the commissioners appointed by the court, as aforesaid, shall take an oath before they enter upon the discharge of the duty enjoined upon them before some proper magistrate of this State, or of the State where the examination may take place, "well and truly to execute the said His oath. commission to the best of their skill and ability:" and provided, also, that one of the commissioners acting under the said commission shall be a physician. notice of ap 121. Sec. II. The person applying for said commission shall give Ten days' at least ten days' notice in writing of his or her intended application to plication for the nearest adult relative or relations of the person alleged to be an commission. idiot, lunatic, or insane person, not exceeding three in number, before the court shall issue said commission; but if there be no relative of such person within this State, the court may issue such commission without such notice being given. court. 122. Sec. III. In case the person making the application aforesaid, Appeal from or any relation or friend of the person alleged to be an idiot, lunatic, or the report of commissioninsane person shall be dissatisfied with the report made by the said ers to Sup. commissioners, such person may, upon paying all costs, and giving security for all future costs, within four days after such report is acted upon by the court of ordinary, enter an appeal to the superior court of the county, where the sanity or insanity of the person shall be tried by a special jury, selected as in other cases; but the guardian appointed Guardian by the court of ordinary shall act as such till the matter is determined Peudent lite. in the superior court. 123. Sec. IV. If the commissioners shall report the person an Costs. idiot, lunatic, or insane person, the costs of the proceeding shall be fixed by the court of ordinary in their discretion, and shall be paid out of the estate of such person; but if the commissioners report that the person is neither an idiot, lunatic, nor insane person, the costs shall be borne by the person who applied for said commission. Sec. V. All laws and parts of laws militating against this are hereby repealed. An Act to authorize executors, administrators, and guardians to have recorded all receipts showing a final settlement with all or either of the heirs and distributees of the estates they may represent, and to regulate their admission in evidence.-Approved 22d Dec. 1834. Pam. 95. ment of Ex. to be record 124. From and after the passage of this act it shall be the duty of Receipts on the clerks of the superior courts of the respective counties in this State final settleto record all receipts showing a final settlement between any executor, Ad. or Guard. administrator, or guardian, and the heirs, wards, or distributees of the ed. estate the said executor, administrator, or guardian may represent : provided, said receipt has been attested by two witnesses, one of whom must be a justice of the peace, a judge of the inferior or superior court in this State; and such receipt, so recorded, shall be received in evidence, without further proof, in any of the courts in this State. 125. Sec. II. Whenever any executor, administrator, or guardian Copy, evishall make it appear that said original receipt is lost or destroyed, and dence, if that the same is not in his, her, or their power, custody, or control, then a copy of said receipt, certified to by the clerk where the original was recorded, shall be admissible as testimony in any of the courts of law or equity in this State. original lost. excluded. 126. Sec. III. Nothing in the provision of this act shall be so other reconstrued as to prevent any executor, administrator, or guardian from ceipts not giving in testimony any receipt, after legal proof of its execution, though the same may not have been recorded. Clerk's fee. Legacies not to lapse if any Sec. IV. The clerk shall receive as a fee for the recording of said receipt the sum of fifty cents. An Act to alter the law in relation to lapsed legacies.-Approved Dec. 23d, 1836. Pam. 160. 127. From and after the passage of this act, where any person issue of the named as legatee in the will of any other person, shall die before the testator, leaving issue, that shall be alive at the death of such testator, the legacy: Provided, the same be absolute and without remainder, or limitation, shall not lapse as heretofore, but shall vest in such issue. legatee are Living. What fences ful. Worm fences. FENCES. An Act for the better regulating Fences in the Province of Georgia.— Whereas an act passed the 7th day of March, 1755, in the first session of the first general assembly of this province, entitled "An Act to regulate Fences in the province of Georgia," has been found very ineffectual for the purposes thereby intended: And whereas, the fixing and establishing fit and proper dimensions for all fences and enclosures to be erected, and made in and about the several plantations and settlements of this province, would not only prevent the several owners and occupiers thereof, so fenced and enclosed, from receiving any damage from the irruption, straying, or breaking in of cattle, horses, sheep, goats, or swine, but would likewise obviate any doubts or disputes happening or arising as to the strength and sufficiency of such fences and enclosures, in case of any irruption or trespass to be committed within the same, 1. Sec. I. Be it enacted, That from and after the 29th day of shall be law- March, 1759, all fences or enclosures, commonly called worm fences, that shall be erected and made around or about any garden, orchard, rice ground, indigo field, plantation, or settlement, in this province, shall be six feet high when staked and ridered, and from the ground to the height of three feet of every such fence or enclosure, the rails thereof shall not be more than four inches distant from each other; and that all fences or enclosures that shall consist of paling, shall likewise be five feet high from the ground, and the pales thereof not more than two inches asunder: Provided always, that where any fence or enclosure shall be made with a ditch or trench, the same shall be four feet wide, and in that case the fence shall be six feet high from the bottom of the ditch. Paling. Ditch. Owners of cattle not lawful fences. 2. Sec. II. If any trespass or damage shall be committed in any fiable for any garden, orchard, rice ground, indigo field, plantation, or settlement, damage for not being fenced and enclosed in manner as hereinbefore is directed, breaking through un- by the irruption, breaking in, or straying of any cattle, horses, sheep, goats, or swine, the owner of such cattle, horses, sheep, goats, or swine, shall not be liable to answer for such trespass, or to make good or satisfy any damage or injury that shall happen or be committed by reason thereof; and in case any person or persons shall kill, maim, hurt, or destroy, or cause to be killed, maimed, hurt, or destroyed, any cattle, horses, sheep, goats, or swine, so trespassing, straying, or breaking into any garden, orchard, rice ground, indigo field, plantation, or settlement, not fenced and enclosed in manner as by this act is directed, all and every such person and persons shall answer and make good to the owner or owners thereof all such injury and damages as he or they shall sustain thereby, the same to be recovered on due proof thereof, before any two justices of the peace for the district where the offence shall be committed, and to be levied by warrant of distress and sale of the offender's goods.* Sec. III. and IV. [Direct justices of the peace to appoint three freeholders to assess the damages, which the justices are to levy by distress and sale. These two sections, as well as such parts of this and all other acts as give the justices power to assess damages, are repealed by the present constitution, and the judicial act of 1799.] not to be der 20 shil 3. Sec. V. No planter or other person, not having a lawful fence, Stakes, &c. shall fix in any of his enclosures, any canes, or stakes, or any thing fixed in enthat shall, or may kill, maim, hurt, or destroy, any cattle, horses, sheep, closures, ungoats, or swine, under the forfeiture of twenty shillings sterling for lings penalty. every such offence, on being convicted thereof before any justice of the peace of the district or place where such offender shall dwell, upon confession of such offender, or proof by any one or more credible witness or witnesses upon oath, one-half thereof to be paid to the informer, and the other half to the poor of the said district, the same to be levied by distress and sale of the offender's goods, by warrant of the justice, before whom such offender shall be convicted, returning to the owner the overplus, if any, after all charges deducted.† not to be brought in 4. Sec. VI. Provided always, and be it further enacted, That in Title to lands all trials to be had before one or more justices of the peace by virtue of this act, the right of the party to the lands on which the trespass or question. damage shall be said to be done, shall not be brought into question, but the same shall be taken for granted to all intents and purposes whatsoever. Sec. VII. [Repeals the act of 1755.] *All criminal jurisdiction was confined exclusively to the Superior courts, by the constitution of 1798: but was, as to some matters, restored to inferior judicatories by the amendment of 1811; and was conferred as to some other matters, on the corporation courts of certain sea-port towns, by the amendment of 1818. [See Art. III. Sec. 1. as amended, Appendix, Sec. 136.] The compiler has been induced for several reasons to retain in most instances, those passages in the old laws which relate to the exercise of this jurisdiction by inferior magistrates. For in the first place, they are often so blended with those parts which still remain in force, that to expunge the one, would render the other less intelligible; besides garbling and deforming the structure of the statutes; which he has in all cases sought as far as possible to avoid. A second and still stronger reason for this course, has arisen from a reference to several enactments since the constitution of 1798, and prior to the amendment of 1811. These have left him uncertain how far the legislature understood justices to be ousted by the reservation "exclusive and final jurisdiction in all criminal cases" to the Superior courts. [See Cotton Seed,' Sec. 5; Health, Sec. 12, 13; Slaves, Patrols, &c. Sec. 51; and many others.] For other acts of malicious mischief done to land-marks, woods, stacks, fences, dams, cattle, roads, &c. see Penal Laws, 275 to 282. 258 Governor's fees. FEES. An Act to revise and amend "An Act for ascertaining the Fees of the Public Officers of this State."*-Approved Dec. 18, 1792. Vol. I. 226. 1. Sec. I. The fees of the different public officers hereinafter mentioned, may be by them respectively received, as follows: GOVERNOR'S FEES. 2. For signing a grant for 500 acres or under,† 1.00 For signing a grant above 500 acres, and not exceeding 1000 acres, 2 00 Ordering the great seal of the State to any paper of a private nature, Which sums shall be paid into the treasury for the public use, before any such grant or other paper is signed by the governor. SECRETARY OF STATE'S FEES. For a grant of land, and preparing and affixing the seal If above 500 acres, For registering a grant, For a bond, For a testimonial with the great seal, For every militia commission, to be paid by the public, For every search, 1 00 2. 00 50 50 1 50 121 50 50 25 1.00 1 00 Surveyor general. If exceeding 500 acres, If exceeding 1000 acres, Recording a plan of a town, township, or village, Fixing the great seal of the State to any other paper, For a certified copy of a grant or other paper, per copy sheet, SURVEYOR GENERAL'S FEES. 4. For examining a plat, For recording a plat not exceeding 500 acres, 61 50 75 1 50 3 00 10 00 Transmitting a caveat to the governor, and attending thereon, 100 5. Surveying a town lot, and returning a certificate thereof 75 50 121 50 1 00 *The act here referred to, does not appear unless it is that of the 23d December, 1789, which is said (Watk. 389) to be obsolete. Perhaps rendered so by this act. The sums mentioned in the statute are reduced to federal currency at the rate of four and eight pence to the dollar. Twenty-five per cent. to be added to the fees of county surveyors, clerks of the superior and inferior courts, clerks of the court of ordinary, sheriffs, receivers of tax returns, constables, justices of the peace, jailers, coroners, and tax collectors. See State Officers, Sec. 2. Surveying a tract of land, of or under 100 acres, Entering a caveat, advertising and giving a certified copy thereof, Attending the trial of the same, Each postponement, to be paid by the person postponing the same, Recording judgment, and giving a certified copy thereof, For For making and certifying a plat thereof, and transmitting the same, And for any other re-survey, the same as aforesaid. SHERIFF'S FEES. In civil cases. 6. For serving a copy of a process and returning the original, On all sums where the execution does not exceed 64 dollars Making out and signing a bill of sale of other property, 2 683 53 1.00 1 50 75 50 50 1 00 2.683 1 00 1 50 Sheriff in 50 1 50 50 1.00 Provided, That fees shall be allowed only for one bill of sale, where the same will be sufficient to convey the property sold to one person or joint purchasers; unless the purchaser or purchasers shall choose more than one. Conducting a debtor under confinement before a judge or Summoning a special jury, and all other services, attending SHERIFF'S FEES. In criminal cases. 7. For recommitting any person, when a habeas corpus is brought to his relief, Summoning a jury, On every copy of a mittimus, For every mile a prisoner shall be removed on a habeas 1 00 1.00 1 00 3 00 1.00 civil cases. corpus, 25 For removing a prisoner by habeas corpus, when no mileage is paid, per day, 1 00 Executing a criminal, Attending a person taken by a warrant, to the judge's chambers, Conducting a prisoner before a judge or court to and from jail, 1 00 8.00 75 |