Deeds. No estate of inheritance or freehold, or for a term exceeding one year in lands or tenements, shall be conveyed from one to another by deed unless the same be in writing signed, sealed, and delivered by the party making the same, and acknowledged before a senator, judge, justice of the peace, public notary, or town-clerk, by the party or par ties who shall have sealed or delivered it, and recorded or lodged to be recorded in the office of the town-clerk of the town where the said lands or tenements lie. Any conveyance of lands within this state, or any instrument relating thereto, executed without the limits of this state and within the United States, may be acknowledged before any judge, justice of peace, mayor, or public notary, in the state where the same is executed; and if without the limits of the United States, before any embassador, minister, charge de affaires, recognised consul, vice-consul, or commercial agent of the United States, in the country in which such deed or instrument is executed. A married woman may bar her right of dower in any estate conveyed by her husband, by joining with him in the deed conveying the same, and therein releasing her claim to dower or by releasing the same by subsequent deed jointly with her husband, or by joining in a deed given by a guardian of her husband. The wife acknowledging a deed shall be examined privily and apart from her husband; and shall declare to the officer taking such acknowledgment that the deed or instrument shown and explained to her by such magistrate is her voluntary act, and that she doth not wish to retract the same. State of Rhode Island, County of Providence, Form of Acknowledgment. On this sixteenth day of April, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-one, before me, personally appeared JOHN DOE, and SUSAN DOE his wife, and severally acknowledged the foregoing instrument to be their free and voluntary act and deed; and the said SUSAN, on a private examination, separate and apart from her husband, declared to me, that the foregoing instrument, then by me shown and explained to her, is her free and voluntary act and deed, and that she doth not wish to retract the same. JOHN JONES, (seal) Justice of the Peace It is requisite that a seal be use in this state. Rights of Married Women. THE real estate, chattels real, household furniture, plate, jewels stock, or shares in the capital stock of any incorporated company of this state, or debts secured by mortgage on property within this state, which are the property of any woman before marriage, or which may become the property of any woman after marriage, shall be, and are hereby so far secured to her sole and separate use that the same and the rents, profits, and income thereof, shall not be liable to be attached or in any way taken for the debts of her husband, either before or after his death. Any policy of insurance made by any insured company, on the life of any person, expressed to be for the benefit of a married woman, whether the same be effected by herself or by her husband, or by any other person ou her behalf, shall enure to her separate use and benefit and that of her children, if any, independently of her husband and of his creditors and representatives, and also independently of any other person effecting the same on her behalf, his creditors and representatives, and a trustee or trustees may be appointed by any court authorized to appoint trustees, to hold and manage the interest of any married woman in any such policy or the proceeds thereof. Provided, however, that the provisions of this act shall not apply to any policy upon which the amount of annual premium shall exceed the sum of three hundred dollars. DOWER.-The widow of any person shall be endowed of one full and equal third part of all the lands, tenements, and hereditaments, whereof her husband or any other to his use, was seized of an estate of inheritance at any time during the intermarriage. Rate of Interest. THE legal rate of interest is six per cent. In an action brought upon a usurious contract, the plaintiff can recover the principal, with legal interest and costs of suit. Wills. WILLS must be in writing, signed by the testator or by some person in his presence, and by his express direction, and attested and subscribed in the presence of the testator, by three or more competent witnesses. CONNECTICUT. Constitution adopted 1818.-Square Miles 4,764-Population in 1850, 371,982. THERE is exempt from sale on execution the necessary apparel, bedding and household furniture necessary for supporting life; arms, military equipments; implements of the debtor's trade; one cow; sheep not exceeding ten; two swine, and the pork produced from two swine, or two swine, and two hundred pounds of pork, being the property of one person; charcoal not exceeding twenty-five bushels; any quantity of coal, other than charcoal, not exceeding two tons; wheatflour, not exceeding two hundred pounds weight; wood, not exceeding two cords; hay, not exceeding two tons; beef, not exceeding two hundred pounds; fish, not exceeding two hundred pounds; potatoes or turnips, not exceeding five bushels of each; Indian corn or rye, not exceeding ten bushels of each, and the meal or flour manufactured therefrom; wool or flax, not exceeding twenty pounds weight of each, or the yarn or cloth made therefrom; one stove, and the pipe belonging thereto, being the property of any one person having a wife or family; the horse, saddle, and bridle, of any practising physician or surgeon, of a value not exceeding one hundred dollars; and one pew, being the property of any person or persons having a family, who ordinarily occupy the same. EVERY dwelling-house or other building with the land on which the same may stand, shall be subject to the payment of all sums exceeding two hundred dollars, due from the proprietor to the contractor for any work done or materials found, in erecting, constructing, or repairing such building, and the same shall be a lien thereon, and shall take precedence of any other lien or incumbrance which originated subsequent to the commencement of such building or repairs. Any sub contractor or joint sub-contractors, having a legal claim for labor or materials to the amount of fifty dollars or more, and the contract between the subcontractor and the original contractor, be in writing, shall also have a like lien. Such lien continues only sixty days after the building is finished, or the contractor has ceased to labor thereon, unless he lodge with the town-clerk of the town in which such building is situate a certificate in writing, describing the premises and the amount claimed as a lien thereon, the same being first subscribed and sworn to as to the amount justly due, so near as the same can be ascertained, which certificate shall be recorded by the town-clerk with deeds of land. Chattel Mortgages. WHEN any one mortgages machinery, engines, or implements in any factory, or household furniture in a dwelling-house, or hay in a building, together with the realty on which the same are situate, and particularly describes the personal property so mortgaged in the instrument of mortgage, it shall be as effectual to hold the personal as if it were a part of the real estate, although the mortgager retain possession. If he shall mortgage the said personal property, situated as aforesaid, without mortgaging the real, and shall execute, acknowledge, and record it in all respects as a mort gage of lands, it shall be valid, though the mortgager retain the possession. Law regulating Contracts. No suit shall be brought upon any contract or agreement whereby to charge any executor or administrator upon any special promise to answer damages out of his own e-tate; or whereby to charge the defendant upon any special promise to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage of another person; or to charge any person upon any agreement made upon consideration of marriage; or upon any contract for the sale of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any interest in or concerning them; or upon any agreement that is not to be performed within the space of one year from the making thereof; unless the contract or agreement, or some memorandum or note thereof, shall be made in writing and signed by the party to be charged therewith, or by some other person thereunto by him lawfully authorized. No contract for the sale of any goods, wares. or merchandise, for the price of thirtyfive dollars or upward, shall be allowed to be good, unless the buyer shall accept part of the goods so sold, and actually receive the same, or give something in earnest to bind the bargain, or in part payment, or unless some note or memorandum in writing, of the said bargain, shall be made and signed by the parties to be charged by such contract, or by their agents, thereunto lawfully authorized. Limitation of Actions. ENTRY upon lands must be made within fifteen years after the right accrued, and no such entry shall be sufficient unless an action be brought within one year thereafter. No action shall be brought on any bond, or writing obligatory, contract under seal, or promissory note not negotiable, but within seventeen years after right accrued. Those legally incapable at the time such right accrued, may bring the same at any time within four years after becoming legally capable. Actions of account, debt on book, on simple contract, assumpsit founded upon implied contract or upon any contract in writing not under seal, except promissory notes not negotiable, must be brought within six years. Those not capable may bring it within three years after becoming capable. Actioas of trespass on the case must be brought within six years. Actions upon an express contract not in writing, of trespass, and actions upun the case for words, must be brought within three years. The time when the defendant is out of the state is excluded from the computation. Collection of Debts. ARREST.-No execution issued in an action founded on contract merely, express or implied, shall be levied on the body of a debtor, except in actions founded upon prom ises to marry, on misconduct or neglect in any office or professional employment, or in actions instituted against a public officer, trustee, or any person acting in a fiduciary capacity, to recover moneys collected or received by him. Whenever any person shall be guilty of fraud in contracting a debt, or shall conceal, remove, withhold, assign, or convey away, his estate, moneys, goods, chattels, or choses in actions with intent to prevent the same from being taken by legal process, or shall refuse to pay any debt admitted by him, or established by a valid judgment, while having moneys or estate not exempt from execution, sufficient to discharge the same, concealed or withheld by him so that the same can not be taken by legal process, or shall refuse to disclose his rights of actions, with intent to prevent the same from being taken by foreign attachment, any creditor aggrieved thereby may institute an action on the case, against such person, setting forth his debt in the declaration, and also setting forth particularly such fraudulent act, or acts, and have process of attachment and execution against the body of the defendant, to be proceeded with in all respects as in other actions of tort. ATTACHMENT.-Attachments may be granted against the goods and chattels of the defendant, and for want thereof, against his lands, or against his person when not exempt from imprisonment on the execution of the suit, |