laan bod yn "For the relief of Catharine Rhine, widow of George Rhine, a soldier of the Revolutionary war. SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa tives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the State Treasurer be and he is hereby authorized and required to pay to Catharine Rhine, of Allegheny county, widow of George Rhine, a trooss to groot soldier of the Revolutionary war, or to her order, an annuity of forty -dollars during life, to be paid half-yearly, commencing on the first day of January, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three. ed oljni stana un brAPPROVED-The eighteenth day of April, A. D. one thousand eight bo zonadivas on shundred and fifty-three. Preamble. Preamble. No. 303. A FURTHER SUPPLEMENT To the act relative to the Union Canal company. WHEREAS, The Union Canal company of Pennsylvania, being desirous of widening their canal from the Swatara to the Schuylkill, 80 as to admit of the passage of the largest sized Pennsylvania canal boats, are endeavoring to procure the means for so doing: And Whereas, It is desirable that the Commonwealth should aid this ancient improvement as an important link in the chain of her internal improvements, which when enlarged, will afford uninterrupted canal navigation within her own limits from the Juniata, West and North Branch divisions of her canals, to tide water: therefore, SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Represen tatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That Boats and ton all boats and articles of tonnage passing over any portion of the State nage. canals to or from the Union canal, shall always be placed upon the most favorable terms in all respects allowed to the same articles of tonnage passing over the canals of the State. from taxation. SECTION 2. That the capital stock and assets which now are, and Exemption evidences of indebtedness of said Union Canal company which may hereafter be liable to taxation, shall be and the same are hereby exempted from such taxation within this Commonwealth for the term of twenty years. SECTION 3. That all incorporated companies connecting with or Other incorpointerested in said Union Canal company, may subscribe to the capital rations may substock or loan to be created for the purpose of widening said canal: scribe to stock. Provided, No certificates of loan shall be issued by the Union Canal company for a less sum than one hundred dollars. W. P. SCHELL, Speaker of the House of Representatives. THO. CARSON, Speaker of the Senate. APPROVED-The eighteenth day of April, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and fifty-three. WM. BIGLER. No. 304. AN ACT Relating to the Sale and Conveyance of Keal Estate. Preamble. WHEREAS, The general welfare requires that real estate should be Preamble. freely inalienable, and be made productive to the living owners thereof: And Whereas, In matters which the judiciary is competent to hear and decide, it is expedient that the courts should adjudicate them after a full hearing of all parties, rather than that they should be determined by special legislative acts upon an exparte hearing: SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That tion, &c. in all cases where real estate shall have been acquired by descent or Courts of Comlast will, the orphans' court, and in all other cases the courts of com- mon Pleas, to have jurisdicmon pleas, of the respective counties of this Commonwealth, shall have jurisdiction to decree the sale, mortgaging, leasing or conveyance upon ground rent of such real estate in the cases hereinafter described: Provided, That any such court in the county where the premises shall Proviso. be situated, shall be of opinion that it is for the interest and advantage of those interested therein, that the same should be sold, mortgaged, leased or let on ground rent, and may be done without injury or prejudice to any trust, charity, or purpose for which the same shall be held; And provided, That the same may be done without the violation of Proviso. any law which may confer an immunity or exemption from sale or alienation. SECTION 2. That such sale, mortgaging, leasing, or conveyance upon ground rent, may be decreed whenever real estate shall be held for or 4 Decree in case of sale, mort gaging, &c., on ground rent. Proviso. guardian, &c. owned by minors, lunatics or habitual drunkards, so duly found by inquisition, for the sole and separate use of married women, for religious, beneficial or charitable societies or associations, incorporated or unincorporated, or for or by any other corporation, or by trustees for any public or private use or trust, and although there may exist : power of sale, but the time may not have arrived for its exercise, or any preliminary act may not have been done to bring it into exercise or the time limited for its exercise may have expired, or any one or more persons required to consent or to join in its execution may have become non compos mentis, or have removed out of the State, or died, or should refuse to act, or unreasonably withhold consent; also, when there has been or shall be a defective appointment in any deed, or last will and testament, and the necessary power is not given to the exeentor, devisee or appointee, to make sale and conveyance of real estate; also, whenever the owner of real estate may have been absent and unheard from for seven years, under those circumstances from which the law would presume his or her death, whenever a husband shall own real estate having a wife who is a lunatic, or a minor, whenever a married woman owns real estate and her husband has abandoned her for two years, or been absent and unheard from for seven years, whenever a decedent shall have contracted by parol to sell real estate, and those interested do not think it expedient to plead the statute requir ing contracts to be in writing to enable the purchaser to recover the real estate agreed to be sold, whenever a decedent's real estate is subject to the lien of debts not of record, whenever real estate shall be entailed, or contingent remainders or executory devises shall be limited therein, or whenever in proceedings in partition in equity it shall appear that real estate cannot be divided without prejudice to the interests of the owners, and also whenever real estate shall have been purchased or any ground rent been reserved, and be held by any person acting in a trust or fiduciary capacity, and such decree may be made, whether such ownership or interest shall be held or enjoyed in severalty, joint tenantey, coparcenary or in common with others, and generally in all cases where estates have been or shall be devised or granted in trust or for special or limited purposes, or where any party interested therein is under a legal disability to sell and convey the same: Provided, That nothing in this act contained shall be taken to repeal or impair the authority of any act of Assembly, general or private, authorizing the sale of real estate by decree of court or otherwise, nor to affect or impair any right or powers otherwise existing in any persons or corporations to sell, mortgage, lease, or let on ground-rent, any real estate, and every power to sell in fee simple real estate created by deed or will, shall be taken to confer an authority to sell and convey, reserving a ground rent or rents in fee, and the same to release and extinguish according to law and the stipulation of the deed, and also to grant and convey such ground rent or rents to any purchaser or purchasers thereof, free of all trusts. SECTION 3. That such sale, mortgaging, leasing or conveyance upon Decree may be made on peti- ground rents, may be decreed on the petition of any trustee, guardian, tion of trustee, committee or person interested, clearly setting forth the facts needful for the information of the court under oath or affirmation, and if all proper parties shall not have voluntarily appeared as petitioners or respondents, the court shall fix a day for parties to appear, and cause a citation to be served on all persons in being who shall not have ap peared, and who shall have any present or expectant interest in the premises, warning them to appear, and that they shall be heard on the day designed, and for those who cannot otherwise be served, cause ad vertisement to be made in manner most likely to afford notice, and when to take place. SECTION 4. That such sales, mortgages, leasing and letting on Sales, mortga ground rent, shall only take place after full and careful investigation ges, leases, &c. by the court, aided when deemed necessary, by the report of a competent person, to be appointed by the court, and shall be made by trustees, executors, administrators, guardians, committees, or owners having a present vested interest, as the court may order, and be under the direction and subject to the approval of the court before which the deed shall be acknowledged, and be certified under seal to have been acknowledged, and all absolute sales in fee simple (except as hereinafter provided) shall be by public sale or vendue, and may be either entirely for cash, or partly on credit and partly for cash, after full advertisement for at least twenty days, by hand-bills posted in at least twenty of the most public places in the city or county where the premises shall be situated, and in at least two newspapers, not less than three times in each: Provided, That if the court shall be of opinion that under the Proviso. circumstances a better price can be obtained at private than at public sale, as where the interest be undivided, or for other sufficient cause, the court may approve and decree a private sale, and such mortgaging, leasing and letting on ground rent, shall be upon terms and at rates to be approved by the court, and the specific execution of the contracts of decedents upon the terms and at the price proved or admitted to have been agreed upon by the parties, but no such private sale, leasing or letting on ground rent, shall be upon terms or at rates less favorable than others, who, of competent ability to contract and uniting in the sale of undivided interests, shall accept; and it shall be the duty of the court in decreeing sales, leases and conveyances upon ground rent of real estate, to order the premises, if necessary, to be so subdivided as to command the highest price or greatest rents, and for such purposes, where the premises may admit of or require it, shall have power to lay out roads, streets and alleys, and to vacate such as shall not have been paid for, or received into actual use by the public, if found to be inconvenient, and to make an unprofitable division of the property: And provided further, That no sale or sales shall be ordered or made Proviso. under the provisions of this act, in any case, until security, to be approved by the court of common pleas or orphans' court, be given in at least double the value of the interest proposed to be sold. SECTION 5. That the title of purchasers under all such sales, mortgages, or conveyances upon ground rent, shall be a fee simple title, Title under said indefeasible by any party or persons having a present or expectant sales to be a fee interest in the premises, and be unprejudiced by any error in the prosimple title. Proviso. Proviso. Purchase mo. ceedings of the court, and by every such public sale the premises sold shall be discharged from all liens, and every such sale, and every eveyance in fee simple upon ground rent, shall have all the effect of any other proceeding or conveyance now authorized by law and strictly conducted to a final conclusion, to bar any estate tail, and to defeat contingent remainders, and in such case shall vest in the tenant in tail, or particular tenant, whether minor, feme covert, or otherwise, whe after such proceeding or conveyance might have become entitled to the absolute fee simple title, the absolute right to the purchase money, and the ground rents reserved; and such sales and conveyances on ground rent shall also bar any right of the Commonwealth to forfeit real estate that may have been held by or for any corporation beyond what has been authorized, if no proceeding to procure a forfeiture shall have been commenced before petition filed for a sale or letting on ground rent: Provided, That the petition shall set forth an explanation of the title, and of the purpose to bar the entail defeat the contingent remainder or the right of the Commonwealth to have inquisition for any estate defeasible as aforesaid: And provided, That the purchase money or rent reserved shall be a lien on the premises sold or let, until fully paid according to the decree of the court. SECTION 6. That the purchase money, or mortgage money, ground ney, &c. substi- or other rent reserved, shall in all respects be substituted for the real tuted for real es- estate sold, mortgaged, or let, as regards the enjoyment and ownership tate sold. Proviso. thereof, after the payment of liens, and shall be held for or applied to the use and benefit of the same persons, and for the same estate and interest, present or future, vested, contingent, or executory, as the real estate sold, mortgaged, or let, had been held, except only such remainders, after an entailment or contingent remainders, as shall bave been barred or defeated as aforesaid, and those entitled to a present interest in such real estate, shall receive the interest of the proceeds or rents thereof, unless expressly directed to accumulate: Provided, That no principal moneys raised by sale or mortgage, as aforesaid, shall be expended for any other purpose than for the payment of liens upon or the improvement of the same real estate when mortgaged, or other real estate when held for the same uses and persons, unless the same be required for the maintenance or education of parties having the like interests vested or expectant, and can be equally and equitably so applied, and without diminution of the capital that may of right be come the property of parties having unbarred interests or title in remainder, or by executory devise, and it shall be the duty of the court to decree the proper application of all purchase or mortgage moneys and rents, with the aid of an auditor, when deemed necessary, to the discharge of liens and to parties interested, as and when they may be entitled, and before any decree shall be executed, the person or persons entrusted to execute the same, shall give adequate security to the Commonwealth, to be approved by the court, conditioned for the faithful execution of the trust and proper application of all moneys to be received, according to the trust and decree of the court, which security shall enure to the benefit of all parties interested, and such security being so given, no purchaser or lessee shall be bound to see to the application of the purchase money or rents, or be in any manner liable to or affected by the former trusts or limitations upon the premises. SECTION 7. That it shall be lawful for trustees, guardians, committees, married women, and corporations, in all the cases aforesaid, |