NOTARY or NOTARY PUBLIC. In Roman law the notaries was originally a slave or freedman who took notes (notae) of judicial proceedings in shorthand. The modern notary corresponds rather to the tabellio or tabularius than to the notaries. In canon law it was a maxim that his evidence was worth that of two unskilled witnesses.
The office of notary in England is a very ancient one. It is mentioned in the Statute of Provisors, 25 Edward III. stat. 4. The English notary is an ecclesiastical officer, nominated, since the Peterpence Dispensations Act 1533-34, by the archbishop of Canterbury through the master of the faculties (now the judge of the provincial courts at Canterbury and York), in order to secure evidence as to the attestation of important documents. All regis trars of ecclesiastical courts must be notaries. A notary's duties, however, are mainly secular. "The general functions of a notary consist in receiving all acts and contracts which must or are wished to be clothed with an authentic form ; in conferring on such documents the required authenticity; in establishing their dates; in preserving originals or minutes of them which, when pre pared in the style and with the seal of the notary, obtain the name of original acts; and in giving authentic copies of such acts" (Brooke, On the of a Notary). The act of a notary in au thenticating or certifying a document is technically called a "no tarial act." In most countries the notarial act is received in evi dence as a semi-judicial matter, and the certificate of a notary is probative of the facts certified. But English law does not recog nize the notarial act to this extent. An English court will, in cer tain cases, take judicial notice of the seal of a notary, but not that the facts that he has certified are true, except in the case of a bill of exchange protested abroad. The file of a year's documents is often termed the protocol.
The most important part of an English notary's duty is the not ing and protest of foreign bills of exchange in case of non acceptance or non-payment. This must be done by a notary in order that the holder may recover. He also prepares ship protests relating to mercantile matters, and authenticates and certifies copies of documents and attests instruments to be sent abroad. The office of notary is now usually held by a solicitor. In London he must be free of the Scriveners' Company.
In Scotland the office of notary is munus publicum and his nota rial acts are probative. A roll of notaries public is kept, and under the Law Agents (Scotland) Act, 1873, any law agent is entitled to admission to the roll on payment of additional stamp duty. In addition to noting and protest of bills of exchange, notaries in Scotland have important functions in relation to completion of titles to land. They act as commissioners of the Sheriff Court of Chancery for taking affidavits in the process of service of heirs, they prepare and execute notarial instruments for giving service in land, and they may execute deeds notarially on behalf of per sons who cannot write. Notaries also are supposed to keep their protocol books which are probative of the intimation of certain protests by mariners and others. Modern legislation, however, has made serious inroads on the exclusiveness of the notary's f unctions.
In France, notaries receive all acts and contracts to which the parties thereto must give or desire to give the authenticity attached to the acts of a public authority; they certify the date, preserve the originals and give copies or duplicates. Notaries are nominated by the president of the republic on the recommenda tion of the keeper of the seals. They cannot act as notaries and also practise as advocates, or hold any magisterial office, nor must they engage in business.
In the more important British colonies and in foreign countries generally notaries are governed by special statutory legislation.
In the United States, the President appoints notaries in the Dis trict of Columbia, and the governor alone appoints them in most States. Many states have laws limiting the numbers who may be appointed for a particular county, usually a number in proportion t o the population. Notaries are not empowered to act outside their own states, and often not outside their own counties. In most cases their seals must be affixed to the affidavit or other docu ment. They attest deeds and other instruments, take affidavits and depositions and protest bills of exchange. Certain other officials may have notarial functions in addition, such as com missioners of deeds in New York state.
The ordinary distinction between note and letter is reversed in diplomacy. Diplomatic notes are written communications ex changed between diplomatic agents or between them and the ministers of foreign affairs of the government to which they are accredited. Sometimes, by agreement, a mere exchange of notes has the force of a convention. Collective notes are those signed by the representatives of several powers acting in concert. Some times identical notes are substituted for collective, i.e., notes )dentical as to form and substance, but signed and delivered sepa rately by the representatives of the several powers. Circular notes are those addressed by one power to the other powers gen erally. Confidential notes are directed to inspiring confidence by giving an explicit account of the views and intentions of the pleni potentiaries and their governments. The so-called notes verbales are unsigned, and are merely of the nature of memoranda of conversations, etc. Notes ad referendum are addressed by diplo matic agents to their own governments asking for fresh powers to deal with points not covered by their instructions. Diplomatic notes are usually, but not invariably, written in the third person.