Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

PUBLIC CHABITY

962

PUBLIC LANDS

PUBLIC EASEMENT. An easement, the right to the enjoyment of which is vested in the public generally, or the whole com munity. PUBLIC ENEMY. A nation at war with the United States; also every citizen or subject of such nation. PUBLIC FUNDS. The funded public debt of a state or nation. Also the funds (money) belonging to a state or nation as such, and in the possession of its govern ment. PUBLIC GRANT. A grant from the public; a grant of a power, license, privilege, or property, from the state or government to one or more individuals, contained in or shown by a record, conveyance, patent, char ter, etc. PUBLIC HEALTH. As one of the ob jects of the police power of the state, the "public health" means the prevailingly healthful or sanitary condition of the general body of people or the community in mass, and the absence of any general or wide-spread disease or cause of mortality. PUBLIC HOLIDAY. A legal holiday. PUBLIC HOUSE. An inn or tavern; a house for the entertainment of the pub lic, or for the entertainment of all who come lawfully and pay regularly. 3 Brewst. 344. A place of public resort, particularly for purposes of drinking or gaming. PUBLIC INDECENCY. This phrase has no fixed legal meaning, is vague and in definite, and cannot, in itself, imply a definite offense. The courts, by a kind of judicial legislation, in England and the United States, have usually limited the operation of the term to public displays of the naked person, the publication, sale, or exhibition of obscene books and prints, or the exhibition of a mon ster,—acts which have a direct bearing on public morals, and affect the body of society. The Indiana statute punishing public in decency, without defining it, can be con strued only as that term is used at common law, where it is limited to indecencies in conduct, and does not extend to indecent words. 10 Ind. 140. PUBLIC LANDS. Such lands as are subject to sale or other disposition by the United States, under general laws. 92 U. S 761.

chapels so circumstanced were described as "chapels of ease," because built in aid of the original church. 8 Steph. Comm. (7th Ed.) 745. PUBLIC CHARITY. In this phrase the word "public" is used, not in the sense that it must be executed openly and in public, but in the sense of being so general and indefinite in its objects as to be deemed of common and public benefit. Each individual immediately benefited may be private, and the charity may be distributed in private and by a private jand. It is public and general in its scope and purpose, and becomes definite and pri vate only after the individual objects have been selected. 11 Allen, 456. PUBLIC COMPANY. In English law. A business corporation; a society of persons joined together for carrying on some com mercial or industrial undertaking. PUBLIC CORPORATION. This term includes the quasi corporations created for political purposes, or to exercise some of the functions and powers of government within a particular territory, such as cities, towns, counties, parishes, and villages; also some others founded for public, though not for political or municipal, purposes, if the whole inteiest in them belongs to the government, not if there are other and private owners of stock m them. 4 Wheat. 518, 668. PUBLIC DEBT. That which is due or owing by the government of a state or na tion. The terms "public debt" and "public securities," used in legislation, are terms generally applied to national or state obligations and dues, and would rarely, if ever, be construed to include town debts or obligations; nor would the term "public rev enue" ordinarily be applied to funds arising from town taxes. 46 Vt. 773. PUBLIC DOCUMENT. A state paper, or other instrument of public importance or interest, issued or published by authority of congress or a state legislature. Also any document or record, evidencing or connected with the public business or the administra tion of public affairs, preserved in or issued by any department of the government. PUBLIC DOMAIN. This term em braces all lands, the title to which is in the United States, including as well land occu pied for the purposes of federal buildings, arsenals, dock-yards, etc., as land of an agri cultural or mineral character not yet granted to private owners.

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