CHAPTER XX.

OF PUBLIC AND PRIVATE STATUTES.

§ 795. We have in a previous chapter remarked, that statutes are divided into two classes-that of public and private acts. This distinction is important in all cases in the determination of the question as to whether an act must be specially pleaded, as it is a general rule that public acts of parliament are to be taken notice of judicially by the court, without being formally set forth; but particular or private acts, are not regarded by the judges unless formally shown and pleaded. The general description of public acts is, that they relate to or concern the interest of the public at large, or relate to a general genus in relation to things; and private acts relate to private individuals or an individual only, or which con- cern a particular species of such general genus or thing.

§ 796. In legal language, acts are deemed public; and general acts, which the judges will take notice of in pleading--acts concerning the king, queen or prince, or in our American states, the government and its co-ordinate departments; those concerning all prelates, nobles, and all public officers; those concerning the whole spirituality, and those which concern all officers in general; acts concerning trade in general, or any specific trade; acts which relate to all the subjects of the realm; acts concerning all persons generally, though it be a special or particular thing, such as statutes concerning assizes, or woods in forest, chases, fisheries, and private acts,

when recognized by a public act. Private acts are those which concern only a particular species, thing or person, of which the judges will not take notice without pleading them-such as acts relating to bishops only, acts for toleration for dissenters, acts relating to any particular place, or to divers particular towns, or to one or divers particular counties, or to the colleges only in the univer sities.

§ 797. In parliamentary language, another sort of distinction is also used, and some acts are called public general acts, and often others public local acts, such as church acts, canal acts, &c. These, in their objects and operations, are merely local or limited, but they are nev ertheless treated as public acts, either by virtue of a special clause declaring them to be so, or because, although limited to a particular section or locality, yet they affect the public at large when acting within that section or locality, in reference to matter within the purview of the act. To this class may also be added some acts which, though public, are merely personal, such as acts of attainder, and patent acts, and all that class of acts which have for their object the security of the right of some particular individuals or class of persons, but which, in effect, are operative, and of binding force upon all the citizens generally. Other acts are called private acts, of which latter class some are local, such as enclosure acts, &c., and all that class of acts of a private character which relate to a particular locality, place or district, and some personal, such as relate to the names of particular individuals or to particular estates, as special acts of divorce, or other matters affecting only a particular person or class of persons. (a)

§ 798. In Holland's case,(b) it is said, “The rule of

(a) Bacon's Ab. Statutes.

(b) 4 Co. 76, 4.

law is, that of general statutes the judges ought to take notice, although not pleaded-otherwise of special or particular statutes; and for the better understanding of the point as to which are statutum generale and which are statutum speciale, that, generale dicitur a genere, et speciale a specie; and these are genus, species, et individua : for instance, spirituality is genus; bishopric, deanery, &c., are species; and bishopric, or deanery of a particular place, as Norwich, individuum sic dicet quia in partes dividi nequit." Hence acts which concern the whole spirituality in general, are general acts, and the act(a) concerning colleges in the two universities, and the colleges of Eaton and Winchester, is a particular act, of which the judges shall not take notice; but the statutes concerning colleges, deans and chapters, hospitals, parsons, vicar, or any other having any spiritual or ecclesiastical living, are general acts.(b) A statute concerning leases made by bishops, is a special act, because it concerns the bishops only, who are but species of the spirituality, or an individual of a certain species, as a particular bishop. So the word officer is a general word or genus, sheriff is a special word or species, and the sheriff of a particular place, as of Norfolk, is individuum. Hence a statute which declares that no sheriff, nor other of the king's officers, shall take any reward to do his office, but shall be paid of that which they take of the king, is a general act, because it extends to officers in general; but at one time it was held, that a statute which extends only to sheriffs was but a particular and special act. This doctrine has since been overruled, and this is now held to be a public act.(c) So, mystery or trade is a gen

(a) 18 Eliz. c. 6.

(b) Dumpsor's case, 4 Co. 120.

(c) See 2 Lev. 154; 1 Ibid. 83; Sid. 23; Samuel v. Evans, 2 T. R. 569; Lovell v. Sheriff of London, 15 East, 320.

eral word; trade of a particular kind, as grocery, is special, and this grocer by name is individuum; and hence acts concerning mysteries or trades in general are general acts, but an act concerning a particular trade, as that grocery, is a special act, as it is said, (a) because the trade of grocers contains under it but individua, or singular persons, as this or that grocer by name. The distinction between statutes which concern trade in general, and those which relate to a particular trade, is, that in the former the genus trade is composed of all kinds of trade, but in the latter the particular trade is a species of the genus trade, and the particular person is an individual of that species.

§ 799. It has been held that the statutes made in the time of Henry 6th, by which all corporations and licenses granted by that prince are declared void, was a private act, for the reason that it did not extend to all corporations it was not general, but particular in a generality, or, to speak with more propriety, general in a particularity. The genus corporations was general; the species— to wit, those granted by this prince-were particular or special. As it is the species and not the genus provided for in the act, it rendered the act itself a private act.(b)

§ 800. If an act is special which extends ad species, a multo fortiori, it is special or particular when it extends ad individua. As to what acts as to persons are general, and what not, it may be observed, that although the matter is special, so that under it there be but individua, yet if it is general as to persons, it is a general act; but if the act concerns aliquod singulare sua individuum, although it is general as to persons, yet it is a special act, of which the judges will not take notice. An appeal is

(a) Dyer, 27.

(b) Plow. 65; 4 Rep. 76; Dyer, 119.

a special act, and yet statutes giving appeals to all persons are general acts. But if an act should provide that no appeal should be brought of the death of S., that would be a special or particular act.

§ 801. It is upon the same reasoning that statutes of waste, and concerning special actions, assizes, assizes by tenant by elegit, of attaints, &c., are general laws, although they concern special actions and are framed in reference to special objects. Although an act as to persons is general, if the matter thereof concerns individua, or singular things, or any particular man or house, &c., or all the manor houses, &c., which are in one or sundry particular towns, or in one or divers particular counties; these are such particular acts of which courts will not take cognizance, without they are specially pleaded or alleged. But of every act, although the matters thereof concerns individua, or singular things, yet if they touch or affect the king or government at heart, they are public acts, of which the judges ex officio ought to take cognizance; for every subject has an interest in the king as in the head of the commonwealth; and as the inferior members cannot estrange themselves from the actions and passions of the head, no less can any subject estrange himself from any thing which touches or concerns the king, their supreme head.(a)

§ 802. It has been said, that the distinction between public and private statutes is this, a general or public act is a universal rule that regards the whole community, but special or private acts are rather exceptions than rules, being those which operate upon private persons and private concerns.(b) It is not necessary, however, in order to constitute a statute a public act, that it should be equally applicable to all parts of the state. It is suffi

(a) Phil. Ev. 318; Bull. N. P. 222.

(b) 1 Black. Com. 86.