These remedial statutes are themselves divided into enlarging statutes, by which the common law is made more comprehensive and extended than it was before, and into restraining statutes, by which it is narrowed down to that whioh ia juat and proper. The term re2nedial statute is also applied to those acts which give the party injured a remedy ; and in some respects Rich etatutes are penal. Espinasse, Pen. Act. 1.
A temporary statute is one which is limited in its duration at the time of its. enactment.
It continues in force until the time of ita limit ation has expired, unless sooner repealed. A statute which by reasoo of its nature has only a eingle and temporary operation—e.g. an appro priation bill—is also called a temporary statute. The most ancient English statute extant is Magna Charts. Formerly the statutes enacted after the beginning of the reign of Edw. III. were called Nowt Statnta, or new statutes, to distinguish them from the ancient statutes. The modern English statutes are divided into Public General Aots, Local and Personal Acts declared public, Private Acts printed, and Private Acts not printed. In parliamentary practice are adopted other distinc tions, resting upon different grounds.
2. By the civilians, statutes are oonaidered as real, personal, or mixed. Mixed statutes are those which concern at once both persons and property. But in thia aense almost all statutes are mixed, there being scarcely any law relative to persons which does not at the same time relate to things. Personal statutes are those which have principally for their object the person, and treat of property only incidentally : such are those which regard birth, legitimacy, freedom, the right of insti tuting suits, majority as to age, incapacity to contract, to make a will. to plead in person, and tho like. A personal statute is universal in its operation, and in force everywhere. Real statutes are those which have principally for their object property, and, which do not speak of persons exeept in relation to pro perty, Story, Confl. of L. 13: such are those which concern the diaposition which one may make of his property either alive or by testa ment. A real statute, unlike a personal one, ia confined in its operation to the country of its origin.
3. It is a general rule that when the provi sion of a statute is general, every thing which is necessary to make such provision effectual is supplied by the common law, Coke, Litt. 235 ; Coke, 2d Inst. 222 ; Bacon, Abr. Statute (B) ; and when a power is given by statute, every thing necessary for making it effectual is given by implication : quando lex aliquid concedit, concedere videtur et id per quod devenitur ad aliud. 12 Coke, 130, 131; Coke, 2d Inst. 306 As to the doctrine of the interpretation of statutes, see CONSTRUCTION.
As to the mode of enacting statutes in Eng land, see 1 Blackstone, Comm. 182. Tt mode in the United Statea is regulated by tt. constitution of the Union and of the sever states respectively. The advantage of having a law officer, or board of officers, to revise bills and amendments of bills during their pro. gress through the legislature, has been some what discussed. It is urged that legislators
often have no general knowledge of law, axe ignorant or careless of the extent to which a proposed law may affect previous statutes on the same or collateral subjects ; amendments, too, are affixed without carefully harmonizing them with the bill amended ; and special provisions are resorted to when a more general and simple remedy should be applied. Reports of the Engliah Statute Law Commissioners, March, 1856, March, 1857. Consult, also, Street, Council of Revision.
4. Much interesting discussion has arisen on the question whether a statute which ap pears to be contrary to the laws of God and nature, and to right reason, is void. Dwarris states the English doctrine to be that an act of parliament of which the terms nre explicit and the meaning plain cannot be questioned or its authority controlled in any court of justice. But resort has been had in such cases to the cover of a conatruction, and it has been contended that such a case must bo interpreted to be exempted out of the pro visions of the statute,—that a contrgy con struction could not be within the meaning of the act. The law, therefore, was to be perly construed not to apply to such cases ; hu the law itself was not to be held void Dwarris, Stat. 482. And see 8 Coke, 116 ; 12 Mod. 687 ; 1 W. Blackatone, 42, 91 ; Benthani Fragment on Gov. ; I Bay, So. C. 93 ; Harp. So. C. 101. Consult, also, 18 Wend. N. Y. 9 ; 21 id. 563 ; 1 Hill, N. Y. 323 ; 10 N. Y. 374, 393 ; 19 id. 445 ; 4 Barh. N. Y. 64.
5. In the United Statea, a statute which contravenes a provision of the constitution of the state by whose legislature it was enacted, or of the constitution of the United States, is in 80 far void. See CONSTITUTIONAL LAW. The presumption, however, is that every state statute the object and provision of which are among the acknowledged powere of legis lation is valid and constitutional ; and such presumption is not to be overcome unless the contrary is clearly demonatrated. 6 Cranch, 87 ; 1 Cow. N. Y. 564 ; 3 Den. N. Y. 381 ; 7 N. Y. 109 ; 19 Barb. N. Y. 81. Where a part only of a statute is unconstitutional, the rest is not void if it can stand by itself. 1 Gray, Mass. 1.
6. By the common law, statutes took effect by relation back to the first day of the session at which they were enacted. The injustice whioh this rule often worked led to the statute of33 Geu. III. c. 13, which declared that, except when otherwise provided, statutes should take diet from the day of obtaining the royal assent. This rule, however, does not obviate the hardship of sometimes holding men re sponsible under a law before its promulgation. By the Code Napoleon, a law takes effect in each department of the empire as many days after its promulgation in that department as there are distances of twenty leagues between the seat of government and the place of pro mulgation. The revised statutes of several of the American states provide that every statute shall take effect twenty days from the time of its enactment, except when otherwise provided. As to retroactive statutes, see Ex