for

Sale of property

cause.

reasonable

which any special tax, imposed by virtue of authority of the provisions of this act, shall have become due and remain unpaid, or so much thereof, not less than a lot, (when the property on which the tax has accrued is not less than that quantity,) as may be necessary to pay any such taxes, with all interest, costs, and charges arising thereon, may be sold at public sale to satisfy the corporation therefor." And so much of the third proviso of the tenth section of the said act incorporating the inhabitants of the city of Washington, approved May the fifteenth, eighteen hundred and twenty, as is in the may be postponed following words, viz: "That no sale shall be made in pursuance of this section, of any improved property whereon there is personal property of sufficient value to pay the said taxes," be, and the same is hereby, repealed. And the authority given to the collector in the eleventh section of said act to postpone the sale of any property to a future day "for want of bidders," shall be so construed as to authorize the postponement for any other reasonable cause, if, in the opinion of the mayor, the collector, or other officer duly authorized, there shall be other reasonable cause for such postponement; but public notice shall in all cases be given of such postponement, and the sales made at such postponed time shall be equally valid as if made the day first designated for No sale of prop such sale; and no sale of any real property for taxes hereafter ed or made void made shall be impaired or made void by reason of any error by reason of any of the mayor, or other officer of the corporation, in making a or other of calculation or computation of the amount of taxes due, the computation of expenses attendant on the advertisement and sale, or of the purchase money and the interest thereon, notwithstanding the sum erroneously calculated or computed may have been paid by the purchaser, his heirs, or assigns; but all such sales, and the deeds which may be granted on the certificates then issued, shall be valid and binding as if no such error had been made; and it shall be lawful for the heirs or assigns of any purchaser or purchasers of property sold for taxes in the said city, to receive, do, or perform anything which, by the said act of the fifteenth of May, eighteen hundred and twenty, incorporating the inhabitants of the city of Washington, or by any act or acts supplementary to or in execution of the same, it may be lawful for such purchaser or purchasers to receive, do, or perform.

erty to be impair.

error of the may

or

ficer in making

amount of taxes due.

Said corporation shall have power

of all the squares,

SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That the said corporato make out plats tion shall have power to cause to be made out plats of all the &c., and to pre. squares in the city of Washington, on which shall be shown scribe the manner the lines of all the subdivisions of said squares as the same in which description shall be made shall actually exist at the date of the completion of the plat of all real estate of each square, and to prescribe and regulate the manner in which description shall be made of all real estate sold or transferred in the said city: Provided, That the said plats shall be made out and drawn upon a uniform scale of not less than one inch to fifty feet; and that the method of description of real estate sold or transferred within the corporate limits

sold.

Proviso.

which shall be prescribed by the said corporation shall be such that the plats shall at all times show the lines of property as actually existing in the squares; and the office of the surveyor of the city of Washington shall be the legal office of record of the plats of all property in the city of Washington. SEC. 9. And be it further enacted, That the school-tax which may be levied and collected in pursuance of the powers in this act given, shall constitute a fund, or be added to any other fund now or hereafter to be constituted by any act of the corporation, for the establishment and support of common schools, and for no other purpose, under such regulations as may from time to time be established and provided by the corporation.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That the corporation shall not have power to increase the present funded debt of the said corporation, either by borrowing money or otherwise, unless it shall be agreed to do so by two-thirds of the legal voters in the said city at an annual election; and the said corporation shall annually apply a sum not less than ten thousand dollars of its revenues to the redemption of the present debt of the corporation.

Taxes except on be collected by distress and sale

real property may

of goods.

SEC. 11. And be it further enacted, That all taxes, except taxes on real property, imposed by virtue of the powers granted by this act, or the acts to which this is amendatory or supplementary, in default of payment thereof within the time limited by act of the incorporation for payment, may be collected by distress and sale of the goods and chattels and personal effects of the person or persons chargeable therewith, under such regulations and limitations as the corporation may prescribe; but no such sale shall be made unless ten days' previous notice thereof be given in some newspaper quired. printed and published in the city of Washington.

Ten days' notice of sale re

Commissioner of Public Build

he opened and im

nues and streets

sary, &c., and the

sale of the lots

United States.

SEC. 12. And be it further enacted, That the Commissioner of Public Buildings, or other officer having charge and au- ings to cause to thority over the lands and property of the United States lying proved such avewithin the city of Washington, shall, from time to time, cause as the President to be opened and improved such avenues and streets, or parts may deem necesor portions thereof, as the President of the United States, expenses to be deupon application of the corporation of the said city, shall frayed out of the deem necessary for the public convenience, and direct to be belonging to the done; and he shall defray the expenses thereof out of any money arising, or which shall have arisen, from the sale of lots in the city of Washington belonging, or which may have belonged, to the United States, and from no other fund. And it shall be the duty of the said Commissioner, or other United States officer as aforesaid, upon the application of the mayor, to repair and keep in repair the pavements, water-gutters, water-ways, and flag foot-ways which have been made or shall be made opposite or along the public squares, reservations, or other property belonging to the United States; as also, on like application, to repair and keep in repair such streets and avenues, or parts thereof, as may

Also to keep in ments, &c., oppesquares and res ervations.

repair the pave

site the public

Said

Commis

the duties re

commissioner by

1824.

have been, or shall hereafter be, opened and improved by the United States; the expense of all such repairs to be paid out of the fund before mentioned.

SEC. 13. And be it further enacted, That the Commissioner sioner to perform of Public Buildings be, and he is hereby, required to perform quired of the city the duties required of the city commissioner by the fourteenth the 14th section of section of the act of the twenty-sixth of May, eighteen hunthe act of May 26, dred and twenty-four, supplementary to the act of the fifteenth of May, eighteen hundred and twenty, incorporating the inhabitants of the city of Washington. And it shall be the duty of the Commissioner of Public Buildings, within ninety days after the sale of any lots or squares belonging to the United States in the city of Washington, to report the fact to the corporation of Washington, giving the date of sale, the number of the lot and square, the name of the purchaser or purchasers; and the said lots or squares shall be liable to taxation by the said corportion from the date of such sale. And no open space, public reservation, or other public ground tion, &c., shall be in the said city, shall be occupied by any private person, or occupied, by pri- for any private purposes whatever.

No open space,

public reserva

vate persons.

Justices of the

peace; their pow. ers and duties.

To be appointed hereafter for three years, &c.

of incompetency

missions to be

void..

SEC. 14. And be it further enacted, That the justices of the peace, whether they be members of the Board of Aldermen or Board of Common Council or not, who may be selected from time to time by the said corporation, to enforce the police regulations and penal laws of the said city, as also to issue warrants and to hear and determine cases within the jurisdiction of justices of the peace, in which the mayor, Board of Aldermen, and Board of Common Council of the said city shall be plaintiffs, shall have power to issue all such warrants, and all other warrants or processes deemed necessary and proper in cases of violations of the police regulations and penal laws of the corporation, and to hear and determine all such cases, and, under the orders of the corporation, to issue execution or other final process thereon; and the said justices shall also have power to compel the attendance of witnesses by attachment, and to punish them by fine not exceeding ten dollars, or by imprisonment not exceeding ten days, for refusing obedience to a summons.

SEC. 15. And be it further enacted, That hereafter the justices of the peace for the county of Washington, in the District of Columbia, shall be appointed for three years; and On conviction upon indictment and conviction of any justice of the peace, or misconduct in before any court of competent jurisdiction, of incompetency, office, their comicon habitual drunkenness, corruption in office, or of any other wilful misconduct in the discharge of his duties as justice of the peace, his commission shall be void, and he shall cease to exercise the office and powers of justice of the peace; and for all criminal process or business issued or tried by or before any justice of the peace in the city and county of Washington, in the District of Columbia, the said justice and the constable who shall execute the process shall respectively be entitled to charge and receive the same fees as are author

Fees.

ized to be charged and received in the case of process issued and served by them respectively in cases of small debts; and the said costs shall be certified by the said justices to the district attorney, for his revision and approval, and when ap proved shall be paid by the marshal of the District of Columbia.

Additional mem

court to be ap

Said corpora

SEC. 16. And be it further enacted, That, in addition to the seven members now authorized to be appointed to the bens of the levy levy court of the county of Washington, from and after May, pointed. eighteen hundred and forty-eight, the President of the United States is hereby authorized and required annually to appoint four additional members from the city of Washington; and the said court shall thereafter consist of eleven members. SEC. 17. And be it further enacted, That the corporation of the said city of Washington shall have full power and tion to have pow authority to pass all laws which may be needful and neces- necessary to carsary to carry into full and complete effect the powers granted to the said corporation, or to any of its officers or servants, by this act, or by the act or acts to which this act is amendatory or supplementary. And all acts or parts of acts in conflict with the provisions of this act, be, and the same are hereby, repealed.

Approved May 17, 1848.

er to pass all laws

ry this act into

effect.

Conflicting acts repealed.

CHAP. 43.-AN ACT in amendment of an act entitled "An act to amend the act entitled 'An act to reduce the rates of postage, to limit the use and correct the abuse of the franking privilege, and for the prevention of fraud on the revenues of the Post Office Department,'" passed the third of March, one thousand eight hundred and forty-five.

[SEC. 1.] Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the rates of commissions authorized to be paid to postmasters by the first section of said act, shall be allowed and paid to them on the amount of postage received in each quarter of the year, and in due proportion for any period less than a quarter, instead of being allowed and paid on the amount received for a year, as was by mistake provided for in said act.

SEC. 2. And be it further enacted, That all postmasters whose commissions have been diminished by their being allowed and paid on the amount of postage received in a year, instead of on the amount received in a quarter, shall be permitted to resettle and adjust their accounts according to the first section of this act, and shall be allowed and paid such sum as may be justly found their due on such resettlement of their accounts.

temporarily

au

SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the Postmaster Additional clerks General be authorized to employ, temporarily, such addi- thorized. tional clerks as may be found necessary for the resettlement of the accounts of postmasters authorized by this act.

Commissions

may be increased in certain cases.

SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That, to the postmasters at offices where the mail is regularly to arrive between the hours of nine o'clock at night and five in the morning, the commission on the first hundred dollars collected in one quarter may be increased by the Postmaster General to a sum not exceeding fifty per cent.

Approved May 17, 1848.

Registers and

pensated for their

ing into effect the

act of 11th February, 1847.

CHAP. 44.-AN ACT to require the holders of military land warrants to compensate the land officers of the United States for services in relation to the location of those warrants.

[SEC. 1.] Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress asreceivers of land sembled, That for the services which may be rendered after offices to be com- the passage of this act by the registers and receivers of the services in carry. Several land offices of the United States in carrying out the provisions of the provisions of the ninth section of the act of eleventh February, one thousand eight hundred and forty-seven, entitled "An act to raise, for a limited time, an additional military force, and for other purposes," they shall each be entitled to require from the holders of warrants issued under that act, for one hundred and sixty acres, the sum of fifty cents for each; and from the holders of warrants, issued under the same law, for forty acres, the sum of twenty-five cents for each, as full compensation for those services: Provided, That in all cases where the warrant is located by, and for the use of, the volunteer or soldier to whom such warrant may have issued, for services rendered under the act aforesaid, no compensation shall be charged, either by the register or receiver, for making such location.

Proviso.

Approved May 17, 1848.

A register to be issued.

Proviso,

CHAP. 45.-AN ACT to authorize the issuing of a register to the brig Encar

nacion.

[SEC. 1.] Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress as. sembled, That there be issued, under the direction of the Secretary of the Treasury, a register to the brig Encarnacion, formerly a Danish vessel, but now owned by John B. Brown, Jedediah Jewett, and Mark P. Emery, of Portland, in the State of Maine, citizens of the United States, the said vessel having sustained great damage on a voyage from St. Thomas to Portland, and the aforesaid owners having caused the said vessel to be repaired and refitted for sea at great expense: Provided, It shall be proved to the satisfaction of the Secretary of the Treasury that the cost of the repairs and refitting said vessel in the United States exceeds three-fourths of the