nal writ sued out of any court having jurisdiction, and held by the officer making the attachment, until judgment is rendered in the suit.

Foreign attachments may issue to compel the payment of debts from absent or absconding debtors.

Books of accounts, or original books of entries, sustained by the oath of the parties, are admissible as evidence before auditors appointed by the court. Interest is allowed on book accounts, after the usual time of credit has expired. In actions of book account, the statute provides that if the defendant plead any plea, which if true he ought not to account, the issue shall be tried by jury; and if found for the plaintiff, an auditor is appointed. Although bills and promissory notes are negotiable, the statute of Vermont permits the defendant to plead an offset of all demands proper to be plead in offset, which he may have had against the original payee, before notice of the endorsement; and to plead or give in evidence on the trial, any matter or thing which would equitably discharge the defendant, in an action brought in the name of the original payee.

Negotiable promissory notes are liable to be attached by the trustee process, as the property of the payee, notwithstanding an assignment may have been made, unless the maker has had notice of the assignment. The trus tee process holds any description of property, goods, effects, or credits, that may be in the hands of the trustee at the time of service of the writ.

PROPERTY EXEMPT FROM ATTACHMENT.

By the laws of Vermont, one cow, ten sheep, and one year's product of said sheep, either wool, yarn, or cloth; the best swine, or the meat of said swine, and forage sufficient for the keeping of not exceeding ten sheep and one cow; military arms and equipments; necessary bedding and apparel for the debtor and his family, the necessary household furniture, ten cords of firewood, five bushels of grain, twenty bushels of potatoes, bibles, and other books used in the family, and the necessary tools of the debtor's trade or occupation, are absolutely exempted from attachment and execution.

ATTACHMENTS OF PROPERTY.

Where writs of attachment are sued out against a debtor, the officer takes possession of the effects of the debtor to an amount, in his own opin ion, sufficient to respond to the judgment which may finally be rendered in the suit. No lien is created by any writ of attachment of execution, until an actual seizure of the property is made. When more writs than one against the same debtor are placed in the officer's hands, he is bound by law to make service in the order in which they were received. Personal property attached, may be held by the officer, or delivered to a third person as receiptor, who may permit the debtor still to retain it, if he choose, to be forthcoming whenever the officer demands it.

To preserve the lien created by attachment of personal property, the execution must be delivered to the officer within thirty days after judg

ment.

To complete an attachment of real estate, the officer must go upon the premises to make his seizure, and then leave a copy of the writ, with a copy of his return, describing the premises attached on the back thereof, at the office of the recorder of deeds for the town where the land lies. The lien

then commences, and the property is holden until the suit is terminated. During this period, the lien created by the attachment is valid against subsequent conveyances by the debtor, as well as against all other creditors.

EXECUTION AGAINST PROPERTY.

A judgment recovered against the debtor, of itself, creates no lien upon his property, and none can be created on real estate except by attachment on the original process, or the actual levy of an execution. The delivery of an execution has no effect, unless to the officer who made the original attachment, or to his deputy; in which case the original attachment determines the priority of execution-or, if there was no attachment made on the original writ, then the execution first delivered to the officer must be first levied and satisfied.

Personal property, taken in execution, is sold by the officer at public auction, after due notice, or so much thereof as will satisfy the execution.

Lands taken in execution, cannot be sold by the officer; but are set off by metes and bounds on an appraisal by three disinterested men, to the creditor, or so much thereof as will satisfy the judgment, with costs. The debtor has six months after levy, during which he may redeem the premises, by paying into the hands of the clerk of the court from whence the execution issued, the full amount of the judgment, and costs of levy, &c., and twelve per cent interest.

In thus setting off lands by appraisal to the creditor, the officer gives no deed; but returns his proceedings, the appraisement, &c., on the back of the execution, which, with the return so made, must be recorded at length in the office of the clerk of the court where judgment was rendered, and also in the office of the recorder of deeds in the town where the land lies. These proceedings, in case the debtor fails to redeem within six months, give the creditor a good title as against the debtor and all subsequent purchasers of the debtor, or other attaching creditors.

Rents, issues, and profits of lands and tenements leased for life or years, are liable to be taken in execution by any creditor of the lessor, or of such person or persons as have a right to receive such rents, issues, and profits; and the officer levying such execution, may cause the tenants to attorn to the creditor; and if he refuse, to turn him out of possession, and give livery of seizin to the creditor, who may retain possession, till his debt, with interest, is satisfied out of the rents and profits.

ARREST, BAIL, AND IMPRISONMENT.

In Vermont, on all debts contracted prior to 1st January, 1839, debtors may be arrested and imprisoned for any sum amounting to fifteen dollars and over. Females are not liable to arrest or imprisonment for debts of

any amount.

The debtor may be arrested on the original writ, and committed to prison, if he have no property, or refuse to surrender his property to the creditor, unless he procure responsible bail, to the acceptance of the officer. A simple endorsement of his own name on the back of the writ against the debtor, is all that is required to hold the person becoming bail; who, in Vermont, becomes thus responsible not only for the appearance of the debtor, but to the action. He may, however, at any time during the pendency of the suit,

or on the return of a scire facias, surrender the principal into court, and be released from his liability as bail, on paying the costs of scire facias, if one has issued. When the principal is not surrendered, the bail becomes liable to the execution against him on the scire facias for the whole amount of the judgment and additional costs.

The bail, in any action, may be discharged by surrendering the body of the debtor at the term in which the judgment is rendered, or to the sheriff having the execution before the return of non est inventus, or on the return of scire facias, as aforesaid.

If the debtor is committed on an execution, which ought to have been levied on his property, he has a remedy by action against the officer.

The writ of execution is directed against the goods, chattels, lands, and tenements of the debtor, and for want of these, against the body of the debt.

or.

The sheriff, however, cannot take the body of the debtor in execution, until after having demanded, and being unable to find, goods, chattels, &c. But the creditor is not obliged to levy his execution upon lands, at an ap praisal of value; and may, instead thereof, commit the body of the debtor to prison.

The law of November 3, 1838, however, abolishes imprisonment for debt altogether, on contracts made after the 1st of January, 1839-and gives the creditor, through the trustee process, the power of reaching any property in the hands of trustees of the debtor.

INSOLVENCY.-POOR DEBTOR'S OATH.

The jail limits in Vermont are set out by the county courts in the respective counties, and "are not to exceed four miles square."

A debtor, committed to prison, may obtain the liberty of the jail limits, by furnishing sufficient bonds, conditioned that he will remain a true prisoner, within the limits, until lawfully discharged.

Debtors thus confined, may make application for release to the proper authority, the commissioners of jail delivery. Notice is then given to the creditor, at least twenty days before the time appointed for an examination; and if, on examination, the court of commissioners is satisfied as to the truth of the statements of the debtor, the following oath is administered: "You, solemnly swear, (or affirm,) that you have not any estate, real or personal, except such property as is by statute specially exempted from execution, to the amount of twenty dollars, nor sufficient to satisfy the execution on which you are committed; and that you have not directly nor indirectly disposed of any part of your estate, to defraud any of your creditors; and that you have not, since your commitment, disposed of any of your property for the purpose of defrauding the creditor on whose execution you are committed. So help you God."

A certificate of discharge is then furnished to the prisoner, and, on pay. ing all prison charges, he is thereupon discharged, and may not be again arrested on the same debt. The judgment, however, remains good against the property of the debtor, and a new execution may at any time issue against his subsequent acquisitions.

The creditor may discharge the debtor from prison, and take out a new execution against his property, but cannot again imprison him, after having once consented to his discharge.

THE BOOK TRADE.

1. An Analytical Abridgment of Kent's Commentaries on American Law, with a full series of questions for examination, adapted both to the analysis and to the original commentaries. By J. EASTMAN JOHNSON, Counsellor at law. New York: Halsted & Voorhies. 1840.

pp. 390.

THIS abridgment is very appropriately dedicated by the author to Chancellor Kent, who, by his talents and his virtues, has elevated the jurispru dence of his country, and erected an enduring monument to his own fame. Mr. Johnson has omitted most of the historical matter of the original lectures-references to ancient and foreign systems of law-obsolete rules— the citation and discussion of particular cases, and unsettled points; but, on the other hand, he appears to have made it his special object to retain, and state, distinctly and concisely, every leading doctrine of the common law, contained in the original lectures, and recognised as of authority in the United States. Mr. Johnson professes to have followed with scrupulous fidelity, the arrangement of Chancellor Kent, thus rendering reference from any passage in the analysis to the original perfectly easy and convenient. To the merchant and man of business, who frequently finds it necessary to refer to a point of mercantile law, and who cannot well spare the time to look through a large quantity of matter for that purpose, this abridgment will afford a convenient manual of reference. Twelve of the lectures, at least, will be found particularly useful to this description of persons, viz: the lectures treating-of contracts-of bailment of principal and agent-of the history of maritime law-of the law of partnership-of negotiable paper-of the title to merchant vessels of persons employed in the navigation of merchant ships-of the contract of affreightment-of the law of marine insurance of maritime laws, and of insurance on lives and against fires.

2. Critical and Miscellaneous Essays. By T. BABINGTON MACAULAY. Boston: Weeks, Jordan, & Co. 1840.

T. Babington Macaulay, although still comparatively a young man, has been for some time known to the public as a distinguished orator, and a regular and leading contributor to the Edinburgh Review. The work whose title we have here prefixed, contains some of the most prominent papers furnished by him for that journal, embracing within their range ethics, literature, and politics; and the two volumes already published, we understand, are to be followed by two more of like character, embracing his other papers. The writings of Mr. Macaulay are profound, rich, and eloquent. His mind is of that cast which, while it takes a comprehensive and vigorous grasp of the subject in hand, is equally remarkable for a critical acumen which can easily detect error, and develop truth in its majestic beauty. He has carefully studied the structure of government and the social duties of men. His style is enriched by classical acquisitions, and his knowledge by a thorough acquaintance with the history of the past. Hence it is that he is eminently fitted as a critic to hold up ignorant presumption to merited contempt, and to give to true merit its just and solid value. As an example of his searching severity, we would refer to his re.

view of Southey's Colloquies on Society; and as an instance of powerful and splendid writing, to his article on Lord Bacon and Milton, which, although anonymous, produced, when it was first published, a strong sensation, both in this country and Europe. We especially commend the work to young men, who wish to form their style upon the right model, and to store their minds with interesting facts from the pen of a distinguished orator and statesman.

3. An Historical and Descriptive Account of British America; compre hending Canada, Upper and Lower, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, the Bermudas, and the fur countries. By HUGH MURRAY, F.R.S.E. New York: Harper & Brothers. 1840. This is a work of sterling value. Mr. Murray has, in these volumes, collected a large amount of historical and statistical information connected with the British provinces. The progress of these provinces from their first colonization exhibits a train of facts which is remarkable. The vast territory of Canada, settled as it first was by the French, is peculiar in its early history, which is strongly contrasted with the English colonies who occupied the eastern portion of the United States. The historical part of the work is well fortified by marginal references to the French colonial writers as well as other authorities. The care with which these references have been accumulated furnishes a satisfactory voucher of its general accuracy, and leaves no doubt that all pains have been taken to make it correct. Mr. Murray has given to us the amount of the population in the British North American colonies during the last census, and the probable amount at the present time. His table we here subjoin.

4. Sacred Philosophy of the Seasons; illustrating the perfections of God in the phenomena of the year. By the Rev. HENRY DUNCAN, D.D., Ruthwell, Scotland. With important additions and modifications, to adapt it to American readers. By F. W. P. GREENWOOD. In four volumes. Boston: Marsh, Capen, Lyon & Webb. 1839.

The design of this work, as its name imports, is to exhibit the goodness of the Creator in the arrangement of the vast and complex machinery of the world. It must be obvious to the reflective mind that there is in the frame of our globe, animal, vegetable, and mineral, a nice adaptation of parts to one great end, evincing design and benevolence. Throughout the whole range of created existence, from the small to the great, from the mote which sparkles in the sunbeam to the mountain whose top is wrapped