Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 4.djvu/332



the costs shall abide the decision of the cause as in ordinary causes before the said court. And so much of the said act as requires the claimants to make adverse claimants parties to their suits, or to show the court what adverse claimants there may be to the land claimed of the United States, be also hereby repealed.

. And be it further enacted, That it shall be the duty of the attorney of the United States for the district in which the suits authorized by this act shall be instituted, in every case where the decision is against the United States, to make out and transmit to the attorney general of the United States, a statement, containing the facts of the case, and the points of law on which the same was decided: and it shall be the duty of the attorney general, in all cases where the claim exceeds one league square, and in all other cases, if he shall in such latter cases think the decision of the district judge is erroneous, to direct an appeal to be made to the Supreme Court of the United States, and to appear for the United States, and prosecute such appeal: which appeal in behalf of the United States may be granted at any time within six months after the rendition of the judgment appealed from, or at any time before the expiration of the term thereof, which may commence next after the expiration of said six months; and it shall be the further duty of the district attorney to observe the instruction given to him by the attorney general in that respect.

. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the President of the United States to appoint a law agent, whose special duty it shall be to superintend the interests of the United States in the premises, to continue him in place as long as the public interest requires his continuance; and to allow such pay to the agent as the President may think reasonable. It shall also be the duty of said agent to collect testimony in behalf of the United States, and to attend, on all occasions, when said claimants may take depositions; and no deposition so taken by them shall be read as evidence, unless said agent or district attorney shall have been notified, in writing, of the time and place of taking them, so long previous to said time as to afford to him an opportunity of being present.

. And be it further enacted, That it shall be lawful for the President to employ assistant counsel, if in his opinion the public interest shall require the same: and to allow to such counsel and the district attorney, such compensation as he may think reasonable.

. And be it further enacted, That any claims to lands, tenements, or hereditaments, within the purview of this act, which shall not be brought by petition before said court within one year from the passage of this act, or which, after being brought before said court, shall, on account of the neglect or delay of the claimant, not be prosecuted to a final decision within two years, shall be forever barred, both at law and in equity; and no other action at common law, or proceeding in equity, shall ever thereafter be sustained in any court whatever.

. And be it further enacted, That the decrees which may be rendered by said district, or the Supreme Court of the United States, shall be conclusive between the United States and the said claimants only, and shall not affect the interests of third persons.

, May 23, 1828.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, in all cases where public