Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois, represented in the General Assembly, That the sales of canal lands and town lots, heretofore authorized by law, shall be regulated as follows: The terms of sale shall be, that each purchaser shall pay, at the time of sale, ten per cent. on the amount of the purchase, and shall be bound to pay an interest of six per cent. per annum, upon the balance, at the end of every year, for twenty years; at which time the principal shall be paid. The lands and lots heretofore valued shall be revalued, before being offered for sale under the provisions of this act; and if the sales of lands selected for sale under the provisions of the act, entitled “An act to provide for the sale of certain canal lands and for other purposes,” approved on the twenty-first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven, shall not amount to four hundred thousand dollars, within three months from the termination of the last public sale thereof, the commissioners are authorized to select other lots of land, under the provisions of said act, and, after valuing them as required by law, offer them for sale upon the terms herein provided, and continue to make selections, valuations, and sales, after the expiration of three months from the termination of the last sale, until the sales shall amount to the aforesaid sum of four hundred thousand dollars.

Sec. 2. In all sales of lands and lots under the provisions of this act, the following conditions shall be annexed, and shall compose part of the contract:

1. That the purchaser will not appropriate or use the lot or land so as to reduce its value by means of the use thereof.

2. That, on failure to make payment of interest and principal, according to the terms of sale, all rights acquired by the purchase, and the money paid, shall be forfeited to the State.

3. That payments upon purchases shall be made at Chicago, Ottawa, or Lockport, as may be provided by law, to the person or persons who may be authorized to receive the same.

4. That timber upon land purchased shall not be sold, except upon being converted by the owner of the land into furniture or machinery, and shall be used only, with this exception, for ordinary farming or agricultural purposes, upon the land of the purchaser.

5. That a violation of any one of the conditions of sale shall work a forfeiture of all rights acquired by the purchaser.

6. That a lien shall exist in favor of the State, as well upon all improvements, buildings, and machinery, which may be made or placed upon lands or lots, for the payment of the purchase money and interest, as upon the said lands or lots.

7. That in case of forfeiture of any lot or land for non-payment of interest or principal of purchase money, or for any violation of the conditions of sale, the purchaser shall

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be liable to pay the difference between the price for which the land may be subsequently sold and the price agreed to be paid by such purchaser: Provided, That such difference shall have been occasioned by any act of the purchaser, or shall be a consequence resulting from improper use of the premises, or any part thereof.

8. That no buildings or fixtures shall be removed from any lot or land sold under the provisions of this act, without the consent of the Board or State.

9. That no stream of water passing through the canal lands shall pass, by the sale, so as to deprive the State from the use of such water, if necessary to supply the canal, without charge for the same.

10. That the State, the Board of Canal Commissioners, the agents of each, and all contractors acting under the authority of the Board or State, shall have a right of way over and upon said land in the construction and use of the canal, free from charge: Provided, That purchasers or owners may select the ground on which roads for the uses aforesaid shall pass, if there be no road at the time of purchase.

11. Lands situated upon streams which have been meandered by the surveys of public lands by the United States shall be considered as bounded by the lines of those surveys, and not by the streams.

12. Lands sold under the provisions of this act, and all improvements made thereon, shall be subject to taxation from the date of sale, according to the laws of the State which may be enacted with reference to other estate; the taxes to be assessed and collected under and according to the revenue laws of the State. Upon the terms and conditions specified in this act, the Board shall execute the laws heretofore enacted authorizing sales of canal lots and lands, notwithstanding the time limited for those sales may have expired.

Sec. 3. Purchasers of canal lots and lands shall be entitled to certificates of purchase from the Treasurer of the Board, upon making the first payment of the purchase money, which shall contain a description of the lot or land purchased, and specify the terms of sale, and the condition upon which purchasers will be entitled to patents; which certificate shall be surrendered to the Board when full payment of the purchase money is made; and purchasers shall, upon such surrender, be entitled to final certificates, which are required to be given by the thirty-seventh section of the act, entitled “An act for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan canal,” approved on the ninth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six; and such final certificates may be given to assignees or transferees, upon making proof of assignments and transfers, as required by the act, entitled “An act in relation to the title of school and canal lands,” approved sixteenth of January, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-seven; and patents shall issue upon all final certificates

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to purchasers, their heirs or assigns, as required by the above recited acts: and purchasers of lots and lands heretofore sold shall be entitled to certificates under the provisions of this section.

Sec. 4. Certificates of the purchase of canal lots and lands shall be evidence of title in the purchaser, his, her, or their heirs or assigns, except as against the State or a patent.

Sec. 5. The authority conferred upon the Board of Commissioners of the Illinois and Michigan canal, to make rules and regulations from time to time in respect to persons employed about the canal, shall extend to authorize the Board to require each contractor to furnish to the Board, quarterly or monthly, satisfactory evidence, by the oath of one or more persons or otherwise, that the persons employed have been paid for their services to the date of the previous payment; and, in default of furnishing said evidence, to withhold payment upon estimates until the same is furnished, but the amount withheld not to exceed the sum which may appear to be due for services as aforesaid.

Sec. 6. In case any person employed by contractors upon the canal shall obtain a judgment against the contractor for services rendered upon the canal, and the contractor shall not, within twenty days, pay such judgment, the Board is hereby authorized to pay the same; and such payment shall be a valid set-off against any claim of the contractor upon his contract, or for any services rendered the Board or the State: Provided, That no judgment shall be paid from which an appeal may be prosecuted, until the decision of the case in the appellate court.

Sec. 7. In making payments to contractors, the Board is authorized to deliver checks upon the bank in which the canal fund shall be deposited, in such amounts as may suit the convenience of the contractor; the checks shall be signed by the President of the Board, countersigned by the acting Commissioner, and made payable to the order of the Treasurer; and, upon making payments, the Treasurer shall take duplicate receipts containing a descriptive list of the checks delivered, one of which shall be filed with the Secretary of the Board, and the other retained by the Treasurer; and the Secretary shall make weekly reports to the bank of the delivery of such checks, giving in such report a description thereof.

Sec. 8. The checks, being signed by the President and acting Commissioner, shall remain in possession of the Secretary under the direction of the Board, and shall be delivered to the Treasurer when required for use, who shall execute a receipt to the Secretary, containing a descriptive list of the checks delivered; but no check shall be delivered to the Treasurer except upon the requisition of the acting Commissioner or President of the Board.

Sec. 9. At the end of every month, or oftener, if deemed necessary, the Board shall examine and settle the accounts of

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the Treasurer, and make entries on the books of the Secretary, showing the true state of the accounts; and the acting Commissioner shall settle the accounts with the bank in which the canal fund may be deposited every three months; upon which settlement the bank shall be entitled to credit for the amount of checks returned to the said Commissioner; which checks, when returned by the bank, shall be delivered to the Secretary of the Board, and may be again used by the Treasurer in making payments, upon the terms and in the manner required in the first instance; and no money shall be drawn from the bank except upon checks executed and delivered as required by this act: Provided, That no check shall be made under the provisions of this act upon any bank out of this State.

Sec. 10. In making estimates of the amount and value of work executed upon contracts, regard shall be had, in fixing the price or value, as well to the work to be performed as that executed; and the price shall bear a rateable proportion to each; and the amount to be retained from contractors, as security for their performance, shall have relation to the amount and value of work to be performed as well as to that executed; and in all cases of payments upon estimates, the amount retained shall be graduated and reduced in the proportions following: At every alternate estimate, one-half of the amount retained at the previous estimate shall be paid, until the contract shall be more than half completed; after which time the first payment shall include one-half of the whole amount retained upon previous estimates; and, at every alternate estimate thereafter, three-fourths of the amount retained at the prexious estimate may be paid, until the completion of the contract.

Sec. 11. Contractors who feel themselves aggrieved by the estimates or measurements of engineers, may apply to the Board to order a new measurement, and such application shall be granted upon condition that, in case the second estimate does not exceed the first, the contractor shall pay the cost of making the second estimate; and in such case the measurement shall be made by a different engineer from the one who made the first.

Sec. 12. In order to afford facilities to contractors, the Canal Commissioners may purchase, and keep on hand for their use, provisions, powder, tools, iron and steel, upon the plan heretofore adapted, and deliver such articles in payment of estimates at the cost thereof.

Sec. 13. When contracts have been or may be forfeited or abandoned by contractors, the Canal Commissioners may, in accordance with the practice, make new contracts without advertising for proposals, provided the price does not exceed the estimates of the engineer.

Sec. 14. Town lots and land valued and offered for sale by the Board of Canal Commissioners, and not sold at public aution, may be purchased at their valuation, at any time with-

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in three months after being offered at public sale; the sale to be made by the Secretary of the Board, and the Treasurer to give a certificate of purchase, upon receiving a certificate of the deposite of the amount of the purchase money in one of the banks in this State; but no one person or company shall be permitted to purchase, at private sale, more than three lots, nor more than three hundred and twenty acres of land; nor shall any such sale be made except to persons who intend, bona fide, to improve and occupy the lot or land purchased; and every purchaser, before being permitted to purchase at private sale, shall make and file with the Secretary of the Board an affidavit, in the words following: “I, A. B., do swear (or affirm, as the case may be) that I desire to purchase the (here insert the description of the lot or land) for the purpose of improving and occupying the same bona fide; that the purchase is not for the use of nor in trust for any person or persons whateve, except for myself.”

Sec. 15. The Board of Canal Commissioners shall proceed to the construction of the canal diverging from the main trunk of the Illinois and Michigan canal, through the Saganaskee swamp2 and Grassy lake, to intersect the Calumet river at the most practicable point, the survey of which was authorized by the fourth section of the act, entitled “An act to amend the act, entitled ‘An act for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan canal, approved January 9, 1836,’” approved March 2, 1837, whenever they shall be notified that the State of Indiana has commenced the construction of a corresponding work to connect her system of internal improvements with the Illinois and Michigan canal; and the cost of such construction shall be paid out of the canal funds. In forming a junction with the Illinois and Michigan canal, and at the Calumet river, and in the location throughout, the Board shall adopt the most natural connection and route, keeping in view the shortest, best, and cheapest route, and the interest of the State in lands and otherwise. The said canal shall be deemed and considered as part and parcel of the Illinois and Michigan canal, and the laws and regulations adopted with reference to the construction thereof, the duties of Canal Commissioners, the making and executing contracts, shall be held and deemed applicable to the canal directed to be constructed by this act.

Sec. 16. Each judge of a circuit court of any county through which the canal passes is authorized and required to appoint a board of assessors, not exceeding six in number, under the provisions of the act recited in the fifteenth section of this act, and to fill all vacancies which may occur in said board. The powers and duties of the board, and the qualifications of the members thereof, shall be the same as those in the act aforesaid; but no more than three of said board shall be authorized to act upon any one case.

Sec. 17. No damage shall be allowed to any person for the use of water in any river or stream, the bed of which, or some part thereof, does not belong to the claimant, nor for the use of water in any stream, whether navigable or not, if the boundaries of the land through which it passes are fixed by land-marks, and not by the stream itself.

Sec. 18. Islands and inundated lands, situated within the limits of sections of lands granted to the State by the United States, shall be deemed, occupied, and held as canal lands.

Sec. 19. Purchasers of canal lots and lands may pay the amount due upon the purchase at any time, and receive final certificates from the Treasurer, as herein provided.

Sec. 20. The provisions of the thirty-ninth and fortieth sections of the act, entitled “An act for the construction of the Illinois and Michigan canal,” approved on the ninth day of January, one thousand eight hundred and thirty-six, are hereby made applicable to sales made under the provisions of this act, with this exception, that, after any lots or lands have been subject to private sale under the provisions of this act for the period of one month, any one of the Board of Canal Commissioners, or other agent of the State, may purchase not exceeding one block of town lots, or three hundred and twenty acres of land on which to reside; but this provision is not to extend to more than one purchase, and the terms of sale to be the same as those imposed upon other purchasers.

Sec. 21. No contractor shall be entitled to the benefit of the provisions of this act until he shall have filed, with the Board of Canal Commissioners a writing, under his hand and seal, agreeing that his contract shall be deemed and considered as having been executed under the provisions of this act, and that he will be bound to comply with and conform to the provisions hereof as fully as if this act had been in force at the date of the contract.

Sec. 22. Payments shall hereafter be made to contractors at Ottawa and Lockport, the place to be at the option of the contractor; but this provision shall not interfere with any arrangement which may be made by contractors with the Board in reference to the place of payment.

Sec. 23. If, in the construction of the canal, the Board shall be satisfied that any section of the work can be executed with less cost to the State by the employment of laborers, and executing the work, than by the execution thereof by contract, they are authorized to adopt that plan of execution.

Sec. 24. The laws authorizing the sale of lots and lands by Canal Commissioners shall be construed as conferring power upon the Board to continue sales from day to day for any number of days not exceeding twenty.

Approved, February 26, 1839.