LAWS OF MARYLAND [CH. 554

conveyance has not been witnessed and sealed, or any mort-
gage or assignment of mortgage defectively sworn to or not
sworn to at all," be, and the same are, hereby repealed and
re-enacted so as to read as follows: All deeds, mortgages, re-
leases, bonds' of conveyance, bills of sale, chattel mortgages
and all other conveyances of real and personal property, or
of any interest therein or agreements relating thereto which
may have been executed, acknowledged or recorded in the
State subsequent to the passage of the Act of the General
Assembly of Maryland passed at its January Session, 1858,
Chapter 208, which may not have been acknowledged accord-
ing to the laws existing at the time of said acknowledgment,
or which may not have been acknowledged before a proper

officer, or when the certificate of acknowledgment is not in
the prescribed form, or when the official character of the

officer taking the acknowledgment is not set out in the body

of the certificate, or has not been certified to as required by
law, or where the conveyance has not been witnessed to or
sealed as required by law, or when any deed heretofore made
to, or from, a corporation prior to the payment of bonus tax
which was afterwards paid, shall be and the same are hereby
made valid, to all intent and purposes, as if the conveyances
and agreements had been acknowledged, certified to, witnessed
and sealed according to law; providing the said deeds, mort-
gages, bonds of conveyances, bills of sale and other convey-
ances and agreements are in other respects in conformity with
the laws; provided further, that nothing in this section shall
affect the interest of bona fide purchasers or creditors, with-
out notice, who may have become so previous to the passage
of this Act.

SEC. 1-A. And be it further enacted, That any assignment
of any mortgage, which assignment has been heretofore exe-
cuted and recorded, but which has not been sealed and in
which no mention of any seal has been made or in which either
of such defects exist, or any mortgage or assignment of mort-
gage sworn to or not sworn to at all, shall be and they are
hereby made valid to all intents and purposes, as if said
mortgage or assignment of mortgage had been in such mat-
ters in full conformity with the law in force at the time of
such execution. Provided, that any such mortgage or assign-
ment of mortgage is in other respects legal and valid; and
provided further, that nothing in this Act shall affect the