justices of the peace; or the defendant may acknowledge the demand in court, and immediately submit to the examination. and administration of the oath; and in such case execution shall not run against the body of the defendant.' 'But the plaintiff may, at any time before the administration of the oath, prove that the defendant has property not exempted by law from attachment and execution; and in such case, if the court shall deem it reasonable, the defendant shall be entitled to one continuance, for the purpose of a further examination; and if upon such further examination, the plaintiff shall prove to the satisfaction of the court, that the defendant then has property not exempted by law from attachment and execution, execution shall be issued against the person and property of the defendant in the manner and form now provided by law, and he shall be liable to be taken and detained thereon, until legally discharged by taking the poor debtor's oath or otherwise.'

Ch. 201. The limits of the several goal-yards in this state are to be so extended as to comprehend all places within the boundaries of the city or town in which such goals are situated. But nothing in the act is to be construed to affect the rights of any person owning real estate within such limits, nor to affect any suit wherein final judgment has been rendered by the supreme court of the state.

Ch. 186. Embezzlement and Fraud. If any clerk or servant shall by virtue of such employment, receive any chattel, money, or valuable security in the name or on the account of his master, and shall fraudulently embezzle the same, he shall be deemed to have feloniously stolen the same from his master, although such chattel, &c., was not received into the possession of such master otherwise than by the actual possession of his clerk or servant. The act also contains provisions as to indictments for this offence. The last section of the act provides that any person not included in the foregoing sections of the act, who shall be entrusted by another with property which now is or hereafter shall be the subject of larceny, and who shall embezzle the same, and every person aiding therein, shall be deemed to have feloniously stolen such property.

Ch. 155.-Fugitives from Justice. Whenever application shall be made to the governor of this state to demand of the executive authority of any other state any fugitive from justice, the attorney general, or any other prosecuting officer, being thereto. required by the governor, shall investigate the ground of such. application, and furnish the governor with a statement of the

circumstances of the case and his opinion as to the expediency of demanding such person. But the governor is authorized in his discretion to demand such fugitive without such statement. In case a demand is made on the executive of this state by that of any other state for the delivery of any fugitive from justice, the attorney general, &c., is, in like manner, required to state in writing to the governor the circumstances under which such demanded person is found, whether he is held under any civil or criminal process in this state, &c.

Ch. 172.-Gaming. An act was passed for the prevention of gaming.

Ch. 151.-Gaols, &c. An act was passed for the regulation of gaols and houses of correction.

Ch. 129.-Harvard College. Whenever any vacancy exists in the clerical part of the board of overseers, the board, in filling such vacancy, 'may elect any stated minister of a church of Christ, ordained agreeably to the usages of the order to which he may belong.' But when any such minister shall cease to have the ministerial relation he had at the time of his election, or shall remove out of the state, the place of such minister shall thereupon become vacant. The act is to be in force if accepted by the overseers and the president and fellows of the college. Insurance Companies. Seven Insurance companies were incorporated.

Ch. 162.-Leases for long terms. Lessees, and the assignees of lessees, of real estate, for the term of one hundred years or more, shall in all cases where there is an unexpired residue of fifty years or more, of such term, be regarded as freeholders;, such unexpired residues of such terms, when mortgaged or seized on execution or other final process, shall be subject to redemption and be levied on in the same manner as estates in fee simple; the widows of such lessees or assignees are to be entitled to dower in such leased estates; but no creditor of such lessee or assignee, whose debt exists or shall accrue before June 1, 1834, shall be affected thereby; the widow is to be held liable to pay' to the owner of the unexpired residue of such term, during the time she shall hold her said dower therein,' one third part of the rent reserved in the lease.

Limitations, Statute of. See Merchant's Accounts, Contract. Ch. 150.-Lunatic Hospital. An act was passed regulating the government of the State Lunatic Hospital.

Manual Labor Schools. Two Manual Labor High Schools were incorporated.

Manufacturing Companies. Twenty-four manufacturing companies were incorporated.

Marriages. An act was passed providing for the orderly solemnization of marriages.

Masonry. The act incorporating the Grand Lodge of Massachusetts was repealed.

Memorandum in writing. See Contract.

Ch. 152.-Militia. An act was passed for the regulation and training of the militia, providing that standing companies shall be paraded on the first Tuesday in May only, that members of volunteer companies shall be paid $3 annually, &c.

Ch. 69.-Oaths. If any person shall administer any oath or obligation in the nature of an oath, not authorized by law, or if any person shall voluntarily take or suffer to be administered to him, such oath, &c., he shall forfeit a sum not less than $5, nor more than $200, to be recovered by indictment to the use of the state; either party to such oath, &c., may be compelled to testify against the other, but such witness shall never afterwards be prosecuted for a previous violation of the act. In all prosecutions under this act, the indictment shall be sufficient, if it allege that an oath, &c., has been administered or taken by the person indicted, contrary to the form of this statute, setting forth the substance thereof, and the time, place and occasion, when and where the same was administered or taken..

Parishes.-An act was passed relating to parishes and religious freedom."

Religious Societies. Twenty-three religious societies were incorporated. An act was also passed to incorporate the Female Society of Boston and the vicinity, for promoting Christianity among the Jews.'

Saving Institutions. An act was passed to regulate Savings Institutions. Institutions of this nature are to be established at Cambridge, Andover, Greenfield, Nantucket, Hingham, Wellfleet, Scituate, and Lexington.

Ch. 169. School Fund. An act was passed to establish the Massachusetts School Fund. From and after January 1, 1835, all monies in the treasury derived from the sale of lands in Maine, and from the claim of the state on the United States for military services, and not otherwise appropriated, together with fifty per cent. of all monies hereafter to be received from the sale of lands in Maine, shall be appropriated to constitute a permanent school fund; provided that such fund shall never exceed $1,000,000; but there shall never be paid to any city,

town or district for the support of common schools, out of the income of such fund, a greater sum then is raised therein respectively for that purpose.

Ch. 29.-Wheels, Broad-rimmed. The act of 1828, providing for the use of broad-rimmed wheels, was repealed.

Ch. 164. Witnesses. In all legal proceedings, wherein any county may be interested, any inhabitant of such county shall be a competent witness; provided such person be not interested, except as an inhabitant of such county, and be in all other respects qualified as a witness.

NOTICES OF NEW BOOKS.

Summary of the Criminal Law. By HENRY J. STEPHEN, Sergeant at Law. London. 1834. 8vo. pp. 506.

A new work from Mr. Stephen is a matter of some interest. His Treatise on Pleading,'-published not many years agoenjoys a reputation, second to that of no writer on the law since Sir William Blackstone. For clearness of language, perspicuity of arrangement, and a full command of all the learning of the subject, which it pretends to treat-that is, of the principles of pleading, which compose that exquisite logic which has called forth the enthusiastic praise of Lord Mansfield and Sir William Jones-it stands unrivalled. Mr. Stephen has shown pleading to be what its admirers always held it—a science, capable of reduction to principles, and of the nicest application in determining truth. The general student, not simply the student of law, who has a generous ambition for the improvement of the highest attribute given to men, the reasoning faculty, would find this work a study, not less profitable than those of Watts, Whately, or Hedge,

The present work is of a different character from that on Pleading. As a work of mind, it is not of the same high order; though its pretensions are so comparatively humble, that it cannot be called a falling-off. The author's design was to furnish a view of criminal law, as it is at present, drawn from decisions and from text writers of authority, and from the vast and complex body of English statutes, without entering into any examination of the great principles to which all systems of criminal law refer, or attempting to controvert or vindicate any of the provisions appointed. The whole volume does not contain a word of theory or speculation, or discussion. Nothing but the interest of the subject saves it from the dulness of a professed digest.