Fees, fines and penalties, payment and disposal of regulated Fines, acts enhancing 319 390-391 Fines and premiums in the several laws, regulated and stated 402 Ferries and ferriages regulated 329 Forgery, how punished 373 Fraudulent conveyances prohibited 373 Fence, act directing what shall be deemed lawful 405 Fences, division, act regulating 412 HIGHWAYS, act for laying and altering act for making and repairing act to prevent encroachments on act to settle and establish 321 361 368 Heiresses, act to prevent the sale of the real estates of 368 Heirship of the estate of Col. Wm. Syms, act directing 445 INCEST, acts for the punishment of 291-484 Impeding authority, how punished 300 Idiots, and impotent, distracted and idle persons, act for relieving JUSTICES of the peace, act directing in their office and duty 288 390 Justice Courts, act defining jurisdiction of, and regulating proceed- Jurors, grand and pettit, act regulating Jurors, pettit, choice of regulated Judgments, act directing in what money they shall be given LASCIVIOUS CARRIAGE, &c. act for punishment of Limitation of criminal prosecutions in certain cases Lands, common and undivided, act to prevent encroachments on Lotteries, act for preventing and suppressing . 374 Laws of February session, 1779, declared temporary 388 Militia, act forming and regulating Military officers, field and staff, act regulating choice of Mills and millers, act regulating Mayhem, how punished Marking cattle, swine and sheep, act directing Manslaughter, act for the punishment of Murder, act for punishment of Laws, acts reviving and continuing in force Legislature constituted a Court of equity in certain cases MARRIAGES, acts regulating articles, rules and regulations for the discipline of 391-397-421-439-444 394 423 487 292-484 305 415 446 397 321 355 366 374 375 Ministers of the Gospel, act enabling towns to tax themselves for Notes, negociable, act to enable assignees of to maintain action Notes, State, act directing Treasurer to issue New-York, act restraining the privileges of the inhabitants of, in Vt. 475 Negroes and mulattos, transportation of from State, prohibited Order assessing damages on account of laying a certain road, set 488 POLYGAMY, acts for punishment of 290-473 Probate of wills and settlement of estates, act relating to Pleas and pleadings regulated Poor, act for maintaining and supporting Proclamation of Governor, requiring obedience to the laws act exempting a certain town from payment of 467-470-490-494-495 489 Rebellion, how punished 354 Return to the State of certain persons having joined the enemies thereof, aot to prevent and punish 355 Recovery of debts due the citizens of other States, prohibited in cer- tain cases, 505 Swearing and cursing, act against 331 Sheriffs, act for appointing, and regulating in execution of their office 348 Sheep, act for ordering and preserving 334 Sodomy, how punished 354 Stocks and sign posts, act providing for 359 Stallions, act to restrain the running at large 381 Suspension of all civil process, acts relating to 388-390-397 Suspension of process against I. Tichenor and J. Farnsworth 438-494 purposes 439-460 Secretary of State, act pointing out office and duty of Taxes, act authorising and regulating the collection of on lands, towns authorised to levy, for building houses of worship, school houses and bridges Tax for purpose of making and repairing roads, &c. select-men 509 Transient persons, act for the ordering and disposing of 315 Town and society meetings, act for preserving order therein act empowering Courts to try, in a certain case 426 Title of certain land confirmed to John Ashley 443 Trial of persons standing mute, regulated 395 Trover and conversion, act for better regulating process in actions of 405 Tender of specifick articles on executions, acts authorising 406 446 407-429-440 Tender of paper currency, act for taking off UNION of part of New-York with Vermont, acts connected Usury, excessive, act to restrain the taking of 496 430-431-434 459 822 440-472 WOLVES and panthers, act to encourage the destruction of Will and testament of Rufus Rude, confirmed Windham County, act for raising militia to enforce the laws in AN ACT for collecting and perpetuating the records, relative to the assumption and cs- SECTION I It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont, That SEC. 2. It is hereby further enacted, that the Treasurer of this State, be, and he here- INTRODUCTION. THE general diffusion of intelligence constitutes the life of a free government. Upon every department of such a government the people exert an unremitted influence, and stamp on all its measures the impress of their own character. Called upon to act, they should become accustomed to think; and though they cannot, ordinarily, possess extended and comprehensive views of other systems of government, they should, at least, understand their own. The whole science of government consists in a knowledge of the practical operation of principles. With the science, thus understood, the citizens of every free government owe it to themselves and their posterity to become familiarly acquainted. The preservation of their political institutions depends, under Divine Providence, on themselves. Those institutions therefore,—their origin, their nature, their practical operation, and their whole history, should be studied and understood. The man who contemplates the subject in this light, will sit down to the examination of the successive constitutions and laws of a government, with a far higher aim than the gratification of an idle curiosity. By tracing them to their origin, and pursuing them through their various modifications, he will furnish himself with the best means of understanding the nature and practical tendency of existing institutions. Every government, therefore, should possess, and should place within the reach of the people, a complete history of its own legislation. Without the possession of such a history, and a practical regard to the lessons it inculcates, legislation will be, at best, but a succession of experiments, and, as a necessary consequence, every operation of government will be characterised with instability and want of wisdom. The early institutions of a government are peculiarly liable to be lost sight of, in the progress of improvement. Superceded by new systems, they are supposed to have lost their value, and are permitted to pass into ●blivion. This has been, in a peculiar sense, true of the original constitution and laws of Vermont. The circumstances under which the government was formed, were eminently calculated to give to its institutions an imperfect, unsettled character. At the expiration of seven years, the constitution was revised and altered; and at the end of the next septenary, was again revised, and adopted in the form which it still retains. In the |