1827 .

LAWS OF MARYLAND.

CHAP, 99.

for which the said Otho paid a part only of the purchase mo-
ney, and left due to said Robert Lyles a balance of three
thousand dollars, to secure the payment of which, the said
Otho, on the twenty-first day of June, in the year eighteen
hundred and nineteen, executed a deed of Mortgage, and ac-
knowledged the same before two justices of the peace, and
delivered the same to the said Robert Lyles, the mortgagee,
who, afterwards, to wit, on the twelfth day of October, in the
year eighteen hundred and nineteen, had the same recorded
among the land records of Frederic county, believing, as did
also the said Sprigg, the same to be a good and valid deed of
mortgage for the purposes therein mentioned: That the said
Robert Lyles afterwards assigned his said claim, under said
mortgage, to said John Sprigg, who is, since dead. And where-
as, it has been recently discovered, that although the said deed
of mortgage was duly acknowledged before two justices of the
peace as aforesaid, and they have subscribed their names as
witnesses to the execution thereof, yet that they have omitted
to write out at full length and in clue form the acknowledg-
ment so made before them, and to attest such acknowledg-
ment by their signatures, whereby doubts are entertained as
to the legal sufficiency of said acknowledgment; And where-
as, it is right and just that omissions of mere matter of form
by the state's officers in the discharge of their official dunes
should not be used to the prejudice of the rights of those
confiding in the accuracy of said officers — Therefore,

Deed declared va-
lid

Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Maryland, That
the said deed of mortgage, executed by the said Otho Sprigg,
of Frederick county, on the twenty-first day of June, in the
year eighteen hundred andl nineteen, in favor of Robert Lyles,
and recorded in liber 18, number nine, folios five hundred and
sixty nine and five .hundred and seventy, one of the land
record books oi Frederick county, on the twelth day of Oc-
tober, in the year eighteen hundred and nineteen be, and the.
same is hereby declared to he, as valid and effectual, to all
intents and purposes, as if the same had been executed, ac-
knowledged and recorded on the twelfth day of October, in
the year eighteen hundred and nineteen, in the manner pres-
cribed by the laws of this state.

CHAPTER 100.

Passed Feb'ry 29,
1828.

An act to authorise the Levy Court of Somerset county to con-
tract for the removal of certain obstructions in Barren,
Rewasico, Quantico, and Wetpiquin creeks and their several
branches, and to levy the expenses thereof upon the said
county.

Contract and as-
sessment authoris-
ed.

SECTION 1. Be it enacted by the General Assembly of Mary-
land, that the justices of the, levy court of Somerset county be
and they hereby are authorise d and empowered to contract, on
the best obtainable terms, for the removal of all stakes, sticks