3823. [R. S. 1890.] The banking institutions of the State of Louisiana are hereby authorized to discount paper at the rate of eight per cent. per annum interest.

INTERNAL IMPROVEMENT FUND.

3824. [R. S. 3021.] A fund shall be created, to be denominated "The Internal Improvement Fund," to be applied exclusively to the purpose of rendering navigable and uniting by canals the principal water courses, and of more intimately connecting by public highways the different parts of the State.

3825. [R. S. 3022.] This fund shall consist of the unexpended balance in the treasury, together with all that may hereafter be received from the proceeds of the public lands granted to this State by Act of Congress, approved September the fourth, eighteen hundred and forty-one.

JUDICIAL EXPENSE FUND.

Number and Salaries of Payees Out of Fund to be Regulated by Judges.

3826. [Sec. 1, Act 225, 1910, p. 371.] After all the bonds and Comptroller's certificates issued under the provisions of Article 156 of the Constitution shall have been retired, paid and canceled, that the salaries and expenses of all the clerks and employees, of the Clerk of the Civil District Court, Register of Conveyances and Recorder of Mortgages for the Parish of Orleans, and of the Clerks of the City Courts of the City of New Orleans shall be fixed and regulated by the Judges of the Civil District Court of the Parish of Orleans sitting en banc, and the said Judges shall have the power and authority to increase the number of clerks now employed in the said offices if they deem in their judgment that said increase is necessary and they are further authorized to rearrange and readjust the salaries of all the clerks and employees of the said offices.

3827. [Sec. 2.] This Act shall go into effect when all the bonds and the Comptroller's certificates authorized to be issued by Article 156 of the Constitution have been paid, retired and canceled.

JUDICIARY DEPARTMENT.

Qualifications.

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE.

3828. [Sec. 1, Act 158, 1898, p. 293.] In addition to the qualifications prescribed by Article 126, of the Constitution, Justices of the Peace shall be able to read and write the English. language correctly and be citizens of good moral character and standing in the community in which they are elected or appointed to serve.

3829. [Sec. 2.] No commission shall hereafter be issued to any person as Justice of the Peace until he shall have filed in the office of the Governor or Secretary of State a certificate signed by the Board of School Examiners of his parish showing that he possesses all of the qualifications required of him by law. Provided, that should any person elected to the office of Justice of the Peace fail to furnish such certificate within sixty days after the election, the office shall be deemed vacant and the Governor shall have power to fill same by appointment for the remainder of the term, and provided further, that any person who has heretofore been elected to the office of Justice of the Peace and has not filed said certificate and who shall fail to file same within thirty days after the promulgation of this act shall be deemed as coming under the provisions hereof. (Amd. Act 39, 1904, p. 76.)

Number.

3830. [R. S. 2045.] As many justices of the peace shall be elected in and for each ward in the several parishes by the qualified voters residents of the ward, as the people of each of the wards respectively are now entitled by law to elect members of the police jury, but in those wards in which there is an incorporated town, or a town containing three hundred inhabitants, there shall be elected two justices of the peace.

Enter Upon Office, When.

3831.

[R. S. 2046.]

[R. S. 2046.] The returns from each ward shall be made according to law, and the Governor shall issue commissions to the persons elected as justices of the peace, and the justices shall enter upon the discharge of their duties as soon as they shall have received their commissions and taken the oaths

required by the constitution and laws, and shall remain in office until their successors shall have been elected and qualified.

May Celebrate Marriages.

3832. [R. S. 2048.] They may celebrate marriages within their respective parishes.

May Appoint Constables pro Tem.

3833. [R. S. 2051.] The justices of this State shall have power to appoint constables pro tempore whenever there shall be no such officer elected for their respective districts, in the manner directed by law.

May Employ Sheriff.

3834. [R. S. 2096.] The justices of the peace throughout this State are authorized to employ either the sheriff or his deputy to execute all orders, citations, summons, seizures and writs, as well in civil as criminal cases.

3835. [Sec. 1, Act 164, 1900, p. 248.] In case of the inability or refusal to act on the part of the constable because of relationship, sickness or from other causes in civil suits, and in case of the execution of conservatory writs in civil suits, the justices of the peace throughout the State are authorized to employ either the sheriff or his deputy or to appoint a special deputy constable to execute all orders, citations, summonses, seizures and writs.

3836. [Sec. 2.] When there is a constable not disqualified to act because of relationship, or unable to act on account of sickness or other cause, and who is willing to act, and who is personally present when conservatory writs are sued out, then and in these cases, the justice of the peace for whose ward said constable shall have been elected or appointed and qualified, shall employ said constable to the exclusion of the sheriff or his deputy, or a special deputy constable, to execute all orders, citations, summonses, seizures and writs in civil cases, and in such cases services made by other than said constable shall be void and of no effect.

Not to Hold Court Where Liquor Sold.

3837. [Sec. 1, Act 9, 1892, p. 8.] It shall be unlawful for justices of the peace throughout the State, to hold sessions of

their court in any building used wholly or in part as a barroom or place where spirituous liquors are offered for sale.

Penalty.

3838. [Sec. 2.] Any violation of this act shall constitute a misdemeanor, and upon conviction punished by fine and imprisonment, at the discretion of the court.

Take Cognizance of Violation of Levee Laws.

3839. [R. S. 2053.] The several justices of the peace throughout the State (except in the incorporated cities), are hereby authorized and empowered to take cognizance of and exercise jurisdiction over all infractions of the levee laws, and municipal ordinances and regulations of the respective parishes where the penalty imposed in the law or ordinance that is alleged to be contravened, does not exceed one hundred dollars.

Under Con. 126 Justices of the Peace have no trial jurisdiction in criminal cases, St. Landry vs. Bloch, 45 A. 1090; Board vs. Justice, 45 A. 205; State ex rel Long vs. Justice, 44 A. 949; Police Jury vs. Orleans, 34 A. 646.

May Act as Coroner.

3840. [R. S. 2056.] Justices of the peace are empowered to perform the duties of the coroner, in case of there being none, or of his absence or inability to attend.

Leave of Absence.

3841. [R. S. 2092.]

Any of the justices may have leave of absence during the month of August of each year; provided they procure another justice of the peace to act in their place.

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE, FIRST AND SECOND WARDS, ST. LANDRY.

3842. [R. S. 2113.] The justices of the peace of the First and Second Wards of the parish of St. Landry, said wards embracing the towns of Washington and Opelousas, are hereby vested with the same power and authority as is exercised by the recorders in the city of New Orleans, in all criminal matters arising within the parish.

Con. 126 makes this Section largely inoperative.

3843. [R. S. 2115.] All persons imprisoned under the sentence of said justices and by virtue of the powers herein granted shall be confined in the parish prison.

3844. [R. S. 2116.] All fines collected by said justices by virtue of the powers herein granted shall be by them paid into the parish treasury monthly.

3845. [R. S. 2117.] All persons confined in the parish prison under the provisions of this act, shall, during the term of their sentence, be liable to work upon the public works, roads and thoroughfares within the parish, under such rules and regulations as the police jury thereof shall make.

JUSTICE OF THE PEACE, FIRST WARD, PARISH OF ST. BERNARD.

Vested With Criminal Jurisdiction in Certain Cases.

3846. [Sec. 1, Act 203, 1910, p. 338.] The Justice of the Peace of the First Ward of the Parish of St. Bernard shall have and exercise, and he is hereby given the power and authority to exercise original criminal jurisdiction over all misdemeanors committed in said Ward, which, under the laws of this State, may be tried without a Jury. The procedures in said Court and in such cases are to be governed by the same laws and rules governing the trial of cases in the District Court for the Parish of St. Bernard, with the right of appeal to the District Courts of said Parish in all cases not appealable to the Supreme Court; provided, that nothing herein shall deprive the said Justice of the Peace of examining as a committing Magistrate all misdemeanors, and that the authority of the said Justice of the Peace to hear and determine such causes shall arise only upon the filing of an information by the District Attorney, as is now provided for in the District Court, and provided further that nothing herein shall be construed as depriving the District Court of the Parish of St. Bernard of exercising original jurisdiction in all such cases should the District Attorney, in his discretion, prefer to file an information before the said District Court.

Is this section constitutional? Article 126 provides, "The General Assembly may by general or special laws invest justices of the peace in general or in any particular parish or parishes with criminal jurisdiction over misdemeanors to be tried with a jury composed of not more than five nor less than three persons, in such manner as may be provided by law." It is evident that the Legislature had in mind Art. 96, but that Article does not apply.

Qualifications.

3847. [Sec. 2.] The Justice of the Peace of the First Ward of the Parish of St. Bernard, must be fairly well versed in