Fees, fines and penalties, payment and disposal of regulated

Fines, acts enhancing

319

390-391

Fines and premiums in the several laws, regulated and stated

402

Ferries and ferriages regulated

329

Forgery, how punished

373

Fraudulent conveyances prohibited

373

Fence, act directing what shall be deemed lawful

405

Fences, division, act regulating

412

HIGHWAYS, act for laying and altering

act for making and repairing

act to prevent encroachments on

act to settle and establish

321

361

368

Heiresses, act to prevent the sale of the real estates of

368

Heirship of the estate of Col. Wm. Syms, act directing

445

INCEST, acts for the punishment of

291-484

Impeding authority, how punished

300

Idiots, and impotent, distracted and idle persons, act for relieving

JUSTICES of the peace, act directing in their office and duty
two or three empowered to try causes of £100

288

390

Justice Courts, act defining jurisdiction of, and regulating proceed-
ings in

Jurors, grand and pettit, act regulating

Jurors, pettit, choice of regulated

Judgments, act directing in what money they shall be given
Judgments, acts nullifying in certain cases

LASCIVIOUS CARRIAGE, &c. act for punishment of
Listers, act directing in their office and duty

Limitation of criminal prosecutions in certain cases
Lying, act for punishment of

Lands, common and undivided, act to prevent encroachments on
Lands, unappropriated, act to prevent unlawful settlement on
Landed property, acts for quieting disputes respecting
Land, act confirming a right of, to R. Bloomer
Land titles (see titles of lands)

Lotteries, act for preventing and suppressing

. 374

Laws of February session, 1779, declared temporary

388

Militia, act forming and regulating

Military officers, field and staff, act regulating choice of

Mills and millers, act regulating

Mayhem, how punished

Marking cattle, swine and sheep, act directing

Manslaughter, act for the punishment of

Murder, act for punishment of

Laws, acts reviving and continuing in force

Legislature constituted a Court of equity in certain cases
Law-suits, act for preventing multiplicity of
Laws, act directing the form of passing

MARRIAGES, acts regulating

articles, rules and regulations for the discipline of
act, making draft of, for campaign of 1782

391-397-421-439-444
467-496-504-510

394

423

487

292-484

305

415

446

397

321

355

366

374

375

Ministers of the Gospel, act enabling towns to tax themselves for

Notes, negociable, act to enable assignees of to maintain action
thereon

Notes, State, act directing Treasurer to issue
New trials granted

New-York, act restraining the privileges of the inhabitants of, in Vt. 475
New-York, act appointing commissioners to seize and sell lands of
citizens of, by way of reprisal

Negroes and mulattos, transportation of from State, prohibited

Order assessing damages on account of laying a certain road, set
aside and declared void

488

POLYGAMY, acts for punishment of

290-473

Probate of wills and settlement of estates, act relating to
Perjury, acts for punishment of

Pleas and pleadings regulated

Poor, act for maintaining and supporting

Proclamation of Governor, requiring obedience to the laws
Provision tax for supply of troops, acts assessing, &c.

act exempting a certain town from payment of
Pardon, acts granting
Post offices, act establishing

467-470-490-494-495

489

Rebellion, how punished

354

Return to the State of certain persons having joined the enemies

thereof, aot to prevent and punish

355

Recovery of debts due the citizens of other States, prohibited in cer-

tain cases,

505

Swearing and cursing, act against

331

Sheriffs, act for appointing, and regulating in execution of their office 348

Sheep, act for ordering and preserving

334

Sodomy, how punished

354

Stocks and sign posts, act providing for

359

Stallions, act to restrain the running at large

381

Suspension of all civil process, acts relating to

388-390-397

Suspension of process against I. Tichenor and J. Farnsworth 438-494
Streams of water, act to prevent turning from their natural courses 435
Sale of real estate of persons deceased, acts authorising for certain

purposes

439-460

Secretary of State, act pointing out office and duty of

Taxes, act authorising and regulating the collection of
towns empowered to assess, for certain purposes

on lands, towns authorised to levy, for building houses of

worship, school houses and bridges

Tax for purpose of making and repairing roads, &c. select-men
empowered to levy

509

Transient persons, act for the ordering and disposing of

315

Town and society meetings, act for preserving order therein

act empowering Courts to try, in a certain case 426
act repealing laws prohibiting trial of

Title of certain land confirmed to John Ashley

443
476

Trial of persons standing mute, regulated

395

Trover and conversion, act for better regulating process in actions of 405
Tender of real estate on execution, act authorising

Tender of specifick articles on executions, acts authorising

406
461-470
504-508

446

407-429-440

Tender of paper currency, act for taking off
Troops, acts to supply with provisions
Trade to and through the province of Quebeck, act for the purpose
of opening

UNION of part of New-York with Vermont, acts connected
with

Usury, excessive, act to restrain the taking of

496

430-431-434

459

822

440-472

WOLVES and panthers, act to encourage the destruction of
Worship, publick, acts empowering towns to levy taxes for build-
ing houses for

Will and testament of Rufus Rude, confirmed

Windham County, act for raising militia to enforce the laws in

AN ACT for collecting and perpetuating the records, relative to the assumption and cs-
tablishment of government, in this State, and such acts of the Legislature, as are not
in print.

SECTION I It is hereby enacted by the General Assembly of the State of Vermont, That
Daniel Chipman, of Middlebury, in the county of Addison, be, and he hereby is appoint-
ed an agent, to examine and collect all the records of the Council of safety, by which the
people, in the then New Hampshire grants, were governed, and to make a contract for
printing and publishing a volume, containing not less than 450 pages, and to contain the
first Constitution of this State, and such of the acts of the Legislature, passed previous to
the year. 1787, as said agent shall judge proper, and all the records of said Council of
safety, which can be found, and such of the early journals of the Council, and House of
Representatives, as such agent shall judge worthy of publication Provided, that the
whole expense to be incurred under this act, shall not exceed the sum of three hundred
dollars -And provided also, that said agent shall deliver to the Secretary of State, at
Montpelier, fifty full bound volumes of such records and laws, at the next session of the
Legislature. And the person, with whom said agent may contract to print such edition,
shall be entitled to the remaining part of the same, after deducting said fifty volumes;
and shall be entitled to the copy right of the book, by him printed

SEC. 2. It is hereby further enacted, that the Treasurer of this State, be, and he here-
by is directed to pay to said agent, out of any monies in the Treasury not otherwise ap-
propriated, any sum, not exceeding three hundred dollars.-[Passed Nov. 15, 1821.]

INTRODUCTION.

THE general diffusion of intelligence constitutes the life of a free government. Upon every department of such a government the people exert an unremitted influence, and stamp on all its measures the impress of their own character. Called upon to act, they should become accustomed to think; and though they cannot, ordinarily, possess extended and comprehensive views of other systems of government, they should, at least, understand their own. The whole science of government consists in a knowledge of the practical operation of principles. With the science, thus understood, the citizens of every free government owe it to themselves and their posterity to become familiarly acquainted. The preservation of their political institutions depends, under Divine Providence, on themselves. Those institutions therefore,—their origin, their nature, their practical operation, and their whole history, should be studied and understood. The man who contemplates the subject in this light, will sit down to the examination of the successive constitutions and laws of a government, with a far higher aim than the gratification of an idle curiosity. By tracing them to their origin, and pursuing them through their various modifications, he will furnish himself with the best means of understanding the nature and practical tendency of existing institutions. Every government, therefore, should possess, and should place within the reach of the people, a complete history of its own legislation. Without the possession of such a history, and a practical regard to the lessons it inculcates, legislation will be, at best, but a succession of experiments, and, as a necessary consequence, every operation of government will be characterised with instability and want of wisdom.

The early institutions of a government are peculiarly liable to be lost sight of, in the progress of improvement. Superceded by new systems, they are supposed to have lost their value, and are permitted to pass into ●blivion. This has been, in a peculiar sense, true of the original constitution and laws of Vermont. The circumstances under which the government was formed, were eminently calculated to give to its institutions an imperfect, unsettled character. At the expiration of seven years, the constitution was revised and altered; and at the end of the next septenary, was again revised, and adopted in the form which it still retains. In the