1851. tion to be held to fill the vacancy, according to law; if there be less than a year unexpired, then the county court shall convene and appoint a successor, to be commissioned by the governor, for the residue of the term. Indians. CHAPTER XXI. WITNESSES. § 1. A slave negro or Indian shall be a competent witNegroes and ness in a case of the commonwealth for or against a slave negro or Indian, or in a civil case to which only negroes or Indians are parties, but in no other case. This shall not be construed to exclude an Indian, in other cases, who speaks the English language, and understands the nature and obligation of an oath. A party to a suit may be a witness in cei tain cases. § 2. No person assessed, or liable to be assessed, with levies for any county, town, or corporation, or religious society, shall, by reason of such assessment or liability, be disabled from giving evidence. § 3. No such person, or any officer of a county, or corporation, or town, or religious society, shall be incompetent to give evidence in any case, by reason of his being liable for costs, when he is only a nominal party thereto, and liable to contribute to such costs only in common with other persons assessed with the levies of such county, town, religious society, or corporation. § 4. No fiduciary shall be incompetent as a witness, in any case where he has no personal interest, by reason of his being a party thereto, or of his being liable for costs; but if liable for costs, he shall not be competent, unless some person, of proper responsibility, shall undertake, on the record, to pay the same, without recourse upon him. In suits at law, either party, at the instance of his adversary, may be compelled to give evidence upon the trial. 5. Except where it is otherwise expressly provided, no person who has been, or shall be, convicted of felony, any where within the United States, shall be competent as a witness in any case, unless he has been pardoned; nor shall a person convicted of perjury, or subordination of perjury, be a competent witness, although pardoned. § 6. If any person shall be disqualified to testify in any suit or action, by reason of being next friend, or of having become bail or surety for costs, or surety in an appeal, or injunction, or other bond, or other instrument or recognizance required to be taken, at the institution of, or during the progress of, such suit or action, he may be discharged from liability by an order of the court, so as to be sworn and examined as a witness. But before this shall be done, another sufficient bail, or surety, or next friend, shall be 歌 substituted in his stead, to be liable, in like manner, and to § 7. It shall be no objection to the competency of a wit- § 8. If any person who accepts a summons, or who shall be legally summoned as a witness, to attend any court in this commonwealth, or to appear before commissioners or referees, or other persons appointed by or under the authority of such court, or to give his deposition, or to attend upon an order of survey, or to attend on the execution of a writ of ad quod damnum, or on any other legal proceeding, shall fail to attend accordingly, not having a legal excuse for such failure, such person shall be fined ten dollars by the court from which the summons issued. § 9. A witness so failing, without such excuse, shall further be liable to the action of the party at whose instance he was summoned, for all damage sustained by the nonattendance of such witness. § 10. If any person, so summoned, shall attend, and shall refuse to give evidence to the best of his knowledge, such witness shall be committed to the jail of the county, by the court or judicial officer under whose authority the proceeding is had, there to remain without bail until he shall give such evidence. 1851. Interest in property not to ness. exclude a wit Shall be fined for non-attendance. Refusal to tes. tify. Privileged § 11. A witness shall be privileged from arrest in all cases, except treason, felony, and breach of the peace, du- from arrest. ring his bona fide attendance at court, or other place where his attendance shall be required by a subpæna duly accepted or executed by an officer or a private person, and in going to such place and returning, allowing one day for every twenty miles, from his place of abode. § 12. In all cases in which witnesses are required to attend at any court or other place of procedure, a summons may be issued, at the request of either party, by the clerk of the court, or by the person whose duty it is to superintend the procedure, expressing the day and place where they are to appear, the names of the parties to the controversy, and in whose behalf summoned, directed to the county where the witnesses, or any of them, may be. § 13. A witness shall not be compelled to attend, as such, in a civil suit out of the county of his residence, unless his traveling expenses, going and returning, are first paid or tendered to him; nor, except in a criminal prosecution, shall he be compelled to attend as a witness at a place distant more than thirty miles from his residence, but his deposition may, for that cause, be taken in any civil suit. Summons to be issued. 1851. CHAPTER XXII. BASTARDY. 1. Every child shall be deemed a bastard, within the Who deemed meaning of this chapter, who shall be begotten and born out of lawful wedlock. a bastard. How the father may be charged. issue, &c. § 2. Any unmarried white woman may go before a judge of the county court of the county in which she has been delivered of a bastard child, and accuse any person of being the father of the child. Such judge shall examine her under oath, and reduce her statement to writing, and sign it. § 3. On such examination, if the child appear to be less Warrant to than three years old, a warrant may be issued, requiring the person accused to be apprehended and brought before a judge of the county court of the county in which he may be found, who shall require him to enter into a recognizance, with good surety, in the sum of three hundred dol. lars, to appear in the county court of the county in which the warrant issued, on the first day of the next term thereof, and to abide by and perform the judgment of said court. § 4. Warrants for bastardy may be directed to and executed by a sheriff or constable, or, in a proper case, by the coroner or jailer. § 5. If the person accused shall refuse to give such recognizance, the judge shall forthwith commit him to the jail of his county, there to remain until he give a recognizance, or be otherwise discharged by due course of law. § 6. Should the case be continued at any term of the court, the recognizance may be respited, or a new one given, or, on the failure of the accused to give a recogniżance, he may be committed to jail. § 7. On the trial, the mother of the child may be a witness, unless she be otherwise incompetent. If the party accused desire it, and be otherwise competent, he may be examined on oath; and other evidence may be adduced by either party. § 8. If the finding of the jury be in favor of the defendant, he shall be discharged, unless for good cause a new trial be granted. § 9. If the finding of the jury be against the defendant, judgment shall be rendered thereon; and the court shall make such order for the keeping, maintenance, and education of the child as may be proper, by charging the father, annually, with such sum and for such period as may have been fixed by the verdict of the jury. § 10. The person adjudged to be the father of the child To give surety. shall thereupon enter into bond, with good surety, to be approved by the court, for paying the sum adjudged, in such instalments as the court may order. In case of his failure, the court shall commit him to jail, there to remain until he shall give such bond, or pay the money, or be discharged as an insolvent debtor. § 11. If such bond be given, and any instalment shall not be paid according to the stipulations thereof, ten days' notice may be given to the party and his sureties, or either one of them, and a judgment awarded by the county court against such as are notified, for the sum, with interest and costs. § 12. If a bastard child shall die, after the person accused has been adjudged to be its father, the father, upon paying what may be due up to the death of the child, shall be discharged from the residue of what he had been adjudged to pay. § 13. If the person adjudged to be the father of a bastard child shall appeal, or prosecute a writ of error with a supersedeas, from the decision of the county court, and the decision shall be affirmed, the sureties in the appeal or supersedeus bond shall be liable for all the father had been adjudged to pay, and also the costs and damages on the appeal. 1851. CHAPTER XXIII. MASTER AND APPRENTICE. §1. The county court shall have jurisdiction to bind out infant children. It shall be the duty of the court to inquire after, and to put in apprenticeship, such poor orphans and other children within its knowledge, whose relatives or parents, the court shall judge, will not bring them up in moral courses. The court may, in its discretion, bind out the children of a man condemned to confinement in the penitentiary. § 2. Before an order shall be made, binding out any such. child, the person with whom he shall reside shall be summoned to show cause to the contrary. Certain children to be bound out. Notice to be given. How a minor §3. Any orphan minor may be bound as an apprentice, by his guardian, or if no guardian, by his mother, with the may be bound. consent, entered of record, of the county court of the county where the minor may reside. § 4. The term of every such apprenticeship shall be until the minor attains the age of twenty-one years, if a boy; or eighteen years, if a girl. § 5. The writing by which any minor shall be bound an apprentice shall be signed by the master and the clerk of the county court, and shall specify the age of the minor, and what art, trade, or business, he is to be taught; that the apprentice shall have proper medical attention, and shall be well fed and clothed, and treated with humanity, and the master shall be bound to give the apprentice a The indenture. 1851. good new suit of clothes at the termination of his apprenticeship; and, if he be not a free negro, that he shall be taught to read and write, and common arithmetic, including the rule of three. 6. No person, to whom a child shall be bound, shall have the right to take or send such child out of this state, nor to sell his term of service, or any part thereof, to any other person, nor to give another person the right to control such child. § 7. If an apprentice shall desert his master, he shall be Penalty for de- liable to such master for all damage sustained by such desertion. sertion. Penalty for enapprentice. § 8. If any person shall entice away an apprentice, or servant, from his master, he shall pay the master therefor ticing away an three dollars for every day the apprentice, or servant, shall remain out of the service of the master; and any person who shall, knowingly, conceal, harbor, or employ such servant or apprentice, shall, in like manner, pay the master therefor three dollars per day for every day such apprentice or servant shall be so concealed, harbored, or employed. to hear com plaints, &c. § 9. The county court of each county shall receive and County courts hear the complaints of apprentices and hired servants, who reside in the county, against their masters for undeserved or immoderate correction, insufficient allowance of food, raiment, or lodging, or want of medical attention or instruction, and may make such order therein as is right and just, and may discharge the apprentice and bind him to another person, if it shall seem necessary. Apprentices & ing from master § 10. The court may, in the same manner, hear the complaint of masters against their apprentices, or hired servants, for desertion without good cause, or other misconduct, and may oblige the latter to make retribution, by further service after the expiration of the time for which they were bound. § 11. If any apprentice or hired servant shall unlawfully depart from the service of his master, a judge of any court, servants depart upon complaint made to him by the master, or his agent, shall issue his warrant to apprehend such apprentice or servant, and to bring him before him, or some other judge; and if the complaint shall be supported, the judge shall order the apprentice to be returned to his master, or may commit him to the county jail, there to remain not more than twenty days, if not sooner discharged by the master. § 12. The judge's warrant may be directed to any officer, or other person, by name, and shall empower him to warrant may be convey the offender to the place of residence of the master, although it may be in another county, or to the jail of the county where the master resides. To whom the directed. § 13. The servitude of an apprentice shall cease at the death of the master. |