c. 79. prentice bound by notary, for the term commencing before the first day of January, 41 Geo. 3, one thousand eight hundred and one, for the term of not less than seven years, notwithstanding such person shall not have been Clerk or Apbound by contract in writing or indenture of apprenticeship, or that Seven Years, such term of seven years shall not expire till after the said first though not day of August; and provided that such clerk or apprentice shall, Contract, &c. within six months after the passing of this act, enter into and become bound by contract in writing or indenture of apprenticeship, to any such public notary, and shall actually serve for the remainder of the term of seven years: provided always, that an affidavit shall be previously made and filed, in manner herein-before directed, of such actual service for any term not less than seven years, to any such qualified notary or scrivener; and every such person may, after the expiration of such term of seven years, and affidavit of such service having been previously made and filed as before directed, be sworn, admitted, and inrolled to be a public notary, in the same manner as persons to be admitted, sworn, and inrolled public notaries, are hereby required to be sworn, admitted, and inrolled respectively; any thing in this act contained to the contrary notwithstanding." Persons ap. plying for a [Sect. 13. "And whereas the Incorporated Company of Scriveners of London, by virtue of its charter, hath jurisdiction over its members being resident within the city of London, the liberties of Westminster, the borough of Southwark, or within the circuit of three miles of the said city, and hath power to make good and wholesome laws and regulations for the government and control of such members, and the said company of scriveners, practising within the aforesaid limits, and it is therefore expedient that all notaries resident within the limits of the said charter should come into and be under the jurisdiction of the said company;' be it therefore enacted, That all persons who may hereafter apply for a faculty to become a public notary, and practise within the city of Faculty to London and the liberties thereof, or within the circuit of three become No. miles of the same city, shall come into and become members, and the Jurisdictake their freedom of the said company of scriveners, according to ton of the the rules and ordinances of the said company, on payment of such Scriveners, and the like fine and fees as are usually paid and payable upon the admission of persons to the freedom of the said company, and shall, previous to the obtaining such faculty, be admitted to the freedom of the said company, and obtain a certificate of such freedom, duly signed by the clerk of the same company for the time being, which certificate shall be produced to the master of faculties, and filed in his office prior to or at the time of issuing any faculty to such person to enable him to practise within the jurisdiction of the said company." [Sect. 14. "That nothing in this act contained shall extend, or be construed to extend, to any proctor in any ecclesiastical court in England; nor to any secretary or secretaries to any bishop or bishops, merely practising as such secretary or secretaries; or to any other person or persons necessarily created a notary public for the purpose of holding or exercising any office or appointment, or occasionally performing any public duty or service under government, and not as general practitioner or practitioners; any taries within Company of shall previ ously take their FreeCompany. dom of the Act not to extend to Ecclesiastical cretaries to c. 79. 41 Geo. 3, thing herein-before contained to the contrary notwithstanding: provided always, that nothing herein contained shall extend or be construed to exempt any proctor, being also a public notary, from the pains, penalties, forfeitures, and disabilities, by this act imposed upon any public notary, who shall permit or suffer his name to be, in any manner, used for, or on account, or for the profit and benefit, of any person or persons, not entitled to act as a public notary.' Nor to Per or before passing this Act, have been admit ted as Nota ries. [Sect. 15. "That nothing in this act contained shall extend, or sons who, on be construed to extend, to prevent any person who, on or before the passing of this act, shall have been admitted as a public notary, from acting as a public notary, or using or exercising the office of a notary in any manner, or doing any notarial acts whatever." [Sect. 16. "That all pecuniary forfeitures and penalties imposed on any person or persons, for offences committed against this act, shall and may be sued for and recovered in any of his majesty's courts of record at Westminster, by action of debt, bill, plaint, or information, wherein no essoign, protection, privilege, wager of law, or more than one imparlance shall be allowed, and wherein the plaintiff, if he or she shall recover any penalty or penalties, shall recover the same for his or her own use, with full costs of suit. Recovery and applica tion of Penalties. Limitation of General Issue. [Sect. 17. "That if any action or suit shall be brought or commenced for any thing done in pursuance of this act, every such action or suit shall be commenced within three calendar months next after the fact committed, and not afterwards, and shall be laid and tried in the county wherein the cause of action shall have arisen, and not elsewhere; and the defendant or defendants in such action or suit, shall and may plead the general issue, and give this act, and the special matter, in evidence at any trial to be had thereupon, and that the same was done in pursuance and by the authority of this act; and if the same shall appear to have been so done, or if any action or suit shall be brought after the time limited for bringing the same, or shall be laid in any other county or place than as aforesaid, then the jury shall find for the defendant or defendants; and upon such verdict, or if the plaintiff or plaintiffs shall be nonsuited, or suffer a discontinuance of his, her, or their action or suit, after the defendant or defendants shall have appeared, or if upon demurrer judgment shall be given against the Treble Costs. plaintiff or plaintiffs, the defendant or defendants shall have treble costs, and shall have such remedy for the same as any defendant or defendants hath or have for costs of suit in any other case by law." 3 & 4 W. 4, c. 70. 79. [The act of the 41 Geo. 3, c. 79, has been amended by the 3 & 4 Will. 4, c. 70, which is intituled "An Act to alter and amend an Act of the forty-first Year of His Majesty King George the Third, for the better Regulation of Public Notaries in England (h)," and enacts as follows: ["Whereas by an act passed in the forty-first year of the reign 41 Geo. 3, c. of his late majesty King George the Third, intituled An Act for the better Regulation of Public Notaries in England,' it is enacted, that after the first day of August, one thousand eight hundred and (h) Passed 28th August, 1833. c. 70. one, no person shall be sworn, admitted, and inrolled as a public 3 & 4 Will. 4. notary, unless such person shall have been bound by contract in writing or by indenture of apprenticeship to serve as a clerk or apprentice for the term of not less than seven years to a public notary, or a person using the art and mystery of a scrivener, (according to the privilege and custom of the city of London, such scrivener being also a public notary,) duly sworn, admitted and inrolled, and shall have continued in such service for the said term of seven years; and certain other enactments are contained in the said act, regulating the admission and practice of notaries public: And whereas the provisions of the said act are in their operation found to be extremely inconvenient in some places distant from the city of London ;' be it therefore enacted, &c., That from and after the passing of this act Recited Act so much of the said recited act as requires that persons to be ad- London and mitted notaries public shall have served a clerkship or apprentice- Ten Miles ship for seven years, as hereinbefore mentioned, shall, so far as the same affects persons being attornies, solicitors, or proctors admitted as hereinafter mentioned, be limited and confined to the city of London and liberties of Westminster, the borough of Southwark, and the circuit of ten miles from the Royal Exchange in the said city of London." limited to thereof. be admitted Limits. [Sect. 2. "That from and after the passing of this act it shall and Attornies may may be lawful for the master of the Court of Faculties of his grace as Notaries the Lord Archbishop of Canterbury in London from time to time, out of those upon being satisfied as well of the fitness of the person as of the expediency of the appointment, to appoint, admit and cause to be sworn and inrolled in the said Court of Faculties any person or persons residing at any place distant more than ten miles from the Royal Exchange in the said city of London, who shall have been previously admitted, sworn and inrolled an attorney or solicitor in any of the courts at Westminster, or who shall be a proctor practising in any Ecclesiastical Court, to be a notary public or notaries public to practise within any district in which it shall have been made to appear to the said master of the Court of Faculties that there is not (or shall not hereafter be) a sufficient number of such notaries public admitted or to be admitted under the provisions of the said recited act for the due convenience and accommodation of such district, as the said master of the Court of Faculties shall think fit, and not elsewhere; any law or usage to the contrary notwithstanding (i)." rize Notaries thereby to [Sect. 3. "That nothing herein contained shall extend to autho- Not to anthorize any notary who shall be admitted by virtue of this act to prac- appointed tise as a notary, or to perform or certify any notarial act whatsoever, within the said city of London, the liberties of Westminster, the borough of Southwark, or within the circuit of ten miles from the Royal Exchange in the said city of London." [Sect. 4. "That if any notary admitted by virtue of this act shall practise as a notary, or perform or certify any notarial act whatso (i) [In the cases of Dering and Brooke v. Wright, (4th May, 1836,) Hoskins v. Greetham, (Feb. 1838,) caveats were issued against the grant of a faculty, and the causes were ar act in London or within Ten Miles thereof. Notary ad this Act, prac mitted under tising out of to be struck gued by counsel at Doctors' Commons his District, before the master of the faculties. In off the Roll the former case the faculty was grant- of Faculties. ed, in the latter refused.-ED.] c. 70. 3 & 4 Will. 4, ever, out of the district specified and limited in and by the faculty to be granted to him by virtue of this act, or within the city of London, the liberties of Westminster, the borough of Southwark, or the circuit of ten miles from the Royal Exchange in London aforesaid, then and in every such case it shall be lawful for the said Court of Faculties, on complaint made in a summary way and duly verified on oath, to cause every such notary so offending to be struck off the roll of faculties, and every person so struck off shall thenceforth for ever after be wholly disabled from practising as a notary or performing or certifying any notarial act whatsoever; any thing herein contained to the contrary notwithstanding."] How sworn. [An act of parliament required, that before a person should be allowed to act as a public notary he should have been admitted and inrolled in the court wherein notaries had been usually admitted; and that no person should be inrolled as a public notary unless he should have been bound by contract of apprenticeship to serve for seven years to a public notary, and during that term should have continued in such service; and further, that he should during the whole time and term of service specified in such contract of apprenticeship, or during the space of seven years thereof at least, continue and be actually employed by such public notary in the proper business of a public notary: Held, that a party bound apprentice for the term of seven years, who during the whole of that term acted as a banker's clerk daily till five o'clock in the evening, and after that hour went to the notary and presented bills of exchange, and prepared protests, was not actually employed by the public notary during the whole period of seven years within the meaning of the act of parliament, and consequently that he was not entitled to act as a notary; and this court refused a mandamus to the Scriveners' Company to admit such a party to the freedom of the company, in order that he might be admitted to practise as a notary (1).-ED.] 3. A notary on his appointment must swear, "that he will faithfully exercise the office of notary public; that he will faithfully make contracts, wherein the consent of parties is required, by adding or diminishing nothing, without the will of the parties, that may alter the substance of the fact; that if in making any instrument the will of one party only is required, he will in such case add or diminish nothing that may alter the substance of the fact, against the will of such party; that he will not make instruments of any contract in which he shall know there is a violence or fraud; that he will reduce contracts into an instrument or register; and after he shall have so reduced the same, that he will not maliciously delay to make a public instrument thereupon, against the will of him or them, on whose behalf such contract is to be so drawn: Saving to himself his just and accustomed fees." () [Rex v. The Scriveners' Company, 10 B. & C. 511.] the Contesta 4. A notary public (or actuary) that writes the acts of court, His Office in ought not only to be chosen by the judge, but approved also tion of Suit. by each of the parties in suit; for though it does of common right belong to the office of the judge, to assume and choose a notary for reducing the acts of court in every cause into writing, yet he may be refused by the litigants: for the use of a notary was intended, not only on account of the judge, to help his memory in the cause, but also that the litigants might not be injured by the judge (m). And particularly, the office of a notary in a judicial cause is employed about three things: first, he ought to register and enrol all the judicial acts of the court, according to the decree and order of the judge, setting down in the act the very time and place of writing the same; secondly, he ought to deliver to the parties, at their especial request, copies and exemplifications of all such judicial acts and proceedings as are there enacted and decreed; and thirdly, he ought to retain and keep in his custody the originals of such acts and proceedings, commonly called the protocols (pala xwλa, the notes, or first draughts). of his Pro 5. As a notary is a public person, so consequently all instru- Authenticity ments made by him are called public instruments; and a judi- ceedings. cial register of record made by him is evidence in every court, according to the civil and canon law. And a bishop's register establishes a perpetual proof and evidence, when it is found in the bishop's archives; and credit is given not only to the original, but even to an authentic copy exemplified (n). And one notary public is sufficient for the exemplification of any act; no matter requiring more than one notary to attest it (o). And the rule of the canon law is, that one notary is equal to the testimony of two witnesses: [unus notarius æquipollet duobus testibus (p).-ED.] 6. By the several Stamp Acts, the admission of a notary shall Stamps. be upon a 301. stamp. And every notarial act shall be on a 5s. stamp. [See 55 Geo. 3, c. 84, s. 1, and title Faculty.] [In the catalogue of processes in the registry of High Court of Delegates, from 1609 to 1823, will be found the following record: "No. 590. Williams v. Gentry. In Ima inst. Off. Judicis (Bishop of St. David's) promoted by Gentry against Williams;" as it should seem, for acting as notary without a regular faculty. It has been said, however, that, by sect. 17 of 25 Hen. 8, the (m) Ayl. Par. 382. (n) Ibid. 386. (0) Ibid. (p) Gibs. Codex, p. 996. [" Besides I know thou art a public notary, and such stand in law for a dozen |