It is purely allodial, with all the incidents pertaining to that title as substantial as in the infancy of Teutonic civilization. Following in the wake of this fundamental reform in our State land laws are several others which constitute appropriate corollaries. The statute of uses was never adopted in the public-land States, and hence the complex distinction between uses and trust has never embarrassed our jurisprudence. We have, however, adopted one of the methods of conveyance to which that statute gave rise, to wit: the method of bargain and sale. Feoffments, fines, and recoveries are entirely dispensed with, as also livery of seisin and its consequences. A conveyance is completed by the execution and delivery of the deed; entailments and perpetuities are barred by the statute, which renders void all limitations beyond persons in being and their immediate issue, and which provides that an estate tail shall become a fee-simple in the heirs of the first grantee. All joint interests in land are reduced to tenancies in common. Joint tenancies never had an existence, and coparceners are now on a footing of tenants in common. Real actions, with their multitudinous technicalities, never had an existence in our western jurisprudence, though some of the fictions of this form of action are tolerated, e. g., the allowance of fictitious parties to a suit. Ejectment is now the universal remedy, being the only action for the recovery of lands. Action by ejectment is limited to twenty-one years, but refractory tenants may be more speedily dispossessed by the action for forcible entry and detainer. A dispossessed claimant may, at the option of the ejector, either pay for the land, or receive pay for the improvements. For waste the party is liable in simple damages, and no more. A tenant in dower forfeits the place wasted. In the older States we see evidences of the reflex benefits of the land legislation of our public-land States. The Pennsylvania supreme court (5 Rawle, 112) holds that "our property is allodial, and escheat takes place, not upon principles of tenure, but by force of our statutes to avoid the uncertainty and confusion inseparable from the recognition of a title founded in priority of occupancy." Chancellor Kent says that tenure to some extent pervades real property in the United States. The title is essentially allodial yet designated by the feudal terms fee-simple and free, and common socage. These technicalities mar the municipal jurisprudence of several States, though no vestige of feudal tenure remains, and ownership, free and independent, is the real character of individual title to the soil. By the statute of February 20, 1787, New York abolished all military tenures, transferring them into free and common socage and making all State grants entirely allodial.

The revised statutes going into effect in 1830 abolished the last shadow of feudal tenure and made allodial proprietorship the sole title to private land, and this property liable to forfeiture only by escheat. In other States these tenures have either been formally changed into allodial; or if they retain the technicalities of feudalism, the latter receive an allodial signification. An estate in fee-simple means one of inheritance, having lost its beneficiary or usufructuary character.

It will be seen from the facts recited that the liberal principles embodied in our public-land policy have reconstructed to a great extent the legal basis of our social order by liberalizing the ideas of land ownership.

The General Government set this glorious example, and the justice and expediency of its policy in this respect are now universally admitted.

UNITED STATES SURVEYING SYSTEM AS APPLIED TO THE PUBLIC LANDS.

The system was inaugurated in the United States as early as 1785 for surveying and disposing of the public lands; and, having been amended from time to time by acts of Congress, has reached its present complete organization. The framework of the system consists of the following surveyed lines: The principal surveying meridians running due north and south, which are intersected by the principal base lines, are the true parallels of latitude, their intersections constituting the initial points of surveys. Next to these lines standard or correction parallels are established north and south of the bases, at distances of 24 and 30 miles, respectively; and, lastly, guide meridians, at distances of 42 to 48 miles from the principal meridians, divide the country of surveys into parallelograms of suitable extent, any one of which, however distant from the principal bases and meridians, or the initial point of survey, can be divided into townships, the latter being the largest division into which lands are surveyed, each being six miles square, and containing 23,040 acres. Townships are subdivided into 36 sections, of a mile square each, as near as possible, and containing 640 acres. The sections are subdivided into quarters, containing 160 acres; and, finally, the quar ters are still further subdivided into quarter-quarters, embracing 40 acres. The sectional divisions into quarter sections and quarter-quarter sections are not actually run and marked in the field; the division of the section of 640 acres into quarter sections is designated by appropri ate marks on the half-mile posts established in the field on section lines; while the quarter-quarter sections, or 40-acre tracts, are not so designated in the field, but are indicated by the surveyor general on township plats of the survey by there marking in red ink the surveyed section lines, in order to obtain the quantity of legal subdivisions exhibited on the plats of survey, which are protracted on the scale of two inches to the mile. The public lands are sold by the foregoing subdivisions, and the boundaries of the smallest subdivisions, to wit, into quarter and into quarter-quarter sections, or 160 and 40 acre tracts, not actually surveyed in the field, can be run and marked on the face of the earth for the purchasers or owners thereof by any surveyor, in accordance with the prin ciples laid down by the act of Congress approved February 11, 1805. The rectangular system depends upon the survey of the public lands in accordance with the true meridian, noting, however, the variation of the magnetic needle. In the extensive sphere over which the surveys have progressed from Florida, on the Atlantic, and westward to the Pacific, including all the public-land States and Territories of the Union, with the exception of Alaska, formerly Russian America, the system has worked satisfactorily, furnishing facilities for the acquisition of public lands in any region of the country, and unerring methods for the restoration of landmarks which may be lost or destroyed by time or accident. Adequate means exist in the surrounding landmarks of the adjacent public surveys, whereby missing metes and bounds can be restored in accordance with the original field-notes thereof, and the designations placed on township plats.

Since the introduction of the rectangular system of public surveys in the United States, there have been instituted twenty-five different initial points, or the points of intersection of the principal bases with principal surveying meridians governing the public surveys. The instruments employed in the field-work by United States surveyors con sist of solar compasses, transits, and common compasses of approved

construction; four-pole chains and two-pole chains, of 100 and 50 links, respectively, each link of the chain being equal to 7.92 inches. The surveyors' chains are compared with standard chains and standard yard measures furnished surveyors general by the Government. The measurement of the lines of public surveys is horizontal, requiring shortening of the chain over abrupt and undulating surface; the navigable lakes, ponds, and water-courses are segregated from the land, the same being declared by law public highways, and not subject to sale.

The public surveys have been completed in all the public-land States east of the valley of the Mississippi River, with the exception of avery inconsiderable area in the southern peninsula of Florida, Louisiana, and a portion of Minnesota. The sphere of the unsurveyed region in the latter State is estimated at one-half of its area, consisting of the northern and, partly, western portions of the State, as will more fully appear in the tabular statement No. 1, accompanying this report, showing the number of acres surveyed and unsurveyed in each of the land States and Territories up to June 30, 1870.

The unsurveyed portions of the valley of the Missouri and its tributaries are the following:

In Dakota nine-tenths of the area thereof have not been surveyed, the surveys having progressed only in the extreme northeast and southeast corners of the Territory to the extent of one-tenth thereof.

In Nebraska five-eighths remain to be surveyed, consisting of the north-western and southwestern portions.

In Kansas one-half of its area is unsurveyed, situated in the southern and western portions.

In New Mexico twenty-five twenty-sixths remain to be surveyed, only one twenty-sixths portion, lying on the Canadian, Pecos, Hondo, and Bonito Rivers, and along the Rio Grande Del Norte, having been surveyed.

In Arizona subdivisional surveys amount to 732,145 acres, situated on Rio Gila, near its confluence with the Rio Salado and Santa Cruz. Arizona formed part of the California surveying jurisdiction until July 11, 1870, when Congress made it a separate district and authorized the appointment of surveyor general. The surveys in Arizona, under the superintendence of the surveyor general of California, during the last year, have been made to the extent of only 46,117.32 acres, owing to the distant sphere of the field operations from San Francisco, and the hostility of Indians in the Territory.

In Colorado one-twelfth of the Territory has been surveyed, principally along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains, stretching from the northern to the southern boundary of the Territory, and a few townships in the Middle, South, and San Luis Parks. No surveyed lines have as yet been extended over the eastern and western portions of Colorado. In Utah one-fifteenth of the Territory was sub-divided in the region extending north and south of the Great Salt Lake to the northern and southern boundaries, with small interruptions, leaving fourteen-fifteenths unsurveyed, lying east and west of Wahsatch Mountains. The surveys during the last year progressed in the direction east of Salt Lake City, and in the southwestern angle of the Territory, in the valley of the Santa Clara; Virgin, Cedar, and Parawan Valleys west of Wahsatch Mountains. There were surveyed in Utah during the last year 659,946 acres.

In Idaho and Montana but limited progress has been made in public surveys. In Idaho there had been less than a million of acres surveyed of the fifty-five millions comprised in that Territory; in Montana about

the same area out of the ninety-two millions of acres within its limits. The Idaho surveyed lands are situated on the Salmon, Payette, and Snake Rivers, and in Montana, on the Missouri River and its three forks, Gallatin, Jefferson, and Madison, forming the headwaters of the Missouri River; also in the vicinity of Helena, and the valley of Hell Gate River.

In Nevada the lines have been extended over only one-twenty-fourth of its area, chiefly in the northern and western portions of the State, in the valleys of Walker, Humboldt, and Truckee Rivers; also along the Central Pacific Railroad route, and near the Pahranagat Lake, in the southeastern part of Nevada, leaving twenty-three twenty-fourths as yet unsurveyed, equal to about sixty-eight millions of acres.

In California one-third has been surveyed, principally in the valley of San Joaquin and Sacramento Rivers, and their tributaries, and in the south eastern region of the State surrounding San Bernardino Mountains. The unsurveyed portions of the State consist of the ranges of Sierra Nevada Coast, Mount Diablo, and San Bernardino Mountains, and the numerous valleys all over the State, bounded by abrupt mountains to which no lines of public surveys have been extended. The western slope of the Coast Range of mountains stretches from the Bay of Monterey to the southwestern angle of California. The survey of this region of the country adjacent to the Pacific Ocean has been deferred in consequence of the existence of numerous unadjudicated private claims growing out of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, of 1848. For the precise quantity of the surveyed and unsurveyed lands in California, reference is made to a tabular statement accompanying this report.

In Oregon the surveys have been extended over one-seventh of the area, chiefly in the Willamette, Columbia, John Day, Des Chutes, Umatilla, Umpqua, Coquille, and Rogue River valleys. The unsur veyed portions of the State consists of the Coast Range, Cascade, and Blue Mountains, together with the central, eastern, and southeastern portions of Oregon.

In Washington Territory one-eighth of the surface has been subdivided, including 300,000 acres which were surveyed during the fiscal year ending June 30, 1870, leaving about thirty-nine million acres of unsurveyed public land in the Territory. The principal portions over which the lines of public survey have been extended are situated due north and south of the Puget Sound, along the Columbia River, from its mouth up its right bank to its confluence with the Snake River, in the valleys of Walla Walla and Yakama, tributaries of Columbia River, and in the valley of Chihalis River, emptying into Gray's Harbor of the Pacific Ocean. The surveys embrace about five million acres, leaving an unsurveyed area of the Territory nearly equal to thirty-nine million acres, covered by the extensive range of the Cascade and the Olympic Mountains, together with the Great Plateau of Spokane, situated north of the Snake, and east of the Columbia River, as well as the extensive valley of the Okinakane River, the northeastern tributary of the Columbia River. In Wyoming Territory, the latest organized surveying district, comprising 62,645,120 acres, no surveying operations were carried on during the last fiscal year, ending June 30, 1870, for the reason that the Wyoming land district was not organized until late in the fiscal year, viz., the 5th day of February last. Since the opening, however, of the surveyor general's office at Cheyenne, contracts have been closed with different surveyors for the extension of the public lines, resting upon the principal base line, on the fortieth parallel of north latitude and the sixth principal meridian. The sphere of field operations is to begin in the

sont également responsables des fautes ou des bienfaits de l'inquisition, qui ne devait pas être jugée par les habitudes de notre siècle et selon les doctrines, encore mal jugées dans leurs fruits, de la liberté absolue des cultes et des consciences.

Le Mémoire fut remarqué et non attaqué. On y distingua la partie qui traite des grands hommes, des saints, des papes, des évêques, des missionnaires miséricordieux, tels que Las Casas, des artistes, des savants docteurs, des prédicateurs célèbres que produisit l'ordre de saint Dominique, en renouvelant les merveilles de la pensée de saint Bernard, en donnant à l'Eglise une nouvelle forme de milice, en unissant ensemble la vie du cloître et la vie du siècle, le moine et le prêtre. On distingua surtout les traits rapides, mais choisis, qui suffisaient à l'auteur pour peindre au vif saint Dominique, le père de l'ordre, et saint Thomas d'Aquin, son plus éminent docteur, cette merveille du XIIIe siècle, celui que révèreront à jamais l'Eglise et la science, celui dont l'abbé Lacordaire avait déjà commencé l'étude avec un goût qui ne devait point finir. On ne fut pas moins touché de l'énergie toujours fine, quelquefois ironique, avec laquelle le Dominicain futur répondait aux objections du siècle, à qui il criait que les ordres monastiques étaient, avant tout, des ordres bienfaiteurs et populaires. Et il ne put, à cette occasion, s'empêcher de donner un souvenir de regret à son ancien maître : « Le prêtre le plus remarquable qu'eût produit l'Eglise de France depuis Bossuet, courut au-devant de la nation; s'il a péri, c'est bien moins pour avoir outrepassé le but, que pour n'avoir pas compris toute la justice qui lui était rendue. »

Ce ne fut pas tout. Dans les couvents romains, le fils nouveau de saint Dominique avait appris plus à fond l'histoire de son ancêtre spirituel. Il se fit un devoir d'écrire une vie de son saint patriarche, lisible en français. « Cette vie est fort simple, fort belle, mais très-difficile à faire. »

Il est peu de catholiques lettrés qui n'aient lu cette vie de sain Dominique. Elle fut composée, comme le Mémoire, soit au couven de la Minerve, soit au couvent de la Quercia, près Viterbe, soit au couvent de Sainte-Sabine, sur le mont Aventin, où l'abbé Lacordaire passa successivement le temps de son noviciat. Elle ne parut qu'en 1841.

T. XVIII. 10 AVRIL 1847. 7° LIV.

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