law be required to give secnrity, shall exercise any of the duties of his trust or office, until the said security shall have been furnished and recorded in the manner [prescribed by the act of 26 March, 1813, providing for the recording of certain acts. therein specified,] under penalty not to exceed one thousand dollars, to be recovered before any court of competent jurisdiction, to the use of the state; and shall moreover forfeit the office or trust to which he may have been appointed.20

20 The act of 6 February, 1815, 2 D. 288, provides—

Section 1. That the governor shall deliver no commission to any person bound by law to furnish a security, to be by him approved in consequence of the office to which he shall have been appointed, until the said person shall have given the bond required from him, with good and sufficient security, as also a certificate annexed to the said bond, of the recorder of inortgages, or of the parish judges, as the case may be, stating that the said bond has been recorded agreeably to the first section of the act to which this is a supplement. [of 26 March, 1813, 1 D. 287.]

Section 2. In all cases when public officers other than the governor shall be empowered to approve the bonds, it shall be the duty of the governor to send to them the commissions of all persons bound by law to furnish a security in consequence of the office to which they shall have been appointed, which commissions shall not be delivered until the said persons shall have furnished the bond required from them, with good and sufficient security, as also the certificate stating that the said bonds have been duly recorded. The commission of sheriffs shall be addressed to the judges of their respective parishes, to be delivered to the said sheriffs, after they shall have fulfilled the above conditions. It shall be the duty of the person who shall have received the above bonds, to deposite them, or cause them to be deposited, in the hands of the persons designated by law to that effect.

Section 3. It shall be the duty of the persons empowered to receive in deposit, in their respective offices, the above bonds, to furnish within ten days after the said bonds shall have been delivered, the attorney general or district attorneys, as the case may be, with a list of the names of all such persons as shall have neglected or refused to give the certificate required by the preceding sections.

Section 5. All persons who shall deliver the above commissions before they shall have received the bonds and certificate above mentioned, or who shall neglect or refuse to transmit their list required by the third section of the present act, or who shall not cause to be registered the above bonds, within the delay mentioned in the preceding sections, shall forfeit for each of these offences, and pay the sum of one hundred dollars, for the use of the state, to be recovered before any competent tribunal; and said persons shall besides be re

ART. XVII. If the treasurer [of the state] divert or misapply any of the money paid into the treasury for public use, contrary to the direction of any act or acts of assembly, by virtue of which the same was raised or appropriated, the said treasurer, for such offence, shall forfeit his office, and be incapable of holding any office of trust or profit whatsoever in this [state]; and, moreover, shall be liable to pay double the value of any sum or sums so diverted or misapplied, to be recovered, for the public use, by motion of the attorney-general, in any court of record: provided, ten days notice be given, in writing, of such motion, to the treasurer so offending.”

ART. XVIII.23 Whenever any member of any police jury, on being duly notified, shall fail to attend at any meeting of said jury, or who having attended, shall absent himself from said meeting, previous to the legal separation thereof, without a reasonable excuse, he shall forfeit and pay to the treasury of the parish the sum of thirty dollars, and the parish judges of the different parishes are hereby authorized and empowered to impose and collect by execution, the said fine in a summary way.24

sponsible towards the state, or any person injured, for all damages that may result from such neglect.

217, act 31 March, 1808, 2 D. 495.

22 The 25th section of the act of 20 February, 1817, 2 D. 431, provides, “that all accountables of public funds of any kind, and all unfaithful depositories, shall be deprived of the benefit of all acts passed for the relief of insolvent debtors, and shall remain imprisoned until they shall have paid the funds confided to their care in the aforesaid capacity."

See § 6, act of 16 January, 1817, 1 D. 87, for provision in case of defalcation of the collector and treasurer of the town of Baton Rouge.

232, act 13 March, 1818, 2 D. 247.

24 An act of 30 January, 1834, relating to the police jury of the parish of Jefferson provides p. 19

Section 12. That any person duly qualified and elected who shall refuse to serve as a member of the said police jury, shall forfeit and pay the sum of fifty dollars, for the benefit of the Orphan Boys' Asylum, established in the parish of Jefferson, unless such person has served during the preceding year, in the said capacity.

An act of the 8 March, 1841, provides p. 103

Section 2. That the parish judge of the parish of Concordia shall have power

25

ART. XIX. Whenever the parish judge of any parish, shall fail or neglect to perform any of the duties imposed on him relative to police juries, without a reasonable excuse, he shall forfeit and pay for each failure as aforesaid, the sum of one hundred dollars into the treasury of his parish, to be recovered by motion before the district court, by the district attorney, three days notice of which motion shall be given said. judge, and it is hereby made the duty of the district attorneys throughout the state, diligently to inquire whether the said parish judges shall have performed their duties, and proceed as the case may require.26

ART. XX. If any person appointed an administrator, or elected treasurer of any board of administrators of parish schools, shall refuse to accept said appointment, unless excused by those who have appointed him, or shall neglect to perform the duties imposed on him by [the act of 14th March, 1827,

to summon and convene the members of the police jury of said parish upon the written application of six freeholders of said parish, whenever in his discretion he may consider it necessary. And any member of the police jury who shall fail or neglect to obey said summons, shall forfeit and pay to the parish a fine of twenty dollars for each day he shall fail or neglect to attend said called meeting or any regular meeting, after being properly summoned and notified thereof, which fine shall be ordered and assessed by the members of the said police jury in attendance not less than three, which fines shall be reported to the parish judge by the clerk of the police jury, and it shall be the duty of the said judge to issue execution for the collection of the same, provided, that such defaulting member may have said fine remitted upon showing to the satisfaction of the said police jury that his absence was caused by sickness or some other unavoidable cause of detention.

25 § 3, act 13 March, 1818, 2 D. 248.

26 An act of 23 January, 1827, 2 D. 258, determining the qualifications requisite to have the right of voting for members of the police juries of the parishes of St. Mary, St. Martin and Lafayette, provides, section 3, that

"Any magistrate or other officer, presiding at an election, who will knowingly receive the vote of an individual not entitled to vote, conformably to the first section, shall be liable to be dismissed from office, or to pay a fine of five hun. dred dollars, at the suit of the prosecuting attorney, for the parish wherein the penalty shall be incurred."

27 § 10, act 14 March, 1827, 2 D. 358.

providing for the support and administration of parish schools], it shall be the duty of the prosecuting attorney of the district in which the parish in which he resides is situated, to institute against him a suit, before any competent court in said parish, for the recovery of a fine which shall not exceed the sum of fifty dollars, nor be less than twenty-five dollars; and such fines shall be paid into the treasury of the board of administrators of said parish: provided, that in the parishes in the first judicial district, the treasurer of the several boards of administrators be authorized to prosecute for the recovery of said fines.

28

ART. XXI. It shall be the duty of the judges of the several district courts of this state, at least once in every year, to charge their grand juries faithfully to inquire into the application of all moneys drawn from the state by the trustees [of the parish schools], and it shall be the duty of the said trustees to lay before the grand juries of their respective parishes, whenever required so to do, all their accounts, vouchers and proceedings relative thereto, and in case of refusal so to do, or in case of embezzlement, or the appropriation of such money to any other purpose than is contemplated by [law], it shall be the duty of the said grand juries to present the same to the court, showing the matters and persons complained of, upon which the district attorney of said parish shall file an information against the said individual, and proceed on the same to final judgment and recovery of the money embezzled or misappropriated, and all persons who shall be found guilty upon said proceeding, of either embezzling or misappropriating the public money, shall be ever after disqualified from holding or exercising the functions of trustee under this act.29

ART. XXII.30 All visitors, regents, trustees or directors

288, act 16 February, 1821, 2 D. 352.

29 See note 22, ante.

304, act 1 April, 1833, p. 142.

of colleges or academies, the regents of the central and primary schools in the city of New Orleans, the administrators of parish schools throughout the state, and all other bodies corporate or judicial, or persons, who, by the existing laws are bound to make reports of the state of the several colleges or academies, the central and primary schools, and parish schools generally, to the legislature, shall in future make their reports to the secretary of state, as superintendant of public education, on or before the thirty-first day of December, in each and every year, under the penalty of a fine of not less than fifty dollars, nor more than two hundred dollars, for each and every person so failing, who may be proceeded against by indictment or information, in any court of competent jurisdiction.31

ART. XXIII.32 In case the [surveyor-general or parish. surveyors] should demand or receive for any of the services mentioned in the provisions of [the act of 18 March, 1818, creating a surveyor-general and parish surveyors], any other fees than those [therein] fixed and established, or if the said surveyors should demand or receive any of the said fees, without having performed the services for which they shall have demanded and received them, and if the said surveyors should demand or receive any other or higher fees than those allowed to them by [the said] act, which shall be proved by the receipt of such surveyor, and under his oath upon the bible,

31 The 5th section of this act provides

That the aforesaid superintendant shall, on or before the first Monday in the month of March, in each and every year, give information to the attorneygeneral and several district attorneys, of the failure of any or all of the aforesaid officers or persons, who shall reside in their different districts, and who have failed to make the returns and reports required, and it shall be the duty of the said attorney-general and district attorneys, to lay the said information before the grand jury of the parish, at the next court having competent jurisdiction, and prosecute the delinquents in the manner directed by law.-And said attorney-general or district attorneys, shall in each case, they or any of them, shall prosecute to a conviction, be entitled to a fee of twenty-five dollars, to be taxed in the costs and paid by the party convicted,

32 § 12, act 18 March, 1818, 2 D. 444.