Sec.[Section] 1. Be it enacted by the People of the State of Illinois represented in the General Assembly, That any person who actually resided [on, or ha]d made perm [anent] improvements on any lands heretofore purchased by the Board of Commissioners of Public Works, by authority of the 31^st section of an act entitled “an act to establish and maintain a genera[l] system of Internal Improvement, approved February 27^th 1837 and who had made such improvements and resided on or occupied such improvements three months before, and at the time of such purchase, and who had not given their concent to the purchase of the State, shall be entitled to a deed for the same upon the conditions hereinafter mentioned, for any legal subdivision of said lands, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres.

Sec. 2. Any person having the right to avail himself or her self of the provisions of this act, shall go before the Clerk of the Circuit Court or County Court, or any Justice of the peace of the County in which ^said^ land may be situated, and mark proof of his or her claim according to the full intent and meaning of the provisions contained in the foregoing [section ][?] taken [?] which proof shall be taken under oath, and shall be certified at length by the officer taking the same. The applicant shall present the same to the Fund Commissioner, and if upon examination of the same he shall be of the opinion that said lands so applied for were purchased contrary to the true intent and meaning of the 31^st Section of the act in relation to Internal Improvement approved February 27^th 1837, and shall s[0]

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decide, it shall then be lawful for such applicant to pay over to the Fund Commissioner, the sum of one Dollar and twenty five cents per acre for as much as he shall establish his claim to, not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres, together with interest at the rate of six per cent per annum, to be computed from the time of purchase by the State to the time of payment herein mentioned. And it shall moreover be the duty of said Fund Commissioner to [give s]uch applicant a receipt, for the same, specifying therein the quantity of land, and an accurate description of the tract, or tracts of land so paid for, And it shall moreover be the duty of the Auditor of public Accounts, upon the presentation of such receipt, to execute a good, and sufficient deed for the land so described, to the person entitled to the same.

Sec. 3. This act shall be construed liberally to favor the settler on any lands bought by the State, contrary to the provisions of the act hereinbefore alluded ^to^ but no right herein provided to be protected, shall be assignable or otherwise transferable, before the making of the deed by the Auditor.

Provided this act shall remain in force for one year and no longer.