property particularly, to be published, with a notice to the owner to claim the same within six months from the time of finding; which advertisement shall be continued once every month during the six months.

Art. 545. If the owner appear within the six months, and prove his property to the satisfaction of the judge, it shall be restored to him on his paying all the costs of preserving the same, all the expenses attending the procedure decreed by this chapter, and ten per cent on the value of the property to the finder.

Art. 546. This chapter applies to property found stranded or drifting in any lake or stream of water within the state, except only that, in this last case, the owner shall be bound to pay a reasonable salvage, proportioned to the trouble and risk of saving and securing the property, over and above the ten per cent on the value; which salvage shall be determined by the parish judge.

Art. 547. If no owner appear to claim the property within six months, it shall be delivered to the finder, if not in his possession, and if it be, his bonds shall be cancelled, and he shall not be criminally liable for any use he may make of the same.

CHAPTER IV.

Of the mode of proceeding in cases of vagrancy.

Art. 548. A vagrant is one who, having no visible means of subsistence, lives in idleness, or in the practice of drinking, or gaming, and who, by the whole of his conduct and character, gives just reason to believe that he gains his subsistence by illegal means.

Art. 549. On the complaint of three householders to a magistrate, stating, that they have reason to believe, and detailing those reasons, and that they do believe that any designated individual comes within the description abovementioned, the magistrate shall issue his warrant to bring the person before him, and shall require him to give an account of the means by which he gains his living.

Art. 550. The account required by the last article may, if the party implicated desire it, be given to the magistrate in private, but it must be on oath, and supported by at least one credible witness; and if such account show legal means of subsistence, to the satisfaction of the magistrate, the party shall be dismissed. But if the party refuse to render any account, or render one not satisfactory to the magistrate, he shall be required to report himself to the magistrate, and to show, within three days, that he has adopted some regular means of livelihood, or to leave the district, or to give security for his good behaviour.

Art. 551. If the party fail in performing one of the conditions prescribed by the last section, the magistrate shall issue his warrant to send him to the HOUSE OF INDUSTRY, there to be employed for sixty days, or until he shall find security for his good behaviour, or that he will leave the state and not return within two years.

Art. 552. If after his discharge the party shall again be found in a state of vagrancy, either in the same or in any other district in the

state, he shall, after the like inquiry, be sent to the house of industry for six months; and the same process shall be repeated as often as the same kind of life shall be resumed.

Art. 553. No person shall be deemed a vagrant, under the provisions of this chapter, who, from bodily infirmity, or infancy, or old age, is unable to gain a livelihood by labour. Persons of this description, if without the means of subsistence, are under the care of the police of the parish to which they belong.

CHAPTER V.

Of the mode of proceeding in cases of alleged insanity.

Art. 554. Insanity alleged on the trial to have existed at the time of committing the offence, must be determined like any other ground of defence by the jury impannelled for the trial of the cause; but if the defendant be acquitted on that ground, it should be specially so found, that the court may make order for his safe custody, according to the provisions of the Code of Crimes and Punishments.

Art. 555. If insanity be alleged, or observed by the court, to exist at any other stage of the proceeding, it must be inquired of by a jury specially sworn for that purpose, who shall be drawn from the panel of petit jurors in the same manner as they are drawn for the trial of causes.

Art. 556. If the insanity be alleged or discovered before the trial, or after conviction and before judgment, the question to be submitted to the jury shall, in the first case, be, whether the defendant is of a sufficiently sane mind to make his defence, or give instructions for it; in the second case it shall be, whether he have sufficient sanity of mind to show cause against the judgment, and take those other measures he is allowed to take for the diminution of the punishment.

Art. 557. If the insanity be alleged after judgment, the inquiry shall be, if it exist in such a degree as to make him dangerous to others. or unconscious of the nature and consequences of his offence.

Art. 558. Whenever, in any of the cases mentioned in the three last preceding articles, the insanity of the defendant shall be alleged, or shall be observed by the court, they shall name a physician to attend him, in order that he may be examined as a witness before the jury. Art. 559. Counsel shall be assigned to the defendant on such inquiry if none have before been employed or assigned.

Art. 560. The jury may interrogate the defendant on such inquiry.

CHAPTER VI.

Of the mode of proceeding in trials for adultery.

Art. 561. In order to avoid collusive attempts between the husband and a pretended adulterer to obtain a divorce, to the injury of the wife;

or between the husband and wife, to injure an innocent person, charged as the adulterer; the Code of Crimes and Punishments has provided, that prosecutions for adultery shall be joint against the wife and the supposed adulterer (if he be alive); and that there can be no conviction of the one without the other, under the modifications to be contained in this code these are the following:

1. If the defendant, who is charged with being the adulterer, shall have been either summoned or arrested, but he should not appear, an attorney shall be named for his defence, who shall enter a plea of "not guilty" for him, and the trial shall proceed in his absence.

2. If he be alive, but shall have left the state before the prosecution is commenced, a warant or citation shall issue against him, and be renewed, from time to time, for six months, until it shall be served, and until the trial shall actually take place. If he be not found, the trial may proceed, after the expiration of the six months, against the wife alone.

CHAPTER VII.

Of the application of moneys collected for fines, and of compensations for services to prosecutor, and for losses incurred by innocent defendants.

Art. 562. The mode in which fines are to be collected, is prescribed in the chapter of punishments in the Code of Crimes and Punishments. Art. 563. Sheriffs, coroners, and the marshal of the city court of the city of New Orleans, must, once in every three months, render to the treasurer of the state, an account of all fines either of them may have received prior to that time; or if they have received none, make a return to that effect, in writing, signed by them respectively.

Art. 564. At the time of rendering such account, the balance in the hands of the officer rendering it shall be paid to the treasurer of the state, who shall carry the same to account of a fund, called the "compensation fund"—which shall be applied, first, to the payment of warrants for recompense drawn by the governor, or by the judge, and public prosecutor, in cases authorized by the second chapter, first title, first book of this Code; secondly, to such other uses as the legislature may direct.

Art. 565. If any sheriff, coroner or marshal shall neglect or refuse to render such account, and to pay the balance that may be due thereon, or to make such return, he shall forfeit a sum of fifty dollars.

Art. 566. It is hereby made the duty of the treasurer to cause prosecutions to be commenced for the offences against this chapter; and also, to file petitions in a court of competent jurisdiction for an account of fines that may have been received; and in such suits the defendants shall pay costs, although it may appear that no money was due to the state; unless the defendant can show, that he had made the returns, required by this chapter, before the commencement of the suit.

Art. 567. Suspicion of guilt sometimes subjects the innocent to the vexatious expense and privation of liberty incident to the measures

preparatory to the trial, by which their innocence is ascertained. Jus tice requires that such persons should be compensated by the public, because the loss and inconvenience was caused by its officers, and in attempting to secure its peace and safety. To do full justice in the few cases where it will be found due, would expose the treasury to petitious demand in so many others, that the law can only give relief in such a manner as to aid the more needy class of sufferers, while it offers no temptation to fraudulent combinations:

Art. 568. Therefore, whenever the judge who, before trial, shall discharge a person who has been committed, or bailed, for any offenceor whenever the jury, who shall acquit any defendant-shall certify, that he did not, by any improper conduct, give reasonable ground for suspicion that he had committed the offence, he shall be entitled to such compensation for the losses he has sustained by reason of the prosecution, as the judge shall think reasonable; but such compensation shall in no case exceed an amount of emoluments which he might have made during the time that he was confined, or necessarily employed in his defence, to be ascertained according to the following circumstances: 1. If the defendant have no trade or profession, the compensation shall be calculated according to the wages of day-labourers.

2. If he be a mechanic, the average rate of wages for hired workmen of his trade shall be the measure, without any regard to the particular skill of the defendant.

3. If the defendant pursue any other calling or profession, the compensation shall not exceed twice the amount which could be allowed to a mechanic.

Art. 569. The sum allowed shall be paid by the treasurer out of the compensation fund, on the judge's warrant, countersigned by the clerk of the court, to the person in whose favour the allowance is made.

Art. 570. In such cases the acquittal shall always be published, and the expenses paid by a similar draft on the same fund.

GENERAL PROVISIONS.

Art. 571. No omission of any matter of form, prescribed by this system, nor any departure from the forms given for proceeding under it, shall render the proceeding void, unless it be so specially provi ded; or, unless the departure from the form has caused some injury to the party complaining of it.

Art. 572. Where a particular provision is made in any part of this system, contrary to a general provision, the particular provision must be observed.

Art. 573. All offences which are created by the Code of Procedure, or the Code of Reform and Prison Discipline, shall be tried in the same manner with those which are created by the Code of Crimes and Punishments.

Art. 574. Whenever a notice or interval of a certain number of days is directed to be given or to elapse, three whole days, exclusive of the two terms referred to, must intervene, unless the contrary be expressed.

CONTAINING THE FORMS TO BE USED IN ALL THE JUDICIAL PROCEEDINGS PRESCRIBED OR AUTHORIZED BY THIS CODE.

TITLE I.

OF THE FORMS TO BE USED IN THE PROCEEDINGS AUTHORIZED BY THE FIRST BOOK, TITLE FIRST, FOR THE PREVENTION OF OFFENCES..

CHAPTER I.

General provisions.

Art. 575. Where the forms given in this book are filled up, the parts within brackets are to be changed according to the circumstances; the real names are to be substituted for the letters used to represent them in the forms, and the real dates for the blanks or the fictitious dates used in the forms.

Art. 576. The certificate of the attestation of the magistrate to affidavits, the seals to writs, and the signatures of parties, clerks and magistrates, are omitted in most of these forms. The cases in which they are necessary, in practice, are either declared by the law on the subject, or result from the nature of the instrument.

Art. 577. Where the beginning or conclusion of any form has been given before, it is omitted in the subsequent forms of the same nature. The part of the form omitted in the beginning of any precedent, is to be supplied by copying the formal part that had before been given, down to the recurrence of the word with which the new form begins. Thus, in the precedents of an indictment, the formal part must be copied in each case down to the word "did," with which word some of the forms, given for the different officers, begin in the subsequent precedents; or to the word " that," with which others begin. The formal conclusion is supplied by "&c."