L. s. d.

For issuing a Land Warrant, granting a Certificate, and
affixing the Seal by Order of Court,

For an Account taken, the same as Clerk and Master in
Equity.

CLERKS OF SUPERIOR COURTE.

Same Fees as Clerks of the County Courts, for the same
Services.

The clerk of any court, sheriff, register, or coroner of any county, taking greater fees than the law allows, shall, upon second conviction, be removed from office.

If any of the inspectors of the several inspections in this state, shall take and receive any greater fees than are by law allowed, he or they so offending, shall, upon conviction thereof, forfeit and pay the sum of five pounds for each and every offence, to be recovered before any jurisdiction having cognizance thereof, by any person suing for the same, to the use of the prosecutor.

If any attorney or attornies shall presume to ask, take, or receive, directly or indirectly, any other or greater fees than are by law directed in all civil cases, it shall be deemed in such attorney or attornies a misdemeanor in his office or profession of an attorney; and such mal-practices being made. known to any of the courts within this state, such court is hereby required to direct the attorney general or the solicitor, on behalf of the state, to carry on a prosecution by indictment for such malpractice aforesaid; and if any such attorney or attornies shall be thereupon convicted by the verdict of a jury, of taking any other or greater fees than are by law allowed, he or they shall in the same court in which such conviction shall be had, be thenceforth dismissed from his prac tice as an attorney, for one year, in every court of law and equity within this state.

All fees due or which may become due to the clerk of any court of record within this state, or to any sheriff or other officer, by sentence, judgment, or decree of any court aforesaid, shall be collected or suit commenced therefor, within three years from the date of such judgment, without an execution issued thereon, or within three years from the issuing of the last execution, and not after. Provided, that this act shall not extend to fees which may be due from persons residing out of this state.-Acts 1811, c. 19.

Any officer taking more than the law allows, may be indicted for extortion.

See Extortion's

FELONY.

Felony is an offence which occasions a total forfeiture of either lands or goods, or both, at the common law, and to which capital or other punishment may be superadded according to the degree of guilt.

All offences now capital are in some degree or other felony; and this is likewise the case with some offences which are not punished with death, as petty larceny or pilfering, for which the offender forfeits all his goods and chattels.

Capital punishment does by no means enter into the true idea and definition of felony. Felony may be without inflicting capital punishment, as in the instance above cited of petty larceny. And it is possible that capital punishment may be inflicted, and yet the offence be no felony as standing mute without pleading to an indictment, which is capital, but without any forfeiture and therefore is not felony, which is capital by the ancient common law.

The true criterion of felony, is forfeiture. In all felonies which are punishable with death, the offender loses all his goods and chattels, and also in such as are not so punishable.

The idea indeed of felony is generally so connected with that of capital punishment, that we find it hard to separate them; and to this usage the interpretations of the law do now conform. And therefore if a statute or act of assembly makes any new offence felony, the law implies it shall be punished with death by hanging, as well as with forfeiture; unless the offender prays the benefit of clergy, which all felons are entitled once to have, unless the same is expressly taken away by some statute or act of assembly.

See Arrest, Bail, Criminals, Commitment, Evidence, Indictment, Clergy.

For the Form of a Warrant to arrest a Felon-See Appendix.

FEME COVERT.

Feme Covert is a law term used to signify a married woman, in contradistinction to feme sole, or a single woman.

A man cannot grant any thing to his wife, or enter into covenant with her; for the grant would be to suppose her separate existence; and to covenant with her would be only to covenant with himself. And therefore it is also generally

true, that all compacts made between husband and wife, when single, are void by the intermarriage. A woman indeed may be attorney for her husband; for that implies no separation from, but is rather a representation of her lord. And a husband may also bequeath any thing to his wife by will; 'for that cannot take effect till the coverture is determined by his death. The husband is bound to provide his wife with necessaries by law, as much as himself; and if she contracts debts for them, he is obliged to pay them. But for any things besides necessaries he is not chargeable. Also if a wife elopes and lives with another man, the husband is not chargeacle even with necessaries, at least if the person who furnishes them is sufficiently apprised of her elopement. I the wife be indebted before marriage, the husband is bound afterwards to pay the debt, for he has adopted her and her circumstances. together. If the wife be injured in her person or in her property, she can bring no action for redress without her husband's concurrence, and in his name as well as her own. Neither can she be sued without making the husband a defendant. There is indeed one case where the wife shall sue and be sued as feme sole, namely, where the husband has abjured the country or is banished; for then he is dead in law; and the husband being thus disabled to sue for or defend the wife, it would be most unreasonable if she had no remedy, or could make no defence at all. In criminal prosecutions, it is true the wife may be indicted and punished separately; for the union is only a civil union. But in trials of any sort they are not allowed to be evidence for or against each other; partly because it is impossible their testimony should be indifferent, but principally because of the union of persons. But where the offence is directly against the person of the wife, this rule has been usually dispensed with. And therefore by statute, in case a woman be forcibly taken away and married, she may be a witness against such her husband in order to convict him of felony; for in this case, she can with no propriety be reckoned his wife; because a main ingredient, her consent, was wanted to the contract. And also there is another maxim of law, that no man shall take advantage of his own wrong; which the ravisher here would do, if by forcibly marrying a woman, he could prevent her from being a witness who is perhaps the only witness to that very fact. All deeds executed and acts done by her during her coverture are void, except in the case hereafter mentioned. She cannot by will devise lands to her husband, unless under special circumstances; for at the time of making she is supposed

to be under his coercion. He may restrain her of her liberty in case of any gross misbehaviour; but he cannot confine or imprison her without cause, nor seize her person, nor force her to live with him where she is separated from him by articles, in consideration of money received by him. If he attempts to do so, it is a breach of the peace; and he may be indicted or she may be released by habeas corpus. If he prohibits a particular person to trust her, he shall not be charged by that person for her contracts after that prohibition. But a general notice in the gazette will not do. He is not chargeable when they separate by consent and he allows her a sufficient maintenance; the same being generally known in the neighbourhood where the husband lives. If he turns her away, and allows her no sufficient maintenance, he is liable for necessaries. So if he runs away from her, or forces her by cruelty or ill usage to go away from him. If he threatens to beat or kill her, she may make him find security for the peace.

If a woman commit theft, burglary, or other offence so ereated by the laws of society, by the coercion of her husband, or merely by his command, or even in his company, she is not guilty of any crime. But if she commit murder under such circumstances, or any other crime so constituted by the law of nature; or if she commit treason, she is guilty of that crime, and shall be punished accordingly. She may be indicted and set in the pillory with her husband for keeping a bawdy house. And in all cases where she offends alone, without the company or command of her husband, she is answerable for her offence as much as a single woman.

All conveyances in writing and sealed by a husband and wife, for any lands, and by them personally acknowledged before a judge of the superior court, or in the court of the county where the land lies, the wife being first privily examined before the judge, or some member of the county court, appoint ed by the said court for that purpose, whether she doth voluntarily assent thereto, and registered according to law, shall be valid in law to convey all the estate and title which such wife may or shall have in any lands, tenements, or hereditaments so conveyed, whether in fee simple, right of dower, or other estate. Where any such conveyance as aforesaid shall be acknowledged by the husband, or proved by the oath of one or more witnesses before a judge, or county court where the land lieth, and it shall be represented to the judge or the county court aforesaid, that the wife is a resident of any other county, or so aged or infirm that she cannot travel to the judge or county court to make such acknowledgement as aforesaid, it

shall and may be lawful for the said judge or county court, by his or their order, to direct the clerk of the county court where such land lieth, to issue a commission to two or more commissioners for receiving the acknowledgement of any deed of such feme covert, for passing her estate in any lands, tenements, or hereditaments. And such deed acknowledged before them, after they have examined her privily and apart from her husband, touching her consent, and certified to the county court to which the commission shall be returnable, shall by order of the county court be registered with the commission and return, and be as effectual as if personally acknowledged be fore the judge or county court by such feme covert.

Such Commission shall be in the following Form:

State of North-Carolina,

To A, B, C, D, and E, greeting.

-County.

Whereas F. G. hath produced a deed of conveyance made to him from H.I. and K. his wife, of a certain tract or parcel of land lying and being in the county of in the state of North-Carolina, and procured the same to be proved or acknowledged by the said H. I. before L. M. one of judges of the said state [or in the court of pleas and quarter sessions for the county aforesaid, as the case may be] and it being represented to the said judge for to our said court] that K. the wife of the said H. I. is an inhabitant of the county of in this state, [or is so aged that she can- .. not travel to the said judge, or to the said court, as the case may be] to be privily examined as to her free consent in executing the said conveyance. Therefore we command you or any two of you, that at such certain day and place as you shall think fit, you go to the said K. if she cannot conveniently come to you, and privily and apart from her husband, examine her the said K. whether she executed the said conveyance freely and of her own accord, without fear or compulsion of the said H. I. her hasband. And the examination being distinctly and plainly written on the said deed, or on some paper annexed thereto,-and when you shall have so taken the said examination, you are to send the same closed up, under the seals of you or any two of you together with this writ, unto our said court of pleas and quarter sessions to be held for the county of aforesaid, on the Monday of

next.

Witness N. O. clerk of our said court, at office, the

All conveyances made under a power of attorney, from any feme covert residing without the state, by her freely executed jointly with her husband, shall be good to pass the estate and title of said feme covert in such lands, tenements, and hereditaments within this state, as are mentioned or included within such power of attorney, whether in fee simple, right of dower, or otherwise. Provided that every such power of attorney be separately acknowledged by the feme covert execu

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