appear before a court of justice, on account of either the property or the possession.

It ceases likewise to run when the debtor or possessor makes acknowledgment of the right of the person whose title they prescribed.

Husbands and wives cannot prescribe against one another.

Minors and persons under interdiction cannot be prescribed against. Married women may be prescribed against, though not separated of property, for all belonging to them and administered by their husbands, saving their recourse against their husbands.

But prescription does not take place during marriage, as it respects property alienated which made a part of the dowry, nor in any case during marriage when the action of the wife may be prejudicial to her husband.

Finally, lands not acquirable by alienation cannot be obtained by prescription.

The only saving in favor of foreigners or citizens of other States is the requiring twenty years instead of ten, as heretofore mentioned.

To this is to be added, that, if the true proprietor of the land resided at times in the State and at times out of it, two years' absence must be computed as one year of actual residence, and thus added to the time of residence already elapsed.

Any Act which amounted to an express or tacit renunciation would bar limitation. As yet, there are no decisions worthy of note upon this subject.

When the civil code is silent, this State is obliged to have recourse to the Spanish law concerning limitations, as laid down in the Partidas and 'in Febrero.

Prescription may be pleaded in any stage of a cause, even on an appeal. Creditors, and every other person who may have any interest in acquiring an estate by prescription, have a right to plead it, even in case the person claiming such an estate should renounce the said right of prescription.

All personal actions may be prescribed against after thirty years; nor can it be alleged that the party pleading it acted knavishly.

After the expiration of ten years, the architect or undertaker is released from all responsibility with respect to stone or brick buildings, and five years will release him with respect to wooden buildings or frames filled up with brick.

Slaves may be prescribed for in half the time required for the prescription of immovable estates, and in the same manner and subject to the same exceptions.

If a man has a public and notorious possession of a thing for three years in presence of the owner, he being a resident within the State, he

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is presumed to have known it, and the property is vested in the [* cxv] possessor, unless stolen.

And if the thing were stolen, yet if purchased by the possessor at a public market or fair, or at auction, or from a person dealing in similar commodities, the owner can only reobtain possession by paying the purchase-money.

Claims of teachers or schoolmasters for lessons given by the month are prescribed against after a year, unless a settlement has taken place, a note given, or an action be pending before a court of justice.

So likewise with keepers of taverns and boarding-houses, for boarding and lodging.

So also with workmen and day-laborers for payment of their day's works, and of the materials by them furnished.

So also for domestics who let their services by the year.

The arrears on life annuities, alimony, rent of houses and rural estates, the interest of money lent, and every thing generally which is to be paid by the year or at shorter periods, may be prescribed against at the expiration of five years.

The prescription as regards all these persons (beginning with schoolmasters) runs against minors and interdicted persons, reserving to them all such remedies as they may have against their tutors and curators.

The only savings are the tacit or express renunciation.

There are no savings exclusively in favor of citizens of other States or foreigners.

WESTERN STATES.

TENNESSEE.

Real Property, 1819, Ch. 28. (Compilation of the Statutes of Tennessee, 1826.)

Whereas many disputes have arisen with regard to the proper construction of the statutes of limitation, and the time seems fast approaching when the titles to land will become so perplexed that no man will know from whom to take or buy lands, for remedy whereof.

SECTION 1. In all cases where any person or persons, their heirs or assigns, shall, at the passing of this Act, or at any time after having had seven years' possession of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, which have been granted by this State, or the State of North Carolina, [* cxvi] holding or claiming the same by virtue of a deed or deeds of conveyance, devise, grant, or other assurance, purporting to convey an estate in fee-simple, and no claim by suit in law or equity, effect

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ually prosecuted, shall have been set up or made to the said lands, tenements, and hereditaments within the aforesaid time, then and in that case the person or persons, their heirs or assigns so holding possession as aforesaid, shall be entitled to keep and hold in possession such quantity of land as shall be specified and described in his, her, or their deed of conveyance, devise, grant, or other assurance as aforesaid, in preference to and against all and all manner of person or persons whatsoever; and any person or persons, and their heirs, who shall neglect, or who shall have neglected for the said term of seven years, to avail themselves of the benefit of any title, legal or equitable, which he, she, or they may have to any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, within this State, by suit of law or equity, effectually prosecuted against the person or persons so as aforesaid in possession, shall be for ever barred, and the person or persons, their heirs or assigns, so holding or keeping possession as aforesaid, for the term aforesaid, shall have a good and indefeasible title in fee-simple to such lands, tenements, or hereditaments: Provided, that if any person or persons that have been, are, or shall be entitled to commence and prosecute such suit in law or equity, shall have been, be, or shall be, at the time of said right or title first descended, accrued, come, or fallen within the age of twenty-one years, feme covert, non compos mentis, imprisoned, or beyond the limits of the United States and the Territories thereof, that then such person and persons, his, her, or their heir or heirs, shall or may, notwithstanding the seven years be expired, bring his or her suit or action, as he, she, or they might have done before this Act, so as such person and persons, or his, her, or their heir and heirs, shall, within three years next after his, her, and their full age, discoverture, coming of sound mind, enlargement out of prison, coming into the United States or the Territories thereof, or death, take benefit of and commence such suit, and at no time after the said three years. Provided, also, that, in the construction of this saving, no cumulative disability shall prevent the bar aforesaid, but shall only apply to that or those disabilities which existed when the right to sue first accrued, and no other and Provided, also, that such suit so commenced to save the bar shall be a suit prosecuted with effect, and no other.

SECT. 2. No person or persons, or their heirs, shall have, sue, or maintain any action or suit, either in law or equity, for any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, but within seven years next after his, her, or their right to commence, have, or maintain such suit shall have come, fallen, or accrued ; and that all suits, either in law or equity, for the recovery of any lands, tenements, or hereditaments, shall be had and sued within seven years next after the title or cause of action, or suits accrued or fallen, and at no time after the said seven years shall have passed: Provided, that if

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any person or persons that is or shall be entitled to commence [* cxvii] and prosecute such suit or action in law or equity be, or shall be,

at the time of said right or title first accrued, come, or fallen, within the age of twenty-one years, feme covert, non compos mentis, imprisoned, or beyond the limits of the United States and the Territories thereof, that then such person or persons, his, her, and their heir or heirs, shall and may, notwithstanding the said seven years be expired, bring his or her suit or action as he, she, or they might have done before this Act, so as such person and persons, his, her, and their heir and heirs, shall, within three years next after his, her, and their full age, discoverture, coming of sound mind, enlargement out of prison, coming into the United States or the Territories. thereof, or death, take benefit of and commence such suit, and at no time after the said three years: Provided, also, that in the construction of this saving, no cumulative disability shall prevent this bar, but shall only apply to that or those disabilities which existed at the time when the right to sue first accrued, and no other: and Provided, also, that such suit, so commenced to prevent the bar, shall be a suit prosecuted with effect, and no other.

SECT. 3. Provided, nevertheless, that if, on any of the said actions or suits, judgment shall be given for the plaintiff, and the same be reversed by writ of error, or verdict pass for the plaintiff, and, upon matter alleged in arrest of judgment, the judgment be given against the plaintiff, that he take nothing by his plaint, writ, bill, or suit; or if any of said actions shall be commenced by original writ, and the defendant cannot be legally attached or served with process, in all such cases, the party plaintiff, his heirs, executors, or administrators, as the case shall require, may commence a new action or suit from time to time, within a year after such judgment reversed, or such judgment given against the plaintiff, or until the defendant can be attached or served with process, so as to compel him, her, or them to appear and answer: and Provided, also, that this Act shall have no bearing on the lands reserved for the use of schools.

SECT. 4. All laws and parts of laws, within the purview and meaning of this Act, shall stand repealed from and after the passing of this Act.

Personal Actions.

Ch. 27 enacts: SECT. 5. That all actions of trespass, detinue, actions sur trover, and replevin for taking away goods and chattels, all actions of accounts and upon the case, all actions of debt for arrearages of rent, and all actions of assault, menace, battery, wounding, and imprisonment, or any of them, which shall be sued or brought at any time after the ratification of this Act, shall be commenced or brought within the time and limitation in this Act expressed, and not after: that is to say, actions of account, render, actions upon the case, actions of debt for arrearages of rent, actions of detinue, replevin, and trespass quare clausum fregit, within [* cxviii] three years next after the ratification of this Act, or within

three years next after the cause of such action or suit, and not after, except such accounts as concern the trade of merchandise between merchant and merchant, and their factors or servants; and the said actions of trespass, assault and battery, wounding, imprisonment, or any of them, within one year next after the ratification of this Act, or within one year after the cause of such action or suit, and not after, and the said actions upon the case for words, within six months after the ratification of this Act, or within six months after the words spoken, and not after.

SECT. 6. That if, on any of the said actions or suits, judgments be given for the plaintiff, and the same be reversed by error, or a verdict pass for the plaintiff, and, upon matter alleged in arrest of judgment, the judgment be given against the plaintiff, that he take nothing by his plaint, writ, or bill; or if any of the said actions shall be brought by original writ, and the defendant cannot be attached, or legally served with process, that in all such cases the party plaintiff, his heirs, executors, or administrators, as the case shall require, may commence a new action or suit, from time to time, within a year after such judgment reversed, or such judgment given against the plaintiff, or till the defendant can be attached or served with process, so as to compel him to appear and answer.

SECT. 9. If any person or persons that is or shall be entitled to any such action of trespass, detinue, actions sur trover, replevin, actions of accounts, and upon the case, actions of debt for arrearages of rent, actions of assault, menace, battery, wounding, and imprisonment, actions of trespass quare clausum fregit, actions upon the case for slanderous words, be, or shall be, at the time of any such cause of action given or accrued, fallen or come within the age of twenty-one years, feme covert, non compos mentis, imprisoned, or beyond seas, that then such person or persons shall be at liberty to bring the same actions, so as they bring the same within such times as are before limited, after their coming to or being of full age, discovert, of sound memory, at large, or returned from beyond seas, as other persons having no such impediments might have done.

Beyond Seas.

By Act of 1827, the words "beyond seas " shall be deemed and taken to mean beyond the limits of the United States, in all statutes of limitation then in force.

Book Accounts.

Actions upon, limited to five years after delivery of the goods.

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