SEC. 10. Any justice of the supreme court or any justice of the court of common pleas of the county where such person shall be committed, and any justice of the peace in the said county who shall be disinterested, are hereby empowered, at the time and place appointed as aforesaid, to examine the return of said notification; and if it shall appear to have been duly served, to administer the oath hereinafter prescribed to the party imprisoned as aforesaid, if after fully examining the prisoner under oath, and hearing the parties, the said justices shall think it proper so to do: provided such applicant shall then and there first make and execute a deed of assignment of all his estate of every kind, except what is exempted from attachment by law, and wherever the same may be, to such keeper and his successor in his said office and his assigns in trust, for the benefit of all his creditors in proportion to their respective demands.

SEC. 11. The oath to be administered in such a case shall be as follows: I do solemnly swear, (or affirm,) that I have not any estate, real or personal, in possession, remainder or reversion, over ten dollars; and that I have not since the commencement of this suit against me, or at any other time, directly or indirectly, sold, leased or otherwise conveyed or disposed of to, or entrusted any person or persons whomsoever with, all or any part of the estate, real or personal, whereof I have been the lawful owner or possessor, with any intent or design to secure the same, or to receive, or to expect any profit or advantage therefrom, for myself or for any of my children or family or any other person; or have caused or suffered to be done any thing else whatsoever, whereby any of my creditors may be defrauded: so help me God: or this affirmation I make and give upon peril of the penalty of perjury.

SEC. 12. Any person imprisoned as aforesaid shall be allowed to avail himself of the provisions of this act, if he will make oath as aforesaid, that he hath not any estate, real or personal in possession, remainder or reversion, except what is exempt from attachment by law; and the said justices are hereby authorized to vary the form of the oath aforesaid accordingly.

SEC. 13. The oath above described, being administered by said justices and taken by said prisoner, the said justices shall deliver him a certificate thereof, under their hands and seals, in the following form, viz:

To

of

in the county

keeper of the jail at We, the subscribers, authorized by the statute in

a poor

such case made and provided, do certify, that prisoner confined upon mesne process, (or otherwise as the case may be,) in the prison at

aforesaid hath

caused the party at whose suit he was so confined, to be notified according to law, of his the said desire of taking the benefit of an act entitled "an act for the relief of poor persons imprisoned for debt;" that in our opinion the said hath not any estate, either real or personal, except what is exempt from attachment by law, sufficient to support himself in prison; and that he hath not conveyed or concealed his estate with design to secure the same to his own use, or to defraud his creditors; and that we have, after due caution to the said administered to him the oath, (or affirmation,) prescribed in the act aforesaid. Witness our hands and seals this

day of

A. D.

Justice of the supreme court, or court, or

(Justice of the

Justice of the court of common
pleas, of the county of
Justice of the peace.

SEC. 14. No keeper of any jail receiving an assignment under the tenth section of this act shall be held responsible to any person for any property of any assignor, except such as he has actually received into his possession: provided he shall assign all the interest he shall obtain thereby to the committing creditor on his request; to be held by such creditor, his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, for the purposes and trusts set forth in said deed. No person who has been admitted to take the oath prescribed in the eleventh section of this act shall be retained in jail for the prison fees, or for the fees of the justices before whom he may have taken such oath.

SEC. 15. No person who shall be committed on execution awarded against him as plaintiff in replevin, or as defendant in any action on a penal statute, or in any action of trover or detinue, or for any malicious injury to the person, health or reputation of the plaintiff in such suit, or for breach of promise of marriage, or for seduction, or for any trespass excepting only such as are particularly named in the eighth section of this act, shall be deemed to be within the meaning of the provision of that section or entitled to any benefit therefrom.

SEC. 16. The person to whom the debt appears by the process to belong at the time complaint is made shall be

deemed the creditor within the meaning of the eighth section of this act.

SEC. 17. It shall furthermore be the duty of any justice of the peace and the clerk of any court issuing an execution against any person, to note on the margin thereof the cause of action on which the same issued; to the end that the keeper of the jail may ascertain whether such person, if committed, be entitled to the liberty of the jail yard; and it shall be the duty of any officer committing any person to jail on such execution to note in his commitment the cause of action on which the execution is founded, according to the note or memorandum of the justice of the peace or clerk; and if no such memorandum be made by such justice or clerk on any execution, or if the officer shall not note the same in his commitment, the keeper of the jail shall be held harmless if he permit the person committed to have the liberty of the jail yard, or discharge him on his producing a certificate of having taken the oath herein before prescribed.

SEC. 18. If a debtor takes out a citation to his committing creditor and has the same served and subsequently withdraws the same, or if upon trial he shall not be admitted to take the oath prescribed in the eleventh section of this act, he shall not be entitled to another citation to the same creditor unless on proof of some change of circumstances after the taking out of the first citation; which change of circumstances shall be annexed to or recited in the second citation and form a part thereof.

SEC. 19. The court before which any action is pending for the recovery of any debt or demand for which the defendant if committed to jail therein would be entitled to the benefit of the oath mentioned in the eleventh section of this act, may administer the said oath to the defendant as herein after mentioned.

SEC. 20. The defendant in such case may apply to any justice of the peace in the county in which he resides for a citation to the creditor to appear at the court in which such action is pending, to shew cause why the defendant should not be allowed the benefit of said oath.

SEC. 21. Such citation shall be served by any sheriff, deputy sheriff, town sergeant or constable, at least four days before the time therein appointed for taking said oath, by reading the same to the plaintiff or by leaving an attested copy thereof at his last and usual place of abode in this state ; and such citation shall be returned to the court in which such action is pending. If the plaintiff do not reside in this state,

service of said citation may be made in like manner upon the agent or attorney of record of the plaintiff in this state.

SEC. 22. If it appear to the court in which the said action is pending that notice has been given as before provided, said court shall examine the defendant on his oath concerning his estate and effects and the disposal thereof, and may also receive any other evidence offered by the defendant or the plaintiff; and upon such examination, the court may in its discretion administer to the defendant the said oath.

SEC. 23. If said oath be administered, the execution which may be issued against the defendant in said action shall run against the goods and chattels or real estate of the defendant, and not against his body.

SEC. 24. Any defendant in any execution who would if committed to jail thereon be entitled to the benefit of the oath mentioned in the eleventh section of this act, may apply in the manner herein before mentioned, for a citation to his creditor to shew cause why he should not be allowed the benefit of said oath; such citation shall be served in the same manner as is required in the twenty-first section of this act.

SEC. 25. Upon the return of any such citation, any justice of the supreme court, or any justice of the court of common pleas in the county in which such defendant is liable to be imprisoned, and any justice of the peace in said county, may administer the said oath to the defendant, if upon examination of the defendant on oath, and of such other evidence as either party may produce, they may think proper.

SEC. 26. If the defendant be allowed to take the said oath, he shall thereafter be exempted from imprisonment on said execution or any future execution that may be issued on said judgment; and execution on said judgment may issue against the goods and chattels or real estate of the said defendant.

SEC. 27. Before the said oath shall be administered to any defendant under this act, he shall first make an assignment of all his estate, real and personal, not exempted from attachment by law, to some responsible inhabitant of this state, his heirs and assigns, in trust for the benefit of all his creditors, in proportion to their demands.

SEC. 28. Nothing contained in the nine preceding sections shall effect any debts contracted before this act takes effect.

SEC. 29. Whenever any prisoner shall present such a certificate as is prescribed in the thirteenth section of this act, to the keeper of the jail in which he is imprisoned, such

keeper shall forthwith discharge him from his commitment at the suit of the creditor named therein. Neither the commitment of the prisoner nor his discharge shall be a satisfaction of the debt for which he was committed. If committed on execution, the plaintiff may take out another execution, which shall not however run against the body of the defendant: if suit be brought on the judgment, execution in such suit shall not run against the body of the defendant, nor shall the defendant be held to bail on the writ in such case. If the defendant be committed on mesne process, when he receives a certificate as aforesaid, if that fact be shown by plea to the court or justice before whom the action is pending, then execution shall not issue against the body of the defendant; but in no case shall the real estate be attached, unless the defendant at the time of such attachment be absent from this state or concealed therein.

SEC. 30. It shall and may be lawful for any justice of the supreme court, or any justice of the court of common pleas, or any justice of the peace in the same county, who shall be present at the time and place to which any citation in behalf of any poor prisoner issued under the provisions of this act shall be duly returned, in the absence of another magistrate, to adjourn the hearing thereon to any other time or place, as he may think proper, with the same effect as if another justice were present.

SEC. 31. If any sheriff, deputy sheriff, town sergeant, constable or keeper of any jail, shall take or receive from any prisoner in his custody, any bond, obligation, covenant, promise or assurance whatever, to indemnify and save harmless the person taking the same, for the enlargement or ease of such prisoner, in any other form or manner than is prescribed by law for taking bail on mesne process in a civil action, or is prescribed in this act, every such bond, obligation, covenant, promise or assurance whatever, shall be utterly void.