nental currency, which in many parts of this State cannot be procured by the inhabitants thereof;

persons

II. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of the State of North Carolina, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That it shall and may be lawful for such who are still in arrears for the said tax, either to pay the said Continental currency, or the same sum in State currency or certificates upon the public, any law to the contrary notwithstanding: And the collectors of taxes shall account upon oath, and pay into the hands of the sheriff's or county treasurers, all specie certificates they may have on hand, or may hereafter receive, in payment of such taxes, at the same rate they may receive them, and the treasurers shall account in the same manner at the same rate.

STATUTES AT LARGE OF PENNSYLVANIA.

[Printed from "The Statutes at Large of Pennsylvania from 1682 to 1801," Vols. IX (1776 to 1779) and X (1779 to 1781), compiled under the authority of the act of May 19, 1887, by James T. Mitchell and Henry Flanders, Commissioners, and printed by Wm. Stanley Ray, State Printer of Pennsylvania, 1903.]

[9 Stats. 11.]

CHAPTER DCCXXIX.

AN ORDINANCE RESPECTING THE ARMS OF NON-ASSOCIATORS.

Whereas the non-associators in this state have either refused or neglected to deliver up their arms according to the resolves of the honorable Continental Congress and the assembly of Pennsylvania, and effectual measures. have not been taken to carry the said resolves into execution:

[Section I.] Be it therefore ordained by the authority of this Convention, That the colonel or next officer in command of every battalion of militia in this state is hereby authorized, empowered and required to collect, receive and take all the arms in his district or township nearest to such officer which are in the hands of nonassociators in the most expeditious and effectual manner in his power, and shall give to the owners receipts for such arms, specifying the amount of the appraisement; and such as can be repaired shall with all possible dispatch be rendered fit for service, and the value according to the appraisement of all such arms, together with the repairs and transportation, shall be paid to the officers

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by the treasurer on the order of the council of safety for the use of the owners and defraying the charges.

[Section II.] And be it further ordained, That the same arms shall be appraised by any three reputable freeholders appointed by the commanding officer; but if the owner of any arms shall neglect or refuse to apply for such money within six months the same shall be applied towards the repairs of the arms; and the colonels are hereby authorized to draw for the necessary sums of money for the purposes aforesaid on the council of safety.

[Section III.] And it is further ordained, That the colonels aforesaid shall arm the associators with the said arms and keep an account to whom they are delivered and return the same to the council of safety; and every associator shall be answerable for such arms or the value unless lost or destroyed by some unavoidable accident or in actual service.

[Section IV.] And be it further ordained, That in case any arms so collected shall not be worth repairing, the same shall be laid by until such time as may be thought proper by the committee of the county to return them to the owners.

Passed July 19, 1776. See Appendix XXXV, and the Act of Assembly passed March 31, 1779, Chapter 836.

[9 Stats. 136.]

CHAPTER DCCLXI.

AN ACT TO PROHIBIT THE SALE OF GOODS, WARES AND MERCHANDISES BY PUBLIC VENDUE AND TO REGULATE PEDDLERS AND HAWKERS IN THIS STATE.

(Section I, P. L.) Whereas the practice of selling goods, wares and merchandises by public vendue, as tending to raise the price of almost every necessary article, and to depreciate the current money of the continent and of this commonwealth within the same is found a great grievance to the good people thereof:

[Section I.] Be it therefore enacted, and it is hereby enacted by the Representatives of the Freemen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and by the authority of the same, That from and after the publication of this act no public vendue or auction of goods, wares and merchandises shall be held

anywhere within this commonwealth by any person or persons whosoever.

[Section II] (Section II, P. L.) And be it further enacted, That if any person or persons shall, contrary to the directions of this act, expose to sale and sell, or cause others to expose and sell by public vendue or outcry any goods, wares and merchandises (except as hereinafter excepted), he, she or they so offending shall forfeit and pay for every such offense a sum of money equal to the value of the goods sold or exposed to sale, to be recovered by action of debt, bill, plaint or information by any person who will sue for the same, one-half thereof for the use of the person so suing and the other half thereof to be paid to the state treasurer for the use of this state.

[Section III] (Section III, P. L.) Provided always, and it is hereby further enacted, That nothing herein contained shall extend or be construed to extend to hinder any sheriff, constable or other officer to sell and dispose of by way of vendue any goods, wares or merchandises taken in execution and liable to be sold by order of law or to hinder any person or persons from selling or exposing to sale by public vendue or otherwise any goods or chattels whatsoever taken and distrained for rent being in arrear, or to prohibit any lawful executor or executors, administrator or administrators, to expose to sale by public vendue or otherwise any goods or chattels which were of their respective testators or intestates, or persons about to remove from selling lands, tenements, live stock, farming utensils and household furniture, but all and every such person or persons may do herein as they might have done before the passing of this act.

[Section IV] (Section IV, P. L.) And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That from and after the publication of this act no male white person capable of bearing arms shall for and notwithstanding any pass, license or protection by him obtained under any pretense whatsoever, be suffered to go about as a peddler or hawker in this commonwealth, and that any such person offending against the directions of this act shall upon due conviction thereof forfeit and pay the sum of fifty pounds for every offense to be recovered and applied in the same manner and to the same uses as fines incurred for selling by vendue are to be recovered and applied by virtue of this act.

[Section V] (Section V, P. L.) And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That so much of an act of general assembly of this state passed the fourteenth of February, one thousand seven hundred and twenty-nine (thirty), entitled, "An act for regulating peddlers, vendues," etc., as relates to the regulating of peddlers and hawkers and is not altered or amended hereby shall remain in full force, and all and every part in the same act that relates to the regulating of vendues is hereby repealed.

[9 Stats. 177.]

CHAPTER DCCLXXIX.

AN ACT TO PREVENT FORESTALLING AND REGRATING AND TO ENCOURAGE FAIR DEALING.

(Section I, P. L.) Whereas during the present interruption of commerce and the great demand for many necessary articles occasioned by the war the prices of goods and merchandise are greatly enhanced by the practices and combinations of evil and designing men to the great oppression of the poor and injury of the commonwealth: For remedy whereof:

[Section I.] (Section II, P. L.) Be it enacted, and it is hereby enacted by the Representatives of the Freemen of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, [and] by the authority of the same, That from and after the publication of this act no person or persons within this commonwealth shall purchase (except in small quantities for their own use and the consumption of their families or tradesmen and artificers for carrying on the business of their trades) any of the following articles, to-wit: wine, rum, whiskey, molasses, sugar, tea, coffee, salt, leather, deer-skins, furs, wool, flax [cotton] cotton and wool cards, butter, cheese, iron-castings, wire, nail rods, bar iron, steel, hemp, linen, tow or woolen clothes, ready-made clothes, stockings, shoes, wheat, rye, Indian corn, barley, oats, spelts, beans, peas, meal or flour of any kind, beef, pork, mutton, cider, beer, tobacco, neat cattle, sheep, hogs or other live stock, except to keep or fatten on their own farms, or any other goods, wares or merchandise brought or to be brought into this state until such person or persons shall first obtain a permit so to do

1 Passed June 19, 1777. See the note to the Aot of Assembly passed February 14, 1729-30, Chapter 308. The act in the text was repealed by the Act of Assembly passed November 26, 1779, Chapter 870.

signed by one of the persons hereinafter appointed respectively, who are hereby enjoined not to grant such permit to any person or persons but such as are known to be of good character for probity and public spirit and known friends to the freedom and independence of the American states, and who shall have taken the oath or affirmation of abjuration and allegiance to this state prescribed by law; and if any person or persons so permitted shall misbehave in the said business by selling any articles at an unreasonable profit or refusing to sell them. at a reasonable profit for bills of credit of this state or bills of the United States, the commissioners for said counties respectively or a majority of them who have so as aforesaid granted such permit shall and may by writing under their hands revoke the permits so granted, and every person so misbehaving in purchasing or refusing to sell as aforesaid shall upon being legally convicted thereof before any court of quarter sessions in this state forfeit all the goods, wares or merchandise so bought and refused for sale or the value thereof one moity to the use of the informer and the other moity for the use of the state, to be prosecuted and recovered with costs of suit by the commissioners or any one of them appointed to grant such permit in the county where the offense is committed.

[Section II.] (Section III, P. L.) And be it further enacted by the authority aforesaid, That no person or persons shall sell within this commonwealth any of the articles aforesaid which he hath engrossed or hath now in his possession or which he may hereafter purchase and bring in from any of the neighboring states without first obtaining a permit so to do from the said commissioners or one of them hereinafter mentioned on penalty of forfeiting double the value of every article so sold or of suffering imprisonment for any time not exceeding three months, according as the prosecution shall be first begun for the said penalty or by indictment for the offense and to prevent any fraud in the sale of the said articles which shall be sold by any such purchaser or engrosser who has any of the said articles in his [or her] possession, he or she shall before any [such] permit be given to him or her, make out a true list or inventory of all such articles which he or she has in possession and deliver the same on oath or affirmation to some one of the commissioners hereby authorized to grant such permit.