PRETATION.
A perpetual statute is one for the continu ance of which there is no limited time, al though it be not expressly declared to be so.
If a statute which did not itself contain any limitation is to be governed by another which is temporary only, the former will also be temporary and dependent upon the existence of the latter. Bac. Abr. Statute (D).
Private statutes or acts are those of which the judges will not take notice without plead ing ; such as concern only a particular spe cies or person. See 1 Bla. Com. 86. Special or private acts are regarded as "rather ex ceptions than rules, being those which only operated on particular persons and private concerns" (cited with approval in Wells v. Nickles, 104 U. S. 447, 26 L. Ed. 825, where it was held that where an act amends a general act it is public act).
Private statutes may be. rendered public by being so declared by the legislature ; 1 Bla. Com. 85 ; 4 Co. 76. And see 1 Kent 459. In England private statutes are said not to bind strangers; though they should not contain any saving of their rights. A general saving clause used to be all private bills; but it is settled that, even if such saving clause be omitted, the act will bind none but the parties. But this doctrine does not seem to be applicable to this country.
Public statutes are those of which the courts will take judicial notice without plead ing or proof.
They are either general or local,—that is, have operation throughout the state at large, or within a particular locality. It is not easy to say what degree of limitation will render an act local. Thus, it has been held that a public act relating to one county only is not local within the meaning of a constitu tional provision which forbids enactments of local bills embracing more than one subject ; Conner v. New York, 5 N. Y. 285.
A remedial statute is one made to supply such defects or abridge such superfluities in the common law as may have been discover ed. 1 Bla. Com. 86.
'These remedial statutes are themselves di vided 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 which is just and proper. The term remedial statute is also applied to those acts which give the party injured a remedy; and in some cases such statutes are penal; Esp. Pen. Acts 1.
A temporary statute is one which is lim ited in its duration at the time of its enact ment.
It continues in force until the time of its limitation has expired, unless sooner repeal ed. A statute which by reason of its nature
has only a single and temporary operation— e. g. an appropriation bill—is also called a temporary statute.
There is also a distinction in England be tween general and special statutes. The for mer affect the whole community, or large and important sections, the interest of which may be identical with those of the whole body. .Special statutes relate to private in terests, and deal with the affairs of persons, places, classes, etc., which are not of a pub lic character. Wilb. Stat. 218. See Wells v. Nickles, 104 U. S. 447, 26 L. Ed. 825.
1,ocal statute is used by Lord Mansfield as opposed to personal statute, which relates to personal transitory contracts ; whereas a lo cal statute refers to things in a certain ju risdiction alone ; e. g. the statute of frauds relates only to things in England ; 1 W. Bla. 246.
As to mandatory and directory statutes, it is said that when the provision of a statute is the essence of the thing required to be done, it is mandatory ; Norwegian Street, 81 Pa. 349 ; otherwise, when it relates to form and manner; and where an act is incident, or after jurisdiction acquired, it is directory merely ; Davis v. Smith, 58 N. H. 17.
'Expository statutes. Acts passed for the purpose of affecting the construction to be placed upon prior acts. They are often ex pressed thus: "The true intent and meaning of an act passed . . . be and is hereby declared to be ;" "the provisions of the act shall not hereafter extend"; or "are hereby declared and enacted not to apply," and the like. This is a common mode of legislation. "lt is always competent to change an exist ing law by a declaratory statute ; and where the statute is only to operate on future cas es it is no objection to its validity that it assumes the law to have been in the past what it is now declared that it shall be in the future." Cooley, Const. Lim. 94; such acts are binding upon the courts, although the lat ter, without such a direction, would have understood the language to have meant some thing different. They have the same effect upon the construction of former acts, in the absence of intervening rights, as if they bad been embodied in the former act at the time of Its passage ; Endlich, Interpr. Stat. 365. See Pomeroy's Sedgw. Constr. Stat. Law 214 ; Sutherl. Stat. Constr. sec. 402 ; Washington, A. & G. R. Co. v. Martin, 7 D. C. 120 ; De quindre v. Williams, 31 Ind. 444 ; People v. Board of Sup'rs,,16 N. Y. 424.