Page:William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England (3rd ed, 1768, vol II).djvu/362

 346 conent is o given or purchaed, and who are therein particularly named.

, thus made, though it binds all parties to the bill, is yet looked upon rather as a private conveyance, than as the olemn act of the legilature. It is not therefore allowed to be a public, but a mere private tatute; it is not printed or publihed among the other laws of the eion; it hath been relieved againt, when obtained upon fraudulent uggetions; and no judge or jury is bound to take notice of it, unles the ame be pecially et forth and pleaded to them. It remains however enrolled among the public records of the nation, to be for ever preerved as a perpetual tetimony of the conveyance or aurance o made or etablihed.

II. king's grants are alo matter of public record. For, as St. Germyn ays, the king's excellency is o 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 ubordination one with another, through which all the king's grants mut pas, and be trancribed, and enrolled; that the ame may be narrowly inpected by his officers, who will inform him if any thing contained therein is improper, or unlawful to be granted. Thee grants, whether of lands, honours, liberties, franchies, or ought beides, are contained in charters, or letters patent, that is, open letters, literae patentes: o called becaue they are not ealed up, but expoed to open view, with the great eal pendant at the bottom; and are uually directed or addreed by the king to all his ubjects at large. And therein they differ from certain other letters of the king, ealed alo with his great eal, but directed to particular perons, and for particular purpoes: which therefore, not being proper for public inpection, are cloed up and ealed on the outide, and are thereupon called writs cloe, literae clauae; and are recorded in the cloe-rolls, in the ame manner as the others are in the patent-rolls. Rh