Third Division.-J. Deane Catton, of Ottawa, Judge. Term ends, June, 1864. Salary, $1200. Lorenzo Leland, of Ottawa, Clerk. Term ends, June, 1861. Fees. Ebenezer Peck, of Chicago, Reporter. This Court holds one session in each division of the State each year. The terms are: first division, at Mt. Vernon, Jefferson county, on the second Monday in November; second division, at Springfield, on the third Monday in December; third division, at Ottawa, La Salle county, on the first Monday in February. Cook County Common Pleas. —John M. Wilson, Judge. Term ends, 1857. Salary, $1000 and fees. Walter Kimball, Clerk. Recorder's Court of the City of Chicago.-Robert S. Wilson, Judge. Term ends, 1858. Salary, $2200 and fees. Daniel McIlroy, Prosecuting Attorney. Term ends, 1856. Salary, $500 and fees. Philip A. Hoyne, Clerk. Term ends, 1858. Fees. These Courts have concurrent jurisdiction in the county and city, respectively, with the Circuit Court and Common Pleas, in all civil cases, and in all criminal cases, except murder and treason. Each county has a County Court, with jurisdiction to the same amount as Justices of the Peace, but their business is chiefly probate matters. *The term of office of the several judges ends in June. 1861; of the prosecuting attorneys, November, 1856. FINANCES. The debt of the State, principal and interest, was, January 1, 1855, $13,994,615. During the two years ending November 30, 1854, there has been paid of the public debt, in addition to $1,200,000 paid on account of accruing interest, the sum of $2,750,038, making a total of $3,950,038 paid during this time, on account of the public debt. If the present rate of taxation is continued, and the present method of reducing the State debt followed, it will be eventually extinguished in 1866. The receipts into the treasury for ordinary revenue, for the two years ending November 30, 1854,* chiefly from taxes, were.......... Add balance in the treasury, Dec. 1, 1852, $408,529 77 146,372 36 $554,902 13 $255,195 31 ............ 269,720 85 961 13 525,877 29 Balance in the treasury, Dec. 1, 1854, .. $29,024 84 Amount of interest fund tax received for the same period, in cluding balance, was............ 592,972 08 ... 528,294 66 963,708 37 Amount of warrants issued for payment of interest cancelled, 544,555 50 The total assessed value of property in the State in 1852, was $149,294,805; in 1853, $225,159,633. Rate of taxation on each $100 in 1852, 60 cents; in 1853, 493 cents. During the two The following letter of the State Treasurer to the Chicago Tribune, gives the total amount paid by the people into the treasury in 1855: TREASURER'S OFFICE, Springfield, Dec. 14, 1855. Editors of the Tribune :-Agreeably to your request, I send you the amount of payments into the treasury, from 1st January to 30th November, 1855, upon the assessment of 1854, alone, as follows: Revenue purposes,..... State debt (2 mills tax),............. $288,586 78 478,753 56 Interest fund, 358,757 32 Total receipts for 1855,... $1,126,077 56 Very respectfully, &c., JOHN MOORE, Treasurer of the State of Illinois. years $280,894.06 were received from the sale of 80,126.04 acres of land belonging to the State, and 48,598.15 acres remained unsold, December 1, 1854. Amount of funds devoted to Common Schools, December 10, Three per cent. on net proceeds of public lands (ex 1854: $463,490 93 $799,083 25 $951,504 07 Making, devoted to purposes of education,.. The whole of this sum has been borrowed or appropriated by the State, and devoted to pay the current expenses of the government. The State pays six per cent. interest on the amount. The interest of the Common School Fund for 1853, was $57,090.25, which, except one-fourth of one per cent. ($2,378.76) paid to the Deaf and Dumb Asylum, was divided among the several counties, in proportion to the number of white children under the age of 21. Besides this State fund, there are county and township funds. The value of the county funds is estimated at $50,000; of the township funds, $1,952,090.51; which would make a total principal of $2,953,594.58. The interest on the State fund is at 6 per cent.; on county and township funds, at 10 per cent.; total net proceeds of interest, $196,281.54. LAWS. LAND TITLES. The following are the provisions of the Revised Statutes concerning the regulation of estates and land: Livery of seisin 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 seisin, 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 a party to any such deed, mortgage, lease, or other conveyance. (R. S. 102, Sec. 1.) Every estate, feoffment, gift, grant, deed, mortgage, lease, release, or confirmation of lands, tenements, rents, services, or hereditaments, 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 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 confirmer, and against his, her, or their heirs or heir 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 judgmentdebtor, seller, feoffor, donor, grantor, mortgagor, lessor, releasor, or confirmer, or his, her, or their said heirs, at the time of the judgment, execution, bargain, sale, mortgage, covenant, lease, release, gift, or grant made. (R. S., page 103, Sec. 2.) 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, remainder, 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, feoffment, 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 terms 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 seisin, 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 was or hereafter shall be seized of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments to the use, confidence, or trust of any 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. (R. S., p. 103, Sec. 3.) 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 tranfer 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 benefits and advantages therefrom, as if the grantor or grantors had been in the actual possession at the time of executing the conveyance. (R. S., p. 103, Sec. 4.) No estate in joint tenancy in any lands, tenements, or hereditaments shall be held or claimed under any grant, devise, or conveyance whatsoever heretofore 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. (R. S., p. 103, Sec. 5.) 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 |