_Notaries Public_ (Vol. ii., p. 393.).--Why does your correspondent
MANLEIUS think this form of expression "putting the cart before the horse?"
_Public notary_ (though that phrase is sometimes erroneously used) is not
so exact as "notary public;" for a notary is not, as the first form would
imply, a public officer appointed by the public to perform public services,
but an individual agent through whose ministry private acts or instruments
become _publici juris_. The same form, and for analogous reasons, prevails
in several other legal and technical titles or phrases, as
Attorney-General, Solicitor-General, Accountant-General, Receiver-General,
Surveyor-General; Advocate Fiscal; Theatre Royal, Chapel Royal; Gazette
Extraordinary; and many other phrases in which it is evident that the
adjective has a special and restricted meaning.