when debts

are disputed.

In what manner.

to say,

Arbitrators be determined by three arbitrators, to be mutually chosen by to be chosen the assignees, and the creditor, or in manner following, that is the said commissioners shall furnish a list of the names of nine persons, not creditors of the petitioner, and the said assignees shall strike out of the said list, three, and the creditor whose debt is in controversy, shall strike out other three of the said names, and the remaining three persons shall finally determine and settle the said controversy; and if the said assignees or any of the said creditors, shall neglect or refuse to strike out three persons as aforesaid, the said commissioners shall strike out as aforesaid for the said creditor or assignees, so refusing or neglecting; and in case of the refusal of all or any of the persons Vacancies so appointed to be arbitrators, or of their or any of their inabilihow supplied. ty to serve in a reasonable time, a new choice shall be again made, in the same manner, in the room of the person or persons so refusing or neglecting.

Debts incur

red before,

but not due

And paid as other debts.

SECT. XIII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That all persons who have given credit to such petitioner, on a valuable consideration for any sum of money, or other till after petitioning, to be matter, promise, contract or thing, which is or shall not be due allowed, &c. or payable, or liable to be exacted or performed, at or before the time of presenting the petition, shall and may be admitted and considered as creditors whose debts are then due, and shall receive a dividend, or be considered as having a claim to a divi. dend, if such debt or contract be contingent in the same proportion as the other creditors, deducting therefrom only a rebate of interest, at the rate of six per centum per annum, for what shall be received on such debts, (unless such debts shall be payable with interest,) to be computed from the actual payment thereof to the time when they would have become due; and when it shall appear that there hath been a mutual credit given by the said petitioner and any other person, or that mutual debts or demands were subsisting between them before such petition was presented, the one debt may be set off against the other, and the balance due on either side after such set-off, and no more, shall be claimed or paid.

Interest to be deducted.

Set off allowed

First dividend.

Commission

ers to attend,

Accounts to

be exhibited

by the assig.

SECT. XIV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That within three months of the time of their appointment the said assignees shall cause public notice to be given of the time and place at which they intend to meet to make a dividend of all the funds of the said petitioner's estate, so far as the same may have been realized, which time so to be appointed, shall be within three months from the date of the said notice, at which time and place the said commissioners shall also attend, and the said assignees shall then and there exhibit all their accounts, and reasonable allowance shall be made to the said assignees for their Commission services; and the said assignees or any of them, shall, if required, be examined on oath or affirmation, to be administered by. the said commissioners touching the truth of the said accounts;

nees.

May be examined on oath, &c.

ers to audit

the accounts,

their ac

and the said commissioners shall audit the same and certify the Creditors sum to be allowed to the said assignees; and at the said time and may at this time prove place the creditors of the said insolvent, who shall not before have proved their debts, shall then be allowed to prove the same, counts. and all costs, fees, and charges arising out of the proceedings Costs, &c. to be first paid. under this act, shall be first paid, and the residue shall be divid- Dividend to ed amongst the creditors, in proportion to their respective claims; be made. in which dividend so to be made, no preference shall be given to debts due by specialty or otherwise.

proved be

fore.

&c.

SECT. XV. And be it further enacted by the authority afore- Second divisaid, That within twelve months next after making the dividend dend when to aforesaid, the said assignees shall make a second dividend of the be made. estate of the said petitioner, in case the same shall not have been wholly divided at the first dividend, and shall cause like notice to be given, and creditors who have not theretofore proved their debts may then prove the same; and the said assignees Debts may be shall in manner aforesaid, exhibit their accounts, and if required, be examined as aforesaid, and in case of dispute between the said assignees and the creditors, the commissioners are hereby required to adjust the same, and the nett proceeds shall be then Commissiondivided among the creditors, allowing to the creditors who have ers to audit, not proved their debts at the former meeting of the said assignees, their just proportion thereof; and the second dividend shall be final, unless any suit at law or equity be depending rela- dend to be fitive to the estate of the said petitioner, or unless some other es- nal, &c., tate or effects should thereafter vest in, or come to the hands of the said assignees, or unless some money or effects should remain in their hands to answer to some contingent claim, in any of Of contingent which cases the said assignees shall, as soon as conveniently may claims. be, settle the said contingent claims, convert the said estate or effects into money, and within two months thereafter, divide the same among the creditors aforesaid; and if any overplus shall remain after the payment of all the creditors, and all the fees Overplus to and expenses arising out of the proceedings under this act, the be returned said assignees shall pay over the same to the said petitioner, or to tioner. his or her legal representatives.

Second divi

to the peti

Allowance to

be made to the petition

er.

SECT. XVI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That in all cases wherein any petitioner shall have complied with the provisions of this act, and shall have received a certificate as aforesaid, two thirds in number and value of the creditors of the said petitioner, who shall have proved their debts, may make such reasonable allowance to the said petitioner out of the estate and effects assigned, as the circumstances of the case may appear to them to warrant: Provided, that such Not to exallowance shall not exceed ten per centum on the nett produce ceed ten per of the said estate and effects; Provided also, that no such allowance shall be made in cases wherein any petitioner shall have made any partial or conditional assignment, with intent toprefer

cent.

Proviso.

1

1

Commissioners fees.

petitioner.

How recov

erable.

any creditor or creditors, in exclusion, and to the damage of his or her other creditors.

SECT. XVII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the said commissioners shall severally have and receive the following fees, to wit: For receiving any petition and directing the assignment fifty cents, to be paid in the first instance by the petitioner; for his attendance at any meeting of the creditors, fifty cents; for examining the said petitioner and others, in case neither any creditor nor the agent of any creditor shall attend, as is provided for in the fifth section of this act, fifty cents; for deciding on the propriety of granting or refusing the petitioner's certificate, fifty cents; and the following sums for the following services shall be paid and allowed to the said commissioners; for making up arecord of the proceedings, and lodging it, together with all the documents, as herein before provided, with the clerk or prothonotary of the supreme court, one dollar; for reducing to writing and certifying any examination of the said petitioner, as by the seventh section of this act is provided, one dollar; and the said commissioners shall on no pretence whatever, receive other or greater fees than those herein provided and directed to be paid and allowed; and the services for which no fee is allowed in this section shall be performed gratis.

Penalty for SECT. XVIII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, concealing ef- That any person or persons who at any time before or after the fects of the passing of this act, shall accept, or shall have accepted any trust or trusts for the benefit of any such petitioner, or shall have in his, her or their possession, any estate, real, personal or mixed, of such petitioner, and shall not forthwith after notice of such assignment, fully discover and disclose such trust and estate to the assignees, shall forfeit the sum of one hundred dollars, and also double the value of the estate so conveyed in trust, or concealed, to be recovered with costs, by action in any court of record having cognizance thereof, in the name or names of the said assignees for the use and benefit of the creditors of the said insolvent; and in case the said assignees shall neglect or refuse to prosecute for such penalties, then any creditor of the said petitioner may, at his own risk and expense, sue for and recover the same for his own use and benefit; and the creditor who, upon the neglect and refusal of the said assignees as aforesaid, shall first sue for the same, shall be entitled to all the said penalty and penalties; and from and after the passing of this act, all conditional and partial assignments made by any person or persons, in signments to contemplation of insolvency, with intent to defraud creditors, or with intent to prefer any creditor or creditors to the exclusion and to the damage of the other creditors, shall be utterly void and of no effect.

Assignees to

prosecute.

or creditors.

Partial or

fraudulent as

be void.

of perjury.

SECT. XIX. Andbe it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any person who shall be legally sworn or affirmed by

virtue of this act shall be guilty of wilful perjury, he shall be prosecuted and punished in the same manner as persons guilty of wilful and corrupt perjury are or shall be prosecuted and punished by the laws of this commonwealth.

SECT. XX. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, Limitation of That this act shall continue until the first day of April, one thou- this act. sand eight hundred and fifteen, and no longer, but the same shall be always in force for the completion of any proceedings on the petition of any insolvent debtor, begun previous to the said first day of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifteen; and for the purpose of prosecuting any offence or misdemeanor the punishment of which is provided for in this act.

JOHN TOD, Speaker

of the House of Representatives. P. C. LANE, Speaker of the Senate.

APPROVED the thirteenth day of March, one thousand eight

hundred and twelve.

SIMON SNYDER.

CHAPTER LXXXII.

An ACT to provide for the election of representatives of the people of this state, in the congress of the United States.

SECT. I. BE it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in general Commonassembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the wealth divisame, That for the purpose of electing representatives of the ded into 15 congressional people of Pennsylvania, to serve in the house of representatives, districts. in the congress of the United States, this state shall be divided into fifteen districts, as follow, the city of Philadelphia and the counties of Philadelphia and Delaware, shall be the first dis- First district. trict, and shall elect four members; the counties of Chester and Montgomery, shall be the second district, and shall elect two Second. members; the counties of Lancaster and Dauphin shall be the third district, and shall elect two members; the county of York Third. shall be the fourth district, and shall elect one member; the Fourth. counties of Cumberland, Franklin and. Adams, shall be the fifth Fifth. district, and shall elect two members; the counties of Bucks, Northampton and Wayne, shall be the sixth district, and shall Sixth. elect two members; the counties of Berks and Schuylkill, shall

be the seventh district, and shall elect one member; the coun- Seventh. ties of Bedford, Somerset and Cambria, shall be the eighth dis- Eighth trict, and shall elect one member; the counties of Mifflin, Huntingdon, Centre, Clearfield, and M'Kean, shall be the ninth Ninth. district, and shall elect one member; the counties of Northumberland, Luzerne, Ontario, Susquehanna, Lycoming, Tioga and Potter, shall be the tenth district, and shall elect two members; Tenth. the counties of Westmoreland, Indiana, Jefferson and Armstrong,

Aleventh.
Twelfth.

shall be the eleventh district, and shall elect one member; the county of Washington, shall be the twelfth district, and shall elect one member; the counties of Fayette and Greene, shall be Thirteenth. the thirteenth district, and shall elect one member; the counties Fourteenth of Allegheny and Butler, shall be the fourteenth district, and shall elect one member; and the counties of Beaver, Mercer, Crawford, Erie, Venango, and Warren, shall be the fifteenth district, and shall elect one member.

Fifteenth.

Qurlification of electors.

tion.

SECT. II. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the election of representatives, agreeably to the constitution of the United States, and the direction of this act, shall be held by the citizens of this state, qualified to vote for members Time of elec- of assembly, on the second Tuesday of October next, and on the second Tuesday of October every second year thereafter, until an enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States shall be taken, agreeably to the constitution and laws of the United States, at the same places respectively, in the same manner, and under the care and regulation of the same officers as is provided in and by the several acts of assembly, for the regulation of the Notice to be general elections of this state; of which elections public notice given. shall be given by the sheriffs of the several counties, at least thirty days before the said election.

act.

Penalty for SECT. III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, breach of this That every person who shall be guilty of any neglect or abuse of this act, or of any of the said acts of assembly for the regulation of elections, at any election, to be held in pursuance of this act, shall be prosecuted and punished in the same manner as if guilty of the like neglect or abuse in the election of members of the legislature of this state.

Of returns of elections.

SECT. IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the judges of the election in each county erected into a separate district, after having formed the return of the whole election in the said county, in such manner as is by law directed, shall, within six days cause said return to be deposited in the To be direct- office of the prothonotary of said county, and shall also cause a retary of the duplicate thereof, signed and sealed in the same manner as the said return, under a sealed cover directed to the secretary of the commonwealth, to be placed forthwith in the nearest post-offices, or to be otherwise within twenty days, safely delivered to him, and they shall also transmit to each of the persons elected, a certificate of the returns of his election.

ed to the sec

common

wealth.

Of return judges.

SECT. V. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the judges of the elections of each of the following counties, after having formed the returns of the whole election in these counties respectively, in such manner as is by law directed, shall send the same by one or more of their number to the place hereafter mentioned within the district of which such connty is Their duties. a part, when the judges so met, shall compare and cast up the