state or under the seal of the county court of the county or district in which it is made and in and for which he was or is such judge, or before and by any officer in any such state of the Union. territory thereof, or District of Columbia, then residing and being anywhere in such state, territory or district, authorized at the time of such proof or acknowledgment by the laws of such state, territory, or district, to take the proofs and acknowledgments of deeds or conveyances of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, lying and being in such state, territory, or district; provided, in such case, the certificate of acknowledgment or proof shall be accompanied by a certificate under the great seal of such state, territory, or district, or under the seal of some court of record of the county in which it was or shall be made, that the officer before whom such acknowledgment or proof was or shall be made was, at the time of the taking of said proof or acknowledgment, authorized by the laws of such state, territory, or district, to take the acknowledgments and proofs of deeds or conveyances for lands, tenements, or hereditaments in such state, territory, or district, shall be as good and effectual as if such acknowledgment or proof had been made within this state before the chancellor thereof and had been certified by him.

For form of certificate of county clerk or other officer authenticating notary's signature, see p. 23, ante.

24. Acknowledgments taken out of the United States.-If the party who shall have executed or who shall execute any such deed or instrument of the description or nature above set forth in the twenty-first section of this act, or the witnesses thereto, shall have happened or shall happen to be in any foreign kingdom, state, nation, or colony, whether such party or witnesses resided or reside in this state, or in such foreign kingdom, state, nation, or colony, or elsewhere, then such acknowledgment or proof as is above prescribed, made before and certified by any master in chancery of New Jersey, or any public ambassador, minister, consul, vice-consul, consular agent, chargé d'affaires or other representative of the United States for the time being, to or at any such foreign kingdom, state, nation, or colony, or before

and by any court of law of such foreign kingdom, state, nation, or colony, or before and by any notary public, or mayor or other chief magistrate of and then having been, or being within, any city, borough, or corporation of such foreign kingdom, state, nation, or colony, in which city, borough, or corporation such party or witnesses may have happened or may happen to be, certified in such cases by such court of law, notary public, mayor or chief magistrate in the manner in which such acts are usually authenticated by them, shall be as good and effectual as if such acknowledgment or proof had been made within this state before the chancellor thereof and had been certified by him.

30. Appointment of foreign commissioners.-The governor of this state is hereby authorized to appoint and commission such number of commissioners (who may be either male or female) resident in each of the states and territories of the United States and in the District of Columbia, as he may deem expedient, and where such appointment shall not be incompatible with the laws of such state, territory or district where such commissioner shall reside; which commissioners shall be called and be denominated "foreign commissioners of deeds for New Jersey," and may be described in their appointments and commissions, and may describe themselves in their certificates as "foreign commissioners of deeds for New Jersey," or "commissioners for taking the acknowledgment or proof of deeds for New Jersey in" (such state, territory or district).

31. Term of office. Every foreign commissioner appointed by virtue of this act shall hold his office for the term of three years, but shall be removable from office at the pleasure of the governor, and in case he shall remove out of the state, territory or district in which he shall reside at the time of his appointment, his commission shall thereupon become void; and in case it shall be made to appear to the governor that any such commissioner shall charge more or greater fees than are allowed by law, it shall be his duty to remove such commissioner from office.

32. Certain commissioners may reside in this state.-It shall and may be lawful for any commissioner for the state of New

Jersey, in and for the state of Pennsylvania or New York, heretofore appointed, or who may hereafter be appointed, to reside in the state of New Jersey; but nothing in this act shall be so construed as to empower such commissioner to exercise the duties. of his office outside the states of Pennsylvania or New York, as the case may be, and the acts of any such commissioner who may reside or who may have resided in the state of New Jersey during his term of office, or any part thereof, shall be as valid and effectual in law as if he had during such time resided in the state of Pennsylvania or New York, as the case may be.

35. The foreign commissioners of deeds for New Jersey shall attest each of their official acts, by an official seal; impressions of such seals, in wax or other appropriate substance, shall be filed, with their official oaths hereinafter prescribed, in the office of the secretary of state of New Jersey, and the official certificates of such commissioners thus attested may be indorsed upon or annexed to any instrument of writing for use or record in this state, and shall be entitled to full faith and credit; and the forms of such official certificates, to be made by such officers, shall be in conformity with the laws of this state.

36. Fees.-The fee for each certificate of acknowledgment or of proof before such foreign commissioner, shall be one dollar, and for each oath administered, twenty-five cents, and no more.

GENERAL ASSIGNMENT ACT.

[Applicable to corporations; see section 24, p. 159, post.]

AN ACT CONCERNING GENERAL ASSIGNMENTS (REVISION OF ONE THOUSAND EIGHT HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINE). APPROVED MARCH 21, 1899, P. L. 1899, P. 146.

1. Assignments must be for equal benefit: Preferences void.Every conveyance or assignment made by a debtor of his entire estate in trust to an assignee or assignees, for the creditors of such debtor, shall be made for their equal benefit in proportion to their several demands, to the net amount that shall come to the hands of said assignee for distribution, and all preferences attempted to be made in such assignment of one creditor over the other, or whereby any one creditor shall be first paid or have a greater proportion in respect of his claim than another, shall be deemed fraudulent and void, and shall render such assignment void.

2. Contents of assignment: Acknowledged and recorded.Every debtor residing in this state making a conveyance or assignment of his entire estate, in trust, to an assignee or assignees, for the creditors of such debtor (the said debtor being hereinafter referred to as the assignor, and the said conveyance or assignment as a general assignment) shall acknowledge the same, or cause the same to be proved according to law, so that the same may be recorded as a deed of land, and shall annex to such general assignment an inventory, under oath or affirmation, of his estate, real and personal, together with a list of his creditors and the amount of their respective claims according to the best of his knowledge, but such inventory shall in nowise be conclusive as to the quantum of the assignor's estate, real and personal, but the assignee shall be entitled to any other property which may belong to the assignor at the time of making such general assignment; in case such assignor shall willfully violate any of the provisions of this section, the said general assignment shall not thereby be rendered invalid or be excluded from the operation of this act, but in such case such assignor shall remain liable to his creditors for any remaining indebtedness after distri

bution by the assignee, and shall not receive any of the benefits hereinafter provided for assignors in the twenty-second section of this act.

3. Duty of assignee.-The said assignee, upon receiving such general assignment mentioned in the preceding section of this act, shall forthwith record the same if the same has been acknowledged or proved according to law, in the county where such assignor resides, and in any other counties or states where he may deem it necessary to record the same, and shall also forthwith give public notice by advertising at least once a week for four weeks successively, in one of the newspapers printed in this state, circulating in the neighborhood where such creditors reside, making known thereby that such general assignment has been made, and when made, and setting forth a general description of any business carried on by the assignor and the place where the same was so carried on, and that all claims of creditors against said estate must be presented under oath or affirmation to the said assignee within three months from the date of said general assignment, or the same will be barred from coming in for a dividend of said estate; and the said assignee shall also, within thirty days after the date of said general assignment, mail a copy of said notice, with postage prepaid, to every creditor of said assignor, addressed to such creditor at his usual post-office address, so far as said assignee can ascertain the same; and the said assignee shall forthwith exhibit to the surrogate of the county wherein such assignor resides, under oath or affirmation, a true inventory and valuation of said estate so far as has come to his knowledge, and shall, after exhibiting such inventory and valuation, forthwith enter into bond to the ordinary of this state, in such amount and with such sufficient security as the orphans' court of the said county, or any judge thereof, may approve, for the faithful performance of his trust, which bond shall be filed in the office of the surrogate of the said county; until such inventory, valuation and bond shall be filed the said assignee shall not proceed to the discharge of his trust under the said general assignment, further than may be necessary for the preservation