conſent is ſo given or purchaſed, and who are therein particularly named.
A law, thus made, though it binds all parties to the bill, is yet looked upon rather as a private conveyance, than as the ſolemn act of the legiſlature. It is not therefore allowed to be a public, but a mere private ſtatute; it is not printed or publiſhed among the other laws of the ſeſſion; it hath been relieved againſt, when obtained upon fraudulent ſuggeſtions; and no judge or jury is bound to take notice of it, unleſs the ſame be ſpecially ſet forth and pleaded to them. It remains however enrolled among the public records of the nation, to be for ever preſerved as a perpetual teſtimony of the conveyance or aſſurance ſo made or eſtabliſhed.
II. The king's grants are alſo matter of public record. For, as St. Germyn ſays[1], the king's excellency is ſo high in the law, that no freehold may be given to the king, nor derived from him, but by matter of record. And to this end a variety of offices are erected, communicating in a regular ſubordination one with another, through which all the king's grants muſt paſs, and be tranſcribed, and enrolled; that the ſame may be narrowly inſpected by his officers, who will inform him if any thing contained therein is improper, or unlawful to be granted. Theſe grants, whether of lands, honours, liberties, franchiſes, or ought beſides, are contained in charters, or letters patent, that is, open letters, literae patentes: ſo called becauſe they are not ſealed up, but expoſed to open view, with the great ſeal pendant at the bottom; and are uſually directed or addreſſed by the king to all his ſubjects at large. And therein they differ from certain other letters of the king, ſealed alſo with his great ſeal, but directed to particular perſons, and for particular purpoſes: which therefore, not being proper for public inſpection, are cloſed up and ſealed on the outſide, and are thereupon called writs cloſe, literae clauſae; and are recorded in the cloſe-rolls, in the ſame manner as the others are in the patent-rolls.
- ↑ Dr & Stud. l. 1. d. 8.
