Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/140

126 FEDERAL REPORTBB. �fltate in 1 Gif. 339, (Elwell v. Shaw,) and it bas ever since been recognized by the courts. �Most, if not ail, of these objections are alike applicable to the first three deeds under which the demandant claims. Fourteen thousand eight hundred acres were returned to the land agent by the state treasurer for unpaid taxes of 1845, and that number was advertised and sold in 1850. Seven thousand two hundred and seven were entered on the treas- urer's ledger as paid, but 600 acres are duplicated by the taxes on the same lots having been paid by both Barnes and W. E. Edwards, so that in fact taxes were paid only on 6,607 acres, leaving 15,433 unpaid, while only 14,800 were returned unpaid and sold. �So, for tax of 1846, 21,207 acres appear to have been paid for by the ledger of the treasurer, and only 700 acres were returned forfeited and sold for taxes; in fact, there were 1,433 acres on which taxes for that year were not paid to the treasurer. The title of the demandant, under the deeds of 1850 and 1851, is subject to nearly ail the objections which arise as to his title under the deed of 1849, and in the opin- ion of the court he did not acquire a valid title under either of said conveyances. �By act of 1854 the treasurer was to sell and eonvey for- feited lands, and by his deed of September 27, 1854, he un- dertook to eonvey "ail the right, title, and interest of the state in 4,340 acres, by virtue of a forfeiture for non-pay- ment of its proportion of state and county taxes for the years 1849 to 1853, inclusive, in this township." This deed is invalid for varions reasons: the sale was for both state and county taxes for each of these years, and there is no evidence of any valid county tax having been asaessed; the land was not forfeited, at time of sale, for taxes for 1853, as the owner had a right of redemption for two years after the asseasment, and, by the act of 1854, the treasurer could only dispose of lands after forfeiture; the number ox acres of forfeited lands was not correctly stated, there being 4,740 acres on which the taxes were unpaid, including the ����