such overseers, the clerk of the court shall issue and may renew a warrant of distress for the arrears of any preceding quarter.

SEC. 11. Said court may further order with whom of such kindred who may desire it, such pauper shall live and be relieved, and for such time with one and for such time with another, as they shall judge proper, having regard to the comfort of the pauper, as well as to the convenience of the kindred.

SEC. 12. Upon suggestion made, other kindred of ability, not named in the complaint, may be notified, and the process may be continued; and upon due notice, whether they appear or are defaulted, the court may proceed against them in the same manner as if they had been named in the complaint.

SEC. 13. If such complaint be not entered, or be discontinued or withdrawn, or be adjudged groundless, the respondent shall

recover costs.

SEC. 14. Upon application of any party interested, said court may, from time to time, vary any order by them made in the premises, or alter any assessment or apportionment by them made as aforesaid to meet a change of circumstances.

SEC. 15. The overseers of the poor of the several towns, with the advice and consent of the town councils thereof, may bind out, as apprentices, to citizens of this state, or of the states of Massachusetts and Connecticut, or to the Providence children's friend society, or, if colored, to the Providence shelter for colored children, in the manner and for the purposes prescribed by law, the following classes of poor children in their respective towns:

First. Any male or female children whose parents are lawfully settled in and have become chargeable to their town;

Second. Any, whose parents so settled shall be thought by said overseers to be unable to maintain them, whether they receive alms or are so chargeable or not, provided they be not assessed in any town tax;

Third. Any, whose parents residing in their town, are supported there at the charge of the state;

Fourth. Any, whose parent or parents, having no legal settlement in this state, are residing in such town and are adjudged by the town council of such town to be unable to maintain his or her children;

Fifth. Any, not having sufficient estate for their maintenance, who have no parents living or residing in the town, and who have no legal settlement in this state.

SEC. 16. The overseers of the poor may set to work, or bind out to service by deed indented or poll, for a term not exceeding one whole year at a time, and upon such terms and conditions, and especially as to the application by said overseers of the wages of those bounden to the support or benefit of themselves or families, as they shall judge proper, the following classes of poor persons in their respective towns, of the age of twenty-one years and up

wards.

First. All poor persons residing and lawfully settled in their towns, and those who have no lawful settlement in the state,

whether married or unmarried, who are able of body, but have no visible means of support, and who live idly, and use and exercise no ordinary and daily and lawful trade or occupation to get their living;

Second. All poor persons settled or residing in their towns, who, having families to support, earn sufficient means therefor, but waste their earnings and abandon their wives or children, or both, as paupers upon the town.

SEC. 17. Corporal punishment and confinement in dark rooms, or in dungeons, are prohibited at all asylums and houses for the poor.

SEC. 18. No pauper shall hereafter be closely confined at any such asylum or poor-house for a longer period than five days for any one offence; and in all cases of close confinement it shall be the duty of the commissioners and officers of the asylums and poor-houses to report the same to the town or city council as often as once in three months, stating the name of the pauper, together with the offence and period of his confinement.

SEC. 19. The use of chains in the asylums for the poor and poor-houses, or of any other bonds intended to confine the limbs. of paupers, is hereby abolished and forever prohibited in this state, except where they may be necessary to effect the removal of insane persons to a curative hospital, or to retain in custody a pauper charged with the commission of crime.

SEC. 20. Whenever any pauper shall not be suitably cared for by the town to which he is chargeable, it shall and may be lawful for any person, upon first issuing five days notice to any of the commissioners or overseers of the poor of the town, of the situation of such pauper, and on continued neglect of the town, to complain in writing to the supreme court in term time, or to any one of the justices thereof in vacation, setting forth as nearly as may be the nature of the grievance complained of.

SEC. 21. Said court or justice shall, upon first giving notice to the town of the pendency of such complaint, in their discretion, appoint a commission of not exceeding three persons, whose duty it shall be to visit the pauper or paupers, concerning whom the complaint is made, and upon hearing the allegations and evidence of the parties, to report to said court or justice, as soon as may be, whether or not said complaint is well founded.

SEC. 22. Whenever it shall be made to appear to the court or justice, by the report of the commissioners, that any pauper in this state is not suitably provided and cared for, said court or justice shall pass an order requiring the appropriate town authorities forthwith to provide suitable accommodations and care for such pauper, either in the poor-house or in some private family, in the discretion of said court or justice, at the expense of the town, and to pay all expenses of the proceeding.

SEC. 23. Said commissioners shall be allowed the like fees as are allowed to auditors and referees in other cases; to be paid by the town complained of, if the complaint be adjudged proved; and otherwise, upon allowance of probable cause for the same

and a certificate thereof and of the amount of said expenses, given by the court or justice, when duly audited to be paid by the general treasurer.

SEC. 24. If the court or justice decline to allow probable cause, an order shall be made dismissing the complaint, and adjudging the complainant to pay all the expenses of the proceeding.

SEC. 25. Any town or complainant neglecting or refusing, for the space of ten days, to comply with any order made as aforesaid, shall be fined not less than fifty, nor more than three hundred dollars.

SECTION

CHAPTER 51.

OF KEEPING OUT AND REMOVING PAUPERS.

1. Penalty for bringing paupers into town where not settled.

2. Penalty on master of vessel for landing in state foreign convicts and notoriously dissolute persons.

3. Duty of master, &c., of vessel to report foreign passengers.

4. Penalty upon, for not reporting or falsely reporting.

5. Duty of owner, master, &c., of vessel to give security for foreign passengers.

6. Penalty upon, for neglect to give security.

7. Duty of railroad companies to report
passengers.

8. Penalty on, for neglect to report.
9. Liability of railroad companies for
expenses of poor persons brought by
them.

10. Liability of town taking bond, to other

towns.

11. Duty of overseer of poor to complain 31, 32, 33 and 34. Of removal of persons,

of paupers not settled.

12. To notify town council, when.

13. Power of town council to make order of removal.

14. Order of removal, how directed and executed.

15. Penalty upon overseer of poor for not receiving a pauper removed, and how recovered.

16. Appeal from order of removal.

of bad fame.

35. Penalty on person ordered to depart,

for returning.

36. Persons adjudged of bad fame, &c., not to gain settlement by residence. 37. Town councils may refuse bond or

certificate for persons of bad fame, &c. 38. Penalty on persons harboring paupers removed, or persons ordered to depart.

SECTION 1. If any person shall bring and leave any poor and indigent person in any town in this state, wherein such pauper is

not lawfully settled, knowing him to be poor and indigent, unless by an order of removal made by a town council in this state, he shall forfeit one hundred dollars for every such offence; to be sued for and recovered by the town treasurer, to the use of such town.

SEC. 2. If any master or other person having charge of any vessel, shall bring into and land, or suffer to be landed in any place within this state, any person before that time convicted in any other state or in any foreign country of any infamous crime, or of any crime for which he has been sentenced to transportation, knowing of such conviction or having reason to suspect it, or any person of a notoriously dissolute, infamous and abandoned life and character, knowing him to be such, he shall for every such offence be fined four hundred dollars.

SEC. 3. The master or any other person having the charge of any vessel arriving at any place within this state with passengers on board from any country, out of the United States, shall, and if from any port in any other part of the United States, shall if required by the town council, within twenty-four hours after the arrival of such vessel, make report in writing under his hand, of all such passengers, their names, nation, age, character and condition, so far as shall have come to his knowledge, to the overseer or overseers of the poor of the town at which such vessel shall arrive.

SEC. 4. Every such master or other person who neglects or refuses to make such report, or shall knowingly and wilfully make a false one, shall, for each offence, forfeit the sum of one hundred dollars, to be sued for and recovered by the town treasurer, to the use of such town.

SEC. 5. The owner, master, or person having charge of any vessel arriving at any place within this state, with passengers on board, who have within six months previous to such arrival come into the United States, from any country without the United States, shall, within thirty-six hours of such arrival, if required by one of the overseers of the poor of such town, give to the town wherein he shall land such passengers, a bond with security, to the satisfaction of one of said overseers, with condition that no such passenger shall become chargeable to such town within one year after his arrival.

SEC. 6. Any owner, master or person having charge of any such vessel, who shall, when required, neglect or omit to give such bond, shall forfeit five hundred dollars, to be sued for and recovered by the town treasurer to the use of such town.

SEC. 7. The town council of any town in which any railroad is situated, may require the company owning such railroad, and any agent or person employed by such company, to make returns of the names, sex, ages and native country of any class of passengers brought to such town upon their railroad, and the precept requiring such returns may be served by a town sergeant or constable, by leaving an attested copy with the treasurer, or at the depot or ticket office of such railroad company.

SEC. 8. Such company shall forfeit twenty dollars for each and every day on which they shall neglect to make such return after

such precept has been served, to be recovered by the town treas urer, to the use of such town.

SEC. 9. Any railroad company whose officers or servants shall bring any poor person into any town, the town council of which have required the returns of passengers as authorized in the seventh section of this chapter, and shall leave such poor person in such town, shall be liable for all expenses incurred by such town for the relief or support of such poor person during twelve months after his being brought into such town, to be recovered by action of the case, in the name of the town treasurer, to the use of the town.

SEC. 10. If any person for whom bond is given under the fifth and sixth sections of this chapter, shall, within one year thereafter, become chargeable to any other town in this state, such person may be removed to the town taking such bond, in the manner and with the effect prescribed for the removal of other paupers.

SEC. 11. If any person shall reside in any town in this state, not being legally settled therein, and shall become, or be likely to become, chargeable to such town, it shall be lawful for any one of the overseers of the poor of such town, to make complaint thereof to the town council.

SEC. 12. In case such overseer shall judge it necessary that an order should be made sooner than the town council are likely to meet of course, he shall give a notification to the town sergeant to notify the town council to meet at a time and place therein named, who, upon such notification, are required to meet.

SEC. 13. Upon such complaint, the town council are empowered to inquire, either by the oath of such poor person, or otherwise, in what town he was last legally settled; and upon the best information they can obtain, to adjudge and determine to what town he lawfully belongs within this state, or in which he was last legally settled; which being done, the town council shall make an order under their seal, to be signed by their clerk, for the removal of such person to such town.

he

SEC. 14. Said order shall be directed and given to the town sergeant or one of the constables of such town, who shall proceed forthwith to remove such person and such of his family, if any have, as by law ought to be removed with him, to the town or place to which he is adjudged by such order to belong, and there deliver him to one of the overseers of the poor of such town, and leave an authentic copy of the order with the said overseer.

SEC. 15. If such overseer shall refuse to accept such poor person, he shall forfeit fifty dollars; to be recovered by an action of debt by the town treasurer of the town from which such poor person was sent, to the use of said town.

SEC. 16. If the overseer of the poor of the town to which such poor person shall be removed as aforesaid, shall think his town aggrieved at the determination and order of the town council for the removal of such person, it shall be lawful for him in behalf of his town, to appeal to the next supreme court, to be holden in the