Section 90. Dedication is the act of devoting or giving property for some proper object, and in such a manner as to conclude the owner.4

"That property may be dedicated to public use is a well established principle of the common law. It is founded in public convenience, and has been sanctioned by the experience of ages. Indeed, without such a principle, it would be difficult if not impracticable, for society in a state of advanced civilization to enjoy those advantages which belong to its condition and which are essential to its accommodation.

4 Hunter vs. Sandy Hill, 6 Hill (N. Y.), 407.

"The importance of this principle may not always be appreciated, but we are in a great degree dependent on it for our highways and streets, and the grounds appropriated as places of amusement or of public business, which are found in all our towns, and especially in our populous cities."5

The usual division of dedications of land to public uses, is into two classes, viz.:

First, Statutory Dedications. Second, Common Law Dedications.

Statutory Dedication. - This class of dedication is made by following the form prescribed by the particular statute. The provisions of the statute governing generally requires that the map or plat describing the streets and alleys shall be acknowledged before it is recorded, and a compliance therewith is essential to its validity. Statutes not infrequently provide, in substance, that where the map or plat describing the streets and alleys shall be acknowledged and recorded, that it shall be a sufficient conveyance to vest the title of the land in the public; this dispenses with any assent or acceptance on the part of the public.

Common Law Dedication. - A dedication at common law comprises both act and intention, and may be made to the public by grant or other written instrument, or it may be evidenced by acts and declarations, without writing.

No particular form is required to constitute a common law dedication; it is purely a question of intention.6

5 Dillon, Mun. Corp .(3d Ed.), Par. 627; New Orleans vs. U. S., 10 Pet., 622.

6 Where a party laying out a village, and platting the same, makes a dedication of a portion of the Statutory and Common Law Dedication Distinguished. The difference between a statutory and common law dedication is, that the first vests the legal title in the ground set apart for public purposes, in the municipal corporation, in trust for the public, while the other leaves the legal title in the original owner, charged, however, with the same rights and interests in the public which it would have if the fee was in the municipal corporation.

Judge Dillon, from the leading case of Cincinnati vs. White, 6 Pet. (U. S.), 431, deduces the following principles:

"One. That it is not essential to a dedication that the legal title should pass from the owner.

"Two. Nor is it essential that there should be any grantee of the use or easement in esse to take the fee, such cases being exceptions to the general rule requiring a grantee.

"Three. Nor is a deed or writing necessary to constitute a valid dedication; it may be by parol.

"Four. No specific length of possession is necessary to constitute a valid dedication; all that is required is the assent of the owner of the soil to the public use, and the actual enjoyment by the public of the use for such a length of time that the public accommodation and private rights would be materially affected by a denial or interruption of the enjoyment." land for streets, and also for a public park, which is not good, under the statute, to convey the legal title to the public, but which is good at common law, the legal title of the grounds dedicated will remain in the original proprietor, burdened with the right of the public to use the same, and whatever rights the public or the residents of the village acquired in the dedication, will pass to and become vested in the village, when subsequently incorporated, as the legal representative of the public. Maywood Co. vs. Village of Maywood, 118 III., 61.