Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XII.djvu/532

 518 NOTARY PUBLIC NOTORNIS They are commissioned for life, and can be re- moved only by judicial decree. They are au- thorized to draw instruments of various char- acters ; and in matters which are of more than private importance, they retain in their cus- tody the original drafts, and furnish copies of them to the parties concerned. They are of- ten employed under the direction of the courts in making out inventories and in the distri- bution of estates, and perform those notarial acts which are required by law in respect to wills, gifts, marriage contracts, and protests. Notarial chambers, which consist of deputies chosen by the profession, regulate the rules of practice, decide upon the admission of candi- dates, and punish members who are guilty of abuse of their office. All documents which were executed in the presence of two notaries, or of one notary and two witnesses, and are attested by them, receive full credence in all courts of law. Notaries were known in Eng- land before the conquest. In the early part of the 14th century they were commonly employ- ed, for in 1347 we find them frequently named in the petitions of the commons to the king. Ever since that time the office has been one of prominence and importance. Until recently the English notary derived his authority to practise from the court of faculties of the archbishop of Canterbury. The ecclesiastical courts were abolished by the statutes 20 and 21 Victoria, c. 77, 85 ; but these acts did not affect the notaries. Their authority extends to the drawing of deeds relating to real and personal property, to protesting bills of ex- change, authenticating and certifying copies of documents, and to the attestation of instru- ments going abroad. They receive the affida- vits of mariners and shipmasters, and draw their protests. English notaries have always considered themselves competent to administer oaths and affirmations. The functions of no- taries in the United States are similar to those exercised by the same officers in England, though in general they seem to be limited in practice to the attestation of writings of a mercantile kind, and to the protestation of bills and notes. They are usually commissioned by the executive of their states, and derive their particular powers from statute provisions. In most of the states acknowledgments of deeds before them have the same validity as those made before justices of the peace, and they are empowered to administer oaths. In those states where the powers of these officers are not distinctly set forth, it may be supposed that they include such acts as attach to the office by general mercantile usage. In respect to the value of notarial acts in evidence, it may be remarked that the admissibility in evidence of notarial acts done in a foreign country, and their authenticity, rests solely on the ancient mercantile usage, which makes what may be termed the commercial law of nations. In re- spect to bills of exchange and similar paper of merchants, there is no doubt of the effect of notarial acts. It is the rule of English and of American law that the minutes of a foreign notary of his protest for non-acceptance, when attested by his signature and notarial seal, are full proof of these facts, and require no aux- iliary support. But the principle that the for- eign notary's certificate is conclusive evidence only of such acts as he does under the law merchant, has been upheld in a case where a deed of partition made and acknowledged be- fore a foreign notary was pronounced insuffi- cient in respect to the acknowledgment ; and in England the certificate of an American no- tary under seal of the execution of a power of attorney in his presence was not admitted as evidence of the fact, though the notary's cer- tificate was verified by the British consul. In- dependently therefore of special laws, which in some states indeed give validity to acknowl- edgments and the like acts if done before for- eign notaries, no certificates of theirs which concern matters foreign to the mercantile law will be recognized as evidence. The protest of a promissory note at home is not, unless made so by the local statute, an official notarial act, as the protest of a foreign bill of exchange is ; and therefore, after the notary's death, the note of such a protest is not of itself compe- tent evidence in chief. Yet when it is duly authenticated by signature and seal, it will be admitted as secondary evidence of the notarial acts which it recites. So the memoranda en- tered in the office books of the notary, either by him in person or by his clerk in the ordi- nary course of business, are admissible in evi- dence when the party is dead who could direct- ly speak to the fact. KOTO, a town of Sicily, on a hill within a few miles of the Mediterranean, 14 m. S. W. of Syracuse ; pop. about 15,000. It is one of the finest towns on the island, is the seat of a bishop, and has several schools. The ancient town of Notuin was flourishing several centu- ries before the Christian era. Under the Nor- mans it was the capital of S. Sicily, under the name of Val di Noto. It was destroyed by an earthquake in 1693, and the modern town was founded in 1703 about j8 m. N. W. of the old site, now known as Noto Vecchio, where are remains of an amphitheatre and other edifices. NOTORNIS (Gr. vdrof, south, and dpvig, bird), a large bird of the rail family, established by Owen in 1848, on a nearly entire skull sent with those of the dinornis from New Zealand. The natives had traditions of the existence of a large rail-like bird which they called moho, contemporary with the moa or dinornis, but it was by them considered extinct like the latter. This bird, which Owen called N. Mantelli, was known only by the occasional occurrence of its bones, until Mr. Walter Mantell in 1849 ob- tained a skin from the South island of New Zealand. A specimen was there taken alive by some sealers after a long chase ; it ran very rapidly, and when captured screamed and strug- gled violently ; after having been kept three