THE GENERAL LAWS OF Massachusetts, FROM THE ADOPTION OF THE CONSTITUTION, TO FEBRUARY, 1822. WITH THE CONSTITUTIONS OF THE United States and of this Commonwealth, TOGETHER WITH THEIR RESPECTIVE AMENDMENTS, PREFIXED. REVISED AND PUBLISHED, BY AUTHORITY OF THE LEGISLATURE, IN CONFORMITY WITH A RESOLUTION PASSED 22D. FEBRUARY, 1822. By ASAHEL STEARNS & LEMUEL SHAW, ESQUIRES, COMMISSIONERS. THERON METCALF, Esq. EDITOR. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. BOSTON: PUBLISHED BY WELLS & LILLY AND CUMMINGS & HILLIARD. 1823. BE it remembered, that on the twentieth day of January, A. D. 1823, in the forty-seventh year of the Independence of the United States of America, Wells & Lilly and Cummings & Hilliard of the said District. have deposited in this Office the title of a Book, the Right whereof they claim as Proprietors, in the Words following, to wit : The General Laws of Massachusetts, from the adoption of the Constitution, to February, 1822. With the Constitutions of the United States and of this Commonwealth together with their respective Amerdments, prefixed. Revised and Published. by Authority of the Legislature, in conformity with a resolution passed 22d February, 1822 By Asabel Stearns and Lemuel Shaw, Esquires, Commismissioners. Theron Metcalf, Esq., Editor. In two volumes." In Conformity to the Act of the Congress of the United States, entitled. "An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies, during the times therein mentioned and also to an Act entitled, “ An Act supplementary to an Act, entitled, An Act for the Encouragement of Learning, by securing the Copies of Maps, Charts, and Books, to the Authors and Proprietors of such Copies during the times therein mentioned and extending the benefits thereof to the Arts of Designing, Engraving, and Etching Historical and other Prints." JNO. W. DAVIS, Clerk of the District of Massachusetts. WELLS AND LILLY, Notice. THE Resolve of the Legislature, under which this edition. of the Statutes is published, has been the guide of the Commissioners in preparing it for the press. It has been their design to insert all public Acts of a general nature and applicable, to the Commonwealth at large, except such as have ceased to affect existing rights, or would not illustrate the history, of the law. They have also inserted a few special and pri vate Acts, which are of general interest, either from their connexion with public Acts, or from the importance of the subjects, to which they relate.. The Acts of each Legislature have been divided into chapters, and numbered in a regular series from the beginning to the end of each political year. This has been done in chronological order, except in a few instances of Acts wholly omitted in former editions, or inserted in the Appendix to the second volume of the edition, of 1807. These have been placed at the end of the year in which they were enacted, so as not to derange the numbers under which the statutes have heretofore been cited. The repealed Acts, which are retained in this edition, and those parts of Acts which are repealed or have otherwise become inoperative, are printed in small type, and the repealing Acts indicated by marginal references. At the end of the public Acts and of the title of the private Acts, re-. ference is made to additional Acts on the same subject; and Acts enlarging, restraining or modifying the text, have been referred to in the margin. The Amendments to the Constitutions of the United States and of this Commonwealth have been indicated in a similar manner. In arranging the articles of amendment to the Constitution of the United States, they have inserted the thirteenth as an article ratified by a sufficient number of States to become a part of the Constitution. This was done because the article |