By authority of the President of the United States, be it enacted by the United States Philippine Commission, that:

SECTION 1. Whereas certain judges of Courts of First Instance have heretofore appointed notaries public by reason of having construed section eighty-two of Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, entitled "An Act providing for the organization of courts in the Philippine Islands," as authorizing them forthwith to make such appointments; and

Whereas such appointments are not deemed to be authorized by the true meaning and intent of said Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six;

It is hereby declared that section seventy-nine of said Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six shall be deemed to continue in force the notarial laws and orders and regulations and general instructions relating to notaries public that were in force at the time of the enactment of said Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, until the enactment of a new system of registration of land titles whereby notaries public shall no longer be legal depositories of original instruments affecting titles to land, and that persons authorized under military orders and by appointments made at any time by the Military Governor, or the Commission, or the Civil Governor, with the advice and consent of the Commission, to perform the duties of notaries public, shall continue in the due performance thereof in accordance with the laws, regulations, instructions, and modifications relating to notaries public, unless such officials shall be lawfully removed, and that sections eighty-one and eighty-two shall be deemed to prohibit the appointment by judges of the Courts of Fist Instance of notaries public before the enactment of the new system of registration of land titles, as above stated, and that the appointment of notaries public by judges of the Courts of First Instance heretofore made are void and of no effect: Provided, nevertheless, That the notarial acts that have been performed by notaries appointed by judges of Courts of First Instance, under the supposed authority of said Act Numbered One hundred and thirty-six, are hereby validated and declared to be lawful and binding as fully as though in fact such appointments had been lawfully made.

SEC. 2. The public good requiring the speedy enactment of this bill, the passage of the same is hereby expedited in accordance with section two of "An Act prescribing the order of procedure by the Commission in the enactment of laws," passed September twenty-sixth, nineteen hundred.

SEC. 3. This Act shall take effect on its passage.

Enacted, May 22, 1902.