§90. Where the time for commencing an action arising on contract shall have expired, the cause of action shall not be deemed revived by an acknowledgment or new promise, unless the same be in writing, subscribed² by the party to be charged thereby³.

189. North Carolina. By the Revised Statutes⁴, chapter 65, it is provided as follows, to wit:

190. 1. As to lands. 1. That no person or persons nor their heirs, which hereafter shall have any right or title to any lands, tenements⁵, or hereditaments, shall thereunto enter or make any claim, but within seven years next after his, her, or their right or title descended⁶ or accrued⁷, and in default thereof, such person or persons, so not entering or making claim, shall be utterly⁸ excluded and disabled from any entry or claim thereafter to be made: Provided, nevertheless, that if any person or persons, that is or hereafter shall be entitled to any right or claim of lands, tenements or hereditaments, shall be, at the time the said right or title first descended, accrued, come or fallen, within the age of twenty-one years, feme covert⁹, non compos mentis, imprisoned¹⁰ or beyond seas, that then such person or persons shall and may, notwithstanding the said seven years be expired, commence his, her or their suit, or make his, her, or their entry, as he, she, or they might have done before this act, so as such person or persons shall, within three years next after full age, discoverture, coming of sound mind, enlargement out of prison, or persons beyond seas, within eight years after the title or claim becomes due, take benefit and sue for the same, and at no time after the times or limitations herein specified¹¹; but that all possessions, held without suing such claim as aforesaid, shall be a perpetual bar against all, and all manner of persons whatsoever¹², that the expectation of heirs may not, in a short time, leave much land unpossessed, and titles so perplexed¹³, that no man will know of whom to take or buy land. Provided also, that if in any action of ejectment for the recovery of any lands, tenements or hereditaments, judgment¹⁴ be given for the plaintiff, and the same be reversed for error, or a verdict pass for the plaintiff, and, upon matter alleged¹⁵ in arrest of judgment, the judgment be given against the plaintiff that he take nothing by his plaint, writ¹ or bill, or a verdict be given against the plaintiff, in all such cases the party plaintiff, his heirs or executors, as the case shall require, may commence a new action or suit from time to time, within one year after such judgment reversed, or judgment given against the plaintiff.

191. - §2. Where any person or persons, or the person or persons under whom he, she, or they claim, shall have been, or shall continue to be, in possession of any lands, tenements or hereditaments whatsoever, under titles derived¹⁶ from sales, made either by creditors¹⁷, executors or administrators¹⁸ of any person deceased, or by husbands and their wives, or by endorsement¹⁹ of patents or other colorable title, for the space of twenty-one years, all such possessions of lands, tenements or, hereditaments, under such title, shall be and are hereby ratified²⁰, confirmed and declared to be a good and legal bar, against the entry of any person or persons, under the right or claim of the state, to all intents and purposes whatsoever; Provided, nevertheless, that the possession so set up shall have been ascertained²¹ and identified under known and visible lines or boundaries.

192. - 2. As to personal actions. §3. All actions of trespass²², detinue, actions sur trover and replevin for taking away of goods and chattels²³, all actions of account and upon the case, all actions of debt for arrearages of rent, all actions of debt grounded upon any lending or contract without specialty²⁴, and all actions of assault, menace, battery, wounding, and imprisonment²⁵, or any of tbem, which shall be sued or brought, shall be commenced or brought within the time and limitation in this act expressed, and not after; that is to say, actions of account render, actions upon the case, ac- tions of debt for arrearages of rent, actions of debt upon simple contract, actions of detinue, replevin, and trespass either for goods and chattels or quare clausum fregit, within three years next after the cause of such action or suit, and not after; except such accounts as concern the trade of merchandise, between merchant and merchant, and their factors, or servants; and the said actions of trespass, of assault and battery, wounding, imprisonment, or any of them, within one year after the cause of such action or suit, and not after; and the said actions upon the case for words, within six months after the words spoken, and not after.