agreeably to his recognizance; or whenever a woman shall swear a child to a man in manner as prescribed in said act, and he shall abscond, or so conceal himself that the process of said jus ices cannot be served on him, then it shall be lawful for the county court on return of the recognizance or other proceedings from the justices, to order their clerk to issue a capius or an attachment, at the discretion of said court, to any county within the state, against the reputed father so absconded; and the same proceedings may be had thereon as in other like cases of a capias or an attachment.

Whenever any county court shall charge the reputed father of a bastard child with the maintenance of the same, in manner as prescribed in the 10th section of the aforesaid act, and the said reputed father shall refuse or neglect to pay the same, then it shall be lawful for such court, on notice being served on the defendant at least ten days before the sitting of said court, or such notice being returned by the sheriff of the County that the defendant is not to be found, to order an execution against the goods, chattels, lands, and tenements of the said defendant, sufficient to satisfy such sum as the said court may adjudge for the maintenance of said child: Provided that the party grieved by such non-payment shall make application. for the same. Acts 1799, c. 17,

See Fornication.

BATTERY-See Assault.

BAWDY-HOUSE-See Lewdness.

BEHAVIOUR

Security for the peace or good behaviour, consists in being bound with one or more sureties in a recognizance or obligation to the state, entered on record and taken in some court or by some judicial officer, such as a justice of the peace, judge, &c. whereby the parties acknowledge themselves to be indebted to the state in the sum required (for instance one hundred pounds) with condition to be void and of none effect if the party shall appear in court such a day, and in the mean time keep the peace, either generally towards all the citizens of the state, or particularly also with regard to the person who craves the security: or if it be for the good behaviour, then on condition that he shall demean and behave himself well (or be of good behaviour) either generally or specially for the

time therein limited, as for one or more years, or for life. This recognizance if taken by a justice of the peace, must be certified to the next county court of pleas and quarter sessions; and if the condition of such recognizance be broken by any breach of the peace in the one case, or any misbehaviour in the other, the recognizance becomes forfeited or absolute; and thereupon a scire facias issues against the party and his sureties, to which they plead and join issue, or make default, and the court proceeds to give judgment and award execution as in other cases.

Any justices of the peace by virtue of their commission, or those who are ex officio conservators of the peace, as the judges of the superior courts, coroners, or sheriffs, may demand such security; or according to their discretion they may commit all breakers of the peace, or bind them in recognizance to keep it. Also constables may apprehend all. breakers of the peace, and commit them till they find sureties for the keeping it. Security of the peace may be granted by justices of the peace and judges, at the request of any citizen, upon due cause shown or if the justice of the peace is averse to act, it may be granted by a mandatory writ, called a supplicavit, issuing out of the superior court, which will compel the justice to act as a ministerial and not as a judicial officer; and he must make a return to such writ, specifying his compliance, under his hand and seal; or the superior court may take such recognizance themselves. A justice of the peace may require sureties of any person being compos mentis, whether a fellow justice or other magistrate, or whether he be merely a private man, Wives may demand it against their husbands, or husbands if necessary against their wives; but married women and infants under age, ought to find security by their friends only, and not to be bound themselves, for they are incapable to engage themselves to answer. any debt, which is the nature of those recognizances or acknowledgments.

A recognizance may be discharged by the death of the principal party bound thereby, if not before forfeited; or by order of the court to which such recognizance is certified by the justice, if they see sufficient cause; or if he at whose request it was granted, if granted upon a private account, will release it, or does not make his appearance to pray that it may be continued.

Thus far what has been applicable to both species of recognizances, for the peace and for the good behaviour; but as these two species of securities are in some respects different,

especially as to the cause of granting, or the means of for feiting them, they are now to be considered separately.

And first it shall be shown for what cause such a recognizance, with sureties for the peace, is grantable; and then how it may be forfeited.

Any justice of the peace may by virtue of his office bind all those to keep the peace, who in his' presence make any affray, or threaten to kill or beat another; or contend together with hot angry words; or go about with unusual weapons or attendance, to the terror of the people; and all such as he knows to be common barretors, and such as are brought before him by the constable for the breach of the peace in his presence; and all such persons as having been before bound to the peace, have broken it and forfeited their recognizances. Also when any private man hath just cause to fear that another will burn his house, or do him a corporal injury, by killing, imprisoning, or beating him, or that he will procure others to do so, he may demand surety of the peace against such person; and every justice of the peace is bound to grant it, if he who demands it will make oath that he is actually under fear of death or bodily harm, and will show that he has just cause to be so by reason of the other's menaces, attempts, or having lain in wait for him; and will also further swear that he does not require such surety out of malice or for mere vexation.

This is called swearing the peace against another, and if the party does not find such sureties as the justice in his discretion shall require, he may be immediately committed till he does.

Such recognizance for keeping the peace, when given, may be forfeited by any actual violence, or even an assault and menace to the person of him who demanded it if it be a special recognizance; or if the recognizance be general, by any unlawful action whatsoever that either is or tends to a breach of the peace-as by joining in any riot, rout, or unlawful, assembly, or by hunting or appearing by day or night disguised or with painted faces, for any unlawful purpose; or knowingly sending a letter without a name, or with a fictitious name, demanding money or other valuable things, or threatening to kill or burn the house of any person; or committing any af fray, or any forcible entry or detainer; or riding or going armed with dangerous or unusual weapons, under such cir cumstances as are apt to terrify the people; or spreading false news to terrify the people, or making false and pretended prophecies with intent to disturb the peace; or challenging

to fight by word or letter, or by being the bearer of such challenge; or making, publishing, or communicating any libel; or by manslaughter, rape, robbery, unlawful imprisonment, or the like; or by lying in wait for any person to kill or beat him, or the like; or by any private violence committed against any of the citizens.

But a bare trespass upon the lands or goods of another, which is a ground for a civil action, unless accompanied by a wilful breach of the peace, is no forfeiture of the recognizance; neither are mere reproachful words, as calling a man a knave, rogue, or liar, any breach of the peace so as to forfeit one's recognizance (being merely the effect of heat and passion) unless they amount to a challenge to fight.

Recognizance with sureties for the good behaviour, includes security for the peace and somewhat more: it will therefore be examined here in the same manner as the other.

Justices of the peace may bind over to the good behaviour all those that be not of good fame, wherever they be found, Under which general words a man may be bound to his good behaviour, for causes of scandal against morality as well as against the peace-as for haunting bawdy houses with women of bad fame, or for keeping such women in his own house, or for words in abuse of the officers of justice in the execution of their office; all night walkers; eaves-droppers; such as keep suspicious company, or are reputed to be pilferers or robbers; such as sleep in the day and wake in the night; common drunkards, whoremasters, the putative fathers of bastards, cheats, idle vagabonds, and other persons whose misbehaviour may reasonably bring them within the general words, persons not of good fame,'-an expression that leaves much to be determined by the discretion of the magistrate himself; but if he commits a man for want of sureties, he must express the cause thereof with convenient certainty, and take care that such cause be a good one.

A recognizance for the good behaviour, may be forfeited by all the same means as one for the security of the peace may be; and also by some others, as by going armed with unusual attendance to the terror of the people, by speaking words tending to sedition, or by committing any of those acts of misbehaviour the recognizapce was, intended to prevent; but not barely by giving fresh cause of suspicion of that which perhaps may never actually happen; for though it is just to com pel suspected persons to give security to the public against misbehaviour that is apprehended, yet it would be hard, upon

such suspicion, without the proof of any actual crime, to punish them by a forfeiture of their recognizance.

BIGAMY-See Polygamy.

BILLS OF SALE-See Deeds.

BLASPHEMY.

Blasphemy is an offence against the Almighty, by denying his being or providence, or by contumelious reproaches of our Saviour Christ. Whither also may be referred all profane scoffing at the holy scripture, or exposing it to contempt or ridicule. These are offences punishable by fine and imprisonment, or other infamous corporal punishment; for Christiany is a part of the laws of this state, 4 Blac. Com. 59.

Thus in the year 1656, James Nayler, for personating our Saviour, and suffering his followers to worship him and pay him divine honours, was sentenced to be set in the pillory, and to have his tongue bored through with a red hot iron, and to be whipped, and stigmatized in the forehead with the letter B. 1 State Trials, 802.

It is declared by the 32d section of our constitution, "that no person who shall deny the being of God, or the truth of the protestant religion, or the divine authority either of the Old or New Testaments, or who shall hold religious principles incompatible with the freedom and safety of the state, shall be capable of holding any office, or place of trust or profit in the civil department, within this state."

See Arrests.

BOATS, CANOES, AND PETTIAUGERS.

Any person or persons who shall take away from any landing or other place, any boat, canoe, or pettiauger, or shall loose, unmoor, or turn any such vessel adrift, shall forfeit to the owner or possessor twenty shillings, to be recovered by a warrant issued by any justice of the peace of the county wherein the offence is committed; who shall hear and deter mine the offence, and if after conviction the offender refuses or neglects to pay the said sum, the said justice by his warrant, may commit such person to the county jail, there to remain till he shall have paid the same and costs; and the of

F