SECTION 1. Every word importing either the singular or plural number, may extend and be applied to one or more than one person or thing.

SEC. 2. Every word importing the masculine gender, may extend and be applied to females.

SEC. 3. The word "state," when applied to different parts of the United States, may be construed to extend to and include the District of Columbia and the several territories, so called, and the words" United States" shall be construed to include said district and territories.

SEC. 4. The word "town" may be construed to extend and be applied to any place incorporated, or the inhabitants of which are required to pay any tax, and may mean that town in which the subject matter referred to is situate, or in which the persons referred to are residents.

SEC. 5. The word "inhabitant" may be construed to mean a resident, or person dwelling and having his home.

SEC. 6. The words "annual meeting," when applied to towns, may be construed to mean the annual meeting required by law to be holden in the month of March.

SEC. 7. The words "month" and "year" shall be construed to mean a calendar month or year, unless otherwise expressed, and the word "year" shall be equivalent to the expression "year of our Lord."

SEC. 8. The word "person" may extend and be applied to bodies politic and corporate, as well as to individuals.

SEC. 9. Whenever the seal of any court or public office is required to be affixed to any paper, the word "seal" shall be construed to include an impression of such official seal made upon the paper alone, as well as an impression made by means of wax, or a wafer affixed thereto.

SEC. 10. The word "justice," when applied to a magistrate, shall be construed to mean a justice of the peace for the county in which he resides and for which he is appointed.

SEC. 11. The words "preceding" and "following," when used by way of reference to any section of these revised statutes, shall be construed to mean the section next preceding or following that in which such reference is made, unless some other is expressly designated.

SEC. 12. The words "said" and "such," when used by way of reference to any person or thing, shall apply to the same person or thing last mentioned.

SEC. 13. All words purporting to give a joint authority to three or more public officers, shall be construed as giving such authority to a majority of them, unless otherwise expressly declared.

SEC. 14. The word "grantor" may include every person by or from whom any estate or interest in land passes, in or by any deed, and the word "grantee" may include every person to whom any such estate or interest passes in like manner.

SEC. 15. The words "insane or "insane person " shall be construed to include an idiot, a non compos, lunatic or distracted person.

SEC. 16. The word "issue," as applied to the descent of estates, shall include all the lawful lineal descendants of the ancestor. SEC. 17. The words "land," "lands," or "real estate," shall be construed to include lands, tenements and hereditaments, and all rights thereto and interests therein.

SEC. 18. The term "will" shall be construed to include codicils as well as wills.

SEC. 19. The words "written" or "in writing" may include printing, excepting when the written signature of a person is required.

SEC. 20. The word "oath" shall be construed to include "affirmations" in all cases where an affirmation may be substituted for an oath, and in like cases the word "sworn" shall be construed to include the word "affirmed."

SEC. 21. The word "highway" or "road" shall be construed to include all bridges thereon.

SEC. 22. The word "county" may be construed to mean the county in which the subject matter referred to is situate, belongs, or is cognizable.

SEC. 23. The word "selectmen" may be construed to mean the selectmen of the town to which the subject matter to be acted upon belongs or in which it is situate.

SEC. 24. When any court, officer or board is named by their official title, such designation shall be construed to apply to the court, officer or board of the county, town or district, within and for which they are qualified to act in such capacity.

SEC. 25. When time is to be reckoned from any day, date, act done, or the time of any act done either by force of law or by vir tue of any contract hereafter made, such day, date or the day when such act is done, shall not be included in such computation.

SEC. 26. The repeal of any act shall in no case affect any act done or any right accruing, accrued, acquired or established, or any suit or proceeding had or commenced in any civil case, before the time when said repeal shall take effect.

SEC. 27. No suit or prosecution pending at the time of the repeal of any act for any offence committed, or for the recovery of

any penalty or forfeiture incurred under the act so repealed, shall in any case be affected by such repeal.

SEC. 28. The repeal of any act shall not be construed to revive any other act which has been repealed.

SEC. 29. Every act passed at any session of the general court commencing in June, shall take effect on the fifteenth day of September next following, and every such act passed at a session commencing at any other time shall take effect on the fifteenth day of March next following, unless a different time be therein limited.

SEC. 30. The foregoing rules shall be observed in the construction of all statutes, unless inconsistent with the manifest intent of the legislature or the context of the same statute.

CHAPTER 2.

OF APPLICATIONS TO AND PROCEEDINGS BEFORE THE LEGISLATURE.

SECTION

IDENTICAL WITH

Chapter 2 of the Revised Statutes.

SECTION

1. Notice of petitions, how given to indi- 5. All papers, &c., to be filed with secre

SECTION 1. When any petition to be presented to the legisla ture affects the interests of any person, notice thereof may be giv en by delivering to such person, or the clerk or agent of any corporation, a copy of said petition thirty days at least before the commencement of the session, or by publishing the same three weeks successively in some newspaper printed in the county in which such person resides or such corporation is established; or if no paper is printed in such county, or if such person reside out of the State, then in some newspaper printed in Concord, the last publication of which shall be at least fourteen days before said session.

SEC. 2. When any such petition affects the rights or interests of any town, notice thereof may be given by delivering a copy thereof to the clerk and one selectman at least, or leaving such copy at the usual place of abode of each, thirty days before the second Tuesday of March next preceding the session of the general court to which said petition is returnable.

SEC. 3. Such notice may be served by any person not interested in such petition, or a written acknowledgment of notice shall

be sufficient. The person making such service shall be paid by the petitioner four cents a mile for actual travel in serving the same, twelve cents a page for each copy, and twenty-three cents for each

service.

SEC. 4. All joint resolutions of the legislature requiring the approval of the governor shall commence thus: Resolved by the senate and house of representatives in general court convened; and shall be passed like acts.

SEC. 5. The clerk of the senate and of the house of representatives, at the close of each session, shall deposit in the office of the secretary of state all petitions and papers which are not recorded there, appertaining to the unfinished business of the legislature, and the secretary shall receive and preserve the same, and deliver them to the clerk of each branch aforesaid on the first day of the session next ensuing.

SEC. 6. Any senator or representative, while acting as a member of any committee of the legislature, may administer an oath to any person who may be examined before such committee.

SECTION 1. The original acts passed by the legislature shall be deposited and preserved in the office of the secretary of state. SEC. 2. The secretary, within fifteen days after the close of each session, shall deliver to the public printer a fair copy of all the public and private acts and resolutions passed at such session, together with a digested index of the sections thereof, and of all the statutes enacted after the passing of the revised statutes.

SEC. 3. The secretary shall deposit in his office one copy of the laws published as aforesaid, and shall annually, as soon as may be after their publication, distribute copies as follows:

To the governor; to each member of the council, senate and house; to the secretary and treasurer, for the use of their respective offices; to each of the clerks of the senate and house; to each of the justices of the superior court of judicature and of each court of common pleas; to each clerk of said courts for the use of the court; to each judge and register of probate; to the attorney general and each solicitor for the time being; to each of the judges of the circuit court of the United States for the district of New Hampshire; to each historical society in the United States; to the American Antiquarian Society; to each town in the State; to each unincorporated town or place in which there shall be ten or more ratable polls, inhabitants therein, one copy; to the secretary of each state and territory in the United States, for the use of each state or territory, three copies; to the secretary of state of the United States, for the use of the government of the United States, four copies; and shall deposit the residue in the library of the State.

SEC. 4. The secretary shall also cause all public acts and resolves to be published in such newspapers as the legislature shall from time to time order, upon the following conditions:

1. Such laws shall be inserted in such newspapers in a type not less than the brevier size.

2. The publication of the laws shall commence at the close of each session, and be finished without delay, and nothing shall be allowed for the publication of any law which shall be unreasonably delayed.

3. No publisher shall receive any compensation for publishing any part of said laws, unless he has published all the public acts and resolves of the preceding session of the legislature.

4. The publisher shall furnish the treasurer with a file of the papers containing the acts and resolutions so published, and thereupon the treasurer shall issue his certificate thereof, and the gov ernor, on the receipt of such certificate, shall draw his warrant upon the treasury therefor, at the rate of forty cents for every printed page of the pamphlet laws.

SEC. 5. The secretary shall deliver to each town in the State which has not received the same, for the use of such town, one copy of the laws of the United States which are now or may be in his possession, and shall deposit the residue in the library of the State.

SEC. 6. The clerks of the senate and of the house of representatives shall each lodge in the office of the secretary of state within ninety days after the close of each session of the legislature, a certified copy of their journals respectively, to be deposited in the State archives; and also prepare a like copy of their respective journals, with a digested index of the contents thereof, for the press, and shall deliver the same to the public printer within thirty days after the close of such session.

SEC. 7. The secretary, as soon as may be after such delivery,