Limitation of Actions.

THE following actions shall be commenced within six years next after the cause of action shall accrue, and not afterward, namely:-

1. All actions of debt, founded upon any contract or liability, not under seal, except such as are brought upon a judgment or decree of some court of record of the United States, or of this, or some other of the United States, or of some justice of the peace in this state. 2. All actions upon judgments rendered in any court, not being a court of record, except justices of the peace in this state. 3. All actions for arrears of rent. 4. All actions of assumpsit, or upon the case, founded on any contract or liability, ex• press or implied. 5. All actions for waste, and all actions of trespass on land, and all actions of trespass, except those of trespass for assault, battery, and false imprisonment. 6. All actions of replevin, and other actions for taking, detaining, or injuring goods or chattels. 7. All other actions on the case, except actions for slanderous words and for libels.

All actions against a sheriff, except for the escape of prisoners committed on execution, for the negligence or misconduct of his deputies, shall be commenced within four years next after the cause of action shall accrue.

All actions of assault and battery and for false imprisonment, and all actions for slanderous words and for libels, shall be commenced within two years next after the cause of action shall accrue.

All actions for the escape of prisoners committed on execution shall be commenced within one year next after the cause of action shall accrue.

No scire facias shall be served on bail, unless within one year next after judgment rendered against the principal.

All actions against an endorser of a writ must be commenced within one year next after judgment entered in the original action.

None of the foregoing provisions shall apply to any action brought upon a promissory note which is signed in the presence of an attesting witness, uor to an action brought upon any bills, notes, or other evidences of debt, issued by any bank.

In all actions of debt or assumpsit brought to recover the balance due upon a mutual and open account, the cause of action shall be deemed to have accrued at the time of the last item proved in such account.

If any person entitled to bring any of the before-mentioned actions, shall, at the time when the cause of action accrues, be a minor, a married woman, insane, imprisoned, or without the limits of the United States, such person may bring the actions within the times respectively limited, after the disability shall be removed.

All personal actions on any contract not limited by any of the foregoing sections, or any other law of the state, shall be brought within twenty years after the accruing of the cause of action.

When a writ shall fail of a sufficient service or return, by any unavoidable accident, or by the default or negligence of any officer to whom it was delivered or directed; or when such writ shall be abated, or the action otherwise avoided and defeated, for any matter of form, or by the death of either party; or if a judgment for the plaintiff shall be reversed on a writ of error, in such case the plaintiff may commence a new action on the same demand within six months after the abatement or determination of the original suit, or reversal of judgment in the same; and if the cause of action by law survives, his executor or administrator, in case of his death, may commence such new action within said six months.

No action shall be maintained against any person as surety in a replevin bond, unless the writ be served on him within one year after the final judgment in the action of replevin.

In suits by aliens, the time of continuance of war between the United States and the country of which such alien is the subject is not deemed a part of the time limited for the commencement of any of the before-mentioned actions.

In actions of debt or upon the case founded upon any contract, no acknowledgment or promise shall be allowed as evidence of a new or continuing contract, whereby to take any case out of the operations of the provisions of [these limitations], or to deprive any party of the benefit thereof, unless such acknowledgment or promise be an express one, and made or contained in some writing signed by the party chargeable thereby. If there are two or more joint contractors, such acknowledgment or promise, made or signed by one or more, shall not deprive the other joint-promissor of the benefit of the limitation.

If, at the time when any cause of action mentioned in this act shall accrue against any person, he shall be out of the state, the action may be commenced within the time herein limited therefor, after such person shall come into the state; and if, after any cause of action shall have accrued, the person against whom it shall have accrued shall be absent from and reside without the state, time of his absence shall not be taken as any part of the time limited for the commencement of the action.

REAL ACTIONS AND RIGHTS OF ENTRY.-No person shall commence any real or mixed action for the recovery of lands, or make an entry thereon, unless within twenty years after the right to make such entry, or bring such action, first accrued, or within twenty years after he or those under or from whom he claims, and shall have been seized or possessed of the premises, except as hereinafter provided.

If such right or title first accrued to an ancestor or predecessor of the person who brings the action or makes the entry, or to any other person from, by, or under whom he claims, the said twenty years shall be computed from the time when the right or title so first accrued to such ancestor, predecessor, or other person.

If any minister, or other sole corporation, shall be disseized, any of his successors may enter upon the premises, or may bring an action for the recovery of them at any time within five years after the death, resignation, or removal of the person disseized, notwithstanding the twenty years after the disseizin shall have expired.

If, at the time when such right of entry or of action upon or for any lands shall first accrue, the person entitled to such entry or action shall be within the age of twenty-one years, or a married woman, insane, imprisoned, or absent from the United States, such person, or any one claiming from, by, or under him, may make the entry or bring the Action at any time within ten years after such disability shall be removed, notwithstandng the twenty years before limited in that behalf shall have expired.

No real or mixed actions for the recovery of lands shall be commenced by or on be nalf of the state, unless within twenty years from and after the day ou which this act shall become a law, or within twenty years next after the time of the accruing of the title to the state.

No person shall acquire any right or privilege of way, air, or light, or any other casement, from, in, upon, or over the land of another, by the adverse use and enjoyment thereof, unless such use shall have been continued uninterrupted for twenty years.

No action for the recovery of any estate, sold under license by an executor, adminis trator, or guardian, shall be maintained by any heir, or other person claiming under the deceased testator or intestate, unless it be commenced within five years next after the sale. No real or mixed action for the recovery of any lands in this state shall be commenced or maintained against any person in possession of such lands, where such person or those under whom he claims have been in actual possession for more than forty years, and claiming to hold the same in his or their own right-and which possession shall have been adverse, open, peaceable, notorious, and exclusive.

Collection of Debts.

ARREST.-No person shall be arrested on mesne process on any suit brought on any contract, express or implied, or brought on any judgment founded on such contract, except as provided in the following section:--

Any person, whether a resident within this state or not, may be arrested and held to bail, or committed to prison on mesne process on any contract, expressed or implied, when the sum demanded amounts to ten dollars, or on a judgment founded on contract, when the debt originally recovered and still remaining due is ten dollars or more, exclusive of interest on such judgment, when he is about to depart and reside beyond the limits of this state, with property or means exceeding the amount required for his own Immediate support, provided that the creditor, his agent or attorney, shall make oath before a justice of the peace, to be certified by such justice on the said process, that he he has reason to believe, and does believe, that such debtor is about to depart and reside, and to take with him property or means as aforesaid, and that the demand in the said process, or the principal part thereof, amounting to at least ten dollars, is due to him. In all actions not founded on contract, or on a judgment on such contract, the original writ or process shall run against the body of the defendant, and he may be thereon arrested and imprisoned, or he may give bail.

ATTACHMENT.-All goods and chattels may be attached and held as security to satisfy the judgment for damages and costs, which the plaintiff may recover, except such as from their nature and situation have been considered as exempted from attachment according to the principles of the common law, as adopted and practised in this state, and such as are exempt from levy or sale on execution.

All real estate which is liable to be taken in execution may be attached on mesna process, and held as security for the purposes aforesaid.

Deeds.

Ir is necessary that they be sealed with a seal in this state, but there need be only one attesting witness, nor need the wife of the grantor be separately examined. They should be acknowledged and immediately recorded.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT.-The acknowledgment may be made before any justice of the peace in this state, or any justice of the peace, magistrate, or notary public, within the United States, or any commissioner appointed for that purpose by the governor of this state, or before any minister or consul of the United States or notary public in any for eign country.

State of Maine,
County of Lincoln,

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Form of Acknowledgment.

SS.

Bath, January 14, 1851. Before me then personally appeared JOHN DOE and SUSAN his wife, in the foregoing instrument named, and acknowledged that they did sign and seal the same as their free act and deed.

JOHN JONES, Justice of the Peace.

Rights of Married Women.

ANY married woman may become seized or possessed of any property, real or personal, by direct bequest, demise, gift, purchase, or distribution, in her own name and as of her own property; provided it shall be made to appear by such married woman, in any issue touching the validity of her title, that the same does not in any way come from the husband after coverture.

Hereafter, when any woman possessed of property, real or personal, shall marry, such property shall continue to her, notwithstanding her coverture; and she shall have, hold, and possess the same, as her separate property, exempt from any liability for the debts or contracts of her husband.

Any married woman possessing property by virtue of this act, may release to the husband the right of control of such property, and he may receive and dispose of the income thereof, so long as the same shall be appropriated for the mutual benefit of the parties. Any married woman who is seized and possessed of property, real or personal, as provided for above, may commence, prosecute, or defend, any suit in law or equity, as if she were unmarried, or jointly with her husband, but the person of such married woman is free from arrest. In case of the decease of such married woman intestate, her property, real and personal, shall descend to her heirs-but any married woman may by will divide or bequeath any property belonging to her.

Rate of Interest.

THE legal rate of interest is six per cent. If more be agreed to be taken, only legal interest can be recovered. Usurious interest paid may be recovered back.

Wills.

In this state a will must be in writing, signed by the testator, or by some person in his presence and by his express direction, and shall be attested and subscribed in his presence by three credible witnesses.

Form of Attestation answering for every State of the Union.

Signed, sealed, published, and declared, by the said JOHN DOE, as and for his last will and testament, in the presence of us, who, at the request of the said JOHN DOE, and in his presence and in the presence of each other, have hereunto subscribed our names and respective places of resi dence as witnesses.

JOHN SMITH, Boston,

JOHN JONES, Boston,

DUNN BROWN, Roxbury.