ARKANSAS.

Constitution adopted 1836.-Square Miles, 52,198.-Population in 1850, 198,796

Exemptions.

THERE is exempt from levy and sale on execution, if belonging to any one not the head of a family, his wearing-apparel, except watches, and also the necessary tools and implements of trade of a mechanic while carrying on his trade.

If belonging to a married man with a family, one horse, mule, or yoke of oxen; one cow and calf; one plough, one axe, one hoe, and one set of plough gears, if the person be a farmer: spinning-wheels and cards, one loom and apparatus necessary for manufacturing cloth in a private family; all spun yarn, thread, and cloth, manufactured for family use; any quantity of hemp, flax, cotton, and wool, not exceeding twenty-five pounds; all wearingapparel of the family; two beds, with the usual bedding; and such other household and kitchen furniture as may be necessary for the family, agreeably to an inventory thereof, to be returned on oath with the execution by the officer; the necessary tools and implements of trade of any mechanic, while carrying on his trade; all arms and military equipments required by law to be kept, and all such provisions as may be on hand for family use.

Mechanics' Lien.

MECHANICS have a lien for all sums over one hundred dollars, for labor and materials, if they file with the clerk of the circuit court of the county where the building is, a true account of their demand and the amount due, verified by oath of the person entitled to the lien, which lien extends to the land appurtenant to the building, not exceeding two acres.

The lien continues in force only one year after the building is finished, unless suit be brought to enforce it.

Law regulating Contracts.

No action shall be brought

1. To charge any executor or administrator, upon any special promise, to answer for any debt or damage out of his own estate;

2. To charge any person, upon any special promise, to answer for the debt, default, or miscarriage, of another;

3. To charge any person upon an agreement made in consideration of mar riage;

4. To charge any person upon any contract for the sale of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, or any interest in or concerning them;

5. To charge any person upon any lease of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, for a longer term than one year;

6. To charge any person upon any contract, promise, or agreement, that is not to be performed within one year from the making thereof; unless the agreement, promise, or contract, upon which such action shall be brought, or some memoran

dum or note thereof, shall be made in writing, and signed by the party to be charged therewith, or signed by some other person by him thereunto properly

authorized.

No contract for the sale of goods, wares, and merchandise, for the price of thirty dollars or upward, shall be binding on the parties, unless, first, there be some note or memorandum, signed by the party to be charged; or, second, the purchaser shall accept a part of the goods so sold, and actually receive the same; or, third, shall give something in earnest to bind the bargain, or in part payment thereof.

Limitation of Actions.

ACTIONS upon promissory notes, and other instruments in writing, not under seal, shall be commenced within five years after the cause of action shall accrue. Actions upon sealed instruments, judgments, and decrees, within ten years. All actions of account, assumpsit, or case, founded on any other contract or liability, within three years.

Non-residents are subject to the limitation equally with residents; but when a debtor has absconded from another state into Arkansas, without the knowledge of his creditor, such creditor may sue within the time limited, after he is apprised of such residence of the absconding debtor.

Minors, married women, persons insane, or imprisoned out of the state, have the same times respectively after the removal of their disability.

Any acknowledgment to take a case out of the operation of the statute, or to bind a person for a debt contracted during infancy, must be in writing. One joint contractor or executor is not bound by the promise of another.

Collection of Debts.

ATTACHMENT.-If a creditor shall, at the time of filing his declaration, file an affidavit of himself, or some other person for him, stating that the defendant is justly indebted to the plaintiff in a sum exceeding one hundred dollars, and stating the amount, and also that the defendant is not a resident of this state, or that he is about to remove out of this state, or that he is about to remove his goods and effects out of this state, or that he so secretes himself that process can not be served on him, an attachment against his property may issue.

Bond, in double the amount claimed, must also be filed, conditioned for the payment of such damages as may be awarded against him.

Justices of the peace may issue an attachment in like cases when the demand is one hundred dollars or less.

Boats running on the navigable waters of the state may be attached for debts contracted by the owner, &c., on account of work or supplies furnished the boat.

ARREST.-Only in case of fraud alleged by the plaintiff, and supported by his affidavit and the affidavit of some disinterested and creditable person, to the facts on which such allegation is founded, can any person be arrested in a civil action.

Deeds.

DEEDS shall be executed in the presence of two witnesses, and SEALED. They should be acknowledged, if in the state, before the supreme court, the circuit court, or either of the judges thereof, or the clerk of either of said courts, or before the county court, or the presiding judge thereof, or any justice of the

peace, or notary public.

If elsewhere in the United States, before any court of the United States, or of any state or territory having a seal, or the clerk of any such court, or the mayor of any city or town, or the chief officer of any city or town, having a seal of office. If out of the United States, before any court having a seal, or any mayor or chief officer of any city or town having an official seal.

The certificate to be attested under the seal of office; but if he have no such seal, then under his official signature.

If the grantor be not personally known to the officer, he must be satisfactorily proven.

The grantor must acknowledge that he executed the deed for the consideration and purposes therein mentioned and set forth.

Married women must voluntarily appear before such court or officer, and in the absence of her husband declare that she had, of her own free will, executed the instrument in question, or had signed and sealed the relinquishment of dower, for the purposes therein contained and set forth, without compulsion or undue influence her husband.

Deeds should be recorded by the recorder of the county where the land is situated.

State of Arkansas,

Form of Acknowledgment.

County of Franklin,

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to wit:

Be it remembered, that on the first day of October, one thousand eight han dred and fifty, before me, JOHN JONES, a notary public in and for said county, personally appeared JOHN DOE and SUSAN his wife, to me personally known to be the persons described in and who executed the foregoing conveyance, and severally acknowledged that they executed the same, for the consideration and pur. poses therein mentioned; and the said SUSAN, having voluntarily appeared before me, in the absence of her husband, declared that she had, of her own free will, executed the said conveyance, and had signed and sealed the relinquishment of her dower, for the purposes therein contained and set forth, without compulsion or undue influence of her husband.

(Seal.) JOHN JONES, Notary Public.

Rights of Married Women.

ANY married woman may become seized and possessed of any property, real or personal, in her own right and as of her own property, provided the same does not come from the husband after marriage.

The slaves and their natural increase, owned by any married woman before marriage, and that she may acquire after marriage, shall be her separate property, exempt from any liability for the debts or contracts of the husband.

But a schedule, under oath, and verified by the oath of some other reputable person, must be made out by the husband and wife, and filed in the recorder's office of the county where the property is, and of the county where they reside. DOWER. A widow shall be endowed of the third part of all the lands whereof her husband was seized of an estate of inheritance at any time during the marriage, unless the same shall have been relinquished in legal form.

Rate of Interest.

WHERE no rate is mentioned, it is six per cent. Parties may contract for any rate not exceeding ten per cent. Usurious contracts are void.

Wills.

EVERY will shall be executed and attested in the following manner :

1. It must be subscribed by the testator at the end of the will, or by some person for him at his request.

2. Such subscription shall be made by the testator in the presence of each of the attesting witnesses, or shall be acknowledged by him to have been so made to each of the attesting witnesses.

3. The testator, at the time of making such subscription, or at the time of acknowledging the same, shall declare the instrument so subscribed to be his will and testament.

4. There shall be at least two attesting witnesses, each of whom shall sign his name as a witness at the end of the will, at the request of the testator.

5. Where the entire body of the will and the signature thereto shall be written in the proper handwriting of the testator or testatrix, such will may be established by the unimpeachable evidence of at least three disinterested witnesses to the handwriting and signature of each testator or testatrix notwithstanding there may be no attesting witnesses to such will; but no will, without such subscribing witnesses. shall be pleaded in bar of a will subscribed in due form as prescribed in this act.

Every person who shall sign the testator's name to any will by his direction, shall write his own name as a witness to such will, and state that he signed the testator's name at his request.

Wills.-LOUISIANA.

WILLS are nuncupative or open, mystic or sealed, and olographic. They must all be in writing, either by the testator himself or by some other person under his direction.

Nuncupative wills may be made by public acts or by act under private signature. If by public acts, it must be received by a notary public, in the presence of three witnesses residing in the place where the will is executed, or of five witnesses not residing in the place. It must be dictated by the testator, and written by the notary as it is dictated. It must be read to the testator in presence of the witnesses, and signed by the testator. All those formalities must be fulfilled at one time, without interruption. It must be signed by the witnesses, or at least by one of them for all. if the others can not write.

If under private signature, it must be written by the testator or by any other person from his dictation, in presence of five witnesses residing in the place where the will is received, or of seven witnesses residing out of the place; or the testator may present the paper on which he has written his testament, or caused it to be written out of their presence, declaring to them that that paper contains his last will. In either case, the will must be read by the testator to the witnesses, or by one of the witnesses to the rest, in presence of the testator. It must be signed by the testator if he is able, and by the witnesses, or at least by two of them in case the others know not how to sign, and those of the witnesses who do not know how to sign must affix their marks.

The mystic or secret testament is made in the following manner: The testator must sign the will, whether he has written it himself or has caused it to be written by another. The will, or the paper serving as its envelope, must be closed and sealed. The testator shall present it thus closed and sealed to the notary and seven witnesses, or he shall cause it to be closed and sealed in their presence. Then he shall declare to the notary, in presence of the witnesses, that that paper contains his testament, written by himself, or by another by his direction, and signed by him the testator. The notary shall then draw up the act of superscription, which shall be written on the will or on the sheet that serves as its envelope, and that act shall be signed by the testator, by the notary, and by the witnesses. Those who know not how or are not able to write, and those who know not how or are not able to sign their names, can not make dispositions in the form of the mystic will. In all cases the act of superscription must be signed by at least two witnesses. The olographic will is that which is entirely written, dated, and signed, by the hand of the testator. It is subject to no other forma, and may be made anywhere, even out of the state.

The following persons are absolutely incapable of being witnesses to wills: Women of what age soever; male children who have not attained the age of sixteen years complete; persons insane, deaf, dumb, or blind; persons whom the criminal laws declare incapable of exercising civil functions; and slaves. Neither can wills be witnessed by those who are constituted heirs or named legatees, under whatsoever title it may be. Mystic wills are excepted from this article.

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