public

those to whom the United States had contractual obligations.

The whole body politic, or all the citizens of the state. It is inapplicable to a municipal corporation or other political subdivision; the people are the public. 21 Mich. 335. It does not necessarily mean all of the inhabitants of a state, a county or a community. 184 111. App. 156; 169 111. 84. This term is sometimes joined to other terms, to designate those things which have a relation to the public; as, a public ofiicer, a public road, a public passage, a public house. sometimes used as synonymous. 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. Greenl. Ev. § 128.

TRUE, AND NOTORIOUS. The old form by which charges in the allegations in the ecclesiastical courts were described at the end of each particular.

Pertaining to a state, nation or whole community; proceeding from, relating to or affecting the whole body of people or an entire community. Open to all; notorious. Common to all or many; general ; open to common use. Morgan v. Cree, 46 Vt. 786, 14 Am. Rep. 640; Crane v. Waters (C. C.) 10 Fed. 621; Austin v. Soule, 36 Vt. 650; Appeal of Eliot, 74 Conn. 586, 51 AU. 558; O'Hara v. Miller, 1 Kulp (Pa.) 295. A distinction has ben made between the terms "public" and "general." They are sometimes used as synonymous. 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. As a noun, the word "public" denotes the whole body politic, or the aggregate of the citizens of a state, district, or municipality. Knight v. Thomas, 93 Me. 494, 45 Atl. 499; State v. Luce, 9 Houst (Del.) 396, 32 Atl. 1076; Wyatt v. Irrigation Co., 1 Colo. App. 480, 29 Pac. 906.

— Public appointments. Public offices or stations which are to be filled by the appointment of individuals, under authority of law, instead of by election.

— Public bnilding. One of bliich the possession and use, as weli as the property in it, are in the public. Pancoast v. Troth, 34 N. J. Law, 383.

— Public law. That branch or department of law which is concerned with the state in its political or sovereign capacity, including constitutional and administrative law, and with the definition, regulation, and enforcement of rights in cases where the state is regarded as the subject of the right or object of the duty,
—including criminal law and criminal procedure,
—and the law of the state, considered in its quasi private personality, i. e., as capable of holding or exercising rights, or acquiring and dealing with property, in the character of an individual. See Holl. Jur. 106, 300. That portion of law which is concerned with political conditions; that is to say, with the powers, rights, duties, capacities, and incapacities which are peculiar to political superiors, supreme and subordinate. Aust. Jur. "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 stafute 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, affeeting only an individual or a small number of persons. Morgan v. Cree, 46 Vt. 773, 14 Am. Rep. 640.

— Public offense. A public offense is an act or omission forbidden by law, and punishable as by law provided. Code Ala. 1886, § 3699. Ford v. State, 7 Ind. App. 567, 35 N. E. 34 ; State v. Cantieny, 34 Minn. 1, 24 N. W. 458.

— Public passage. A right, subsisting in the public, to pass over a body of water, whether the land under it be public or owned by a private person.

— Public place. A place to which the general public has a right to resort; not necessarily a place devoted solely to the uses of the public, but a place which is in point of fact public rather than private, a place visited by many persons and usually accessible to the public. See Slate v. Welch, 88 Ind. 310; Gom-precht v. State, 36 Tex. Cr. R. 434, 37 S. W. 734; Russell v. Dyer, 40 N. H. 187; Roach v. Eugene, 23 Or. 376, 31 Pac. 825; Taylor v. State, 22 Ala. 15.

— Publio purpose. In the law of taxation, eminent domain, etc., this ls a term of classification to distinguish the objects for which, according to settled usage, the government is to provide, from those which, by the like usage, are left to private interest, inclination, or liberality. People v. Salem Tp. Board, 20 Mich. 485, 4 Am. Rep. 400. See Black, Co.nst. Law (3d Ed.) p. 454, et seq.

— Publio service. A term applied in modern usage to the objects and enterprises of certain kinds of corporations, which specially serve the needs of the general public or conduce to the comfort and convenience of an entire community, such as railroads, gas, water, and electric light companies.

— Public, true, and notorious. The old form by which charges in the allegations in the ecclesiastical courts were described at the end of each particular.
—Public use, in constitutional provisions restricting the exercise of the right to take private property in virtue of eminent domain, means a use concerning the whole community as distinguished from particular individuals. But each and every member of society need not be equally interested m such use, or be personally and directly affected by it; if the object is to satisfy a great public want or exigency, that is sufficient. Gilmer v. Lime Point, 18 Cal. 229; Budd v. New York, 143 U. S. 517, 12 Sup. Ct 468, 36 L. Ed. 247,

— Public ways. Highways, (q. v.)

— Public welfare. The prosperity, well-being, or convenience of the public at large, or of a whole community, as distinguished from the advantage of an individual or limited class. See Shaver v. Starrett, 4 Ohio St. 499. As to public "Accounts," "Act," "Administrator," "Agent," "Attorney," "Auction," "Blockade," "Boundary," "Bridge," "Carrier," "Chapel," "Charity," "Co.mpany," "Co.rpora-tion," "Debt," "Document," "Domain," "Easement," "Enemy," "Ferry," "Funds," "Grant," "Health," "Holiday," "House," "Indecency," "Lands," "Market," "Minister," "Money," "Notice," "Nuisance," "Officer," "Peace," "Policy," "Pond," "Printing," "Property," "Prosecutor," "Record," "Revenue," "River," "Road," "Sale," "School," "Seal," "Stock," "Store," "Tax," "Trial," "Verdict," "Vessel," "War," "Works," "Worship," and "Wrongs," sce those titles.

Concerning, affecting or belonging to the community at large. Public act or statute: a universal rule or law that regards the whole community. Public corporation: a corporation created by government for political purposes, as a county, a city, a town or village. Public house: a house intended for public purposes. Public lands: lands of a state, or of the United States, subject to sale under general laws. Public o Hlcer: a person who holds some publie post or place to which he has been elected or appointed in a manner prescribed by law and exercises functions concerning the there is a common right of navigation; a navigable river. Fnblic wrongs: violations of public rights and duties which affect the whole community, considered as a community; crimes and misdemeanors. Pnblica ita accipiuntur quae sunt omnium populornm, i. quae spectant ad usum hominum tantum, I. Public things are understood to mean those which belong to all people, that is, with reference to the use of men only.

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

By the term the pubdic,.1s meant the whole body politic, or all the citizens of the state; sometimes it signifies the inhabitants of a particular place, as the New York public. When the public interest and its rights, conflict with those of an individual, the latter must yield. If, for example, a road is required for public convenience, and in its course it passes en the ground oecupied by a house, the latter must be torn down, however valuable it may be to the owner. In such case the law and justice require that the owner shall be fully indemnified. This term is sometimes joined to other terms, to designate those things which have a relation to the public; as, a public officer, a public road, a public passage, a public house.