SECTION 1. For the purpose of electing seven representatives to the House of Representatives of the Congress of the United States, the following districts shall be and are hereby established, to be styled and known as districts numbered first, second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh.

SEC. 2. The first district shall be composed of the counties of Alexander, Union, Pulaski, Jackson, Perry, Randolph, Monroe, Washington, St. Clair, Clinton, Bond and Madison.

SEC. 3. The second district of the counties of Johnson, Pope, Hardin, Williamson, Gallatin, Franklin, Hamilton, White, Wabash, Edwards, Wayne, Jefferson, Marion and Massac.

SEC. 4. The third district of the counties of Lawrence, Richland, Crawford, Jasper, Effingham, Fayette, Montgomery, Christian, Shelby, Moultrie, Coles, Clark, Clay, Edgar, Macon, Piatt and De Witt.

SEC. 5. The fourth district of the counties of Lake, McHenry, Boone, Cook, Kane, De Kalb, Du Page, Kendall, Grundy, La Salle, Will, Iroquois, Livingston, McLean, Champaign, Vermilion and Bureau.

SEC. 6. The fifth district of the counties of Greene, Jersey, Calhoun, Pike, Adams, Marquette, Brown, Schuyler, Fulton, Peoria and Macoupin.

SEC. 7. The sixth district of the counties of Jo Daviess, Stephenson, Winnebago, Carroll, Ogle, Lee, Whiteside, Rock Island, Henry, Stark, Mercer, Henderson, Warren, Knox, McDonough and Hancock.

SEC. 8. The seventh district of the counties of Putnam, Marshall, Woodford, Tazewell, Mason, Menard, Cass, Morgan, Scott, Logan and Sangamon.

SEC. 9. One representative to Congress shall be elected from each of the districts above enumerated, once in every two years, recurring from the day of the last election, to-wit, the first Monday of August, eighteen hundred and forty-four, which representatives in Congress shall be elected as provided by law.

APPROVED: March 3, 1845.

CHAPTER XXIV.

CONVEYANCES.

SECTION 1. Livery of seizin shall in no case be necessary for the conveyance of real property; but every deed, mortgage, or other conveyance in writing, signed and sealed by the party making the same, the maker or makers being of full age, sound mind, discovert, at large, and not in duress, shall be sufficient, without livery of seizin, for the giving, granting, selling, mortgaging, leasing or otherwise conveying or transferring any lands, tenements or hereditaments, in this State; so as to all intents and purposes, absolutely and fully to vest in every donee, grantee,

bargainee, mortgagee, lessee or purchaser, all such estate or estates as shall be specified in any such deed, mortgage, lease or other conveyance. Nothing herein contained shall be so construed as to divest or defeat the older or better estate or right of any person or persons, not party to any such deed, mortgage, lease, or other conveyance.

SEC. 2. Every estate, feoffment, gift, grant, deed, mortgage, lease, release, or confirmation of lands, tenements, fents, services or heredit aments made or had, or hereafter to be made or had, by any person or persons, being of full age, sound mind, discovert, at large, and not in duress, to any person or persons; and all recoveries, judgments and executions, had or made, or to be had or made, shall be good and effectual to him, her or them, to whom it is, or shall be so made, had or given, and to all others; to his, her or their use, against the judgment debtor, seller, feoffor, donor, grantor, mortgagor, lessor, releasor or confirmor, and against his, her or their heirs, or heirs claiming the same, only as heir or heirs, and every of them; and against all others having or claiming any title or interest in the same, only to the use of the same judgment debtor, seller, feoffor, donor, grantor, mortgagor, lessor, releasor or confirmor, or his, her, or their said heirs, at the time of the judgment, execution, bargain, sale, mortgage, covenant, lease, release, gift or grant made.

SEC. 3. Where any person or persons stand or be seized, or at any time hereafter shall stand or be seized of, and in any messuages, lands, tenements, rents, services, reversions, remainders, or other hereditaments, to the use, confidence or trust of any other person or persons, or of any body politic, by reason of any bargain, sale, feoffinent, fine, recovery, covenant, contract, agreement, will or otherwise, by any manner of means whatsoever; in every such case, all and every such person or persons, and bodies politic, that have, or hereafter shall have any such use, confidence or trust, in fee simple, for term of life or for years or otherwise, or any use, confidence or trust, in remainder or reversion, shall from thenceforth stand and be seized, deemed and adjudged in lawful seizin, estate and possession of, and in the same messuages, lands, tenements, rents, services, reversions, remainders and hereditaments, with their appurtenances, to all intents, constructions and purposes in law, of, and in such like estates, as they had or shall have in use, confidence or trust, of, or in the same; and that the estate, right, title and possession, that was or shall be in such person or persons, that were, or hereafter shall be seized of any lands, tenements or hereditaments, to the use, confidence, or trust of any such person or persons, or of any body politic, be from henceforth clearly deemed and adjudged to be in him, her or them, that have, or hereafter shall have such use, confidence, or trust, after such quality, manner, form and condition, as they had before, in or to the use, confidence, or trust, that was or shall be in them. SEC. 4. Any person claiming right or title to lands, tenements or hereditaments, although he, she, or they may be out of possession, and notwithstanding there may be an adverse possession thereof, may sell, convey, and transfer his or her interest in and to the same, in as full and complete a manner as if he or she were in the actual possession of the lands and premises intended to be conveyed; and the grantee or grantees shall have the same right of action for the recovery thereof, and shall in all respects derive the same benefit and advantage therefrom, as if the grantor or grantors had been in the actual possession at the time of executing the conveyance. SEC. 5. No estate in joint tenancy, in any lands, tenements or hereditaments, shall be held or claimed under any grant, devise or conveyance whatsover, here

tofore or hereafter made, other than to executors and trustees, unless the premises therein mentioned shall expressly be thereby declared to pass, not in tenancy in common, but in joint tenancy; and every such estate, other than to executors or trustees, (unless otherwise expressly declared as aforesaid,) shall be deemed to be in tenancy in common.

SEC. 6. In cases where, by the common law, any person or persons might hereafter become seized, in fee tail, of any lands, tenements or hereditaments, by virtue of any devise, gift, grant or other conveyance, hereafter to be made, or by any other means whatsoever, such person or persons, instead of being or becoming seized thereof in fee tail, shall be deemed and adjudged to be, and become seized thereof, for his or her natural life only, and the remainder shall pass in fee simple absolute, to the person or persons to whom the estate tail would, on the death of the first grantee, devisee or donee in tail, first pass, according to the course of the common law, by virtue of such devise, gift, grant or conveyance.

SEC. 7. If any person shall sell and convey to another, by deed or conveyance, purporting to convey an estate in fee simple absolute, in any tract of land or real estate, lying and being in this State, not then being possessed of the legal estate or interest therein at the time of the sale and conveyance; but after such sale and conveyance, the vendor shall become possessed of, and confirmed in the legal estate, to the land or real estate so sold and conveyed, it shall be taken and held to be in trust, and for the use of the grantee or vendee; and the conveyance aforesaid shall be held and taken, and shall be as valid as if the grantor or vendor had the legal estate or interest, at the time of said sale or conveyance.

SEC. 8. Every person in the actual possession of lands or tenements, under claim and color of title, made in good faith, and who shall, for seven successive years, continue in such possession, and shall also, during said time, pay all taxes legally assessed on such lands or tenements, shall be held and adjudged to be the legal owner of said lands or tenements, to the extent and according to the purport of his or her paper title. All persons holding under such possession, by purchase, devise, or descent, before said seven years shall have expired, and who shall continue such possession, and continue to pay the taxes as aforesaid, so as to complete the possession and payment of taxes for the term aforesaid, shall be entitled to the benefit of this section.

SEC. 9. Whenever a person having color of title, made in good faith, to vacant and unoccupied land, shall pay all taxes legally assessed thereon for seven successive years, he or she shall be deemed and adjudged to be the legal owner of said vacant and unoccupied land, to the extent and according to the purport of his or her paper title. All persons holding under such tax-payer, by purchase, devise, or descent, before said seven years shall have expired, and who shall continue to pay the taxes as aforesaid, so as to complete the payment of taxes for the term aforesaid, shall be entitled to the benefit of this section: Provided, however, If any person, having a better paper title to said vacant and unoccupied land, shall, during the said term of seven years, pay the taxes assessed on said land for any one or more years of the said term of seven years, then and in that case such tax-payer, his heirs and assigns, shall not be entitled to the benefit of this section.

SEC. 10. The two preceding sections shall not extend to lands or tenements owned by the United States or this State, nor to school and seminary lands, nor to lands held for the use of religious societies, nor to lands held for any public purpose. Nor shall they extend to lands or tenements when there shall be an adverse title

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to such lands or tenements, and the holder of such adverse title is under the age twenty-one years, insane, imprisoned, feme covert, out of the limits of the United States, and in the employment of the United States or of this State: Provided, Such person shall commence an action, to recover such lands or tenements so possessed as aforesaid, within three years after the several disabilities herein enumerated shall cease to exist, and shall prosecute such action to judgment, or, in case of vacant and unoccupied land, shall, within the time last aforesaid, pay to the person or persons who have paid the same, all the taxes, with interest thereon, at the rate of twelve per cent. per annum, that have been paid on said vacant and unimproved

land.

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SEC. 11. All deeds, whereby any estate of inheritance, in fee simple, shall hereafter be limited to the grantee and his heirs, or other legal representatives, the words "grant,' bargain,” “sell," shall be adjudged an express covenant to the grantee, his heirs and other legal representatives, to-wit: That the grantor was seized of an indefeasible estate, in fee simple, free from incumbrances, done or suffered from the grantor, except the rents and services that may be reserved, as also for quiet enjoyment against the grantor, his heirs and assigns, unless limited by express words contained in such deed: And the grantee, his heirs, executors, administrators and assigns, may in any action assign breaches, as if such covenants were expressly inserted: Provided, always, That this law shall not extend to leases at rack rent, or leases not exceeding one-and-twenty years, where the actual possession goes with the lease.

SEC. 12. Every deed conveying real estate, which, by any thing therein contained shall appear to have been intended only as a security in the nature of a mortgage, though it be an absolute conveyance in terms, shall be considered as a mortgage.

SEC. 13. Every estate in lands, which shall be granted, conveyed or devised to one, although other words heretofore necessary to transfer an estate of inheritance be not added, shall be deemed a fee simple estate of inheritance, if a less estate be not limited by express words, or do not appear to have been granted, conveyed, or devised by construction or operation of law.

SEC. 14. When an estate hath been, or shall be, by any conveyance limited in remainder to the son or daughter or to the use of the son or daughter of any person to be begotten, such son or daughter, born after the decease of his or her father, shall take the estate in the same manner as if he or she had been born in the life time of the father, although no estate shall have been conveyed to support the contingent remainder after his death.

SEC. 15. Á married woman may relinquish her right of dower, in any of the real estate of her husband, by joining him in a deed of conveyance, and acknowledging the same in the manner hereinafter prescribed.

SEC. 16. Deeds and instruments of writing for the conveyance of real estate in this State, or any interest therein, whereby the rights of any person may be affected in law or equity, before they shall be entitled to record, shall be subscribed by the party or parties thereto, in proper person, and acknowledged or proved before one of the following officers, to-wit: First, when acknowledged or proved within this State, before any judge, justice or clerk of any court of record in this State, having a seal; any mayor of a city, notary public, or commissioner authorized to take the acknowledgment of deeds, having a seal, or any justice of the peace: Second, when executed and acknowledged or proved without this State and within the United