Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 4.djvu/209



the time and place of such sale, shall be given, by advertising in some newspaper published in the town of Alexandria, for at least six months, where the property is assessed to persons residing out of the United States; three months, where the property is assessed to persons residing within the United States, but without the District of Columbia: and six weeks, when the property is assessed to persons residing within the District of Columbia; in which notice shall be stated, the street or streets, on which such lots lie, the streets by which the square in which they lie is bounded: the name of the person or persons to whom they have been last assessed, on the books of the assessors, and the amount of the taxes, assessments, or charges, due thereon: And provided, further, That the purchaser or purchasers shall not be obliged to pay, at the time of such sale, more than the taxes, assessments, or charges due, and the expenses of sale; and that, if, within two years from the day of sale, the proprietor or proprietors of such lots, his, her, or their heirs, representatives, or agents, shall repay to such purchaser, or to the mayor, the money paid for such taxes, assessments, or charges and expenses, as aforesaid, with ten per centum per annum, as interest thereon, or make a tender of the same, he or she shall be re-instated in his, her, or their original title; but if no tender be made, within two years next after such sale, then the purchaser shall pay the balance of the purchase money of such lot or lots, into the treasury of the common council, where it shall remain, subject to the order of the proprietor or proprietors, or his or their legal representatives; and the purchaser, on the payment of the whole amount of the purchase money, shall receive a title to the said lot or lots, in fee simple, from the mayor, under his hand, and the seal of his office, which shall be deemed good and valid in law and equity.

. And be it further enacted, That the common council of Alexandria shall have power to provide for the establishment, maintenance, and superintendence of public schools, and for registering of births, marriages, and deaths, and shall have power to preserve the navigation of the Potomac river, within their jurisdiction; to erect, repair, and regulate public wharves, deepen docks and basins, and to limit the extension of private wharves, into the harbour; to authorize, with the approbation of the President of the United States, the drawing of lotteries, for effecting any important improvement in and to the town, which the ordinary funds and revenue thereof will not accomplish; to restrain and prohibit the drawing of other lotteries, the keeping of tippling houses, and all kinds of gaming; to provide for the licensing, taxing, and regulating auctions, theatrical and public shows and amusements, and venders of lottery tickets; to appoint gaugers of casks, inspectors of domestic spirits, measurers and inspectors of wood, lumber and bark, grain, coal, beef, pork, fish, butter, and lard; weighers of hay, fodder, and straw; and to regulate, by law, the inspection, measurement, and weighing of the articles aforesaid; to regulate party, and other walls and fences, and to determine by whom they shall be kept in repair; to direct in what part of the town buildings of wood shall not be erected, and to regulate the size of bricks to be made or used, and shall have power to restrain and prohibit the nightly, and other disorderly meeting of slaves, free negroes or mulattoes, and to punish such slaves, by whipping, not exceeding forty stripes, or, at the option of the owner of such slaves, by fine or confinement to labour, not exceeding three months for every one offence; and to punish such free negroes or mulattoes for such offences, by fixed penalties, not exceeding twenty dollars for one offence; and in case of the failure of such free negro or mulatto to pay or satisfy such penalty and costs, to cause such free negro or mulatto to be confined to labour for any time, not exceeding six months for any one offence; to cause and provide for the removal of all such paupers, vagrants, and other persons, as may not be legally entitled to residence within the said corporation; to punish, by