fied, from any cause whatsoever, to exercise and perform the several duties of said office, may and shall appoint a clerk, pro tempore, who shall be duly qualified as aforesaid, and shall be authorized to perform all the duties of town clerk, until such disability of the town clerk is, in the opinion of the town council, removed, or until a town clerk may be legally appointed by the town.

SEC. 17. Whosoever shall be legally chosen to the office of surveyor of highways, and shall refuse to serve therein, shall forfeit and pay the sum of five dollars, to and for the use of the town; to be levied and collected upon conviction, by ́a warrant of distress from any justice of the peace of such town, directed to the sheriff of the county or his deputy; and no person shall be obliged to serve in said office oftener than once in four years. And if any surveyor of highways shall not signify his acceptance of his said appointment to the town clerk of said town within twenty days after his election, the town council shall appoint another surveyor in said district.

SEC. 18. Whosoever shall be legally chosen to the office of town sergeant, overseer of the poor or assessor of taxes, and shall refuse to serve therein, shall forfeit and pay seven dollars, to and for the use of such town; to be levied and collected upon conviction, as provided in the section next preceding; and no person shall be obliged to serve in either of said offices oftener than once in seven years.

SEC. 19. Each town sergeant shall be obliged, at the time of his being sworn into office, to give bond with sufficient surety or sureties, to the town treasurer of the town in which he belongs, in the sum of seven hundred dollars; and each and every constable at the time of his being sworn into office, shall in like manner be obliged to give bond with sufficient surety or sureties, in the sum of three hundred dollars; which bonds shall be conditioned for the faithful performance of their respective offices; each and every collector of taxes shall give bond with sufficient surety to the town treasurer of the town for which he is chosen, in such sum as the said town or the town council of said town may appoint, not exceeding double the amount of the tax with the collection of which he shall be charged, for the faithful performance of such trust.

SEC. 20. In case of the death, resignation or removal of any collector of taxes, the collector who may be appointed to complete the collection thereof shall have the same power and right to collect the same as are by law given to the collector first appointed.

SEC. 21. Each town treasurer shall be obliged before he

shall proceed to discharge the duties of said office, to give bond with sufficient surety or sureties, to the town for which he is appointed, for the faithful discharge of the duties of said office, in such sum as shall be ordered by the town or town council of such town; and all actions on such bond shall be brought in the name of the town in its corporate capacity.

SEC. 22. Every person elected to any town office shall take the following engagement before he shall act therein: You do solemnly swear, (or affirm,) that you will be true and faithful unto this state, and support the laws and constitution thereof, and the constitution of the United States; and that you will well and truly execute the office of ensuing year, or until another be engaged in your room, or until you be legally discharged therefrom: so help you God; (or this affirmation you make and give upon peril of the penalty of perjury.)

for the

SEC. 23. The town meeting of Jamestown, for choosin g town officers, shall be holden on the same day, in the month of April annually, on which by law they shall meet to vote for general officers; and the town meeting of the town of Coventry for the purpose aforesaid, shall and may be holden on the first Monday of June annually.

SEC. 24. Wardens and ward clerks in the city of Providence shall be elected on the second Wednesday in May in each year, and shall hold their offices until others shall be elected and qualified by law to act in their places. They shall be sworn as other town officers are required to be.

SECTION

An Act establishing Auctioneers.

1. Town council may appoint additional auctioneers.

2. Auctioneers to be sworn and give bond. 3. Town treasurer to transmit to general treasurer the names of auctioneers and copy of bond.

4. Bond may be sued--judgment on, how rendered.

5. Conditions of sale to be in writing and publicly read.

7. Commission allowed on sales--Newport, &c., may make regulations respecting.

7. Property, real and personal sold, subject to duty, except, &c.

SECTION

8. Rate of duty on goods imported from without United States.

9. Same subject. 10. Same subject. 11. Duties how calculated and collected. 12. Auctioneer to make semi-annual return to general treasurer under oath— pay over duties.

13. Penalty for neglect in transmitting account, &c.

14. Penalty for exercising the office without being chosen or qualified.

It is enacted by the General Assembly, as follows:

SECTION 1. In addition to the auctioneers appointed by the electors of any town in town meeting, the town council

of every town are authorized, from time to time, to appoint so many more for their respective towns as they may deem expedient; to hold their offices until the next annual election of town officers in such town.

SEC. 2. Each auctioneer, whether appointed by the town or town council, shall be sworn as other town officers are required to be sworn; and shall give bond to the town treasurer with sufficient sureties, in a sum not exceeding ten thousand dollars, nor less than two thousand dollars, at the discretion of the said town treasurer, conditioned faithfully to execute the duties of his office according to law-to pay over all monies received by him for goods sold at auction, to the owners thereof, and to pay over all duties to the state and to the town, which shall accrue on goods so sold by him.

SEC. 3. The town treasurer of each town shall transmit to the general treasurer the name of every auctioneer appointed as aforesaid, and a copy of the bond of such auctioneer, within twenty days from the time every such bond shall be given; and if any town treasurer shall neglect to transmit the name of any auctioneer, or the copy of the bond by him given, to the general treasurer as aforesaid, he shall forfeit and pay the sum of one hundred dollars; to be sued for and recovered by the general treasurer, by action of debt, to and for the use of the state, in any court competent to try the

same.

SEC. 4. The bond aforesaid may be sued in the name of the town treasurer, by any person claiming a forfeiture thereon: provided, such person shall give security for costs by endorsing the writ, or by procuring some sufficient citizen of this state to endorse the same, who shall be liable to costs in case the defendant recover; and execution shall issue against him therefor, and judgment shall be rendered, in case of forfeiture, for the penalty of the bond, and execution shall issue for the sum ascertained to be due the plaintiff; and the like security for costs shall be given, and proceedings had, when scire facias is sued out upon said judgment for an additional breach of said bond: provided, however, that when any suit shall be commenced on it by the general treasurer, notice of such fact shall be endorsed on the writ, but no security for costs shall be given, nor shall the defendant in such case recover cost, in any event.

SEC. 5. Every auctioneer, before exposing any real or personal estate to public sale, shall make out in writing and sign and publicly read the conditions of sale.

SEC. 6. When the whole amount of sales at any public

auction shall not exceed four hundred dollars, the auctioneer shall have two and one-half per cent. commissions; but if the amount exceed that sum he shall have only one and onehalf per cent.: provided, that the towns of Newport, Providence, Bristol and Warren, shall have power to establish such regulations for the conducting of sales and auctioneer's commissions in their respective towns, as they may think necessary; any thing herein to the contrary notwithstanding.

SEC. 7. All real and personal estate which shall be sold at auction shall be sold by an auctioneer, and shall be subject to duty, as is herein provided; excepting only such as shall be sold by the marshal of the district or his deputy, by any sheriff, deputy sheriff or other officer, or by any executor, administrator or guardian, by virtue of their respective offices.

SEC. 8. All goods, wares, merchandise and effects, except distilled spirits, imported from any place without the jurisdiction of the United States, and exposed at auction in packages, bales, trunks or casks, as imported, shall be subject to the following rate of duty on every hundred dollars, viz: fifty cents to the use of the state, and twelve and a half cents to the use of the town where sold.

SEC. 9. All other goods, wares, merchandise and effects, except distilled spirits, imported from any place without the jurisdiction of the United States, that shall be exposed at auction, shall be subject to the following rate of duty on every hundred dollars, viz: eighty-seven and a half cents to the use of the state, and twelve and a half cents to the use of the town where sold.

SEC. 10. All distilled spirits, whether foreign or domestic, exposed at auction, shall be subject to the following rate of duty on every hundred dollars: two dollars to the use of the state, and twenty-five cents to the use of the town where sold.

SEC. 11. The duties aforesaid shall be calculated on the sums for which the goods so exposed to sale shall be respectively struck off, and shall be by the auctioneer selling the same retained out of his said sales, and paid over to the proper officer.

SEC. 12. Every auctioneer shall, within twenty days after the expiration of every six months, the first six months to be computed from the date of his bond, transmit or render a just and true account in writing, subscribed by him, to the general treasurer, of all goods, wares and merchandise, subject to duty, by him sold as aforesaid, from the time of his appointment, and giving bond as aforesaid, or the time that

the last account by him was transmitted or rendered as aforesaid, the amount of each day's sale, and the date thereof: and shall take, before any magistrate authorized to administer oaths, the following oath, to be endorsed and certified on the account so transmitted or rendered, to wit: “I

do solemnly swear, (or affirm,) that this account, to which I have subscribed my name, contains a just and true account of all the goods, wares, merchandise and effects, sold or struck off by me, subject to duty by law, within the time mentioned in the said account; and of the days upon which the same were respectively sold; and that I have attended such sales personally, and have examined the entries of such sales in the book kept by me for that purpose, and know this account to be in all respects correct:" to which oath or affirmation the said auctioneer shall subscribe his name; and every such auctioneer shall, within ten days after rendering such account, and taking the said oath, pay the amount of duty upon such account of sales to the general treasurer, for the use of this state as aforesaid; and the amount of duty due the town to the town treasurer; and in case no sales on which duties are payable shall have been made, it shall be the duty of the auctioneer to make an affidavit thereof, at the time and in the manner above directed, and to transmit such affidavit to the general treasurer.

SEC. 13. In case any auctioneer shall fail to transmit or render his account or affidavit to the general treasurer as aforesaid, or shall fail to pay the duty as aforesaid due the state or town at the time and in the manner aforesaid, he shall forfeit and pay for every such neglect, the sum of five hundred dollars, to be sued for and recovered in an action of debt by the general treasurer; unless the neglect be in not paying the duty due the town, and then by the town treasurer, in any court competent to try the same.

SEC. 14. If any person shall hereafter assume or exercise the office of an auctioneer in any town, except as above excepted, without being legally chosen thereto, and without being duly qualified, he shall pay as a fine the sum of five hundred dollars, to be recovered by the town treasurer, to and for the use of such town, by action of debt.