Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 4.djvu/70



Washington county, in the District of Columbia, shall hereafter commence and be held on the third Monday of December, and first Monday of May, in each year, instead of the days now fixed by law; and the circuit court for Alexandria county, in said district, on the fourth Monday of November and second Monday of April, instead of the days now established by law; and that all process whatsoever, now issued, or which may be issued, in the respective counties of Washington and Alexandria, in said district, returnable to the days, respectively, now fixed by law, for each of the said counties, shall be returnable, and returned, on the days prescribed by this act; and all causes, recognisances, pleas, and proceedings, civil, and criminal, returnable to, and depending before, the said courts, at the respective times of holding the same, as heretofore established, shall be returned, and continued, in the same counties respectively, in the same manner as if the said causes, recognisances, pleas, and proceedings, had been regularly returned or continued, to the said respective times appointed by this act for holding the said courts.

, April 29, 1824.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That, in all cases where the purchaser, or legal holder, of any certificate of purchase of any of the public lands of the United States, may have obtained a certificate of further credit under the provisions of an act, passed the second day of March, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-one, entitled “,” or of the acts supplementary thereto,, and , the person obtaining such certificate, or the legal holder thereof, shall be allowed, at any time prior to the tenth of April, one thousand eight hundred and twenty-five, to file, with the register of the land office, in the district where such land is situated, a relinquishment, in writing, of any section, half section, quarter section, or legal subdivision of a fractional section, made according to the provisions of the existing laws, in relation to the survey and sale of the public lands; and any payment made, on any tract of land, so relinquished, shall be applied to the payment of the amount due on any tract retained by said purchaser, or legal holder of a certificate of purchase; which relinquishment shall be allowed only on condition that any such purchaser, or legal holder of a certificate of purchase, relinquish a sufficient quantity of land thereby to complete his or her payments due to the United States, on any lands retained, or pay the balance due, and which may afterwards become due, in money, before or at the time of such relinquishment; and on the payment of such balance in money, there shall be allowed, on the amount so paid, a deduction at the rate of thirty-seven and a half per centum: Provided, That nothing herein contained, shall entitle the person making such relinquishment to claim any repayment from the United States, on account of any lands so relinquished: And provided further, That nothing herein contained shall authorize any discounts upon payments made by relinquishment.

And be it further enacted, That all purchasers, or legal holders of any certificate of purchase, of any of the public lands of the United States, who may have obtained a certificate of further credit, under the provisions of the several acts above mentioned, on making complete payment, previous to the tenth of April, eighteen hundred and