CHAPTER XIX.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

Deeds may be acknowledged within this State before any Judge of the Supreme Court, County Judge, Justice of the Peace, Notary Public, or Clerk of a Court. No acknowledgment of any conveyance having been executed shall be taken by any officer, unless he shall know or have satisfactory evidence that the person making such acknowledgment is the individual described in and who executed such conveyance.

When a married women, residing in this State, shall join with her husband in a deed of conveyance of real estate situated within this State, the acknowledgment of the wife shall be taken separately and apart from her husband, and she shall acknowledge that she executed such deed freely and without fear or compulsion from any one. If any deed shall be executed in any other State, Territory, or District of the United States, such deed may be executed and acknowledged according to the laws of such State, Territory, or District, or before any Commissioner appointed by the Governor of this State for such purpose; and unless the acknowledgment be taken before such Commissioner, such deed shall have attached thereto a certificate of the Clerk or other proper certifying officer of a Court of Record of the county or district within which such acknowledgment was taken, under the seal of his office, that the person whose name is subscribed to the certificate of acknowledgment was, at the date thereof, such officer as he is therein represented to be, and that he believes the signature of such person subscribed thereto to be genuine, and that the deed is executed and acknowledged according to the laws of such State, Territory, or District.

CHAPTER XX.

LIMITED PARTNERSHIPS.

Limited partnerships for the transaction of mercantile, mechanical and manufacturing business may be formed in this State. The persons forming such partnership make and severally subscribe and ackowledge a certificate in duplicate, which contains the name assumed by the partnership, the names and respective places of residence of all the general and special partners, the amount of capital which each special partner contributes, the general nature of the business to be transacted, and the time when the partnership is to commence and terminate; one copy of such certificate is filed with the Clerk of the county in which the principal place of business of the partnership is to be. A copy of the same is required to be published for four weeks in some weekly newspaper published in the county. The business must be conducted under a name in which the names of the general partners only shall be inserted, without the addition of the word company, or any other general term.

Special partners are not personally liable for any debts of the partnership.

During the continuance of any such partnership no part of the capital stock can be withdrawn, nor any division of interests or profits made, so as to reduce such capital stock below the sum stated in the certificate.

CHAPTER XXI.

MARRIED WOMEN.

The Constitution of the State provides that the property and pecuniary rights of every married woman at the time of marriage, or afterward acquired by gift, devise, or inheritance, shall not be subject to the debts or contracts of the husband, and laws shall be passed providing for the registration of personal property; which has been done. The property, both real and personal, acquired by any married woman during coverture, is free from and not liable for the debts, liabilities or contracts of her husband.

CHAPTER XXII.

CORPORATIONS.

Corporations are only formed under general laws, and cannot be created by special laws.

The stockholders of all corporations and joint-stock companies are liable for the indebtedness of such corporations to the amount of their stock subscribed and unpaid, and no more.

No bank, banking company or moneyed institution can be created under the laws of this State; nor can any bank, company or institution exist in the State with the privilege of making, issuing, or putting in circulation any bill, check, certificate, promissory note or other paper, or the paper of any bank, company or person, to circulate as money.

CHAPTER XXIII.

CHATTEL MORTGAGES.

Chattel mortgages are valid against third parties when the property is retained in the possession of the mortgagor, provided the mortgage or a copy thereof is filed in the office of the County Clerk. Such mortgage, however, ceases to be valid as against creditors and subsequent purchasers, or mortgagors in good faith, after the expiration of one year from the filing of the same, unless within thirty days preceding the expiration of the year an affidavit, setting forth the interest which the mortgagee has in the property by virtue of such mortgage, is made and annexed to the instrument or copy on file. The effect of such affidavit does not continue beyond one year, when a similar affidavit must be made.

CHAPTER XXIV.

INTEREST AND USURY.

Ten per cent. per annum is the legal rate of interest; but on contracts, interest at the rate of one per cent. per month may be charged by express agreement of the parties.

Usury entails the forfeiture of the principal sum, without interest, to the school fund of the county in which the suit is brought.

CHAPTER XXV.

ASSIGNMENTS FOR BENEFIT OF CREDITORS.

No general assignment of property by an insolvent, or in contemplation of insolvency, for the benefit of creditors shall be valid, unless it be made for the benefit of all his creditors in proportion to the amount of their respective claims. And such assignments shall have the effect to discharge any and all attachments on which judgments shall not have been taken at the date of such assignment ; and after the payment of the costs, and disbursements thereof, including attorneys' fees allowed by law, in case of judgment, out of the estate of the insolvent, such claim or claims shall be deemed as presented, and share pro rata with other claims, as hereinafter provided.

In the case of an assignment for the benefit of all the creditors of the assignor, the assent of the creditors shall be presumed.

The debtor shall annex to such assignment an inventory, under oath, of his estate, real and personal, according to the best of his knowledge, and also a list of his creditors and the amount of their respective demands, but such inventory shall not be conclusive as to the amount of the debtor's estate, and such assignment shall vest in the assignee the title to any other property belonging to the debtor at the time of making the assignment. Every assignment shall be in writing and duly acknowledged in the same manner as conveyances of real estate, and recorded in the county where the person making the same resides, or where the business in respect of which the same is made has been carried on.

The assignee shall also forthwith file with the Clerk of the Circuit Court of the county where such assignment shall be recorded, a true and full inventory and valuation of said estate, under oath, so far as the same has come to his knowledge, and shall then and there enter into a bond to the State of Oregon, for the use of the creditors, in double the amount of the inventory and valuation, with two or more sufficient sureties, to be approved by said Clerk, for the faith