SECTION 149. No alien shall, in any civil or criminal case whatever, be entitled to a jury de medietate linguæ, or partly of strangers. SECTION 150. In all civil suits, each party shall be allowed to challenge two jurors peremptorily, and in all criminal prosecutions, wherein peremptory challenges have not been heretofore permitted by law, the defendant or defendants shall be allowed to challenge four jurors peremptorily. SECTION 151. No person shall be deemed incompetent to serve as a juror, in any suit or prosecution upon any official bond or forfeited recognizance, or upon any penal act of assembly, by reason of his being subject to any tax which would be diminished by the recovery which may be had in such case. SECTION 152. Every person who shall be arraigned for treason, may challenge, peremptorily, thirty-five of the panel, but not more. SECTION 153. Every person who shall be arraigned for murder, or any other felony, whereof the courts of Öyer and Terminer and general gaol delivery have exclusive jurisdiction, shall be admitted to challenge, peremptorily. twenty of the panel, but not more. SECTION 154. In cases of felony, the Commonwealth shall not challenge any juror without cause, nor shall the Commonwealth, in, any criminal proceeding, have a right to challenge, peremptorily, a greater number of jurors than the defendant or defendants in such case. SECTION 155. All challenges in criminal proceedings shall be conducted as follows, to wit: The Commonwealth shall challenge one person and then the defendant shall challenge one person, and so alternately, until all the challenges shall be made, but if the commonwealth shall refuse to make any challenge, the defendants shall nevertheless have their right to challenge the full number allowed to them by law. SECTION 156. Whenever a challenge of a juror, for a cause assigned, shall be made, in any criminal proceeding, the truth of such cause shall be inquired of in the manner practised by the courts in civil cases. SECTION 157. When a rule shall be entered in a civil action depending in any court, for striking a special jury, the par ties in any such action shall strike the same in the office of the prothonotary, or clerk of the respective court, from the list of jurors which shall have been drawn from the proper wheel, as aforesaid, for the ensuing court. SECTION 158. When a view shall be allowed in any cause, six of the first twelve of the jurors named in the panel, or more of them, shall be taken by the sheriff, or other officer, to the place in question, and they shall have view thereof. SECTION 159. At the calling of the jury to try any cause in which a view shall have been had, those of the viewers who shall appear shall first be sworn or affirmed, and so many jurors only shall be drawn as aforesaid, and added to the said viewers, as shall, after default and challenges allowed, make up the number twelve, to be sworn or affirmed for the trial of such cause. SECTION 160. Every juror, empannelled in any cause, who, shall know any thing relative to the matter in controversy in such cause, shall disclose the same in open court, before the jury shall retire to consider of their verdict. SECTION 161. If any juror, drawn or summoned, shall, in any cause, directly or indirectly, take any thing to give a verdict, or shall take or receive, as aforesaid, any gift or gratuity, whatever, from either party to such cause, such juror shall forfeit and pay ten times the value of the thing so taken, one half to the commonwealth and the other half to the person that will sue for the same, and shall also be liable to prosecution by indictment, as for a misdemeanor: Provided, That nothing in this section shall debar the party aggrieved, of his action to recover the damages he shall sustain, in all cases where the penalty aforesaid shall be recovered at the suit of any other person. SECTION 162. Every person who shall procure any such juror to take, gain or profit in the manner or for the purpose aforesaid, shall be deemed guilty of embracery, and shall be subject to the same pains and penalties, to be adjudged or recovered by indictment or action as aforesaid, and the party aggrieved shall also be entitled to recover against him the damages sustained thereby, in manner provided in the case of jurors.. SECTION 163. The Circuit Courts now existing, from and after the second Monday in May, shall be abolished, and all suits and proceedings pending in them, with all the papers and docu. ments connected therewith, shall be restored to the courts from which they were removed, in the situation in which they now are in the said Circuit Courts. SECTION 164. When the Supreme Court shall sit at Harrisburg, it shall be held in the north-east committee room of the State house or capitol, which shall be fitted up and furnished in a suitable manner for that purpose, the expense to be paid by the county of Dauphin; and the said court shall have the use of the law library of the State during their sessions at Harrisburg: Provided, That the prothonotary of said court shall, before he enters on the duties of his office, give bond, with sufficient security, to be approved by the Governor, conditioned for the return of such law books to the State library. SECTION 165. So much of the act entitled "An act erecting a Middle district of the Supreme Court and for other purposes," passed the tenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and seven, as is by this act altered and supplied, also so much of the act entitled " A further supplement to an act to alter the judiciary system of this Commonwealth," passed the eleventh day of March, one thousand eight hundred and nine, as relates to the district called therein the "Lancaster district," and to the district called therein the "Southern district," shall, from and after the second Monday of May next, be repealed: all writs of error which have been or shall be issued returnable to the next term of the Lancaster district, or of the southern district, or of the Middle district, as heretofore subsisting, is sued to any of the counties which by this act are attached to the Middle district, as hereby created, shall be considered returnable and shall be returned to the said last mentioned Middle district, on the second Monday in May next, and shall there be duly proceeded in; and all writs of error, returnable to the next term of the Western district, shall be returned to the first, second, third and fourth Mondays of September, instead of the corresponding days of October. SECTION 166. All and singuiar the records, papers and documents, of the Supreme Court for the Lancaster district and Southern district, remaining in the offices of the prothonotaries of the said courts, at Lancaster and Chambersburg; also, all and singular the records, papers and documents of the Supreme Court for the Middle district heretofore established, connected with any cause removed thereto, from any court in the counties Clearfield, Centre, Mifflin, Juniata or Huntingdon, and remaining therein, shall be removed to and deposited in the office of the prothonotary of the Supreme Court in the Middle district established by this act, and the expense of removing the same being allowed by the Auditor General, shall be paid out of the treasury of this Commonwealth. SECTION 167. All and singular the records, books, papers and documents of the Supreme Court for the Middle district heretofore established, excepting the records, papers and documents required to be removed therefrom as aforesaid, shall remain as if this act had not been passed, and from henceforth they shall be deemed to be and remain in the office of the prothonotary of the Northern district, established by this act for all intents and purposes. SECTION 168. All causes and proceedings now depending and undetermined in the Supreme Court for the Lancaster district and Southern district; also, all causes and proceedings now depending and undetermined in the Supreme Court for the Middle district, heretofore established, which shall have been removed or brought into the same from the counties Clearfield, Centre, Mifflin, Juniata or Huntingdon, shall be deemed to be depending before the said court in the Middle district established by this act, and shall be proceeded in by the said court in like manner, and with like effect, to all intents and purposes, as they might have been proceeded in by the said court at the places where they now are respectively depending, if this act had not been passed. SECTION 169. The prothonotary of the Supreme Court for the Middle district established by this act, shall collect and receive all fees which may have accrued in any cause or pro ceeding which, by virtue of this act, shall be removed to the said district, and he shall account for and pay the same, when received, to the persons respectively entitled thereto. APPROVED-The fourteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-four. GEO: WOLF. No. 165. AN ACT To authorize the Governor to incorporate a company for making a turnpike road from the borough of Pottsville, in Schuylkill county, to Mauch Chunk, in Northampton county. Form of sub. scription. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That Thomas S. Ridgway, Martin Weaver Lawton, George Reber, John Franklin, James M. Porter, Benjamin Commiss're. Needham, Jacob Hertz and Isaac T. Dodson, are hereby appointed commissioners, to do and perform the several things. hereinafter mentioned, that is to say, they shall, on or be fore the first day of September next, procure two books and in each of them enter as follows: "We whose names are hero unto subscribed, do promise to pay to the president and managers of the Pottsville and Mauch Chunk turnpike road company, the sum of twenty-five dollars for every share of stock in said company set opposite to our respective names, in such manner and proportions and at such times as shall be determined by the president and managers of said company, in pursuance of an act of the General Assembly of this Common- Shares $25 each. wealth, entitled "An act to authorize the Governor to incorporate a company for making a turnpike road from the borough of Pottsville, in Schuylkill county, to Mauch Chunk in Northampton county, and for other purposes, witness our hands, the day of in the year of our Lord, one thousand eight hundred and and thereupon shall give notice, in two or more of the public papers, printed in the counties of Schuylkill and Northampton, for twenty days, at least, of the time and places when and where the said book shall be opened to receive subscriptions for the stock of the said Duties of commiss're. Who may subscribe. shares 500. company, at which times and places one or more of the said commissioners shall attend, and permit and suffer all persons of lawful age, who shall offer to subscribe in said books, in their own names or in the names of any other persons who shall duly authorize the same, for any number of shares of said stock, and the said books shall be kept open, respectively, for the purpose aforesaid, at least six hours in every juridical day, for the space of six days, or until the said books shall have Whole No. of five hundred shares therein subscribed, and if at the expiration of the said six days, the books aforesaid shall not have the said number of five hundred shares therein subscribed, the commissioners, respectively, may adjourn from time to time and transfer the said books from place to place, until the whole number of shares shall be subscribed; of which adjournment and transfer, the commissioners aforesaid shall give such public notice as the occasion may require, and when the whole number of shares subscribed shall amount to five hundred, the same shall be closed: Provided always, That every person offering to subscribe in the said books, in his own or any other name, shall previously pay, to the attending commissioner or commissioners, $2 to be paid the sum of two dollars for every share to be subscribed, out of subscribing. which shall be defrayed such incidental charges and expenses as may be necessary for taking such subscription, and the remainder shall be paid over to the treasurer of the corporation, as soon as the same shall be organized and the officers chosen, as hereinafter mentioned. Proviso. at the time of Charter may issue when 20 persons bed 250 shares. SECTION 2. When twenty persons, or more, shall have subscribed two hundred and fifty shares of the said stock, the said commissioners, respectively, may, or when the whole numhave subscri- ber of shares aforesaid shall be subscribed, they or a majority of them shall certify, under their hands and seals, the names of the subscribers, and the number of shares subscribed by each, to the Governor of this Commonwealth, whereupon it shall and may be lawful for the Governor, by letters patent under his hand, and the seal of the State, to create and erect the subscribers, and if the subscription be not full at the time, then those who shall afterwards subscribe to the number aforesaid, into one body politic and corporate, in deed and in law, by the name, style and title of the "President and managers of the Pottsville and Mauch Chunk turnpike road company," and by the said name the said subscribers shall have perpetual succession, and all the privileges and franchises incident to a corporation, and shall be capable of taking and holding the said capital stock, and the increase and profits thereof, and of enlarging the same, from time to time, by new subscriptions, in such manner and form as they shall think proper, if such enlargement shall be found necessary to fulfil the intent of this act, and of purchasing, taking and holding, to them and their successors and assigns, and of selling, transferring and conveying, in fee simple or for any less estate, all such lands, tenements, hereditaments Style of eorporation. Capacities & privileges. |