ART. 73] CERTIFICATE OF FORMATION. 1613

this State may be formed by two or more persons upon the
terms, with the rights and powers, and subject to the condi-
tions and liabilities herein prescribed; but the provisions of
this article shall not be construed to authorize any such part-
nership for the purpose of making insurance.

1888, art. 73, sec 2. 1860, art 72, sec. 2. 1836, ch. 97, sec 2

2. Such partnership may consist of one or more persons,
who shall be called general partners and who shall be jointly
and severally responsible as general partners are by law, and
of one or more persons who shall contribute in actual cash
payments a specific sum as capital to the common stock, who
shall be called special partners and who shall not be liable for
the debts of the partnership beyond the fund so contributed by
him or them to the capital; but the number of special partners
shall, in no partnership, exceed six.

Lineweaver v. Slagle, 64 Md 465.

Ibid. sec. 3. 1860, art 72, sec. 3. 'l836, ch97, sec. 3.

3. Persons desirous of forming such partnership shall make
and severally sign a certificate which shall contain the name or
firm under which such partnership is to be conducted, the
general nature of the business intended to be transacted, the
names of all the general and special partners interested therein,
distinguishing which are general and which are special part-
ners, and their respective places of residence, the amount of
capital which each special partner shall have contributed to
the common stock, the period at which the partnership is to
commence, and the period at which it is to terminate.

Ibid. sec. 4. 1860, art. 72, sec. 4. 1836, ch. 97, sec. 4. 1884, ch. 65.

4. The certificate shall be acknowledged by the several
persons signing the same before any officer authorized to take
the acknowledgments of deeds conveying land in this State,
and such acknowledgments shall be made and certified to in
the same manner as the acknowledgments of such deeds; and
when so acknowledged and certified shall be filed in the office
of the clerk of the circuit court for the county in which the
principal place of business of the partnership shall be, or, if
it be in the city of Baltimore, in the office of the clerk of the
superior court of Baltimore city, and shall be recorded by him
at large in a book kept for that purpose, open to public inspec-
tion; and if the partnership shall have places of business
situated in different counties, or in a county and the city of