Across

From side to side. Tram to the length of. Hannibal & St. J. R, Co. v. Packet Co., 125 V. S. 260, 8 Sup. CI 31 L. Ed. 7.->.l; but inett's Branch Imp. Co., 65 Pa. 242. It may mean over; Brown v. Meady, 10 M< 25 Am. Dec. 248. See Comstock v. Van Pick. ("Mass.) 1<;:;, where a grant of a right of way across a lot of land was held not to mean a right to enter at one side, go partly across and come out at a place on the same side. ACT (Lat. agcre, to do; actus, done). Something done or established.

In its general legal sense, the word may denote something done ' by an individual, as a private citizen, or as an officer; or by a body ot men, as a legislature, a council, or a court of justice; including not merely physical acts, but also d' edicts, laws, judgments, resolves, awards, and determinations. Some general laws made by the Congress of the United States are styled joint resolutions, and these have the same force and ei those styled acts. An instrument in writing to verify facts. Webster, Diet. It is used in this sense of the publi;hed acts of assembly, congress, etc. In a sense appr.> this, it has been held in trials for treason that letters and other written documents were acts; 1 Fost. Cr. Cas. 19S; 2 Stark. 116. In Civil Law. A writing which states in a legal form that a thing has been done. said, or agreed. Merlin. Report.

Private acts. are those made by private persons as registers in relation to their receipts and expenditures, schedules, acquittances, and the like. Nov. 73 >de 7. 32. 6; 4. 21; Dig. 22. 4; La. Civ. Code art. 2231 to 2254; 8 Toullier, Droit Civ. Franoais 94. Acts under private signature are those which have been made by private Individuals under their hands. An act of this kind does not acquire the force of an authentic act by being registered in the office of a notary; Marie Louise v. Cauchoix. 11 Mart. O. S. (La.) 243; Prl i v. Adams. 5 Mart. N. S. (La.) 693; unless it has been properly acknowledged before the officer by the parties to it; Billiard v. Wilson, 5 Mart. N. S. (La.) authority, and which have been made before public oliicers, are authorized by a publie seal, have been made public by the authority of a magistrate, or which have been extracted and been properly authenticated from public records. In Evidence. The act of one of several Irators, performed in pursuance of the common design, is evidence against all of them. And see Treason; Partner; 1'abtjhip; Agent; Agency. In Legislation. A statute or law made by a legislative body; an approved bill. The words bill and law are frequently used synonymously with act, but incorrectly; Sedgwick County Com'rs v. Bailey, 13 Kan. 600; a bill being only the draft or form of the act presented to the legislature but not enacted; Southwark Bank v. Com., 26 Pa. 440. General or public acts are those which bind the whole community. Of these the courts:dicial cognizance. Private or special acts are those which operate only upon particular persons and private concerns. The recitals of public acts are evidence of the facts recited, but in private acts they are only evidence against the parties securing them; Branson v. Wirth, 17 Wall. (U. S.) 32. 21 L. Ed. 566. Judicial Act. An act performed by a court touching the rights of parties or property brought before it by voluntary appearance, or by the prior action of ministerial officers; in short by ministerial acts. Flournoy v. Jeffersonville, 17 Ind. 173, 79 Am. Dec. 4GS; Union Pac. R. Co. v. U. S., 99 U. S. 700, 761, 25 L. Ed. 496. See Statute; Constitutional; Construction; Interpretation; Punctuation. Act in pais. An act performed out of court, and which is not a matter of record. A deed or an assurance transacted between two or more private persons in the country, that is, according to the old common law, upon the very spot to be transferred, is matter in pais. 2 Bla. Com. 294.

Under a grant of a right of way across the plaintiff’s lot of land, the grantee has not a right to enter at one place, go partly across, and then come out at another place on the same side of the lot. 5 Pick. 163. See 10 Me. 391.