Public

ac(/. 1. Generally known; open to view; unconcealed. 2. Belonging to the community at large; common to enjoyment of all persons; open to use by any one desiring. 3. Affecting or concerning the community at large. A distinction has been made between the terms public and general: they are sometimes used as synonj'mous. The former term is applied strictly to that which concerns all the citizens and every member of the state; while the latter Includes a lesser, though still a large, portion of the community. 1 Greenl. Ev. § 128.

Public accounts

The accounts kept by officers of the nation, state, or kingdom, of the receipt and expenditure of the revenues of the government. They are not necessarily open to inspection by any one desiring. Public act, law, or statute. An enactment or statute which afiects the community generally, although perhaps operative only within a limited territory, as distinguished from a private act, which bears upon designated individuals only. The distinction is important, in view of the rule that the courts of the jurisdiction will take judicial notice of the public laws, and they need not be distinctly pleaded or proved; but private acts must be alleged and proved as matter of fact. In classifying acts of parliament in recent years, statutes which, although passed and operative as public acts, apply within a limited territory only, have utes, a,motig the local and personal acts, and are called public local acts. Acts creating public corporations are public statutes.

Portsmouth Livery Co. v. Watson, 10 Mass. 91.

Acts in relation to banks are to be classed as public statutes. The bank-bills are a legal tender unless objected to, and their charters concern the currency of the country.

Bank of Utica v. Smedes, 3 Cow. 662.

An act for the survey of timber in a particular county is a public statute.

Pierce V. Kimball, 9 Greenl. 54.

An act relating to the preservation of a single species of fish in a particular river is a public act.

Burnham v. Webster, 5 Mass. 266, 268.

Public law, in one sense, is a designation given to international law, as distinguished from the laws of a particular nation or state. In another sense, a law or statute that applies to the people generally of the nation or state adopting or enacting it, is denominated a public law, as contradistinguished from a private law, affecting only an individual or a small number of persons.

Morgan v. Cree, 46 Vt. 773.

A statute making it felony to steal the notes of a particular incorporated bank was held to make the statute by which such bank was incorporated a public statute.

United States v. Porte, 1 Cranch C. Ct. 369.

The tendency of modern decisions in the United States has been to enlarge the class of laws deemed public; and, in particular, a village charter, being obligatory on all persons who are or may become residents of the village, should be deemed a public act, of which the courts of the state enacting it will take notice without its being pleaded.

Village of Winooski v. Gokey, 49 Vt. 282.

Public appointments

Offices or stations under government, to which individuals may be appointed ijnder authority of law.

Public blockade

A simple blockade may be established by a naval officer, acting upon his own discretion or under direction of superiors, without governmental notification. A public blockade is not only established in fact, but is notified, by the government directing it, to other governments. In the case of a simple blockade, the captors are bound to prove its existence at the time of capture j while, in the case of a public blockade, the claimants are held to proof of discontinuance in order to protect themselves from the penalties of attempted violation.

The Circassian, 2 Wail. 135.

Public bridge, common, high-way, park, square, or way. One maintained by the community for the free use of all persons who desire to avail themselves Public building. In a statute prohibiting the pulling down " public buildings " to alter highways, does not include an enginehouse, owned and occupied by an enginecompany, but situated on land belonging to a private individual.

State v. Troth, 34