Page:United States Reports, Volume 2.djvu/324

 313 Cases ruled and adjudged in the · r yp;. and mult be done before any eltate can velt in the defendant ; but srrsv they have not been done, and therefore the eltate remains in the plamtiii This conflruélion correfponds with the meaning and fpirit, the tendency and fcope, of the act itfelf. The intention of the Legiflature was to velt in Connetiknd claimants of a par- ticular de cription a perfect eftate to certain lands in the Coun- ty of Luzerne; hutthen it was upon eon¢Etion; it was to ope·· rate upon, fecure, and fanctify, fuch claims. only as ihould be admitted and afcertained, approved and eltablilhed, by theCom- millioners. This is further evident from the powers and func- tions of the-commillioners, who were to en uire, examine, hear l proofs, Src. refpeéting the claims; and for what purpofe? Why, that th? might admit and approve of fuch as were fup- ported by fatis aflory evidence, and make retum thereof to the Executive Council, who fhould thereupon caufe patents to be ilfueo for their cmlirmation. Until the commillioners had des cided in favor of a claim, it remained {gum quo; the atl did not oover and protect it. Further, if e af.]: will admit of C two co¤ltru&ions, that one certainly ought to be adopted, which is in favor of the legal owner, and which will not divefl: his eftate, till the terms fpecified in the ac`! {hall have been fully complied with. When the Legiilature undertake to give away what is not their own, when they attempt to take the pro- perty of one man, which he fairly acquired, and the general law of the land protects, in order to transfer it to another, even _ upon complete indemnification, it will naturally be conlidered _, —f` ‘``·_- ; as an estraordinary a€t of legiilation, which ought to be viewed ` T f. with jealous eyes, examined with critical eraétnefs, and fcruti· ·- " zized with all the feverity of legal expofition. An acl of this " ` tbrt deferves no favor ;— to conltrue it liberally would be {inning againlt the rights of private property. ` Belides, it was the manifeft intention of the malters of the act, that a jul! mpaupegtfation fhould be made in land, to the Pmnfylwmia claiinanrs`; upon this principle the ac'} proceeds ; and therefore; if it appear, that fuch compenfation cannot be made, or that-it is very dubious, whether it can be effefted, the Court ought not to give fuch a co:z{tru£l£ion, as will deprive the ewner of his-eltate, withlittle orno prolpeft of being recom- penfed in value. If either party ought to be driven to the ne- ceflity of controverting the queflion with the {tate of Penryjl- cumin, it ought to be the Camufficut fettlers, who have no legal title to the land, and not the Pmrggl-urmia claimants, in whom is veiled a good cftate at law. - _ ` Deeming the conflruélion, which has been put upon the act, to be the found cnc, it precludes the enquiry, how far a pvtent of conlirmation was uecelfary to fubltantiale the claim of the defendant

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