for the allowance of monies for such purposes, debiting therewith the person to whom it is confided, and calling him in due time to render account of the application thereof; to examine all demands for the hire of horses, waggons, or other things employed or impressed by authority of law for the publick service, or for the worth thereof, or injury done thereto, where the thing impressed has been consumed, lost, destroyed, or damaged, in such service; to make just allowances to expresses employed by the governour and council, the navy board, or our delegates in congress, or sent on the publick service to the governour and council, or to any Indian nation, the governour and council certifying there was good reason for sending such express, or to scouts and look-outs, or any others doing services to the publick for which they are entitled in law to receive payment, and no person particularly authorised to ascertain the quantum of such payment; to allow an→ nual pensions to officers and soldiers of the army or navy raised by any act of gener 1 assembly, and disabled in the service, and to the widows of those slain or dying therein, as also sums in gross for their immediate relief, proportioning the same with impartiality and discretion to the nature of every case, such sums in gross, however, to be given but once to any one person, and not to exceed one year's pay, and such annual pension not to exceed full pay; to enter in account all draughts on the treasurer for money by the governour and council, or by the navy board, for the publick service, to certify such entry to the treasurer for payment, and to audit in due time the expenditure thereof; to give warrants on the treasurer for the payment or advance of wages to our delegates in congress, debiting each delegate respectively with the warrant given in his name, and requiring account thereof to be rendered within three months after the expiration of his appointment; to audit all accounts for wages due to the members of the general assembly for service therein or for their travelling allowances, such attendance and allowances being previously entered with the clerk of the house of which such member is, in separate books to be kept for that purpose, and to fie during session on the table of the house, and being certified by the said clerk to be so entered; and to audit accounts for salaries or wages to the officers and attendants of the two houses; to settle the expenses of sending for the memVOL. IX. S 3

sembly, & Superior Courts, allowed.

Expences of bers of either house by special messengers; of providing General As- robes for the speakers and clerks of both houses, maces, lights, fuel, blank books, parchment, paper, and other articles necessary for the use of either house, or of the governour and council, or navy board, or the superiour courts of justice while on duty in the capitol; to audit all accounts for building or repairing houses or other articles of publick property, such buildings or repairs being authorised by act of assembly, or the previous vote of the two houses of assembly; to examine all claims for the support of prisoners where the publick is chargeable with such support, or for the removal of any such to the prison of the general court, or for the guard of criminals, or for jurors or witnesses attending their trials, or witnesses for the commonwealth attending a court of justice, or judicial officer in any other case, or for slaves executed by judgment of common law for any crime, or legally put to death under process of outlawry; to examine all claims, petitions, and applications, for money, which at the end of this present session of assembly shall be depending and undetermined before the assembly, and which are of a like nature with any of those submitted by this act to the examination of the said auditors; to call for annually and to examine the accounts of expenditures for the publick trade, the publick hospital, and for all works undertaken and carried on at the publick expense by authority from the legislature, and to enter the same in separate accounts; to inquire into all demands for bounties or premiums payable by law out of the publick treasury for the encouragement of particular manufactures, of bringing to justice publick offenders, of destroying noxious animals, or of any other matter; to examine and enter in account all other demands for money on the treasurer made under authority of any law heretofore passed, or hereafter to be passed; to settle the accounts of all publick debtors, and of all collectors of any revenue, or tax, levied by act of general assembly, and payable to the treasurer, or of any monies due to the publick, to call upon such debtors or collectors to render account at proper times, and on their failure so to do to instruct the attorney general to institute proceedings at law for compelling them to jus tice, and though it should appear on trial that the defendant oweth no balance to the publick, yet his having failed to render account to the auditors, and to take.

from them his quietus, shall subject him to the payment of all costs incurred by such proceedings, as well to himself as to the commonwealth; to require information on oath from any person, party or privy, of matters relative to any account under their examination and material for their information, to administer such oath where the party is attending, and, where absent, to take out a commission from the high court of chancery. directed to any justice of the peace to take his examination on interrogatories to be stated by them; whereon any such settlement a balance shall appear due to the publick to certify the same under their own hands to the treasurer, and hold the party charged therewith till he shall produce to them the treasurer's receipt for the same, on which they shall give him a quietus, debit the treasurer therewith, and certify such debits to the next committee of assembly appointed to settle the treasurer's accounts, and where such balance is due from the publick to certify it in like manner to the treasurer, and debit the party with such certificate; to enter in proper accounts all loan office certificates hereafter to be given, and endorse on such certificates that they are entered in the said auditors office, without which endorsement no such certificate shall be valid; to require counsel of the attorney general on all doubts in matters of law relative to the duties of their office; to state and keep all the accounts coming under their examination specially against each person, so as to shew amount of all warrants and certificates given on the treasurer, for what service or article of publick expense they were given, or where they have been for money advanced, to whom it was advanced, and for what purpose, and to preserve the vouchers in due order; and also to raise general accounts shewing the amount of the expenditures for the army, the navy, the militia, the publick trade, the publick works, and manufactories of every kind, of pensions, claims, and all other expenses of government, each stated in a collective view under its separate and proper head, and to lay before the assembly annually the said general accounts, together with an account of all balances due to and from the publick as nearly as they shall be able.

No money to be re

III. And it is further enacted, That it shall not be lawful ceived and for the treasurer to pay or receive any money on ac- paid at treacount of the publick but on warrant or certificate from sury but by their warthe board of auditors, unless in cases where any future rant,

act of assembly shall in express words, and not by inference or implication only, declare that in that partiExcept by cular case it is to be understood as the intention that express act the claim specified by such act shall not be audited in of assembly the regular course, save only that the salaries of the said auditors, together with the accounts for the expen

ses of their office for fuel, blank books, paper, presses for the preservation of their books and papers, and other And except implements necessary for the use of their office, shall their own be examined and certified for payment to the treasurer by the governour and council.

accounts.

Clerks, to auditors.

Appeal from their decisions,

Repeal of a former act.

IV. The said auditors shall be allowed a clerk of accounts, and an assistant clerk, to be appointed by themselves from time to time at their will, who, before entering on the exercise of their offices shall take the like oath, and in like manner as is before directed for the said auditors to take, and shall receive annual salaries, to wit, the said clerk of accounts four hundred pounds, and the said assistant clerk two hundred and fifty pounds by the year.

V. Where the auditors acting according to their discretion and judgment shall disallow or abate any article of demand against the commonwealth, and any person shall think himself aggrieved thereby, he shall be at liberty to petition the high court of chancery or the general court, according to the nature of his case, for redress, and such court shall proceed to do right thereon; and a like petition shall be allowed in all other cases to any other person who is entitled to demand against the commonwealth any right in law or equity.

VI. The act of general assembly passed in the year one thousand seven hundred and seventy six, and intituled "An act to establish auditors of publick accountts," is hereby repealed,

CHAP. XVIII.

An act for more effectually guarding against counterfeiting of the bills of credit, treasury notes, and loan of fice certificates.

WHEREAS many persons who have counterfeited Preamble. the paper currency do frequently escape the punishment due to their crimes, and this alarming evil daily increases and is become so enormous that the most fatal consequences are justly to be apprehended.

a ter, or e

dit, trersury

And whereas criminal and dangerous combinations Farther rehave been formed in some parts of the country, where- amble. by the offenders may be rescued from the hands of justice if committed to the jail of the county where they reside; and whereas the unalienable privilege of trial by a jury of the vicinage, has, from the manner of summoning such juries, been abused, to the end therefore that an effectual remedy may be applied to these evils, Be it enacted by the General Assembly, That any perTo forge, son who hath forged, or counterfeited, altered, or counterfeit, erased, or shall forge, or counterfeit, alter, or crase, rase paper any bill or bills of credit, treasury notes, or loan office money, or certificates of the United States, or any of them, and bills of crehath passed or tendered, or shall pass or tender such notes, or counterfeits in payment, or otherwise, knowing them loan office to be so counterfeited, altered, or erased, or shall have certificates, in his custody or possession the presses, stamps, plates, or to pass such knowor other instruments or materials necessary to be used in the fabrication of forged bills of credit, treasury have in posnotes, or loan office certificates, or having in his or her session plates, pres possession or custody such forged bills, notes, or certificates, with or without signatures, or having in his or makingthem her possession or custody such as were genuine bills of death withcredit, treasury notes, or loan office certificates, but out clergy. have been erased or altered, and wilfully concealing such presses, stamps, plates, instruments, or materials, signed or unsigned, altered, or erased bills, notes, or certificates, or shall be otherwise aiding, abetting, or assisting in such forging or counterfeiting, altering, or erasing, passing, or tendering, shall be deemed guilty of felony without benefit of clergy, and shall suffer death.

ingly; or to

ses, &c. for