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acting the business thereof; and to appoint some discreet and proper person to be receiver of all the evidences of debt, goods, effects and property of every description belonging to such bank; which receiver is hereby empowered to take the same into his possession, and collecting the debts and disposing of the property, to pay out of the proceeds thereof, if the same shall be sufficient, first reserving for himself a reasonable compensation for his services, all the debts of the corporation, giving the bill holders a preference over other creditors, or rateably if they shall not be sufficient to pay the whole. In case there shall be any surplus after paying such receiver for his services, and after paying the debts of the corporation, with incidental expenses, such receiver shall distribute the same in due proportion among the stockholders of such bank. Such receiver shall be clothed with all the powers and rights in respect to the collection of debts due to such bank which the corporation possessed in virtue of its charter or otherwise, before such injunction issued; and may be removed by the supreme court and another appointed in his stead; and the supreme court shall have the same power and authority over such receiver, his acts, proceedings and accounts, as is exercised by courts of equity in like cases; so long as any such injunction shall be in force against any bank all suits and legal process against such bank for the collection of debts shall be stayed; said court is also empowered to issue a limited or temporary injunction, staying proceedings in such particulars and for such length of time, as in the opinion of the court may be necessary for the safety of the public and the proper management of the affairs of the bank, without their proceeding to the appointment of a receiver. And the said court at any term thereof, subsequent to the issuing of said injunction, shall, upon the hearing of all the parties upon said complaint, if they see cause, declare the charter of said bank null and void; and it shall be the duty of said court to make return of their proceedings in the premises to the general assembly.

SEC. 8. Such citation, whether issued by said court or by a single justice, may also contain a temporary injunction on said bank and all its officers, restraining them from proceeding in any business of said bank, which may diminish or jeopardize the assets of such bank; which injunction, unless removed, shall continue until such complaint is finally disposed of. SEC. 9. If the president, directors, cashier, agents or servants of any bank which shall be enjoined as before mentioned, or any other person upon being required thereto, shall

neglect or refuse to deliver to the receiver or receivers of such bank, who may be appointed by virtue of this act, such evidences of debt, goods, effects and property of every description, and evidences of and titles to property belonging to such bank as may be in their possession or under their control, each person so offending shall, upon indictment for and conviction of such offence, be fined not exceeding ten thousand dollars, or be imprisoned not exceeding three years; or be both fined and imprisoned within the limits last aforesaid, at the discretion of the court.

SEC. 10. The capital stock of any bank shall not be reduced by a division of any part of the same without the consent of the general assembly. And if by reason of losses the capital stock of any bank shall be diminished one fourth part or more of the sum fixed by the charter of such bank, the same shall be filled up to its original amount within one year after such loss shall have been incurred. Any violation of the provisions of this section shall work a forfeiture of the charter of the offending bank.

SEC. 11. No bank shall be removed from the town wherein it is located by its charter. Nor shall any bank establish any branch, office or agency thereof, for discount, in any other place than that in which such bank is located, unless by permission of the general assembly. If any bank shall violate the provisions of this section its charter shall be forfeited.

SEC. 12. No person shall be director of any bank unless he is a stockholder therein, and a citizen of and resident in this state, unless in cases where it is otherwise specially provided for.

SEC. 13. The secretary of state shall, ex-officio, be a director in every bank in which the state is a stockholder.

SEC. 14. No person except the secretary of state in his official capacity, shall be a director in more than one bank, other than a savings bank, at the same time.

SEC. 15. The cashier of each bank shall cause the names of all the directors and of the president of such bank, within twenty days after their election, to be published in one of the newspapers printed in this state, nearest to the place where such bank is located. If any cashier shall neglect or refuse so to do, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of one hundred dollars. SEC. 16. The presence and consent of at least three directors shall be necessary for the discounting of notes or bills of exchange by any bank.

SEC. 17. If any cashier or other officer of any bank shall refuse to permit any stockholder of such bank to inspect the

books, papers and accounts thereof, excepting the private accounts of individuals, the person so offending shall forfeit and pay the sum of fifty dollars.

SEC. 18. If any bank or any officer of any bank, or other person in behalf thereof, shall directly or indirectly knowingly demand or receive from the maker, endorser or holder of any promissory note or bill of exchange, or obligation of any description, for the payment of money at a future day, upon the discount thereof, by or on account of such bank, any greater interest or discount, under any form or pretence whatever, than at the rate of six per cent. per annum, the officer or other person knowingly demanding or receiving in behalf of such bank such excessive interest or discount, shall forfeit and pay for each offence the sum of five hundred dollars, to and for the use of the state; to be recovered by action of debt in the name of the general treasurer, before any court proper to try the same provided, however, that it shall not be construed to be any violation hereof to demand or receive interest or discount for periods less than one year, at the rate of six per cent. for three hundred and sixty days; and provided further, that nothing in this act contained shall be deemed or construed to prohibit any bank from demanding or receiving, at any time, the existing rate of exchange on drafts, bills of exchange or promissory notes, payable at other places than the town. wherein the bank discounting the same shall be located.

SEC. 19. The total amount of the debts which any bank shall at any time owe, exclusive of money actually deposited in said bank, shall not exceed the capital stock actually paid into said bank; and in case of excess, the directors under whose administration it shall happen shall be liable for the same in their private capacities; and in such case an action may be brought against them or any of them, their heirs, executors or administrators, in any court proper to try the same, by any creditor of such corporation, and be prosecuted to final judgment and execution; and this shall not be construed to exempt the said corporation or their lands, tenements, goods or chattels from being also liable for and chargeable with the said excess; but such of said directors as may have been absent when the said excess was contracted or created, or who may have dissented from the act or resolution whereby the same was contracted or created, may respectively exonerate themselves from being so liable, by forthwith giving notice of the fact of their absence or dissent to the stockholders, at a general meeting, which they are hereby empowered to call for that purpose. If any bank shall at any time have

bills or notes of said bank in circulation exceeding its capital stock actually paid in, the directors for the time being shall forfeit and pay the sum of one thousand dollars each, and the charter of such bank shall thereupon be null and void.

SEC. 20. If any bank shall make and issue any bank bill payable at any place other than its own banking room or place of business, the president or cashier, or other person who shall sign such bank bill shall each forfeit the sum of fifty dollars.

SEC. 21. If any bank shall issue or pass any note, bill, order or check for a less sum than one dollar, with intent that the same shall be circulated as a currency, the president or cashier, or other person who shall sign such note, bill, order or check, shall forfeit and pay for every such offence the sum of one hundred dollars.

SEC. 22. If any bank shall hereafter issue, pay out or pass any bill or note payable in any thing but gold or silver, the president or cashier who shall sign such bill or note shall respectively forfeit four-fold the amount of such bill or note.

SEC. 23. If any person shall pass or tender in payment any bank bill payable in any thing but gold or silver, he shall forfeit and pay four-fold the amount of such bank bill.

SEC. 24. If any officer of any bank shall fraudulently manage or conduct the affairs or business of such bank, whereby any person shall be defrauded, such officer shall and may be prosecuted in the supreme court by indictment; and on conviction shall and may be fined to and for the use of the state, at the discretion of the court, not exceeding five thousand dollars.

SEC. 25. When any incorporated bank shall for the space of five days after demand in writing left with the cashier of said bank, refuse or neglect upon application therefor to pay any money deposited therein, or which has been collected on any security deposited in said bank for collection, to the person having legal right to demand and receive the same; or shall refuse, upon demand and application as aforesaid, to deliver out to any person having legal right as aforesaid, any security or money deposited in such bank for safe keeping, or for collection and not collected, or any specific article deposited therein for safe keeping; such bank shall be liable to pay in damages to the party aggrieved, the value of the article or the amount of the money or security so detained, with interest from the demand, and such additional damages as the court or jury before which the same may be tried shall think reasonable.

SEC. 26. Every debt contracted with or actually owing to any bank on the twenty-fifth day of June, eighteen hundred and thirty-six, and all the renewals thereof, shall and may be sued for and recovered by the bank owning the same, in the manner and by the form of process and before the court pointed out in the ninth section of the act entitled "an act to regulate process against banks and for other purposes therein mentioned," passed in the year 1822; and said section, so far as relates to such debts and the renewals thereof, is not repealed by this act.

SEC. 27. One third of the stockholders in interest in any bank are hereby authorized to call meetings of the stockholders, at their banking room, for the transaction of business, with the same legal effect as if the meeting had been called by the directors of the bank; first giving such notice of the time and place of meeting as may be prescribed in their charter.

SEC. 28. All penalties incurred under this act where special provision is not made to the contrary, may be sued for and recovered by action of debt; one half to and for the use of the person who shall sue for the same, and the other half to and for the use of the state.

An Act to prevent the Circulation of Private Securities as a

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1. Penalty for passing private notes, &c., 2. All such notes, &c., to be void.

as currency.

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. If any person shall issue or pass any note, bill, order or check, other than the notes or bills of some bank incorporated by this state, or the United States, or some one of them, with intent that the same shall be circulated as a currency, he shall be fined for every such offence the sum of one hundred dollars.

SEC. 2. All notes, bills, orders or checks, which shall be issued or passed as aforesaid, other than the notes or bills of any bank incorporated as aforesaid, and checks drawn on any such bank, shall be utterly void, and no action shall be thereon sustained in any court in this state.

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