SEC. 6. In making payments for the purpose of redeeming such lands or lots as aforesaid, all sums of money or scrip advanced by the purchaser at tax sales, in continuation of the payments required of the original purchaser or claimant, shall be made at the canal office in gold or silver.

[AMENDATORY to Chapter 89.]

APPROVED: January 29, 1845.

ACT, NUMBER XXIX.

AN ACT IN RELATION TO THE REVISED STATUTES.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the several chapters composing the Revised Statutes, to be furnished at the present session of the General Assembly, shall be deemed and taken as one act; and no part thereof shall become a law, until such time as shall be designated and provided for in the same; and no part thereof shall become a law or be published, until the whole is finished.

[AMENDATORY to Chapter 90.]

APPROVED: February 26, 1845.

ACT, NUMBER XXX.

AN ACT TO AMEND AN ACT ENTITLED AN ACT CONCERNING PUBLIC ROADS, APPROVED FEBRUARY 20th, 1841.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the county commissioners' courts of the several counties in this State, at their March term, annually, shall fix and cause to be entered upon the records of their courts, a certain number of days, not exceeding two, nor less than one, that each and every able bodied man between the ages of twenty-one and fifty years, shall labor upon some public road within the county, during the year; and it shall be the duty of the clerk of said court to append the number of days fixed as aforesaid, to the notice of each supervisor appointed in said county.

SEC. 2. The county commissioners' court of each and every county, in addition to the work required in the preceding section, may, at their March term, annually, assess a road tax of not more than twenty cents, on each hundred dollars' worth of taxable property, real and personal, or either, in their counties: and a column in the tax book shall designate the amount of such road tax due from each person,

from whom the same is to be collected: Provided, That said court, in counties where the same is deemed necessary, may assess such road tax for the year eighteen hundred and forty-five, at their June session.

SEC. 3. The clerk of the commissioners' court, immediately on the return of the assessor's book, shall make out a list of the names of all persons owing road tax, in each road district in the county, with the amount of tax due from each person, ascertaining the road district to which such person properly belongs; which list shall be, by said clerk, handed to the sheriff, and by him delivered to the respective supervisors; and any clerk or sheriff who shall fail or neglect to perform the duties required in this section, within the time given to each, as specified in the fourth section of the act to which this is an amendment, for serving notices on supervisors, shall be liable to the penalties stated in said section.

SEC. 4. The tax list being placed in the hands of the supervisor, he shall notify each person residing in said supervisor's district, of the amount due, and that the same may be discharged in labor on the road, and shall thereupon request payment in money or labor, first notifying such person of the time and place to attend and work the same out at the rate of seventy-five cents per day, bringing with him such tools as may be directed by the supervisor; the labor to be performed by the principal or a substitute equally able, working at least eight hours each day and if such person shall spend the time in idleness, be turbulent, or disobey the supervisor, he shall be discharged from the road, and the balance due shall be collected with twenty-five per cent. advance: Provided, All money collected by supervisors for road purposes, shall be disbursed on some road within their district.

SEC. 5. When any person or persons desire a change or relocation of any State or county road now located, or hereafter may be located, and the whole distance proposed to be changed does not exceed three miles, the petitioners applying for the same shall deposit with the county commissioners' clerk a sum of money sufficient to pay for viewing and surveying said road; and on the return of such report, the clerk shall pay for the same with the money before deposited, whether the report be favorable or unfavorable to the change or relocation.

SEC. 6. In all cases where a petition is presented to the county commissioners' court, praying for a change, alteration, location or vacation of a county road, as provided for in the act to which this is an amendment, if there shall be remonstrances presented against granting the same, it shall be the duty of said court to give due consideration both to the petition and remonstrance, and grant or refuse the prayer of such petitioners, as in their discretion shall be just and proper.

SEC. 7. Supervisors, for each and every day necessarily employed over and above their road tax, due for road purposes, shall be allowed seventy-five cents per day for each and every day necessarily employed to carry out the provisions of this act, or the act to which this is an amendment; said money to be paid out of the county treasury, on settlement, under oath, with the county commissioners' court: Provided, No supervisor shall be allowed pay for a day's work, when he works with less than ten hands, unless said supervisor's district does not contain as many. SEC. S. Sections fourteen, sixteen, eighteen and nineteen, of an act concerning public roads, approved, February 20, 1841, together with all other parts of said act, as well as of an act to authorize county commissioners' courts to assess taxes for road purposes, approved, March 4, 1843, are hereby repealed. This act to take effect and be in force from and after the first day of June next.

SEC. 9. In all cases where supervisors, under the provisions of this act, fail or refuse to comply with the law in relation to supervisors, suits may be commenced against them before justices of the peace of their counties, who shall have jurisdiction in all cases when the fines or forfeitures do not exceed one hundred dollars. APPROVED: February 28, 1845.

[AMENDATORY to Chapter 93.]

ACT, NUMBER XXXI.

AN ACT MAKING CERTAIN FORDS A PART OF PUBLIC ROADS.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That in all cases where any public road in this State shall cross any stream of water, by means of a ferry, which stream, for any part of the said year, shall be fordable, that is to say, of not more than two and a half feet in depth of water in the main channel thereof, the said ford, together with the banks of said stream, leading thereto, on either side thereof, and that part of the road leading from the main road to said ford, provided the same be no further than four hundred yards from the said ferry, shall be in all respects a part of the said public road.

SEC. 2. When the said ford shall be not more than two and a half feet in depth of water, it shall be the duty of the overseers of the said road, on either side of the said stream, to keep the said ford, and the roads and banks leading thereto, in good order for carriages to pass the same.

SEC. 3. If any person or persons shall build any dam across such stream, thereby raising the water of such ford (unless the same be built for some useful purpose) or shall place or cause to be placed in such ford, any logs, brush, rock or other obstructions whatever, he, she or they, so offending shall pay a fine of twenty dollars, for every such offence, to be recovered before any justice of the peace, in the county or counties where such ford may be, at the suit of any person who may see cause to sue for the same; and shall, moreover, pay double damages to any person, who shall be injured by such obstruction.

[AMENDATORY to Chapter 93.]

APPROVED: February 26, 1845.

88

ACT, NUMBER XXXII.

AN ACT TO AUTHORIZE THE SECRETARY OF STATE TO SUBSCRIBE FOR CERTAIN PERIODICAL WORKS.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the secretary of State is authorized and required, in behalf of the State of Illinois, to subscribe for Niles' Register, Silliman's Journal, and the North American Review, and purchase the back numbers of said works that are not now in the State Library, and pay for the same out of any moneys not otherwise appropriated.

SEC. 2. It shall be the duty of the secretary of State, to receive and preserve the said works, and have them bound in the same form that the remaining numbers are bound, and place them in the State library, subject to the care of the librarian. SEC. 3. The secretary of the State is authorized to continue said subscriptions, until otherwise directed by law.

[AMENDATORY to Chapter 96.]

APPROVED: February 21, 1845.

ACT, NUMBER. XXXIII.

AN ACT SUPPLEMENTARY TO AN ACT TO ESTABLISH AND MAINTAIN COMMON SCHOOLS.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That trustees of schools in townships, shall be exempt from military duty and road labor, during their continuance in office as trustees.

APPROVED: March 1, 1845.

[AMENDATORY to Chapter 98.]

ACT, NUMBER XXXIV.

AN ACT TO FACILITATE THE COLLECTION OF DEBTS BY EXECUTORS AND ADMINISTRATORS, IN DESPERATE CASES.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That upon suggestion made by an executor or administrator, to the court of probate, that any claim, debt or demand whatever, belonging to the estate in his hands to be administered, and accruing in the lifetime of the decedent represented by such executor or administrator, is desperate on account of the insolvency or doubtful solvency of the person or persons owing the same; or on account of the debtor having availed himself of the late bankrupt law of the United States; or on account of some legal or equitable defence which such person or persons may allege against the same; or for the cause that the smallness of such claim, debt or demand, and the difficulty of finding the debtors, owing to the remoteness of their residence, or such executors or administrator's ignorance of the same, the said court may order such claim, debt or demand, to be compounded or sold, or to be filed in the said court for the benefit of such of the heirs, devisees or creditors of such decedent, as will sue for or recover the same, giving the creditors the preference if they or any of them apply for the same before the final settlement of such estate: Provided, That no order for the sale or compounding of any such debts, claims or demands, or any of them, shall be made until four weeks' public notice shall have been given to all whom it may concern, of the time and place, when the said order will be applied for; which notice shall be given by the administrator or executor, in some public newspaper, printed in the county where such application shall be made, if any there be, and if no such newspaper shall be printed in said county, then by posting up such notices in some public places in said county, not less than three, of which one shall be the door of the office of the said probate justice of the peace; which said notices shall be for four weeks as aforesaid, previous to the time of said application: And, provided further, That the said executor or administrator, as the case may be, shall report to the said probate justice of the peace, the terms upon which he has settled or disposed of any such claim, debt or demand, for his approval.

SEC. 2. And if such claim be compounded or sold, such executor or administrator shall be chargeable with the avails of such compounding; and if the same be taken by any of the said creditors, heirs or devisees aforesaid, he, she or they may maintain an action for the recovery thereof in the name of such executor or executors or administrators, for his, her or their own use; and upon recovering the same, or any part thereof, he, she or they shall be chargeable therewith, after deducting his claim or distributive share, with reasonable compensation for collecting the same; and upon such suits, the executor or administrator shall not be liable for

costs.

[AMENDATORY to Chapter 109.]

APPROVED: March 1, 1845.