e land office in
which he or she is about to make such entry, make affidavit before
the said register or receiver that he or she is the head of a
family, or is twenty-one years of age or more, or shall have
performed service in the army or navy of the United States, and
that he has never borne arms against the government of the United
Stales, or given aid and comfort to its enemies, and that such
application is made for his or her exclusive use and benefit, and
that said entry is made for the purpose of actual settlement and
cultivation, and not either directly or indirectly for the use or
benefit of any other person or persons whomsoever: and upon filing
the said affidavit with the register or receiver, and on the
_payment of ten dollars_, he or she shall thereupon be permitted to
enter the quantity of land specified,' &c.

Settlement and cultivation for five years required, when the patent
issues--the land secured in case of the settler's death, to the widow,
children, or heirs--the settler must be a citizen of the United States
before the patent is given--the land is subject to no debt incurred
before the emanation of the patent. As the title remains for five years
in the government, and until the patent issues, the land, in the
meantime, could scarcely be subject to taxation. The land is
substantially a gift, the $10 (L2. 0. 16.) being only sufficient to pay
for the survey and incidental expenses.

Whilst natives are included in this act, Europeans already here, or who
may come hereafter, participate alike in its benefits. The emigrant can
make the entry and settle upon the land merely on filing the declaration
of intention to become a citizen, and it is only after the lapse of five
years therefrom, that he must be naturalized.

This law should be widely circulated, at home and abroad, and especially
in Ireland and Germany. It should be published in all leading presses,
and distributed in printed circulars. By law, two sections (1,280 acres)
are reserved in each township of six miles square, from the sale of
which to establish free schools, where all children can be instructed,
so that our material progress may be accompanied by universal education
and intellectual development.

This great domain reserved, as farms and homesteads for the industrious
masses of Europe and America, is thus described by the Hon. Joseph S.
Wilson, in his great historica