ing to law, and been honorably discharged; and also, all persons who shall have holden any such military commission or commissions, or staff office aforesaid, for a less term than five years, and who have been superseded without their consent.

SEC. 3. Persons of the following descriptions, as long as they shall remain of said description, shall be exempted from the performance of military duty, to wit: the justices and clerks of the supreme court, the justices and clerks of the courts of common pleas, the secretary of state, the attorney general, the general treasurer, the sheriff of each county, one ferryman at each stated ferry who usually navigates the boat, the keepers of light-houses within this state, all settled or ordained ministers of the gospel, the president, professors, tutors, students and steward of Brown University, the town councils of the several towns, the mayor and aldermen of the city of Providence, town and city treasurers, town and city clerks, practising physicians, practising surgeons-not including the pupils of either-preceptors and ushers of academies and schools, and engine men; and provided that no engine shall have more than twenty men, unless otherwise provided by special enactment; the members of fire hook and ladder companies, and chartered fire hose companies; all persons belonging to the Society of Friends, commonly called Quakers, and the inhabitants of the towns of NewShoreham and Jamestown, and of the island of Prudence ; and such others as shall make oath or affirmation that they are conscientiously scrupulous against bearing arms, which fact shall appear by certificate of the magistrate before whom said oath or affirmation was given.

SEC. 4. It shall be the duty of the town assessors of taxes in each town in this state, and in the city of Providence, annually to prepare a list or roll of all persons liable to be enrolled in the militia, as provided in the first section, living within their respective limits, whether such persons be or be not attached to any chartered or regimental companies; and on or before the first Monday of October in each year, to place the same in the hands of the town clerk of such town, and of the said city of Providence; and it shall be the duty of every such clerk to record such list or roll of names in a proper book of record to be kept for that purpose, in every town in this state, and in the city of Providence. Annual returns of the militia, thus enrolled, shall be transmitted to the adjutant general in the month of October, in each and every year, by the clerks aforesaid, and by him to the president of the United States.

SEC. 5. It shall be the duty of said assessors in each year, if possible at the time of assessing the town taxes, and at least before the time shall expire prescribed by law for the assessment of the registry tax, to assess upon all the persons enrolled in the militia as aforesaid, except the persons mentioned in the third section of this act, and persons holding military commissions, and members of regimental companies, or of volunteer companies actually doing duty in this state, and except in the towns of New-Shoreham and Jamestown, and that portion of the town of Portsmouth forming the island of Prudence, a tax of fifty cents each; distinguishing said tax in their assessment as a tax in commutation of military duty, and to deliver said assessment to the collector of the town taxes; and said tax shall be collected in the same manner as is by law provided for the collection of town taxes. Such assessment shall for all purposes, and before all courts, and in any action, matter or thing arising out of the assessment or collection of said tax, be final and conclusive as to the enrollment of the person taxed, and upon his liability to be enrolled and assessed as aforesaid; and no assessor or collector shall in any manner be called in question for the same. The war

rants for the collection by legal process of such tax shall be issued in the name of the town treasurer, and any number of delinquents may be included as defendants in the same war

rant.

SEC. 6. The tax aforesaid is hereby declared to be an assessed tax within the meaning of the constitution, the payment whereof, in accordance with the constitution, shall, to the amount thereof, so far qualify the person so paying to vote; and the town councils of the several towns are hereby authorized to remit such tax to any persons in their respective towns, who in the opinion of said town councils are unable through extreme poverty to pay the same.

SEC. 7. The collectors of taxes in the several towns are hereby required to collect said tax before the first Monday of April in each year, next succeeding the calendar year in which the same was assessed, of all persons against whom the same was assessed, except those to whom the same may have been remitted as aforesaid; and after retaining from the amount by them collected the expenses of collection, and six per cent. in full compensation for their services in collecting the same, shall on or before said first Monday of April in each and every year pay over the same to the general treasu

rer.

SEC. 8. Every keeper of a tavern or boarding house, and

every master or mistress of a family or dwelling house, shall, upon application of the assessors of taxes of the town or city within which such tavern or house is situated, or on application of any person acting under the direction and authority of such assessors, give information of the names of all persons residing in such tavern or house, liable to enrollment, or to do military duty.

SEC. 9. If any non-commissioned officer or private shall become a pauper, vagabond, or common drunkard, or be convicted of any infamous crime, he shall be forthwith disenrolled from the militia.

OF THE ACTIVE MILITIA.

SEC. 10. The active militia of this state shall consist and be composed of the several chartered corps now existing who have voluntarily accepted by vote the provisions of an act to regulate the militia, passed June, 1843, and communicated the same to the adjutant general, or who may hereafter accept by vote the provisions of this act and communicate the same to the adjutant general, which acceptance shall be irrevocable; and of all military companies which may be hereafter chartered, and of such volunteer companies as in pursuance of the thirteenth and fourteenth sections of this act may be raised, officered and attached to the chartered companies. The chartered companies shall be drilled and disciplined as battalions as well as companies; and as the peace establishment of the state, and as nurseries of officers, shall be called regimental companies, or reduced regiments. The active militia shall in all cases be first ordered into service in case of war or invasion, or to prevent invasion, or to suppress insurrection, riot or tumult, or to aid civil officers in the execution of the laws of the state.

SEC. 11. Whenever forty men or more shall have enrolled themselves as a corps of artillery or infantry, or thirty-two men or more as a corps of cavalry, and have been uniformed as herein after required, and it shall be made to appear to the general assembly that they are desirous to serve the state as a portion of the military force thereof, they shall be entitled to a charter in conformity with the system by this act established: provided, however, that the number of such companies shall not exceed thirty; and that hereafter they shall be formed in the proportion of one regimental company to five hundred enrolled militia in the several towns or districts where such companies may be located, including in such proportion the existing companies: and provided further, that every such regimental company may admit members to the number of

five hundred, any thing in the charters of said companies to the contrary notwithstanding.

SEC. 12. Whenever any corps of the active militia hereafter chartered shall at any time be destitute of commissioned officers, and having been twice ordered to fill vacancies shall neglect or refuse to fill them, or shall be reduced to a less number than twenty privates in a corps of cavalry, or thirty in a corps of infantry or artillery, and remain so reduced for three months, such corps may be disbanded by the general assembly.

SEC. 13. Whenever twenty men or more shall have enrolled and equipped themselves as a volunteer corps, it shall be the duty of the governor to appoint and commission such and so many officers for the same as he may deem necessary, so that the commanding officer of any such corps shall in no case hold a higher commission than that of captain; and all the commissioned officers of every such corps shall be equipped and uniformed as the governor shall prescribe.

SEC. 14. It shall be the duty of the governor to place every such volunteer corps under the command of the commanding officer of such regimental company or regiment as he may select within the brigade, for the purpose of training, disciplining and improving them in martial exercises, at the brigade training herein after prescribed: and such volunteer corps shall for the purpose of such brigade training be considered as attached to the regimental company or regiment of such commanding officer, and shall in all respects during the day of such brigade training be subject to his lawful commands. Notice of the time and place of the brigade training need be given by the commanding officer of the regimental company or regiment to the commanding officer of the volunteer company only.

SEC. 15. The members of every such volunteer corps shall train or do military duty according to law, within the meaning of the constitution and of this act, only on the day of the brigade training, and when attached and commanded as aforesaid; and the certificate or return of the commanding officer of the regimental company or regiment to which their corps is attached that they have been enrolled, equipped and have done duty on the day of the brigade training according to law, shall alone be sufficient evidence to enable them to vote on account of the performance of military duty.

ORGANIZATION.

SEC. 16. The whole militia of this state shall be arranged in one division; the militia of the county of Newport sball

from the first brigade; the militia of the county of Providence the second; the militia of the county of Washington the third; the militia of the county of Kent the fourth; and the militia of the county of Bristol the fifth brigade.

SEC. 17. The brigades shall consist of the several regimental companies or reduced regiments, in their respective limits, now existing or hereafter to be raised. The said regimental companies or regiments shall be numbered through the division according to the dates of their respective charters. In compensation for their services, every member of the active militia, being also a member of a chartered company, who shall be returned to the general treasurer, as herein after provided, as having done military duty four times in the year next preceding the return, in any regimental company in this state, shall be entitled to an equal proportional part of the tax for militia duty collected and paid into the general treasury as aforesaid, not exceeding the sum of five dollars a year to each man. In the month of April of each year, the general treasurer shall apportion the sum received as a tax for militia duty as aforesaid, amongst the active militia; and issue certificates to the members of the several regimental companies returned as herein after provided, payable to their individual order, for their proportional part of the whole amount of said tax by him received, not exceeding five dollars per man, as aforesaid: provided, however, the members of no existing chartered company of this state who shall not accept the provisions of this act and conform thereto shall be entitled to receive the compensation aforesaid.

SEC. 18. Every non-commissioned officer and soldier of any regimental company who shall have done duty therein according to law for the term of seven years from the time of his enlistment, and shall have received an honorable discharge, shall not be compelled to do duty in the militia, except in time of war or invasion, or to prevent an invasion, or of insurrection, riot or tumult. Such discharge upon the completion of the term of service aforesaid shall be given by the commanding officer of the brigade, upon the application of the commanding officer of the regimental company to which such private or non-commissioned officer may belong. Nothing in this section contained shall be construed to apply to the members of a volunteer corps raised and attached under the provisions of this act.

HOW OFFICERED.

SEC. 19. The officers and non-commissioned officers of the militia shall be as follows, to wit: the governor for the