term of twenty days from the time the right thereof accrued, and the same rules shall govern, and the same process shall be had, that is prescribed for similar liens against boats. SEC. 7. Any person desiring to take the benefit of this act shall file with any judge, or clerk of any court, or justice of the peace having jurisdiction, a complaint in writing, duly verified by the plaintiff, or his agent or attorney, which complaint shall show that the plaintiff is entitled to the benefit of this act, whereupon, such judge, clerk or justice of the peace, shall issue his warrant to the proper officer, commanding him to seize the boat, its tackling, apparel, furniture and appendages, and detain the same until released by due course of law. SEC. 8. The complaint shall describe the boat by name as defendant, but, if it have no name, then by such description as will enable the officer attaching to seize the proper property. SEC. 9. The usual summons shall be issued, directed to the boat by name, or to the property to be attached, if no name appear, and be served upon the master, owner, clerk, agent or consignee thereof, and if none of them can be found, by posting up a copy in some conspicuous part of the boat, or property to be attached. The warrant shall be served according to the directions it contains. SEC. 10. Any sheriff, constable or city marshal, or marshal of the territory, may serve the warrant and summons above mentioned, whether the same issue from the office of clerk, or from a judge or justice of the peace, and any clerk, judge or justice may, in his discretion, appoint any suitable person to serve such summons and warrant, who shall have all the power of a sheriff in the premises. SEC. 11. Any master, agent, clerk, consignee, or other person, interested in the boat, may appear by himself, his agent or attorney, for the defendant, and conduct the defense of the suit and no continuance shall be granted to the plaintiff while the boat is in custody. SEC. 12. The boat may be discharged at any time before final judgment, by giving bonds with at least two sureties, to be approved by the officers serving the warrant, or by the clerk, judge or justice who issued it, in a penalty double the plaintiff's demand and costs, conditioned, that the obligors will pay the amount found due to the plaintiff with costs. SEC. 13. If judgment be rendered against the boat, before it is discharged, as provided in the last section, execution shall issue against it, together with its apparel, tackling, furniture and appendages. SEC. 14. The officer may sell any of the furniture and appendages of the boat, if by doing so, he can satisfy the demand; if he sell the boat itself, he must sell it to the bidder who will advance the amount necessary to satisfy the execution for the lowest fractional share of the boat, unless the person appearing for the boat, require a different and equally convenient mode of sale. SEC. 15. If a fractional share of the boat be thus sold, the purchaser shall hold such share or interest jointly with the owners. SEC. 16. Nothing herein contained shall affect the right of a plaintiff to sue in the same manner as though this act had not been enacted. SEC. 17. It shall be sufficient for the plaintiff to allege in his complaint or affidavit that the services were rendered or material furnished the boat by its name. SEC. 18. This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Approved January 13, 1869. AN ACT to provide for the Exemption of Homesteads from forced sale upon Execution or other final process. Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana: SECTION 1. A homestead, consisting of any quantity of land, not exceeding eighty acres, used for agricultural purposes, and the dwelling house thereon and its appurtenances, to be selected by the owner thereof, and not included in any town plot or city, or village, or, instead thereof, at the option of the owner, a quantity of land, not exceeding in amount one-fourth of an acre, being within a town plot or city or village, and the dwelling house thereon, and its appurtenances, owned and occupied by any resident of this territory, shall not be subject to forced sale on execution or any other final process from a court: Provided, Such homestead shall not exceed in value the sum of two thousand five hundred dollars. SEC. 2. Such exemption shall not affect any laborers' or mechanics' lien, or extend to any mortgage thereon, lawfully obtained, but such mortgage or other alienation of such homestead by the owner thereof, if a married man, shall be void unless the wife join in the execution of the conveyance thereof; and nothing contained in this act shall be so construed as to affect any existing debt or debts contracted in this territory prior to the passage of this act. SEC. 3. Whenever a levy shall be made upon the lands or tenements of a householder whose homestead has not been selected and set apart by metes and bounds, such householder may notify the officer, at the time of making such levy, of what he regards as his homestead, with a description thereof, within the limits above prescribed, and the remainder alone shall be subject to sale under such levy. SEC. 4. If the plaintiff in execution shall be dissatisfied with the quantity of land selected and set apart as aforesaid, the officer making such levy shall cause the same to be surveyed, beginning at a point to be designated by the owner, and set off in a compact form, including the dwelling house and its appurtenances, to the amount specified in the first section of this act, and the expense of such survey shall be chargeable on the execution, and collected thereupon, if it shall appear, after such survey, that the owner of such land did not correctly state his metes and bounds, otherwise the expense of such survey shall be borne by the person directing the same. SEC. 5. Any person owning and occupying any dwelling house on land not his own, which land he shall be rightfully in possession of by lease or otherwise, and claiming such house as his homestead, shall be entitled to the exemption of such house. SEC. 6. Real estate exempt from forced sale on execution or other final process, as the homestead of a family, shall likewise, after the death of the owner thereof, be exempt from the payment of his debts, in all cases in which any infant children of the said owner shall survive him, and no executor or administrator shall have a right to the possession of any real estate so exempted, or to the rents or profits of the same. SEC. 7. The owner of a homestead may remove therefrom, or sell and convey the same, and such removal or sale and conveyance shall not render such homestead subject or liable to forced sale, on execution or other final process, issued against such owner, nor shall any judgment or decree of a court be a lien on such homestead, for any purpose whatever: Provided, That this act shall not be so construed as to, in any manner, relate to judgments or decrees rendered on the foreclosure of mortgages, either equitable or legal. SEC. 8. On the death of the owner of such homestead, the same shall descend to his widow, and she shall take and hold the same during her natural life, freed from the incumbrance of all judgments and claims against the deceased or his estate except mortgages lawfully executed thereon. SEC. 9. That the provisions of this act shall only apply to married men or the head of a family. SEC. 10. This act to take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Approved January 7, 1869. AN ACT authorizing County Clerks to administer Oaths, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana: SECTION 1. That county clerks and ex officio county recorders of each county of the territory of Montana, be and are hereby authorized to administer legal oaths, and take such acknowledgments to any instrument of writing now required to be acknowledged by any law of this territory. SEC. 2. its passage. This act to take effect and be in force from and after Approved January 6, 1869. AN ACT to amend an Act entitled "An Act relating to the discovery and possessory right of Placer Mines," approved December 11, 1867. Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana: SECTION 1. That the act entitled "An Act relating to the discovery and possessory right of placer mines," approved December 11, 1867, so far as the same applies to the counties of Deer Lodge and Missoula, be and the same is hereby repealed. SEC. 2. This act to take effect from and after its passage. AN ACT providing for the admission of Attorneys before the Supreme Court of the Territory of Montana. Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana : SECTION 1. All attorneys who have been admitted to practice before the district courts of the territory of Montana, may, upon motion, and proof of good moral character, be admitted as attor neys and counselors at law, to practice in the supreme court of the territory of Montana. SEC. 2. All acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act are hereby repealed. SEC. 3. This act shall take effect and be in force from and after its passage. Approved December 15, 1868. AN ACT to amend an Act entitled "An Act relative to the Pre-emption of Town Sites upon Public Lands, and the disposal of Trusts created thereby," approved December 12, 1867. Be it enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Montana: SECTION 1. That section one of said act be amended so as to read as follows: "SECTION 1. That whenever the citizens of any town located, or that may hereafter be located, upon |