Sect. 79. And be it further enacted, That any person or corporation who shall reproduce, counterfeit, copy, or imitate any such recorded trade-mark, and affix the same to goods of substantially the same descriptive properties and qualities as those referred to in the registration, shall be liable to an action in the case for damages for such wrongful use of said trade-mark, at the suit of the owner thereof, in any court of competent jurisdiction in the United States; and the party aggrieved shall also have his remedy according to the course of equity to enjoin the wrongful use of his trade-mark, and to recover compensation therefor in any court having jurisdiction over the person guilty of such wrongful use. The Commissioner of Patents shall not receive and record any proposed trade-mark which is not and cannot become a lawful trade-mark, or which is merely the name of a person, firm, or corporation only, unaccompanied by a mark sufficient to distinguish it from the same name when used by other persons, or which is identical with a trade-mark appropriate to the same class of merchandise, and belonging to a different owner, and already registered, or received for registration, or which so nearly resembles such last-mentioned trade-mark as to be likely to deceive the public: Provided, That this section shall not prevent the registry of any lawful trade-mark rightfully used at the time of the passage of this act.

Sect. 80. And be it further enacted, That the time of the receipt of any trade-mark at the patent office for registration shall be noted. and recorded; and copies of the trade-mark, and of the date of the receipt thereof, and of the statement filed therewith, under the seal of the patent office, certified by the commissioner, shall be evidence in any suit in which such trade-mark shall be brought in controversy.

The sections 81, 82, 83, and 84, authorize the commissioner to make rules, &c., relating to the transfer of trade-marks; prohibit the obtaining of trade-marks fraudulently; save to every one any remedy he has now for the fraudulent use of his trade-mark; and provide that no trade-mark shall be issued in any unlawful or injurious business, or if it be sought for purposes of fraud or deception.

CHAPTER XXX.

MEANS PROVIDED FOR THE RECOVERY AND COLLECTION OF DEBTS.

1. Arrest and Imprisonment. In eight States no person can be arrested or imprisoned for debt. These are Virginia, Maryland, North Carolina, Mississippi, Florida, Wisconsin, Arkansas, and Texas. In California no female, and in Louisiana no female and no person who has not a domicile in the State, and in Ohio no female nor any officer or soldier of the Revolutionary army, can be arrested or imprisoned for debt. In all the States the intention of the law is to limit imprisonment to those cases in which either fraud was committed in the contraction of the debt, or the debtor intends to ab. scond out of the reach of process. The provisions to effect this are very various. Generally, the plaintiff must file in the clerk's office, or indorse upon the writ, an affidavit of the facts on which he grounds the right of arrest. In some of the States provision is made for the imprisonment on execution of a debtor who can be found to possess, and refuses to surrender, property or interest, real or personal, which might be made available for the payment of his debts.

2. The Trustee Process. - The trustee process, or garnishee process, or process of foreign attachment, by all which names it is known, is now nearly or quite universal. It is substantially this: A owes B a debt; A has no property in his hands or possession which B can get at; but A has deposited in the hands of C goods or property or credits of some kind, or A has a valid claim against C for services rendered, or money loaned, or goods sold, or something else; and this B gets by suing A, not with a common writ, but with a trustee writ, so called, in which he declares that C is the trustee of A, for property, &c.; and on this writ, if B recovers payment against A, he will have an execution against all A's property in the hands of C, and all A's valid demands against C. But C, when notified, may come into court, and, in answer to all questions put to him, declare that he (C) has no property in his hands belonging to A, and that he does not owe A any thing. And then the plaintiff' may put to him such questions as he pleases, to draw out the truth.

No one is adjudged trustee, or made to pay to the creditor the debt due to the debtor, if he has given a negotiable note for it, because he might have to pay it again to an honest indorsee. Nor if

the debt is not certainly due; nor, generally, if it is due from the trustee in any official capacity, which will require him to account over for the money in his hands; nor if the debtor has recovered a judgment against the trustee, on which execution may issue.

3. The Homestead. In most of the States a homestead is protected from creditors, and exempted from all attachment or execution, excepting in some States for taxes, or wages of labor to a certain amount. In the abstract of the Law of Husband and Wife, already given in Section 2 of Chapter VII., a brief statement of the quantities and values of the homesteads exempted from sale on execution in the several States is also given. This is stated in that connection, because the principal purpose of these homestead exemptions seems to be the protection of the wife and family.

Various provisions are made in each of these States to combine a due protection of the creditor with proper prevention of fraud. The most common means are by requiring that "the homestead " should be distinctly defined and set apart, and in many cases by the additional requirement that the description and location of it should be put on public record.

In all the States there are also exemption laws. These provide very generally that bed and bedding and other necessary furniture, needful clothing, a Bible and school-books, and a certain amount of food and fuel, shall not be taken on attachment or execution. In some States the tools of a trade, the uniform, arms, and equipments of soldiers or officers in the militia, the family burying-vault and gravestones, a team or yoke of oxen, bees with their hives and honey, a boat for fishing, &c., are exempted. The statutes ofter enumerate the articles exempted quite minutely, and then add that necessary articles to a certain amount of value, usually one or two hundred dollars, are also exempted.

CHAPTER XXXI.

THE LIENS OF MECHANICS AND MATERIAL-MEN FOR THEIR WAGES AND MATERIALS.

In nearly all our States there are now some provisions for securing to mechanics, and to persons supplying materials (who are called "material-men "), their wages and pay for their materials, by means of liens, as they are called in law. A lien is a hold upon or a

valid claim against property. This means that every mechanic employed upon a house, and, in most of the States, upon a vessel, and in some, upon any property whatever, as a railroad or canal, either in the construction or repair of it, has a lien upon the property on which he has labored or for which he has supplied materials, for the amount of his wages and the price of his materials. This lien or claim he has for a certain time; and during that time he may either sue for his wages, and make an attachment of the property, or, in some States, file a petition with the proper court; and in either may have the property sold to pay his wages, unless the owner redeems it. The statutes of the several States contain various provisions to the effect that the mechanic or material-man shall give reasonable notice of his lien, or take steps to enforce it within a reasonable time.

The reason of these provisions is obvious enough. The purpose of the law is to assist and protect the mechanic, or material-man, but not to enable him to commit a fraud or do an injury to his neighbors; and it would be an injury to a man to let him buy a house and pay full price for it, and then tell him that the mechanics who built it had a lien (which is much the same in effect as a mortgage) upon the house, without his knowing any thing about it; and it would be an injury to an owner, who had contracted with the master-workman to repair or change his house at great expense, to settle with this master-workman in due time and pay him the full amount of his bill, without any notice to the owner that he was under an obligation to pay again for the labor spent upon his house, or let the house go on execution.

Of all these laws for the recovery of debts, and the enforcement of the liens of mechanics, the provisions now in force are quite recent. Only of late years has imprisonment for debt been greatly mitigated or removed, and the trustee or garnishee process made what it now is, exceedingly convenient and useful. The homestead law and this lien law, though now so widely spread, are a modern invention, or, at least, of modern introduction. The effect of this recent origin is twofold. First, important practical questions still exist as to their construction, application, and effect, which only time can solve. Secondly, there is not only no general agreement as to their details, but, to all appearance, no permanent contentment with these details anywhere. The statutes on these subjects undergo very frequent changes of all degrees of importance, and we have no reasonable assurance anywhere that precisely what is law to-day will be law in the same place to-morrow.

I have thought it best, therefore, not to attempt to give all those statutory provisions of the several States in detail. Such

a thing might be much worse than useless if it led to conduct grounded on a mistaken belief that the law of one time is just what it is at another. Nothing more has been attempted, therefore, than this: first, to give a general and accurate view of all those principles of the laws relating to creditor and debtor which are now generally agreed upon, and may be regarded as probably permanent; secondly, to give such information as may be depended upon to those who are caught in an emergency where they cannot at once seek counsel, or for any reason will not, and who may here be told, in general, how the law stands in relation to them; thirdly, to indicate distinctly to the mechanic what rights he may possess and what securities he may hold, and how he may lose the rights and securities he possesses, and to the owner or buyer what liabilities he may incur, unless the one and the other take the proper course which the law has provided for their safety.

In the present state of the laws for the collection of debts or the exemption of property, it would be difficult for any one but a lawyer to learn or state all the exact provisions and effects of these Jaws. And, even if this were possible, no mechanic would probably be willing to trust to himself to make out his writ or file his petition to enforce his claims or lien; and any competent counsel whom he would employ for this purpose would be able to tell him what the law was at that very time, in that very State, and on that precise question.

For these reasons little more is attempted in this chapter, because little more is thought possible than to yield all available assistance to debtors or creditors who have not the means or opportunity of employing counsel, and of indicating to those who can consult them, the rights, security, and safety they may possess, by wise advice and accurate conformity with the law.

The forms to be used under the lien laws are not prescribed by statute. Those given below are in use in some of our principal cities; and the same, in substance, would be suitable anywhere.

Street, in sum of

have a claim against

residing at No.

amounting to the

due to me, and that the claim is made for and on