Chattel Mortgages.

BILLS of sale, or other conveyances of personal property, where the vender retains the actual possession of the property so conveyed, are not valid in law against creditors or subsequent purchasers, unless acknowledged before some justice of the peace for the county where the same is executed, and recorded in the office of the recorder of deeds (who keeps a separate book for this purpose) within ten days, in the county where the holder of the property resides.

Law regulating Contracts.

ALL interests or estates in lands and hereditaments, made or created by livery and seisin only, or by parol, and not put in writing, shall have the force and effect of leases or estates at will only, excepting leases for a term not exceeding three years, upon a yearly reserved rent equal to two thirds of what the premises are really worth and no estate in lands or hereditaments is assignable, except in writing, or by act and oper ation of law.

No action shall be brought whereby to charge any executor or administrator, or upon any special promise, to answer damages out of his own estate; or whereby to charge the defendant upon any special promise to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage, of any other person; or to charge any person upon any agreement in consideration of marriage; or upon any contract or sale of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any interest in or concerning them; or upon any agreement which is not to be performed within one year from the making thereof, unless the agreement upon which such action shall be brought, or some note or memorandum thereof, shall be in writing, and signed by the party to be charged thereby, or some person by him thereunto lawfully authorized. Declarations or creations of trust in lands and hereditaments must be in writing, signed by the party, or by his last will Trusts arising by implication of law are exempt from the operation of the act.

Judgments in the district or supreme courts are liens upon the real estates of the parties against whom they may be rendered from the day of rendition thereof in the County within which such judgments may be rendered. Attested copies of such judg ments, filed with the clerk of the district court of any other county, recorded, and entered upon the judgment docket of said county also, are made liens upon the estates of defendants therein situate, but no execution can issue upon such attested copy.

No contract for the sale of any goods, wares, or merchandise, for the price of thirty dollars or upward, shall be binding, except the buyer accept part of the goods so sold, and actually receive the same, or give something in earnest, or in part payment, or that some note or memorandum in writing of said bargain, be made and signed by the ties to be charged thereby, or their agents thereunto lawfully authorized.

Limitation of Actions.

par.

ALL actions of trespass, detinue, trover, and replevin, for taking away goods, &c.; actions for arrearages of rent due on parol demise; actions of account and upon the case, except for slander and malicious prosecution, and such actions as concern the trade of merchandise between merchant and merchant, their factors or agents, must be commenced within five years after the cause of action accrues. Actions of trespass for assault and battery, wounding, and imprisonment, must be commenced within two years. Actions on the case for slanderous words must be commenced within one year after the words spoken, and actions for malicious prosecution within two years after the cause of action accrues. Actions of debt or covenant for rent or arrearages of rent founded upon lease, of debt upon any single or penal bill, promissory note, or writing, obligatory for the direct payment of money or the delivery of property, or the performance of covenants, or upon the award of arbitrators for the payment of money only, and every action of assumpsit, must be commenced within six years after cause of action accrues, or after any partial payment may have been made.

Judgment of any court of record may be revived by scire facias, or an action of debt may be brought within twenty years. The right of entry into any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, is barred after twenty years from the accruing of the right. Every real, possessory, ancestral, or mixed action, or writ of right, or action of ejectment, must be brought within twenty years after the right or title accrued, but in case of disability then within twenty years after the disability is removed.

If the person or persons against whom any of the foregoing actions, except real or possessory actions, are brought, shall be absent from the state at the time the cause of action accrued, or at any time during which said action might have been brought, such period of absence shall not be accounted part of the time limited by the act. The plain tiff, in certain cases, may bring a new suit within one year after judgment is reversed or given against him.

Collection of Debts.

ARREST.-The person of a debtor can not be taken in execution upon any civil contract. ATTACHMENT.-When any action founded on contract is commenced or is about to be commenced, writ of attachment may be issued by the clerk of the district court, upon an affidavit that something is due the plaintiff from the defendant; that affiant believes the defendant is a non-resident, or that he is about to dispose of or remove his property, with intent to defraud his creditors; or that he has absconded, so that ordinary process can not be served upon him. Such writ may be levied upon any lands, tenements, goods, chattels, rights, credits, moneys, or effects, of said debtor, which may be found in the county, or so much thereof as may be sufficient to pay the debt, together with interests and costs of suit.

Deeds.

EVERY instrument of writing conveying any real estate, or whereby any real estate may be affected in law or equity, must be proved and acknowledged, and recorded in the office of the recorder of the county in which such real estate is situate. Such recording is notice to all the world, and no such instrument is valid except between the parties thereto, until deposited with the recorder for record.

Deeds and conveyances may be acknowledged before any court having a seal, justice or clerk thereof, a justice of the peace, or notary public. If before a justice of the peace in a county different from that in which the property is situate, it must be accompanied by the certificate of the clerk of the district court of the county, that the justice was, at the time of taking said acknowledgment, an acting justice of the peace for such county. The certificate of acknowledgment must state that the person making such acknowledgment was personally known to the officer to be the same whose name is subscribed to the instrument as party thereto, or was proved to be such by at least one witness, whose name must be inserted.

The certificate of acknowledgment of a married woman must state that she was personally known to the officer taking the same, to be the person whose name is subscribed to such conveyance; that she was made acquainted with the contents of such convey. ance, and acknowledged on examination, apart from her husband, that she executed the same, and relinquished her dower in the real estate therein mentioned, freely and without compulsion or undue influence of her husband.

(The form of acknowledgment is the same as in MISSOURI, page 320.)

Rights of Married Women.

ANY married woman may become seized or possessed of any real estate by descent, bequest, demise, gift, purchase, or distribution, in her own name, and as of her own property, provided that the same does not come from her husband, and is not purchased with the funds or property of the husband during coverture. Property so held by any married woman is in no case liable for the debts of her husband. The control and management of such estate, the annual products, and rents and profits of the same, remain to the husband. Suits in relation to the property must be in the joint name of the husband and wife. Such real estate may be conveyed by the joint deed of the husband and wife, executed, proved, acknowledged, and recorded, as above. DOWER.-The common-law right of dower exists in this state.

Rate of Interest.

THE legal rate of interest, when no other is agreed upon, and upon all judgments, is six per cent.; but parties may agree upon any rate not exceeding ten per cent. Illegal interest may be recovered by the proper suit.

Wills.

ALL wills, except nuncupative, must be in writing, signed by the testator, or by some person in his presence and by his express direction, and attested and subscribed in his presence by two or more competent witnesses. Subsequent incompetency of the witness will not invalidate the will. Nuncupative wills, proved by two competent witnes ses, when the value of the estate does not exceed three hundred dollars, are valid. Soldiers being in actual service, and mariners being at sea, may dispose of their wages and other personal property by nuncupative will

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WISCONSIN.

Constitution adopted, 1848.-Square Miles, 53,924.-Population in 1850, 304,121.

Exemptions.

No property hereinafter mentioned or represented shall be liable to attachment, execution, or sale, on any final process issued from any court of this state:1. The family Bible.

2. Family pictures, schoolbooks, or library.

3. A seat or pew in any house or place of public wor ship.

4. The rites of burial of the dead.

5. All wearing apparel of the debtor and his family; all beds, bedsteads, and bedding, kept and used for the debtor and his family; all stoves and appendages put up or kept for the use of the debtor and his family; all cooking-utensils, and all other household furniture not herein enumerated, not exceeding two hundred dollars in value.

6. Two cows, ten swine, one yoke of oxen, and one horse; or, in lieu of one yoke of oxen and a horse, a span of horses; ten sheep, and the wool from the same, either in the raw material or manufactured into yarn or cloth; the necessary food for all the stock mentioned in this section for one year's support, either provided or growing, or both, as the debtor may choose; also one wagon, cart, or dray; one sleigh, one plough, one drag, and other farming utensils, including tackle for teams, not exceeding fifty dollars in value.

7. The provisions for the debtor and his family necessary for one year's support, either provided or growing, or both, and fuel necessary for one year.

8. The tools and implements, or stock in trade, of any mechanic, miner, or other person, used and kept for the purpose of carrying on his trade or business, not exceeding two hundred dollars in value; the library and implements of any professional man, not exceeding two hundred dollars in value: all of which articles, hereinbefore intended to be exempt, shall be chosen by the debtor, his agent, servant, clerk, or legal representatives, as the case may be.

Homestead-Exemption Law.

A HOMESTEAD, consisting of any quantity of land not exceeding forty 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 recorded town-plot, or city, or village, and the dwelling house thereof and its appurtenances, owned and occupied by any resident of the state, shall not be subject to forced sale on execution, or any other final process from a court, for any debt or liability contracted after the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and forty-nine.

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 land by the owner thereof, if a married man, shall not be valid without the signature of the wife to the same.