attorney general of the state in said county, to prosecute by information before said court, every person or persons coming under or within any of the provisions of said act: Provided however, that nothing in this section contained shall be so construed as to prevent the sectional justices of the peace and mayor of the city of New Orleans from arresting or causing to be arrested, any vagrant or vagrants, or taking any preparitory measures which they may deem advisable, to bring said vagrant or vagrants to trial.

SEC. 9. Five hundred copies of this act, and of the act to which it is a supplement, shall be caused to be printed and delivered by order of the governor of this state, to the pilots at the Balize, and to the collector, the harbour master, and the wardons of this port, to be by them shown to masters or captains of vessels.

The several crimes mentioned by the statutes of this state being expounded, we now come to the second branch of our subject, namely, the precaution which the law takes against the perpetration of crimes, and the manner of prosecuting to convict those who commit them. With respect indeed to the prevention of crimes there are but few provisions at common law now in force, and still fewer under our state statutes. In England every justice of the peace has authority to require security for the good behavior of all suspicious persons, vagrants, and those who have no apparent means of living but by gambling and the like; a power with which the legislature has not yet entrusted our magistrates. It is only when some offenɔe is actually about to be committed, or when "there is just cause to apprehend that a breach of the peace is intended," that a justice of the peace in this state can hold a man to security for his good conduct. Justices of the peace shall have full power in all cases in which there is shall appear to them by oath that a breach of the peace has been committed or that there is just cause to apprehend that a breach of the peace is intended, to cause the party charged with such breach of the peace or intention of breaking the same, to be brought before them respectively, and direct him to give such security as the said justice may deem reasonable, to keep the peace of the state, and to answer the offence, if any has been committed, and in case of refusal to give security, to commit the party so charged (by warrant to be directed and drawn as aforesaid) to the custody of the sheriff of the county, who shall thereupon imprison the said party until he shall enter into such security as has been ordered, before the same or some other judge or justice of the said county." 1st sess. Leg. Coun. Chap. 44 sec. 3. Of the warrant and commitment I shall speak hereafter, and in this place confine myself to the nature and form of the security which the law requires in this case. This is a written acknowledgement of the principal and his surety or sureties, if the magistrate require more than one, that they are liable to pay a certain sum of money if the principal shall be guilty of a breach of the peace within a certain time. The number and condition of the sureties, the ameunt of the penalty and the time limited for the operation of the recognizance, are all at the discretion of the magistrate. But except in very particular cases, it would be oppressive to exact any heavy penalty; and on a mere suggestion of an intention to offend, it would be wanton to extend the time beyond a few inonths.

This taking of security is called binding over to keep the peace. One justice may bind over another as well as any other citizen.— Wives may have their husbands hound over, as also may husbands cause their wives to be bound over if necessay. 3 Stra. 1207. But