Who shall take an oath &c. before they proceed to business. shall be subject to the same penalties for mal-practices as by the said law is imposed; and the said judges, inspectors, and clerks respectively, before they enter upon the duties of their offices, shall take an oath or affirmation before any justice of the peace of said county, to perform the same with fidelity; and after the said election shall be closed, shall declare the person having the greatest number of votes, to be duly elected; and in case any two or more candidates should have an equal number of votes, the preference shall be determined by lot, to be drawn by the judges and inspector, whereupon duplicate returns thereof shall be signed by the said judges, one of which shall be transmitted to each of the per.. sons elected, and the other filed among the records of the corporaHow vacan- tion; and in case of death, resignation, removal, refusal to accept, or neglect or refusal to act after acceptance, of any of the said officers, the burgess, or in case of his death or absence, or inability to act, or when he neglects or refuses to act, the first named of the town council, shall issue his precept, directed to the high constable, or when there is no high constable, or when he refuses or neglects to act, then any of the members of the town council shall advertise and hold an election in manner aforesaid, to supply such vacancy, giving at least ten days notice thereof, by advertisements set up at four of the most public places in the said borough. cies are filled. Name and style of the corporation. Rowers, &c. And its Penalty on refusing to serve as an officer. SECT. III. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That from and after the first Friday in May next, the burgess and town council duly elected as aforesaid, and their successors, shall be one body politic and corporate, in law, by the name and style of, the "burgess and town council of the borough of Norristown," and shall have perpetual succession, and the said burgess and town council aforesaid, and their successors, shall be capable in law to receive, hold and possess, goods and chattels, lands and tenements, rents, liberties, jurisdiction, franchises and hereditaments, to them and their successors, in fee simple or otherwise not exceeding the yearly value of five thousand dollars, and also to give grant, sell, ler and assign, the same lands, tenements and hereditaments, and rents, and by the name and style aforesaid, they shall be capable in law to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, in any of the courts of law in this commonwealth, in all manner of actions whatsoever, and to have and to use one common seal, and the same from time to time at their will to change and alter. SECT. IV. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any person duly elected as burgess or a member of the town council or constable, and having received notice thereof as aforesaid, shall refuse or neglect to take upon himself the execution of the office to which he shall have been elected, every person so refusing or neglecting, shall forfeit and pay a sum not ex ceeding twenty dollars, which fine and all other fines and forfeitures incurred and made payable in pursuance of this act, or of the by-laws or ordinances of the town council, shall be for the use of the corporation. port the con SECT. V. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, Officers to That the burgess, town council and high constable, and each of take an oatlı, them, before entering upon the duties of their respective offices, &c. to supshall take an oath or affirmation before any justice of the peace stitution, &c. of the said county, to support the constitution of the United States and of this state, and to perform the duties of their res pective offices with fidelity, and the certificate of such oaths or affirmations shall be filed among the records of the said corpo ration. SECT. VI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, A majority of That it shall and may be lawful for the town council to meet as the town often as occasion may require, and enact such by-laws, and make council to en act by laws. such rules, regulations and ordinances, as shall be determined by a majority of them, necessary to promote the peace, good order, benefit and advantage of said borough, particularly of providing for the regulation of the market, streets, alleys and highways, therein, they shall have power to assess, apportion and appropriate such taxes as shall be determined by a majority of them, necessary for carrying the said by-laws, rules and regulations into complete effect, and also to appoint a town clerk, treasurer, two persons to act as street and road commissioners, and a clerk of the market, annually and such other officers as may be deemed necessary from time to time; Provided, that no by-law, rule, or- Proviso. dinance, of the said corporation shall be repugnant to the constitution and laws of the United States, or of this commonwealth, and that no person shall be punished for the breach of a by-law or ordinance, made as aforesaid, until three weeks have expired after the promulgation thereof, by at least four advertisements set up in the most public places in the said borough; And pro- Standard for vided also, that no tax shall be laid in any one year on the valu- taxation, exation of taxable property, exceeding one half cent in the dollar, cept, &c. unless some object of general utility shall be thought necessary, in which case a majority of the taxable inhabitants of said borough, by writing under their hands, shall approve of and certify the same to the town council, who shall proceed to assess the same accordingly. SECT. VII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, How taxes. That the burgess elected and qualified agreeably to this act, is are collected. hereby authorized and empowered to issue his precept as often as occasion may require, directed to the high constable, commanding him to collect all taxes assessed and fires and forfeitures imposed by this act, or by the ordinances or regulations of the cor"for," in the original. * Power of the poration, and the same to pay over to the treasurer, and the said burgess. burgess is hereby authorized to carry into effect all by laws enacted by the council, and whatever else shall be enjoined upon him, for the well-ordering and governing the said borough ; he shall have jurisdiction in all disputes between the corporation and individuals, arising under the by-laws, regulations and ordi Duty of the town clerk. 'The treasu nances. SECT. VIII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That it shall be the duty of the town clerk to attend all the meetings of the town council, when assembled upon business of the corporation, and perform the duty of clerk thereto, and keep and preserve the common seal and records of the corporation, and be accountable for the same, and also for the faithful discharge of all the duties which may be enjoined upon him by virtue of this act, or of the acts of the corporation, and his attestation with the seal of the corporation shall be good evidence of the thing or act so certified. SECT. IX. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, rer to give se- That the treasurer shall give security for the faithful discharge curity for, &c. of the duties of his office and for the safe delivery into the hands of his successor, of all monies, books, and accounts, appertaining thereto upon demand being made by the burgess for that purpose. How ac counts shall be settled. Constable to SECT. X. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That the street commissioners, treasurer, constable, and clerk of the market; as well as all other officers who may be appointed by the corporation or council, shall render their accounts to the council once in every year for settlement, and the said accounts being adjusted and settled accordingly, shall be forthwith published by the said council, shewing particularly the amount of taxes laid and collected, and of the expenditures. SECT. XI. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, give notice of That it shall be the duty of the high constable to give notice of the elections. the elections, by setting up advertisements in the market and Proviso. How griev auces may be redressed. three other public places in the said borough, ten days previously thereto; he shall attend and see that the same is opened at the time and in the manner directed by this act; Provided, that Francis, Swaine and Isaiah Wells, of the said town, or either of them, shall publish and superintend the election to be held on the first Friday in May next, as is herein before directed. SECT. XII. And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That if any person or persons shall think him, her, or themselves aggrieved, by any thing done in pursuance of this act, he, she or they may appeal to the next court of quarter sessions, to be held for the proper county, upon giving security according to law to prosecute his, her or their appeal with effect, and the court having taken such order therein as shall seem to them just and reasonable, the same shall be conclusive against all parties. JOHN TOD, Speaker of the House of Representatives. P. C. LANE, Speaker of the Senate. APPROVED the thirty-first day of March, one thousand eight ร hundred and twelve. SIMON SNYDER. CHAPTER CXCIV. An ACT concerning joint tenancy. scend as the BE it enacted by the senate and bouse of representatives of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in general assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That Joint tenan. if partition be not made between joint tenants, whether they be cy shall desuch as might have been compelled to make partition or not, estates of or of whatever kind the estates or thing holden or possessed tenants in be, the parts of those who die first shall not accrue to the sur- common, vivors, but shall descend or pass by devise, and shall be subject to debts, charges, curtesy or dower, or transmissable to executors or administrators, and be considered to every other intent and purpose in the same manner as if such deceased joint tenants had been tenants in common: Provided always, that nothing in this act shall be taken to affect any trust estate. JOHN TOD, Speaker of the House of Representatives. P. C. LANE, Speaker of the Senate. APPROVED the thirty-first day of March, one thousand eight hundred and twelve. SIMON SNYDER. RESOLUTIONS: CHAPTER I. THE present is a period replete with national occurrences as momentous as ever marked the annals of the world. That collision of kingdoms and empires, which has deluged Europe with blood, borne down the practice, and nearly extinguished the principles of justice and humanity, is not, in its effects, confined to that unhappy quarter of the globe. The unparalleled prosperity, the enterprising spirit, and the expanding commerce of the United States of America, have rendered them, to the two mighty belligerants, an object of envy, and a medium of retaliation, pretended, as to one, and iniquitous in both. The emperor of the French has yet much to do, before the just claims of our country can be satisfied: but he has annulled those decrees which were the only legal obstruction to a friendly and commercial intercourse, with his dominions. He has annulled those very decrees, on which the British government solemnly declared its orders in council to be suspended. To the British government and to the world, he has evinced the extinguishment of those decrees, by the united evidence of solemn profession and uniform practice. But have the orders in council expired with the French decrees? No. Compared with their prior, their subsequent operation has been as life from the dead. They have been executed with redoubled rigor. Our seamen are impressed: our citizens robbed : our flag prostrated: our own waters infested our coasting trade annoyed: our harbours blockaded. While maritime oppression has thus risen to its summit, an envoy extraordinary is sent to our government, not (as might have been reasonably expected) to soften our irritated country, by conciliatory language: not to offer atonement for offences and indemnifications for wrongs that are past. These, with a single exception, he passes over as things beneath the notice of the British government or its envoy; or as injuries to which the inexhaustible forbearance, the presumed timidity, or the abject debasement of the American government, would ensure her silent submission. He commences a new species and system of insult. He prescribes to the president what be shall recommend, and what the National Legislature shall enact. He demands a law which shall admit the products and manufactures of Great Britain into the ports of the United States; although, American manufactures are, even in time of peace, excluded from the British dominions. He commands the American government to procure, of Napoleon, an abandonment of his continental system, and the |