of double the amount of rent claimed, with a condition that all rent due shall be paid, not exceeding one year's rent of the premises.

If a landlord, under the foregoing provisions, claims more rent than what is due to him, and if the excess be collected, the tenant may sue for and recover of the landlord, double the amount of such excess. And in all cases in which rent is pretended to be due, when none is due, the owner of goods distrained may recover against the person so claiming, double their value.

An officer making a distress for rent, must give notice thereof, with the cause of the distress, the amount due, and an inventory of the articles taken, by leaving the same with the tenant, or in case of his absence, at the chief mansion house, or at some other notorious place on the premises.

At the expiration of five days from the day on which the notice was served, if the amount of rent due, with costs of distress, be not paid, and the goods distrained be not replevied, the officer shall summon two disinterested householders, who, under oath administered by the officer, shall appraise the goods and chattels distrained, and state the same in writing.

Upon the appraisement being made, the officer shall give five days' notice of sale, by affixing such notice on a conspicuous part of the premises, and in two public places in the town; and on the day, and at the place, appointed, he shall sell the goods at public aution at the best price that can be obtained; and apply the proceeds to the satisfaction of the costs and rent, and pay the surplus, if any, to the owner of the goods.

If distress be made for rent justly due, any irregularity or unlawful act afterwards done by the party distressing, shall not render the distress unlawful; but the party aggrieved may recover for the special damages sustained by such irregularity or unlawful act, with costs of suit.

Every person entitled to any rents dependent upon the life of any other, may, notwithstanding the death of such other person, have the same remedy by action or by distress, for the recovery of all arrears of such rent, that

shall be behind and unpaid at the death of such other person, as he might have had if such other person was in full life.

If a tenant for life, who shall have rented any lands to another, die on or after the day when any rent became due, his executors or administrators may recover from the under tenant the whole rent due: if he die before the day on which the rent is to become due, they may recover the proportion of rent which accrued before his death.

When a tax on real estate shall have been collected of an occupant or tenant, and the tax ought to have been paid by the landlord or any other person, the occupant or tenant may recover, by action, the amount of such tax, or retain the same from any rent due or accruing from him for the land so taxed.

Whenever a half year's rent or more shall be due, and no sufficient distress can be found, the landlord may bring an action of ejectment for the recovery of the premises: But the tenant may, at any time before judgment, stay proceedings, by tender of all the rent, and all costs and charges incurred by the lessor.

At any time within six months after a landlord shall have taken possession of the premises recovered in action of ejectment, the premises shall be restored to the tenant or lessee, on payment or tender to the landlord or lessor, of all rent in arrear, and all costs and charges incurred by the lessor.

If a tenant in arrear for rent shall desert the premises, without leaving thereon any goods subject to distress, any justice of the peace of the county may, at the request of the landlord, view the premises, and on being satisfied that the premises have been deserted, he shall affix a notice upon a conspicuous part of the premises, requiring the tenant to appear and pay the rent due, at the time specified in the notice, not less than five, nor more than twenty days, after the date thereof.

At the time specified, the justice shall again view the premises; and if the tenant appear and deny that rent is due to the landlord, all proceedings shall cease. If the tenant, or some one for him, shall not appear, and pay the

rent, and there shall not be sufficient distress on the premises; then the justice may put the landlord into possession of the same.

The goods and chattels of a tenant may be distrained after they shall have been removed from the premises, whether the removal be made before or after the rent shall become due. If the rent be due at the time of the removal, or shall become due within thirty days thereafter, the goods may be seized within the said thirty days after such removal. If no rent be due or become due within that time, then the seizure may be made at any time within thirty days after the rent shall become due; provided such seizure be made within six months after the removal of the goods but no goods shall be liable to be seized which shall have been previously sold, in good faith, and for a valuble consideration, to a person not privy to such fraudulent removal.

Any tenant or lessee who shall remove his goods from any demised premises, either before or after any rent shall become due, for the purpose of avoiding the payment of such rent; and every person who shall knowingly assist such tenant or lessee in such removal, or in concealing any goods so removed; shall forfeit to the landlord of the demised premises, his heirs or assigns, double the value of the goods so removed or concealed.

Personal property deposited with a tenant, with the consent of the landlord, or hired by such tenant, or lent to him, with the like consent, shall not be distrained for any rent due to such landlord. And property belonging to any other person than the tenant, which shall have accidentally strayed on the demised premises, or which shall be deposited with a tavern keeper, or with the keeper of any ware house, in the usual course of their business, or deposited with a mechanic or other person, for the purpose of being repaired or being manufactured, shall not be subject to distress or sale for rent; but the officer making the distress, shall not be liable for seizing or selling property not belonging to the tenant, unless previous notice shall have been given him of the claim of a third person.

Distress for rent shall be made by the sheriff of the

county, or one of his deputies, or by a constable or marshal of the city or town where the goods are, who shall conduct the proceedings throughout.

No distress shall be driven out of the town where it shall be taken, except to a pound within the same county, not above three miles distant from the place where such distress shall have been taken. All beasts, or goods or chattels taken as a distress at one time, shall be kept, as near as may be, in the same place.

An officer may not make distress for rent, unless the warrant of distress be accompanied by an affidavit of the landlord, or his agent, specifying the amount of rent due, and the time for which it accrued.

In

Within ten days after the sale of goods for rent, or after they shall have been replevied, the officer is required to file the original warrant of distress, with the original affidavit of the landlord, in the office of the town clerk. the city and county of New York, in the city and county of Albany, in the cities of Troy, Hudson and Schenectady, such warrant and affidavit shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the county. Any officer violating this provision, shall forfeit fifty dollars to the person whose property shall have been distrained.

All distresses for rent shall be reasonable; and whosoever shall take an unreasonable distress, shall be liable to an action on the case, at the suit of the party aggrieved, for the damages sustained thereby.

PRACTICAL OBSERVATIONS.

It has been asserted by the advocates of monarchy, that man is not capable of self-government. Because all former experiments at free government have proved unsuccessful, it is predicted that the free institutions of this country will be of short duration. And, from the fallibility of man, and the presumed imperfection of all human governments, not a few of the friends of liberty even, have indulged apprehensions of the inevitable dissolution of our political system.

But it should be remembered, that our government differs essentially, both in its origin and principles, from any that has preceded it. Whereas others have been the result of mere chance, or of unavoidable necessity, ours is the contrivance of an assembly of men, not surpassed, probably, in point of wisdom and exalted patriotism, by any political body ever assembled. These men, aided by the light of their own experience, and the history of other governments, deliberately planned a system of government, under which those comparatively feeble states have, in less than half a century, become a most powerful and increasingly prosperous nation-a system which commands the admiration of the friends of freedom throughout the world.

The principles upon which our government is founded, are the immutable principles of JUSTICE and TRUTH. It was the grand sentiment of those who first declared the colonies to be free and independent states, that all just power in any government is derived from the governed: and this sentiment has been recognized, in a remarkable degree, in the form of government which was subsequently adopted. The constitution distinctly ackowledges the people to be the source of political power, and invests them with the exclusive right of exercising it.

A distinguishing characteristic of our constitution is, the extreme care with which it guards the rights of the people against infringement by official power. The ruler is the servant, not the master, of the people. He is made accountable to them for his acts, and holds his power at their will and pleasure.

Another excellence of our system consists in the division and distribution of the civil power among the several branches of the government, legislative, executive and judicial; and in the effectual guards provided by the constitution, to protect each branch, in the exercise of its functions, against encroachment by the others.