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XVI. REAL ESTATE EXEMPTIONS IN ILLINOIS.

No real estate of any debtor in Illinois, except not exceeding one-eighth of an acre laid off for a burial place, is exempt from levy and sale upon executions. But the land on which a judgment debtor resides (the homestead) is protected from any levy or sale until all his personal property liable to execution, and all his other real estate shall have been exhausted. [R. S., 301, Sec. 9.]

And when any property, real or personal, shall be taken in execution, if such property be susceptible of division, it is required to be sold in such quantities as may be necessary to satisfy such execution and costs.* [Id., 302, Sec. 10]

imprisonment, and malicious prosecutions, two years; upon actions of slander, one year; upon actions of debt or covenant upon any lease under seal, any single or penal bill, promissory note, or writing obligatory, sixteen years. [R. S., 348, Sec. 1, 2, 3, 4.]

*The necessary wearing apparel of every person shall be exempt from execution, writ of attachment and distress; and the following property when owned by any person being the head of a family and residing with the same, shall be exempt from levy and sale on any execution, writ of attachment, or distress for rent; and such articles of property shall continue so exempt while the family of such person, or any of them, are removing from one place of residence to another in this State, viz:

First, Necessary beds, bedsteads, and bedding; the necessary utensils for cooking; necessary household furniture, not exceeding in value fifteen dollars; one pair of cards, two spinning wheels, one weaving loom and appendage; one stove and the necessary pipe therefor being in use, or put up for ready use, in any house occupied by such family.

Second, One milch cow and calf, two sheep for each member of the family, and the fleeces, taken from the same, or the fleeces of two sheep, for each member of a family which may have been purchased by any debtor not owning sheep, and the yarn and cloth that may be manufactured from the same, and sixty dollars worth of property suited to his or her condition or occupation in life, to be selected by the debtor.

Third, Necessary provisions and fuel for the use of the family for three months, and necessary food for the stock hereinbefore exempted from sale, or that may be held under the provisions of this chapter.

XVII. THE INTEREST OF MONEY IN ILLINOIS.

The rate of interest upon the loan or forbearance of any money, goods, or things in action, is fixed by the General Assembly of Illinois at six per centum per annum, or six dollars upon one hundred dollars for one year, and after that rate for a greater or less sum, or for a longer or a shorter time.

Creditors are allowed to receive at the rate of six per centum per annum for all moneys after they become due, on any bond, bill, promissory note or other instrument of writing; on any judgment recovered before any court or magistrate authorized to enter up the same within this State, from the day of signing judgment until the effects be sold, or satisfaction of such judgment be made; likewise, on money lent, on money due on the settlement of accounts from the day of liquidating accounts between the parties, and ascertaining the balance; on money received to the use of another, and retained without the owner's knowledge; and on money withheld by an unreasonable and vexatious delay of payment. [R. S., 295, Sec. 1, 2.]

XVIII. PENALTY AND FORFEITURE OF USURY IN ILLINOIS.

The statute provides that "no person or corporation shall directly or indirectly accept or receive in money, goods, discounts, or things in action, or in any other way, any greater sum or greater value, for the loan, forbearance or discount of any moneys, goods or things in action, than as above described." [R. S., 295, Sec. 36.]

"Whenever in any action brought on any contract or assurance, for the payment of money, or any other thing, it shall appear to the court before which such action shall be tried, by the pleading on the case, and on application of the defendant, that a greater rate of interest shall have been directly or indirectly received, discounted or taken, than is allowed

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by this chapter, the defendant shall recover his full costs, and the plaintiff shall forfeit threefold the amount of the whole interest reserved, discounted or taken, and shall have judgment and execution for the balance only, which may remain due upon said contract or assurance, after deducting threefold the amount of said interest, one-third part of which shall be paid to the defendant, and the remaining two-thirds shall be paid into the county treasury of the county in which such suit shall have been instituted." [Id., Sec. 4.]

"If any person or corporation shall, directly or indirectly, contract to accept or receive in money, goods, discounts or things in action, any greater sum or greater value, for the loan, forbearance, or discount of any money, goods or things in action, than is prescribed by this chapter, he, she, or they shall forfeit and pay to the person sueing for the same, threefold the amount of the whole interest so contracted, to be reserved, discounted or taken: provided said suit be not commenced by either of the contracting parties; and if so, then the amount so recovered shall be paid into the county treasury of the county where such suit shall have been instituted. [Id., Sec. 5.]

Every person, and his personal representatives, who for any such loan, discount or forbearance, shall pay or deliver any greater sum or value than is above allowed to be received, may recover in an action against the person who shall have taken or received the same, and his personal representatives, threefold the amount of the money so paid, or value so paid, or value delivered above the rate aforesaid, either by an action of debt, in any court having any jurisdiction thereof, or by bill in chancery in the Circuit Court, which court is hereby authorized to try the same: provided said action shall be brought, or bill filed within two years from the time when the right thereto accrued.* [Id., Sec. 6.]

*Debtors may call their creditors as witnesses, on any trial where the question of usury is in issue, to prove such usury.

CHAPTER V.

THE STATE OF MICHIGAN.

Source of Title to Lands in the State. Native Proprietors thereof. Erection of Michigan Territory from that of Indiana. Enlargement of the same upon the Admission of Illinois as a State. Act of Congress authorizing the People of the Territory to form a Constitution, and for the Admission of Michigan as a State; and another to Establish the Northern Boundary Line of the State of Ohio, and to Provide for the Admission of Michigan into the Union upon the conditions therein expressed. Her Constitution, and Land Titles generally. The Execution, Attestation, Proof, Acknowledgment, Authentication, and Recording of Conveyances. The Execution, Attestation, Probate, and Recording of Wills of Real Estate. Regulations concerning Titles by Descent. The Levy and Collection of Land Taxes. Land Tax Forfeitures, Sales, and Redemptions. Limitations. Exemptions. Interest of Money, and Usury.

I. SOURCE OF TITLE TO LANDS IN THE STATE OF MICHIGAN-NATIVE PROPRIETORS THEREOF, &C.

THIS State derived her name from the Lake that washes her western border, called by the natives, Mitch-igye-gan. Although her advancement in agriculture and commerce would indicate a maturer age, Michigan is but an infant member of the republican family, her years being chronicled by ten annual suns. She is, however, not without the charms of antiquity. In a retrospect nearly obscure in oblivion, when the untutored Indian alone broke the reigning silence of her woodlands, charms clustered about her unique and mysterious inhabitants.

The territory which now forms the domain of the State, first obtained notice in 1620-the year of the landing of the

Pilgrims at Plymouth; and was then in the occupancy of the Algonquins and Hurons, as native proprietors. These races were distinctive in their immediate paternity, yet it is presumed that both were of Tartar origin. [Ante 28.] They were closely allied to each other, as against the Iroquois. Having been for a long period in the undisputed possession of the country, they had come to believe that the rivers and forests, the fish and the wild game, were their own; and that the Great Spirit intended them for their occupation, sustenance and comfort. It is true, that they were rude and uncultivated, and utterly unused to the ways of civilization; yet they dwelt together in towns and villages, and cultivated apples and patches of corn. They were also ingenuous, hospitable, and humane.

Whilst thus in possession of the country, the French government, under whose auspices and patronage Canada had been theretofore colonized, adopted measures for the exploration of the wilderness world about the lakes, with a view to the fur trade, and of making title to the soil thereof, as against the natives. Discovery and possession of any country under the authority of an existing government, is held to make a title thereto, as against them, subject only to their right of occupancy. [8 Wheaton, 543.]

Claiming the country about the lakes, the ecclesiastical establishment at Quebec adopted measures for the exploration thereof by missionaries, among the first of whom was Charles Raymbault, who visited the tribes of Nipising, in 1641. He was succeeded by Bussani, Claude, Mesnard and others, who not only explored the country, but carried the cross and the lilies of the Bourbons to the remotest boundaries of the Canadian territory.

For the documentary history of the surrender of this region to the English, the relinquishment of the same by the latter, the cessions of the States, the treaties extinguishing the Indian right of occupancy, and the ordinance of 1787, for the

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