Page:Hill v. State.pdf/8

23 Ark.]

1861.]

said that the reason is equally, if not more, cogent in a representative government, where the power of the people is delegated to others, and must be exercised by these if exercised at all; and accordingly the principle is held to have been transferred to the sovereign people of this country, when they succeeded to the rights of the king of Great Britain, and formed independent governments within the respective States. Levasser vs. Washburn, 11 Grat. 577; Kennedy's Ex. vs. Tawnley's Heirs, 16 Ala. 247; Commonwealth vs. Baldwin, 1 Watts 54; State vs. Thompson, use, etc., 5 Eng. R. 67; McNamee vs. United States, 6 Eng. 148.

And though this is sometimes called a prerogative right, it is in fact nothing more than a reservation, or exception, introduced for the public benefit, and equally applicable to all governments. United States vs. Hoar, 2 Mason 314.

"But, independently of any doctrine founded on the notion of prerogative, (says Judge in the case last cited,) the same construction of statutes of this sort ought to prevail, founded upon the legislative intention. Where the government is not expressly, or by necessary application included, it ought to be clear from the nature of the mischiefs to be redressed, or the language used, that the government itself was in contemplation of the legislature, before a court of law would be authorized to put such an interpretation upon any statute. In general, acts of the Legislature are meant to regulate and direct the acts and rights of citizens; and, in most cases, the reasoning applicable to them applies with very different, and often contrary force to the government. It appears to me, therefore, to be a safe rule, founded in the principles of the common law, that the general words of a statute ought not to include the government or affect its rights, unless that construction be clear and indisputable upon the text of the act."

Conceding it to be well established that the general statute of limitations does not run against the State, we will apply the rule for the construction of statutes as stated by Judge to the statute of non-claim, and other provisions of our