LEGISLATION. Pennsylvania. The general assembly of this state, at the session of 1828-29, passed two hundred and sixteen statutes and eleven resolutions. This mass of legislation fills three hundred and eighty octavo pages. Of the acts, twenty-two only are public, exclusive of those which relate to the construction of canals, railroads, state roads, &c. No. 51. Electors of the President and Vice President of the United States. If any of the electors shall be absent from the seat of government, or shall die, resign, or be prevented by any other means from acting, the remaining electors shall choose, viva voce, persons to fill up the vacancies. The names of the persons chosen shall be immediately transmitted to the governor, who shall, without delay, notify to them their election. No. 136. Senate and House of Representatives. This act provides that until the next enumeration of the taxable inhabitants of the state, the Senate shall consist of thirty-three members, and the House of Representatives, of one hundred members. No. 98. Executors. If any sole executor shall remove from his usual place of abode, and shall cease for one year to have any known place of residence in the state, the orphans' court of the proper county, on the application of any creditor or other person interested in the estate of the testator, shall vacate the letters testamentary and award letters of administration of the goods unadministered. But if there is a co-executor, the court may vacate the letters testamentary, only in respect to the executor who shall So remove. Where any person shall appoint his judgment debtor his executor, and the judgment shall be a lien on the real estate of the executor, if the judgment is bequeathed, or if there is any creditor interested in preserving the lien, the legatee or creditor may issue a writ of scire facias against the executor, to revive the judgment and continue the lien; and the judgment so revived shall remain for the use of all persons interested. No. 117. Land Patents. This act modifies the provisions of a former act passed Jan. 25, 1816, in regard to the interest on the purchase money. It also provides that patents shall be recorded, within six months from the date, in the county where the land lies; otherwise, they shall be void; but new patents may be issued, upon payment of the money due thereon. The receipts of payments may be recorded in the margin of the record, which record shall be prima facie evidence of such payment. Patents may issue, agreeably to the provisions of this act, to trustees, guardians, executors, or administrators in whom the power of disposing of the land is vested. The benefit of this act is to extend only to such persons as shall comply with its provisions within two years from its passage. It is also provided that the provisions of the act shall not extend to any lands north and west of the Ohio and Alleghany Rivers. No. 201. Trustees. This act provides, that trustees under a domestic attachment, on the settlement of their accounts before the proper court and a confirmation thereof, may be discharged from further responsibility, and that the several courts of common pleas shall have power to compel them to settle their accounts. No. 205. Assignment of Judgments, &c. Where judgments, bonds, or other contracts shall be assigned, if the assignor shall die before suit brought, and no letters of administration shall be taken out within three months after his decease, or if he shall leave the state or cannot be found, the assignee may proceed by execution on the judgments, or prosecute his action at law, in his own name. If the assignor shall die after suit brought, the suit may proceed as if he were living. The equitable plaintiff shall be liable to execution on judgment in favor of the defendant. No. 204. Crimes and Punishments. This act provides, that persons convicted of murder in the second degree, manslaughter, high treason, arson, burglary, forgery, robbery, mayhem, kidnapping, horse stealing, and perjury, shall be imprisoned in one of the penitentiaries, and be kept in solitary confinement at labor for a longer or shorter period, according to the nature of the offence; and that no access shall be had to them, except by the official visiters, officers of the institution, grand juries, and such other persons as may be admitted for highly urgent reasons. It also regulates the management and government of the penitentiaries. Among the regulations we notice the following: The inspectors of the penitentiary are required in their weekly visits to speak to each prisoner, out of the presence of any person employed therein, and to examine into the truth of any complaint of oppression or ill conduct. No prisoner shall be discharged while laboring under a dangerous disease, although entitled to a discharge, unless by his own desire. None but the official visiters shall have any communication with the convicts. When a prisoner is to be discharged, the warden shall obtain from him his former history; what means of education he has enjoyed; his general habits; what early temptations he was exposed to, and where he intends to fix his residence. This shall be entered in a book for the purpose, and if his conduct has been satisfactory, he shall receive four dollars from the state. No. 168. Agencies for Insurance. Agents of individuals, or associations of individuals, not incorporated and authorized by the laws of this state to make insurance, shall pay annually to the state treasurer twenty per cent. upon the amount of all premiums received by them, or agreed to be paid to them. They shall also furnish to the Auditor-General a true account of all such premiums and a list of the amount of insurances. If any agent offend against the provisions of the act, he shall forfeit one thousand dollars for every insurance made. One half of the fine shall be paid to the informer, and the other half shall be applied for the benefit of the poor.. Agents and their principals, notwithstanding such forfeiture, shall be responsible for the payment of the percentage on premiums. No. 210. Banks. Banks are authorized to loan to or purchase the stock of the state, from agents appointed by the state for such purposes; but they are not authorized to make such purchases of any individual or corporation, except in satisfaction of debts previously contracted in the course of their dealings. District of Columbia. A resolution was passed by the legislature, instructing the senators and representatives of the state in congress to procure, if practicable, the passage of a law abolishing slavery in the District of Columbia. American Colonization Society. A resolution was passed recommending this society to the support of the general govern ment. No. 192. Waters of the Delaware. Three commissioners are appointed to meet commissioners on the part of the state of New Jersey, to ascertain in what manner and at what places the waters of the Delaware may be most advantageously taken for feeding canals, and erecting water powers, without injury to the navigation of the river, and to conclude an agreement respecting the same, which, when ratified by the legislatures of the two states, and assented to by congress, shall be binding. [In the preceding number of the Jurist, we noticed a corresponding act passed by the legislature of New Jersey.] Internal Improvements. A very large proportion of the acts of this session relate to the subject of internal improvements. State roads are to be laid out in every direction. Among the companies incorporated, we notice seven for constructing turnpike roads; two for constructing railroads; and a railroad and coal company. The canal commissioners are required to locate the 'route of a suitable navigation, either by canal or by canal and slack water,' between Pittsburg and the borough of Erie; and to improve the navigation of the Monongahela from Pittsburg to the Virginia line. For the purpose of prosecuting and completing the canals and railroads, undertaken by the state, the governor is authorized to borrow, on the credit of the state, $3,000,000, at an interest not exceeding five per cent. which may be repaid at any time after the expiration of twenty-five years. A person to be styled the Engineer in Chief of the Commonwealth, and Superintendent of Surveys, is to be appointed by the canal commissioners, whose powers under their direction shall extend to all canals and railroads. Among the private acts we notice several for the legitimation of natural children; ten divorces; one act for changing the name of a person; several granting pensions to revolutionary soldiers and to the widows of such soldiers; an act incorporating certain individuals, for the purpose of establishing a 'Classical and Agricultural School;' and an act incorporating a Marine Railway Company. Several religious societies are also incorporated; among which is 'The First Turkey Foot Regular Baptist Society." Many of the acts of this session are drawn up without proper degree of care. In general, the laws evince great liberality and enterprise, and deserve to be printed on better paper. Illinois. The laws of Illinois have undergone a revision in pursuance of an act of January 10, 1825, in which the judges of the Supreme Court of the state assisted, and the laws as revised, arranged under several titles in alphabetical order, were passed at the last session of the legislature, which commenced on the first Monday of December, 1828, and the new code has since been published in a small octavo volume of 237 pages, presenting the novel form of a code in which the titles are arranged alphabetically. note only those provisions which appear to be most striking, and likely to excite the interest or gratify curiosity of readers in the other states, either from their novelty, utility, or singularity, or importance, or their relating to subjects under discussion in other states. We Appropriations. Among other things, to pay the speakers of the senate and house $4 a day each; members, $3; principal clerks of the senate and house, $5 each; other clerks, $ 4. To Wm. W. for administering oaths to members of the general assembly, $6; in state paper, to the printer for printing bills, messages, reports, rules, &c. $325; house rent for sittings of Supreme Court, $18; to G. F. for extra official duty and for losses in purchasing stationary for the state occasioned by depreciation of the state paper, $2; to the governor, judges of the Supreme Court, attorney-general, and state's attorneys, severally, 5 per cent. on the amount of their salaries on account of the depreciation of state paper money in which they had been paid; to the clerk of the house for furnishing a copy of the journal of the senate for the press, $250 in state paper money; and to the judges of the Supreme Court, $250 each, for their services in revising the laws. [We have noticed only the appropriations which give statistical facts of some interest, and afford grounds of comparison with the expenditures in other states. We may as well add here a notice of the treasurer's account which appears in the end of the volume, from which it appears that the state debt is $ 45,000, which consists in outstanding treasury warrants, to meet which the auditor states debts due to the state of $ 49,000, including $ 19,000 due from a former treasurer.] Canal. To be opened 'to effect a navigable communication between lake Michigan and Illinois River;' the commissioners appointed to explore the route and procure surveys, 'as soon as they may be able to command sufficient funds, and deem it expedient shall commence the work.' The remainder of the act provides for the location and sale of the lands granted by act of Congress of March 2d, 1827, for promoting the opening of the canal. This is the fourth projected route for a canal communication between the waters of the Mississippi and the northern lakes, two of the others being in Ohio, and one in Pennsylvania. Census. The act for taking a census of the state provides that the returns shall distinguish the number of whites, and mark their ages in periods of ten years, negroes and mulattoes; and also state the factories, mills, machines, and distilleries. [It is matter of surprise that acts for taking a census, whether of the United States or a state, do not require the professions and trades to be specified; which are of much more importance, in a statistical view, than the ages. Statistical facts in relation to the subject of education, might also be added, as well as the number of apprentices in the different trades. And why not require a return of the number of pleasure carriages, waggons, &c.? horses, cattle, sheep; land in tillage, meadow, pasture, wood? The different kinds of tillage? And all those facts which show the state of industry, arts, capital, and productive capacity? All these facts can be obtained with very little trouble and expense, additional to those of taking the number and ages of the inhabitants. To compare this public proceeding with an individual case: A mechanic, for instance, whose age and the number and ages of his family, and journeymen and apprentices, would give some faint knowledge of his economy and business; but an account of stock accurately taken at successive periods, would afford a much better insight into his affairs. A census of the United States, or a state, ought to be an occasion of taking a great national or state account of stock. It would then give a thousand statistical details which are of great practical importance in legistion, war, industrial enterprises, in short, in all subjects of general inquiry and public interest where we are now obliged to speculate |