exercise of the jurisdiction of a magistrate, where it is necessary to preserve the peace, or, in a criminal case, to arrest, commit or discharge a person charged with an offence.

§ 7. A court of record has power:

1. To issue a subpoena, requiring the attendance of a person found in the State, to testify in a cause pending in that court; subject, however, to the limitations, prescribed by law, with respect to the portion of the State, in which the process of a local court of record may be served.

2. To administer an oath to a witness, in the exercise of the powers and duties of the court.

3. To devise and make new process and forms of proceedings, necessary to carry into effect the powers and jurisdiction possessed by it.

§ 8. A court of record has power to punish for a criminal contempt, a person guilty of either of the following acts, and no others:

1. Disorderly, contemptuous, or insolent behaviour, committed during its sitting, in its immediate view and presence, and directly tending to inter rupt its proceedings, or to impair the respect due to its authority.

2. Breach of the peace, noise, or other disturbance, directly tending to interrupt its proceedings.

3. Wilful disobedience to its lawful mandate.

4. Resistance wilfully offered to its lawful mandate.

5. Contumacious and unlawful refusal to be sworn as a witness; or, after being sworn, to answer any legal and proper interrogatory.

6. Publication of a false, or grossly inaccurate report of its proceedings. But a court cannot punish as a contempt, the publication of a true, full, and fair report of a trial, argument, decision, or other proceeding therein.

9. Punishment for a contempt, specified in the last section, may be by fine, not exceeding two hundred and fifty dollars, or by imprisonment, not exceeding thirty days, in the jail of the county where the court is sitting, or both, in the discretion of the court. Where a person is committed to jail, for the non-payment of such a fine, he must be discharged at the expiration of thirty days; but where he is also committed for a definite time, the thirty days must be computed from the expiration of the definite time.

§ 10. Such a contempt, committed in the immediate view and presence of the court, may be punished summarily; when not so committed, the party charged must be notified of the accusation, and have a reasonable time to make a defence.

§ 11. Where a person is committed for such a contempt, the particular circumstances of his offence must be set forth in the mandate of commit

ment.

§ 12. The last four sections do not extend to a special proceeding to punish a person, in a case specified in section fourteen of this act.

§ 13. Punishment for a contempt, as prescribed in this article, does not bar an indictment for the same offence; but where a person who has been so punished is convicted on such an indictment, the court, in sentencing him, must take into consideration the previous punishment.

§14. A court of record has power to punish, by fine and imprisonment, or either, a neglect or violation of duty, or other misconduct, by which a right or remedy of a party to a civil action or special proceeding, pending in the court may be defeated, impaired, impeded, or prejudiced, in either of the following cases:

1. An attorney, counsellor, clerk, sheriff, coroner, or other person, in any manner duly selected or appointed to perform a judicial or ministerial service, for a misbehaviour in his office or trust, or for a wilful neglect or violation of duty therein; or for disobedience to a lawful mandate of the court, or of a judge thereof, or of an officer authorized to perform the duties of such a judge.

2. A party to the action or special proceeding, for putting in fictitious bail or a fictitious surety, or for any deceit or abuse of a mandate or proceeding of the court.

3. A party to the action or special proceeding, an attorney, counsellor, or other person, for the non-payment of a sum of money, ordered or adjudged by the court to be paid, in a case where by law execution cannot be awarded for the collection of such sum; or for any other disobedience to a lawful mandate of the court.

4. A person, for assuming to be an attorney or counsellor, or other officer of the court, and acting as such without authority; for rescuing any property or person in the custody of an ofhcer, by virtue of a mandate of the court; for unlawfully detaining, or fraudulently and wilfully preventing, or disabling from attending or testifying, a witness, or a party to the action or special proceeding, while going to, wasining at, or returning from, the sitting where it is noticed for trial or hearing; and for any other unlawful interference with the proceedings therein.

5. A person subpoenaed as a witness, for refusing or neglecting to obey the subpoena, or to attend, or to be sworn, or to answer as a witness.

6. A person duly notified to attend as a juror, at a term of the court, for improperly conversing with a party to an action or special proceeding, to be tried at that term, or with any other person, in relation to the merits of that action or special proceeding: or for receiving a communication from any person, in relation to the merits of such an action or special proceeding, without immediately disclosing the same to the court.

7. An inferior magistrate, or a judge or other officer of an inferior court, for proceeding, contrary to law, in a cause or matter, which has been removed from his jurisdiction to the court inflicting the punishment; or for disobedience to a lawful order or other mandate of the latter court.

8. In any other case, where an attachment or any other proceeding to punish for a contempt, has been usually adopted and practiced in a court of record, to enforce a civil remedy of a party to an action or special proceeding in that court, or to protect the right of a party.

§ 15. [am'd 1877.] But a person shall not be arrested or imprisoned, for the non-payment of costs, awarded otherwise than by a final judgment, or a final order, made in a special proceeding instituted by state writ, except where an attorney, counsellor, or other officer of the court, is ordered to pay costs for misconduct as such, or a witness is ordered to pay costs on an attachment for non-attendance.

§ 16. Except in a case where it is otherwise specially prescribed by law, a person shall not be arrested or imprisoned for disobedience to a judgment or order, requiring the payment of money due upon a contract, express or implied, or as damages for non-performance of a contract.

17. [am'd 1877.] The general term justices of the supreme court, and the chief judges of the superior city courts, must meet in convention, at the capitol, in the city of Albany, on the first Wednesday of October, 1877, and every second year thereafter. The convention must establish rules of practice, not inconsistent with this act, which shall be binding upon

all courts of record, except the court for the trial of impeachments and the court of appeals. A majority of the members of the convention constitute a quorum. The rules thus established are styled in this act, "the general rules of practice."

§ 18. A rule thus established, or a general rule or order of the court of appeals, does not take effect, until it has been published in the newspaper published at Albany, in which legal notices are required by law to be published, once in each week for three successive weeks.

§ 19. The supreme court, a superior city court, or a county court may, from time to time, by order, require the clerk to cause to be printed for the use of the members and officers thereof, the necessary copies of the calendar of causes, prepared for a term of the court, or, in the supreme court, for the circuit court. But this section does not apply to the city and county of New York.

§ 20. The expense of printing the copies of the calendar for a term, shall be a charge upon the county in which the term is held; and must be audited, allowed, and paid, by the board of supervisors thereof, in like manner as other contingent county charges.

§ 21. A superior city court may, from time to time, by an order made at general term, direct the clerk of the court, and the supreme court, at general term, may, by a like order, direct a county clerk, to destroy any of the following papers, now filed, or hereafter to be filed in his office, which the court deems to have become useless, to wit: pleadings, or copies of pleadings furnished for the use of the court; jury panels; returns of inferior courts, which have been embodied in judgment-records or judgmentrolls; innkeepers' licenses, ten years old; and returns of election district canvassers, twenty years old, which have been copied, pursuant to law, into books preserved in his office. But this provision does not authorize the destruction of a judgment-roll, or a paper incorporated or necessary to be incorporated into a judgment-roll.

§ 22. Except where it is otherwise specially prescribed by law, a writ or other process must be in the name of the people of the State, and each writ, process, record, pleading or other proceeding in a court, or before an officer, must be in the English language, and, unless it is oral, made out on paper or parchment, in a fair, legible character, in words at length, and not abbreviated. But the proper and known names of process, and technical words may be expressed in appropriate language, as now is, and heretofore has been customary; such abbreviations as are now commonly employed in the English language may be used; and numbers may be expressed by Arabic figures, or Roman numerals, in the customary manner.

23. A writ or other process, issued out of a court of record, must be tested, except where it is otherwise specially prescribed by law, in the name of a judge of the court, on any day; must be returnable within the time prescribed by law; or, if no time is prescribed by law, within the time fixed by the court, and therein specified for that purpose; and, when returnable, must, together with the return thereto, be filed with the clerk, unless otherwise specially prescribed by law.

24. A writ or other process, issued out of a court of record, must, before the delivery thereof to an officer to be executed, be subscribed or indorsed with the name of the officer by whom, or by whose direction it was granted, or the attorney for the party, or the person at whose instance it was

issued. A writ or other process thus subscribed or indorsed, is not void or voidable, by reason of having no seal or a wrong seal thereon, or of any mistake or omission in the teste thereof, or in the name of the clerk, unless it was issued by special order of the court.

§ 25. [am'd 1877.] An action or special proceeding, civil or criminal, in a court of record, is not discontinued by a vacancy or change in the judges of the court, or by the re-election or re-appointment of a judge; but it must be continued, heard and determined, by the court, as constituted at the time of the hearing or determination. After a judge is out of office, he may settle a case or exceptions, or make any return of proceedings, had before him while he was in office; and may be compelled so to do, by the court in which the action or special proceeding is pending.

§ 26. [am'd 1890.] In the city and county of New York, and in the county of Kings, a special proceeding instituted before a judge of a court of record, or a proceeding commenced before a judge of the court, out of court, in an action or special proceeding pending in a court of record, may be continued from time to time, before one or more other judges of the same court, with like effect, as if it had been instituted or commenced before the judge who last hears the same.

§ 27. The seal of the court of appeals, and of each other court of record in the State, now in use, shall continue to be the seal of the court in which it is in use; and the seal kept by the county clerk of each county, shall continue to be the seal of the supreme court, of the circuit court, of the court of oyer and terminer, in that county, and, except in the city and county of New York, of the county court and court of sessions, in that county. The seal of the surrogate of each county shall continue to be the seal of the surrogate's court of that county, and must be used as such by an officer, who discharges the duties of the surrogate. A description of each of the seals, specified in this section, must be deposited and recorded in the office of the Secretary of State, unless it has already been done; and must remain of record.

§ 28. The seal kept by a county clerk, as prescribed in the last section, shall continue to be the seal of the county, and must be used by him where he is required to use an official seal.

§ 29. The seal of a court may be affixed, by making an impression directly upon the paper.

30. When the seal of a court is so injured, that it cannot be conven iently used, the court must cause it to be destroyed; and when the seal of a court is lost or destroyed, the court must cause a new seal to be made similar in all respects to the former seal, which shall become the seal of the court. The expense of a new seal for a county clerk, a surrogate's court or a local court in a city, must be paid as part of the contingent expenses of the county or of the court, as the case requires. The expense of a new seal for any other court must be paid from the State treasury,

ARTICLE THIRD.

MISCELLANEOUS PROVISIONS RELATING TO THE SITTINGS OF THE COURTS.

38. Governor may change place for holding courts of record.

39. Such appointment, etc., to be recorded and published.

40. Judge may change place for holding court of record.

41. Actual session may be adjourned to another place.

42. Place for holding courts in the

city of New York, how changed. 48. When court-house is unfit to hold court, another place to be appointed.

44. No action or special proceeding abated, etc., by failure or adjournment of court.

45. Trial once commenced may be continued beyond term.

§ 31. Except where other provision is made therefor by law, the board of supervisors of each county must provide each court of record, appointed to be held therein, with proper and convenient rooms and furniture, together with attendants, fuel, lights, and stationery, suitable and sufficient for the transaction of its business. If the supervisors neglect so to do, the court may order the sheriff to make the requisite provision; and the expense incurred by him in carrying the order into effect, when certified by the court, is a county charge.

§ 32. [am'd 1877.] Strong, spirituous, or fermented liquor, or wine, shall not, on any pretence whatever, be sold within a building established as a court-house for holding courts of record, while such a court is sitting therein.

§ 33. A person violating the last section is guilty of a misdemeanor.

§ 34. A general, special, or trial term of a court of record may be adjourned, from day to day, or to a specified future day, by an entry in the minutes. Jurors may be drawn for, and notified to attend a term so adjourned, and causes may be noticed for trial thereat, as if it was held by original appointment. Any judge of the court may so adjourn a term thereof, in the absence of a sufficient number of judges to hold the term.

§ 35. [am'd 1877.] If a judge, authorized to hold a term of a court, does not come to the place where the term is appointed to be held, before four o'clock in the afternoon of the day so appointed, the sheriff or clerk must then open the term, and forthwith adjourn it to nine o'clock in the morning of the next day. If such a judge attends by four o'clock in the afternoon of the second day, he must open the term; otherwise the sheriff or the clerk must adjourn it without day.

§36. [am'd 1877.] If, before four o'clock of the second day, the sheriff or the clerk receives from a judge, authorized to hold the term, a written direction to adjourn the term to a future day certain, he must adjourn it accordingly, instead of adjourning it as prescribed in the last Bection. The direction must be entered in the minutes as an order,

§37. The parties to an action or special proceeding, pending in a court of record, may, with the consent of the judge who is to try or hear it, withat a jury, stipulate in writing, that it shall be tried or heard and determined, elsewhere than at the court-house. The stipulation must specify the place of trial or hearing, and must be filed in the office of the clerk; and the trial or hearing must be brought on upon the usual notice, unless otherwise provided in the stipulation.

§ 38. If the Governor deems it requisite, by reason of war, pestilence, or other public calamity, or the danger thereof, that the next ensuing term, or the next ensuing adjourned sitting, of the Court of Appeals, or that the next ensuing term of any other court of record, appointed to be held else. here than in the city of New York, should be held at a place, other than that where it is appointed to be held, he may, by proclamation, appoint a