SECTION 1. County recorders shall be elected in the several counties of this State on the first Monday in August, on the expiration of the terms of those now in office, and every two years thereafter. When so elected, they shall continue in office for the term of two years, and until their successors are elected and qualified. SEC. 2. The election of county recorders shall, in all things, be conducted, and returns thereof be made to the office of the secretary of State, as provided by the chapter regulating elections; and upon such election being made, the Governor shall commission such county recorder, to continue in office for two years; which commission shall be transmitted by the secretary of State to the clerk of the county commissioners' court of the proper county, and it shall be the duty of said clerk to give immediate notice to such recorder of the receipt of his commission.

SEC. 3. County recorders, previous to entering upon the duties of their office, shall enter into bond to the people of the State of Illinois, each with one or more sufficient sureties, in a bond of five hundred dollars, conditioned for the true and faithful execution of the duties of his office, and to deliver up the records and other writings belonging to his office, safe and undefaced, to his successor in said office: which said bond shall be filed in the office of the clerk of the county commissioners' court, and there safely kept, in order to be made use of, for making satisfaction to the parties that shall be damnified or aggrieved, as is or shall be in such cases directed by law. The securities to such bonds shall be approved by the county commissioners' courts of the respective counties for which said recorders are elected.

SEC. 4. The election for county recorders shall be held at the same times and places, and conducted in all respects as elections of county commissioners; and all vacancies shall be filled in the same manner; and all contested elections for recorders shall be decided as in other cases. And in case of a contested election between two or more persons who shall have been voted for, for the office of county recorder, a commission shall not issue until such contest shall have been duly decided according to law.

SEC. 5. County recorders may appoint deputies only when they shall be disabled by sickness or other bodily infirmity. They shall keep their offices at the

seat of justice of the counties respectively, and on a neglect, or a refusal to do so, the county commissioners' court may declare the same to be vacant.

SEC. 6. No recorder shall enter upon or officiate in his said office, before he hath given such security, as is provided in section three, upon pain of forfeiting the sum of one hundred dollars, one-half to the State, and the other half to him or them that shall sue for the same, to be recovered as aforesaid: but no record made by him shall be vacated or so avoided as to operate against the parties to the instrument recorded, by reason of such recorder not giving such bond.

SEC. 7. Every recorder shall keep a fair book, in which he shall immediately make entry of every deed or writing brought into his office to be recorded, mentioning therein the date, the parties and the place where the lands, tenements or hereditaments granted or conveyed by the said deed or writing are situate, dating the entry on the day on which such deed or writing was brought into his office, and shall record all such deeds and writings in regular succession, according to the priority of time of their being brought into said office; and shall also make and keep a complete alphabetical index to each record book, showing the page on which each instrument is recorded, with the names of the parties thereto : he shall give a receipt to the person bringing such deed or writing to be recorded, bearing date on the same day as the entry, and containing the abstract aforesaid, for which entry and receipt he shall be entitled to no fee or compensation whatever.

SEC. 8. It shall be the duty of the county commissioners' courts to provide the county recorders of their respective counties with well bound books necessary to the execution of the duties of their offices, to be paid for out of the county treasuries. SEC. 9. All copies and transcripts of the ancient books, records and papers, bearing date prior to the thirteenth day of July, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and eighty-seven, now in the office 'of the recorder of the county of Randolph, which may be made by the said recorder, from the said papers or records, and attested by him, shall be as authentic in any court of record in this State as if given by the secretary of State; and the said recorder shall be entitled to the same fees for such copies, transcripts and attestations, as he is now entitled to by law for the performance of similar services.

SEC. 10. If any person, whose office has become vacated or determined, or his executors or administrators, shall neglect or refuse to deliver over any record, book, paper, document or other article of public property, when thereto lawfully required by the successor to such officer or other person entitled to the custody thereof, it shall and may be lawful for any judge of the supreme or circuit court of the proper county, upon the affidavit of any competent person, setting forth proper facts, to issue his warrant, directed to the sheriff or coroner of the proper county, commanding him to seize all the records, books, papers, documents and other public property belonging or appertaining to the said officer, and deliver the same to the person entitled to the custody thereof, to be named in such warrant.

SEC. 11. It shall be lawful for the officer executing any warrant issued as aforesaid, to break open any doors, trunks or places in which any of the records, books, papers, documents or other public property, in such warrant commanded to be seized and secured, may be concealed, or in which he may suspect them to be; and in case of resistance, to arrest any person or persons who may resist the execution of such warrant, and to carry him, her or them before some judge or justice of the peace, to be dealt with as other persons obstructing the execution of such process; and the officer executing such warrant, may call to his assistance the

power of the county, in the same manner as in the execution of other process. And any officer to whom any such warrant may be directed and delivered, who shall neglect or refuse to execute and return the same according to law, or otherwise fail to perform any of the duties herein required of him, shall forfeit and pay a sum, not exceeding one thousand, nor less than one hundred dollars, to be recovered by indictment, to the use of the county, in any court of competent jurisdiction. SEC. 12. It shall be lawful for any person who may think himself aggrieved by the issuing of any warrant as aforesaid, to apply to any judge of the supreme or circuit court of the proper county, who, if he be satisfied, upon the affidavit of the applicant, that there is good cause to believe that injustice has been, or is about to be done, under, or by virtue of such warrant, shall issue a citation to all persons interested therein, commanding them to appear before such judge, at a place and time to be in such citation named, which shall be executed by the sheriff or coroner as process issued by the supreme or circuit court. And the judge shall have the power to enforce obedience to such citation by attachment, to be issued by him, and shall have power to proceed in a summary way, and determine according to right and justice, and may issue his warrant for the restoration of any book, record, paper, document or other article of property, which shall appear to him to have been improperly seized or delivered over; which warrant shall be executed in the same manner, and the officer to whom it is directed shall have the same powers, and be liable to the same penalties for neglect of duty, as upon other warrants issued under the provisions of this chapter.

[AMENDED:-See Appendix, Acts Nos. 23 and 24.]

APPROVED: March 3, 1845.

SECTION 1. Whenever any goods or chattels shall have been wrongfully distrained, or otherwise wrongfully taken, or shall be wrongfully detained, an action of replevin may be brought for the recovery of such goods or chattels, by the owner or person entitled to their possession.

SEC. 2. No action of replevin shall lie at the suit of the defendant in any execution or attachment, to recover goods or chattels seized by virtue thereof, unless such goods and chattels are exempted, by law, from such execution or attachment; nor shall an action of replevin lie for such goods and chattels at the suit of any other

person, unless he shall, at the time, have a right to reduce into his possession, the goods taken.

SEC. 3. The person or persons bringing such action, or some one in his, her or their behalf, shall, before any writ shall issue, make oath or affirmation before the clerk of the circuit court, or any justice of the peace of the proper county, that the plaintiff in such action is the owner of the property described in the writ and about to be replevied, or that he is then lawfully entitled to the possession thereof; and that the same has not been taken for any tax, assessment or fine, levied by virtue of any law of this State; nor seized under any execution or attachment against the goods and chattels of such plaintiff, liable to execution or attachment.

SEC. 4. Before the execution of any writ of replevin, the party suing out such writ, shall give bond to the sheriff, with good and sufficient security, in double the value of the property about to be replevied, conditioned that he or they will prosecute such suit to effect, and without delay, and make return of the property, if return thereof shall be awarded, and save and keep harmless the said sheriff in replevying such property; and the sheriff shall thereupon serve such writ, and deliver the property therein mentioned to the party suing out such writ.

SEC. 5. The proceedings in an action of replevin shall be commenced by plaint, with a summons to the defendant, in which shall be stated a description of the property to be replevied, and the sheriff shall return the bond by him taken together with the writ, to the clerk who shall file the same.

SEC. 6. If any plaintiff in the action of replevin shall fail to prosecute his suit with effect, and without delay, or shall suffer a nonsuit or discontinuance, or if the right of property shall be adjudged against him, the court shall give judgment for a return of the property taken, and damages for the use of the property from the time it was taken until return thereof shall be made; and if judgment be given for the plaintiff, he shall recover damages for the detention of such property while in the possession of the defendant; and the damages in either case shall be assessed by the jury, in case of a trial; but if the plaintiff shall not prosecute his suit, or if judgment shall in any manner be given for the defendant, without a trial, the damin such case may be assessed by the court, on hearing such testimony as may be offered on the subject.

ages

SEC. 7. If at any time the condition of the bond required by the fourth section of this chapter shall be broken, the sheriff, or plaintiff in the name of the sheriff to his own use, as the case may be, may sue and maintain an action on such bond, for the recovery of such damages as may have been sustained in consequence of the breach of such condition.

SEC. 8. If any sheriff shall fail to take and return a bond, as required by the fourth section of this chapter, or shall return an insufficient bond, such sheriff shall pay to the party injured, all damages which he may sustain or be put to, in consequence of such neglect; to be recovered by an action on the case in the circuit

court.

SEC. 9. It shall be sufficient for the defendant, in all cases of replevin for distress taken for rent, to avow or make cognizance generally, without particularly setting forth the tenure or title to the lands whereon such distress was taken.

SEC. 10. When the oath required in section three, is made by another in behalf of the claimant, it shall be sufficient to state that he believes the facts stated in such affidavit to be true.

APPROVED: March 3, 1845.

CHAPTER LXXXIX.

REVENUE.