ralty and maritime jurisdiction, according to the principles, rules, and usages, which belong to courts of admiralty, as contradistinguished from courts of common law, except so far as may have been otherwise provided for by acts of Congress; subject, however, to such alterations and additions as the said courts of the United States respectively shall, in their discretion, deem expedient, or to such regulations as the supreme court of the United States shall think proper, from time to time, by rules, to prescribe to any circuit or district court concerning the same.

SECT. 2. And be it further enacted, That in any one of the United States, where judgments are a lien upon the property of the defendant, and where, by the laws of such state, defendants are entitled in the courts thereof to an imparlance of one term or more, defendants, in actions in the courts of the United States, holden in such state, shall be entitled to an imparlance of one term.

SECT. 3. And be it further enacted, That writs of execution and other final process, issued on judgments and decrees, rendered in any of the courts of the United States, and the proceedings thereupon, shall be the same, except their style, in each state respectively, as are now used in the courts of such state, saving to the courts of the United States in those states in which there are not courts of equity, with the ordinary equity jurisdiction, the power of prescribing the mode of executing their decrees in equity by rules of court. Provided, however, that it shall be in the power of the courts, if they see fit in their discretion, by rules of court, so far to alter final process in said courts, as to conform the same to any change which may be adopted by the legislatures of the respective states for the state courts.

SECT. 4. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this act contained shall be construed to extend to any court of the United States now established, or which may hereafter be established, in the state of Louisiana.

Approved 19th May, 1828.

CHAP. 69. An Act to authorize the building of Light Houses, and for other purposes.

CHAP. 70. An Act supplementary to the several

acts providing for the settlement and confirmation of private land claims in Florida. SECT. 1. Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled,

That the three claims to land in the district of West Florida, contained in the reports of the commissioners, and numbered four [4,] eight [8,] and ten [10.] excluding from the latter the land contained in certificate, and in the plats A and c, and the claims contained in the reports of the commissioners of East Florida, and in the reports of the receiver and register acting as such, made in pursuance of the several acts of Congress providing for the settlement of private land claims in Florida, and recommended for confirmation by said commissioners, and by the register and receiver, be, and the same are hereby, confirmed to the extent of the quantity contained in one league square, to be located by the claimants, or their agents, within the limits of such claims or surveys filed, as aforesaid, before the said commissioners, or receiver and register, which location shall be made within the bounds of the original grant, in quantities of not less than one section, and to be bounded by sectional lines.

SECT. 2. And be it further enacted, That no more than the quantity of acres contained in a league square, shall be confirmed within the bounds of any one grant; and no confirmation shall be effectual, until all the parties in interest, under the original grant, shall file with the register and receiver of the district where the grant may be situated, a full and final release of all claim to the residue contained in the grant; and where there shall be any minors incapable of acting within said territory of Florida, a relinquishment by the legal guardian shall be sufficient; and thereafter the excess in said grants, respectively, shall be liable to be sold, as other public lands of the United States.

SECT. 3. And be it further enacted, That all the decisions inade by the register and receiver of the district of East Florida, acting, ex officio, as cominissioners, in pursuance of an act of Congress, approved the eighth ef February, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-seven, authorizing them to ascertain and decide claims and titles to lands in the district aforesaid, and those recommended for confirmation under the quantity of three thousand five hundred acres, contained in the reports, abstracts, and opinions of the said register and receiver, transmitted to the secretary of the treasury according to law, and referred by him to Congress on the twenty-ninth January, one thousand eight

hundred and twenty-eight, be, and the same are hereby, confirmed. The confirmations authorized by this act shall operate only as a release of any claim. had by the United States, and not to affect the interest of third persons.

SECT. 4. And be it further enacted, That the said register and receiver shall continue to examine and decide the remaining claims in East Florida, subject to the same limitations, and in conformity with the provisions of the several acts of Congress, for the adjustment of private land claims in Florida, until the first Monday in December next, when they shall make a final report of all the claims aforesaid, in said district, to the secretary of the treasury; and it shall never be lawful, after that time, for any of the claimants to exhibit any further evidence in support of said claims. And the said register and receiver, and clerk, shall receive the compensation provided in the act aforesaid, to be paid out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated. Provided, that the extra compensation of one thousand dollars each, which is hereby allowed to the register and receiver, for services under and by the provisions of this act, shall not be paid until a report of all the claims be made to the secretary of the treasury.

SECT. 5. And be it further enacted, That the proper accounting officers of the treasury be, and they are hereby, authorized to adjust and pay the accounts of the register and receiver, acting as commissioners, their contingent expenses, and the receiver the compensation heretofore allowed for bringing their reports to Washington, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.

SECT. 6. And be it further enacted, That all claims to land within the territory of Florida, embraced by the treaty between Spain and the United States, of the twenty-second of February, one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, which shall not be decided and finally settled under the foregoing provisions of this act, containing a greater quantity of land than the commissioners were authorized to decide, and above the amount confirmed by this act; and which have not been reported as antedated or forged by said commissioners, or register and receiver acting as such, shall be received and adjudicated by the judge of the superior court of the district within which the land lies, upon the petition of the claimant,

according to the forms, rules, regulations, conditions, restrictions, and limitations prescribed by the district judge, and claimants in the state of Missouri, by act of Congress, approved May twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and twenty-four, entitled ** An act enabling the claimants to land within the limits of the state of Missouri and territory of Arkansas, to institute proceedings to try the validity of their claims." Provided, that nothing in this section shall be construed to authorize said judges to take cognizance of any claim annulled by the said treaty, or the decree ratifying the same by the King of Spain, nor any claim not presented to the commissioners, or register and receiver, in conformity to the several acts of Congress, providing for the settlement of private land claims in Florida.

SECT. 7. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the claimants to lands, as aforesaid, to take an appeal, as directed in the act aforesaid, from the decision of the judge of the district, to the supreme court of the United States, within four months after the decision shall be pronounced; and the said judges shall each be entitled to receive the extra compensation given to the district judge of Missouri, for the performance of the duties required by this act, out of any money in the treasury not otherwise appropriated.

SECT. 8. And be it further enacted, That so much of the said act, the provisions of which, so far as they are applicable, and are not altered by this act, are hereby extended to the territory of Florida, as subjects the claimants to the payment of costs in any case where the decision may be in favour of their claims, be, and the same is hereby, repealed; and the costs shall abide the decision of the cause, as in ordinary causes before the said court. And so much of the said act as requires the claimants to make adverse claimants parties to their suits, or to show the court what adverse claimants there may be to the land claimed of the United States, be also hereby repealed.

SECT. 9. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the attorney of the United States, for the district in which the suits authorized by this act shall be instituted, in every case where the decision is against the United States, to make out and transmit to the attorney general of the United States, a statement, containing the facts of the case, and the points of law on which the same was de

cided; and it shall be the duty of the attorney general, in all cases where the claim exceeds one league square, and in all other cases, if he shall in such latter cases think the decision of the district judge is erroneous, to direct an appeal to be made to the supreme court of the United States, and to appear for the United States, and prosecute such appeal; which appeal in behalf of the United States may be granted at any time within six months after the rendition of the judgment appealed from, or at any time before the expiration of the term thereof, which may commence next after the expiration of said six months; and it shall be the further duty of the district attorney to observe the instruction given to him by the attorney general in that respect.

SNCT. 10. And be it further enacted,That it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to appoint a law agent, whose special duty it shall be to superintend the interests of the United States, in the premises, to continue him in place as long as the public interest requires his continuance, and to allow such pay to the agent as the President may think reasonable. It shall also be the duty of said agent to collect testimony in behalf of the United States, and to attend, on all occasions, when said claimants may take depositions; and no deposition so taken by them shall be read as evidence, unless said agent or district attorney shall have been notified, in writing, of the time and place of taking them, so long previous to said time as to afford to him an opportunity of being present.

SECT. 11. And be it further enacted,That it shall be lawful for the President to employ assistant counsel, if in his opinion the public interest shall require the same, and to allow to such counsel and the district attorney, such compensation as he may think reasonable.

SECT. 12. And be it further enacted,That any claims to lands, tenements, and hereditaments, within the purview of this act, which shall not be brought by petition before said court within one year from the passage of this act, or which, after being brought before said court, shall, on account of the neglect or delay of the claimant, not be prosecuted to a final decision within two years, shall be for ever barred, both at law and in equity; and no other action at common law, or proceeding in equity, shall ever thereafter be sustained in any court whatever.

SECT. 13. And be it further enacted,That the decrees which may be rendered by said district, or the supreme court of the United States, shall be conclusive between the United States and the said claimants only, and shall not affect the interests of third persons.

CHAP. 71. An Act for the relief of purchasers of the public lands, that have reverted for nonpayment of the purchase money.

SECT. 1. Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That in all cases where public lands have been purchased, on which a further credit has not been taken under the provisions of the act of the second of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one, and have reverted, or are liable to revert, to the United States, for failure to pay the purchase money, or have been sold by the United States by reason of such failure to pay, and in all cases where one twentieth of the purchase money shall have been deposited and forfeited to the United States, it shall be the duty of the register of the land office, where the purchase or deposit was made, to issue, upon application, to the person or persons legally entitled to the benefit of the payments made previous to such reversion or sale, his, her, or their legal representatives or assigns, a certificate for the amount so paid, and not refunded, which shall be received and credited as cash in payment of any public land that has been heretofore, or may hereafter be, sold by the United States, in the state or territory in which such original purchase or deposit was made.

SECT. 2. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the commissioner of the general land office, to prescribe the form of such certificates, which shall, in every case, specify the tract or tracts of land so reverted or sold, the amount paid, date of payments, and by whom made; and it shall be the duty of the register issuing such certificates, to keep a record' of the same, and to forward to the general land office, at the close of each month, an abstract of the certificates issued during the month; and for each certificate, the officer issuing the same shall be entitled to receive, from the applicant, the sum of fifty cents.

SECT. 3. And be it further enacted, That the said certificates, when received in payment for lands, shall be entered in the books of the land office where received,

and transmitted with the accounts of the receiver of the public moneys, to the general land office, in such manner as the commissioner of said office shall prescribe; and if, upon comparison of the original with the returns from the office whence any certificate issued, it shall appear to the satisfaction of the said commissioner that such certificate has been issued and duly paid, according to the true intent and meaning of this act, the same shall be passed to the credit of the person paying the same, as so much cash.

SECT. 4. And be it further enacted, That for any moneys forfeited, on lands sold at New-York or Pittsburg, the certificate shall be issued by the secretary of the treasury; which certificate shall be received in payment for lands at any of the land offices of the United States, as the certificates issued in conformity to the foregoing provisions of this act, are made receivable.

SECT, 3. And be it further enacted, That in no case shall a certificate be issued to any person, except to the person who originally forfeited the lands, or to his heir or heirs; nor shall a grant issue, or the lands purchased with any scrip be transferred, until six months after the certificate shall have been deposited in the office.

SECT. 6. And be it further enacted, That if any tract of land, returned as sold to the general land office, shall have been paid for in forged or altered certificates, such sale shall be void, and the land subject to be sold again, at public or private sale, as the case may be. And in caso any such forged or altered certificate shall be received upon any debt for land heretofore sold, or in part payment of any tract of land that may be hereafter sold, it shall be the duty of the commissioner of the general land office, by advertisement, or in such other manner as he shall direct, to give notice thereof to the person making such payment; and if, within six months after notice, such person shall not pay into the proper land office the amount so falsely paid, the tract of land upon which such payment was made shall, with all money actually paid thereon, be forfeited to the United States.

SECT. 7. And be it further enacted, That where two or more persons have become purchasers of a section or fractional section, the register of the land office for the district in which the lands lie, shall, on application of the parties, and a surrender

of the original certificate, issue separate certificates, of the same date with the original, to each of the purchasers, or their assignees, in conformity with the division agreed on by them. Provided, that in no case shall the fractions so purchased be divided by other than north and south, or east and west lines; nor shall any certificate issue for less than eighty acres. CHAP. 72. An Act to provide for extending the term of certain pensions chargeable on the Navy and Privateer Pension Fund.

SECT. 1. Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That in all cases where provision has been made, by law, for the five years' half pay to the widows and children of officers, seamen, and marines, who were killed in battle, or who died in the naval service of the United States during the last war; and also in all casee where provision has been made for extending the term for five years, in addition to any term of five years, the said provision shall be further extended for an additional term of five years, to commence at the end of the current or last expired term of five years, in each case respectively; making the provision equal to twenty years' half pay, which shall be paid out of the fund heretofore provided by law; and the said pensions shall cease, for the causes mentioned in the laws providing the same, respectively.

SECT. 2. And be it further enacted, That the pensions of all widows, who now are, or who, at any time within one year last past, have been in the receipt thereof, under the provision of the following laws of the United States, or either of them, to wit: an act passed March the fourth, one thousand eight hundred and fourteen, entitled "An act giving pensions to the orphans and widows of the persons elain in the public or private armed vessels of the United States," and an act passed April the sixteenth, one thousand eight hundred and eighteen, entitled "An act in addition to an act, giving pensions to the orphans and widows of persons slain in the public or private armed vessels of the United States," so far as regards persons receiving pensions from the fund arising from captures and salvage, made by the private armed vessels of the United States, be, and the same are hereby, continued, under the restrictions and regulations in the said acts contained, for and during the additional term of five years, from and after the period of the expiration

of the said pensions, respectively. Provided, however, that the said pensions shall be paid from the proceeds of the privateer pension fund alone, and without recourse to the United States for any deficiency, should such occur, which may hereafter arise thereon. And provided, further, that no such pension shall be paid to any such widow after her intermarriage had, or to be had, after she shall have become such widow.

CHAP. 73. An Act to authorize the improving of certain Harbours, the building of Piers, and for other purposes.

CHAP. 74. An Act making an appropriation to extinguish the Indian title to a reserve allowed to Peter Lynch, of the Cherokee tribe of Indians, within the limits of the state of Georgia, by the treaty of one thousand eight hundred and nineteen, between the United States and said tribe of Indians.

CHAP. 75. An Act to grant certain relinquished and unappropriated Lands to the state of Alabama, for the purpose of improving the navigation of the Tennessee, Coosa, Caliawba, and Black Warrior rivers.

SECT. 1. Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled,

That four hundred thousand acres of the relinquished lands in the counties of Madison, Morgan, Limestone, Lawrence, Franklin, and Lauderdale, in the state of Alabama, be, and the same is hereby, granted to said state, to be applied to the improvement of the navigation of the Muscle shoals and Colbert's shoals, in the Tennessee river, and such other parts of said river within said state, as the legis lature thereof may direct. But if there shall not be four hundred thousand acres of relinquished unappropriated land in said counties, the deficiency to be made up out of any unappropriated lands in the county of Jackson, in said state.

SECT. 2. And be it further enacted, That said state of Alabama shall have power to sell, dispose of, and grant said land, for the purposes aforesaid, at a price not less than the minimum price of the public lands of the United States, at the time of such sale.

SECT. 3. And be it further enacted, That the said state of Alabama shall commence said improvements within two years after the passage of this act, and complete the same within ten years thereafter.

SECT. 4. And be it further enacted, That if said state of Alabama shall apply the lands hereby granted, or the proceeds of the sales, or any part thereof, to any other

use or object whatsoever than as directed by this act, before said improvements shall have been completed, the said grant for all lands then unsold shall thereby become null and void; and the said state of Alabama shall become liable and bound to pay to the United States the amount for which said land, or any part thereof, may have been sold, deducting the expenses incurred in selling the same.

SECT. 5. And be it further enacted, That the improvements of said navigation shall be commenced at the lowest point of obstruction in said river, within said state, continued up the same until completed, and be calculated for the use of steam boats, according to such plan of construc tion as the United States' engineers, ap pointed to survey and report thereon, may recommend, and the President of the United States approve. Provided, that such plan shall embrace, if practicable a connexion of the navigation of Elk river, with the said improvements.

SECT. 6. And be it further enacted, That after the completion of said improvements, applied to the improvement of the navithe surplus of said grant, if any, shall be gation of the Coosa, Cahawba, and Black Warrior rivers, in said state, under the direction of the legislature thereof.

SECT. 7. And be it further enacted, That the said rivers, when improved as aforesaid, shall remain for ever free from toll for all property belonging to the govern ment of the United States, and for all persons in their service, and for all the citizens of the United States, unless a toll shall be allowed by an act of Congress. CHAP. 76. An Act making an appropriation for the erection of a Breakwater near the mouth of Delaware Bay.

CHAP. 77. An Act to establish a southern Judicial District in the territory of Florida.

SECT. 1. Be it enacted, by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America, in Congress assembled, That there shall be established another judicial district in the territory of Florida, to be called the southern district, embra cing all that part of the territory which lies south of a line from Indian river on the east, and Charlotte harbour on the west, including the latter harbour; which said court shall exercise all the jurisdiction within said district, as the other superior courts respectively exercise within their respective districts, and shall be subject to all the laws which govern or