historical, geographical, commercial, judicial, legislative, scientific and artistic, can be accurately determined; but, in addition to these, notice will be taken of a wide range of matters of natural occur rence, and of those arising in the usual course of life, the recognition of which depends upon the completeness of their certainty and notoriety. With regard to such facts care must be taken that the requisite notoriety exists. This power of judicial notice is to be exercised with caution. Every reasonable doubt upon the subject should be resolved promptly in the negative.1 As will be seen, the most practical view of these questions will be acquired from the adjudicated cases upon this subject. 3. Public Functionaries, Seals and Acts of State. All civilized nations recognize each other's existence as members of the great family of sovereignties, and general public and external relations. The national flag and seal are the universal symbols of nationality and sovereignty. Every sovereign power, therefore, recognizes, and its public tribunals take notice of, the existence and titles of all the other sovereign powers in the family of nations, their respective flags and seals of state. The seal is held to be evidence of the highest character, and public acts, decrees and judgments authenticated by it are received as true and genuine. The recognition of a new nation belongs to the executive function, and when a de facto power has not been thus recognized by the sovereignty under which the court is organized, its seal cannot be admitted to prove itself. The courts also recognize all executive acts of this department of their own government, when the same are so promulgated as to have the force of law; as proc of the expense or difficulties in procuring it. Phillips' Ev. (5th Am. ed.) 514, § 619. 1. The courts should exercise this power with caution; care must be taken that the requisite notoriety exists, and every reasonable doubt upon the subject should be promptly resolved in the negative. Per SWAYNE, J., in Brown v. Piper, 91 U. S. 37. 2. The National Flag and Seal.—The public seal of a kingdom or sovereign state is, by common consent and usage of civilized communities, the highest evidence and the most solemn sanction of authenticity in relation to proceedings, either diplomatic or judicial, that is known in the intercourse of nations; and as such is taken notice of judicially by all courts of justice in other States. Griswold v. Pitcairn, 2 Conn. 90; The Santissima Trinidad, 7 Wheat. (U. S.) 283. National Seal Proves Itself. The public seal of a State, affixed to the exemplification of a law or judicial proceeding, it seems, proves itself; it is a matter of notoriety, and will be taken notice of as part of the law of nations acknowleged by all. Lincoln v. Battelle, 6 Wend. (N. Y.) 476. Seal of De Facto Government.-But courts cannot take judicial notice of a foreign government not acknowledged by the government of the country in which the court sits; and the fact of acknowledgment is matter of public notoriety. United States v. Palmer, 3 Wheat (U. S.) 610. The seal of such acknowledged government cannot be permitted to prove itself, but it may be proved by such testimony as the nature of the case admits. City of Berne, in Switzerland v. Bank of England, 9 Ves. Jr. (Eng.) 347; Dolder v. Lord Huntingfield, 11 Ves. Jr. (Eng.) 283. Authentication of Foreign Judgments. Foreign judgments are authenticated, 1, by an exemplification under the great seal; 2, by a copy proved to be a true copy; 3, by the certificate of an officer authorized by law, which certificate must itself be properly authenticated. These are usual, and appear lamations of the president announcing a state of war, or the establishment of peace; 2 the granting of general amnesty, or pardon, for political offences; 3 the fixing of rules for conducting business by the executive departments, and the like. While the same rules as to judicial notice are followed in both countries, in England many facts are noticed which do not arise in the American courts.5 to be the most proper, if not the only, mode of verifying foreign judgments. If they are all beyond the reach of the party, other testimony inferior in its nature might be received. Church v. Hubbart, 2 Cranch (U. S.) 187. Proclamations of Governor. - The courts of Indiana take judicial notice of the proclamation of the governor, declaring in force an act of the legislature containing an emergency clause. Dowdell v. State, 58 Ind. 333 1. President's Proclamation and Laws of Congress.-The federal courts take judicial notice of the general enactments of congress, and of the duly promulgated proclamations of the president. The late civil war, being a matter of public history, is likewise judicially known to the courts; and from this general historical fact they will also take judicial notice of particular acts which led to it, or happened during its continuance, whenever it becomes essential to the ends of justice to do so. Cuyler v. Ferrill, 1 Abb. (U. S.) 169. 2. Close of the Civil War. It was held that the court would take judicial notice of the ending of the rebellion, although no proclamation to that effect had been made by the president. United States v. Fifteen Hundred Bales of Cotton, 10 Internal Rev. Record (U. S.) 52. 3. Amnesty Proclamation -The proclamation of pardon and amnesty made by the president on December 8th, 1863, is a public and official act, of which the courts will take judicial notice. The Greathouse Case, 2 Abb. (U.S.) 382. and Seals. The Foreign Officers courts of this country take judicial notice of all other nations and their seals of state, but not of their inferior departments and their officers and seals. Schoerkin v. Swift and Courtney and Beecher Co., 19 Blatch. (U. S.) 209. 4. Executive Acts.-The rules and regulations as to the cutting of timber upon the public lands of the United States prescribed by the secretary of laws of the the interior under the 12 C. of L.-10*5 United States, 45th congress, chapter The rules adopted by the treasury or 5. Facts Taken Notice of by the Courts of England-Public Matters.-The English courts will take judicial notice of all public matters which affect the govdemise of the sovereign. ernment; such as the time of the accession Holman v. Borough, 2 Ld. Raym. 791, 794; s. c., Salk. 658. They will also take notice of the correspondence of the year of any particular reign with the year of our Lord. Henry v. Cole, 2 Ld. Raym. 811; s. c., Mod. 104. Rex v. Pringle, 2 Mod. & R. 276. Prerogatives and Privileges.-They will take notice of the prerogatives of the crown and the privileges of the royal palaces. Elderson's Case, 2 Ld. Raym. 978; s. c., Salk. (Eng.) 284; Winter v. Miles, 1 Camp. (Eng.) 475; s. c., East 578; Atty. Gen. v. Donaldson, 10 M. & W. 117. 153 Royal Seals. In like manner they also take notice of the great and privy seals, and also of the sign manual. Rex v. Miller, 2 W. Bl. 797; s. c., 1 Lea. C. C. 74; Rex v. Gully, 1 Lea. C. C., 98. See also Lord Melville's Case, 29 How. Royal Proclamations. They also St. Tr. (Eng.) 706. take notice of royal proclamations as Wells v. Williams, being acts of state. 1 Ld. Raym. 283; s. c., I Salk. 46; Dupuys v. Shepherd, 12 Mod. (Eng.) 216; Grders of Council.-But they do not Rex v. Oulton, 4 M. & S. 532. 4. Elections.--The courts will take judicial notice of the result of voting at public elections, not only as to the persons chosen to fill the various offices, but, where a special ballot has been taken upon any question of public affairs, courts will take cognizance of the whole number of votes cast at such election, and whether such proposition is adopted.3 5. Public Statutes.-Courts will take judicial notice of all public statutes enacted by the legislative authority within the State or take notice of orders of council. 6 Vin. Abr. 490, Atty. Gen. v. Theakstone, 8 Pri. (Eng.) 89. Sessions of Parliament.-They will also take notice of the commencement of the sessions, prorogations and dissolutions of parliament, and of the place where any particular parliament sat. Rex v. Wilde, 1 Lea. 296; s. c., 2 Keb. 686; Birt v. Bothwell, 1 Ld. Raym. 210, 343. Customs Privileges and Proceedings.They will also notice the customs, privileges and proceedings of parliament and of each branch of the legislature. Lake . King, I Saund. (Eng.) 131a; Astley v. Younge, Burr. SII. See also Stockdale Hansard, 7 C. & P. (Eng.) 731; Case of Sheriff of Middlesex, 11 A. & E. (Eng.) 273. 2 Journals of Houses of Parliament.-But they will not take notice of the journals of either house, such not being the records of parliament. Rex v. Knolleys, Ld. Raym. 10, 15. 1. Public Elections.-The supreme court takes judicial notice of the time of holding general elections. Urnston v. State, 73 Ind. 175. Results of Elections Will Receive Judicial Notice.--State v. Swift, 69 Ind. 505. Contested Elections Will Receive Judicial Notice.--Lewis v. Bruton, 74 Ala. 317. 2. Public Elections.-The supreme court takes judicial notice of the time of holding general elections. Urnston v. State, 73 Ind. 175. 3. And the Results of Such Elections. -An amendment of section 2, article 2, of the constitution of Indiana, adopted in 1851, was submitted by the legislature to the electors, for ratification, at the spring election of 1880, for township officers, by which amendment a voter would be required, in addition to the residence qualification already existing, to have resided within the township sixty days, and within the precinct thirty days, immediately preceding any election at which he might offer to vote. Afterward an indictment was returned against an inspector of an election held subsequently to such spring election, for refusing to receive a ballot offered thereat, to which the defendant pleaded specially, that, at such spring election, 169.483 votes had been cast for such amendment, and only 152,251 votes had been cast against it, and that such elector had not resided within the precinct for thirty days, at the time he offered to vote, as required by such amendment. To which plea the State specially replied, alleging that at such spring election, 380.471 votes had been cast, and that, therefore, such amendment had received less than a majority of votes so cast, and had failed. Held, on demurrer to such reply, that the supreme court takes judicial notice of the number of votes cast at a general State election upon all questions of public affairs affecting the State, and therefore must know all the facts necessary to the decision of the question whether or not such amendment was ratified. State v. Swift, 69 Ind. 505. The contested election between Gen. J. Wheeler and Col. W. M. Lowe, as member of congress from the eighth district of Alabama, at the general election held November, 1880, is public official history, of which the court takes judicial notice. Lewis v. Bruton, 74 Ala. 317 Rauch v. Com., 78 Pa. St. 490. National Courts Have Knowledge of Laws of All States at the Same Time.The judicial knowledge of a United States court is not confined to the enactments of the State where it happens to be sitting at the particular time, but extends at all times to the laws of all other States within its jurisdiction. As a general rule, however, when the proper construction of a statute has been fixed and settled by the court of last resort in that State, the same construction will be adopted by the federal courts sitting within her borders. Elmendorf v. Taylor, 10 Wheat. (U. S.) 152. State courts will take judicial notice territory where the court is held. They are also bound to take. notice of all acts of congress of a public character, or which are declared to be such. Of these may be mentioned laws fixing the value of coin; providing for surveying and subdividing the public lands; 3 authorizing the assessment and collection of the internal revenue; the bankruptcy acts; laws for the government of State laws and regulations which, by implication, have been incorporated into a public act of congress. Flanigen v. Washington Ins. Co., 7 Pa. St. 306. Public Local Laws.-The court will take judicial notice of a public local law. Van Swartow v. Com., 24 Pa. St. 131. 1. Judicial notice will be taken of the existence and tenor of the public laws of the State. Lane v. Harris, 16 Ga. 217. The court judicially knew that the general railroad law was in force at the time the corporation defendant was formed. Heaston v. Cincinnati etc. R. Co., 16 Ind. 275; s. c., 79 Am. Dec. 430; State v. Bailey, 16 Ind. 46; s. c., 79 Am. Dec. 405; Bierson v. Baird, 2 Greene (Iowa) 235; Berliner v. Waterloo, 14 Wis. 378. The existence or the time of the taking effect of a public act cannot be put in issue, or admitted or denied by the pleadings, but must be determined by the judges themselves. Atty. Gen. v. Foote, 11 Wis. 14; s. c., 78 Am. Dec. 689; citing Sedgwick on Stat. and Const. Law, 94, 118; Dwarris (Potter's ed.) on Stat. 169, 172. 2. Private Corporation Under General Law. Judicial notice cannot be taken of the charter of a private corporation, or of its corporate power or capacity, if it derives existence from such charter, i. e., a special act of incorporation. If it be shown, however, to have been incorporated under the general laws, which authorize the formation and define the powers of corporations, there are public laws, of which judicial notice must be taken, and the power must be referred to such general law. Peoria etc. R. Co. v. Scott, 116 Ill. 401; Gormley v. Day, 114 Ill. 185; Kelley v. Ala. etc. R. Co., 58 Ala. 489. Municipal Revenue Laws.-It is doubtless a correct principle, that all acts of the legislature conferring or restricting the revenue laws of a municipal corporation are in their nature public laws, whether so declared in terms or not, any of which all courts will be bound to take judicial notice in all proceedings affecting revenue matters. Binkert v. Jansen, 94 Ill. 283. 3. The congressional survey of the lands lying northwest of the Ohio river, under the various acts of congress, is part of the public law, of which the courts of this State must take judicial notice. Murphy v. Hendricks, 57 Ind. 593. A tax collector is bound to take notice of a general statute which exempts corporations from any except specific taxes; and if he levies upon the property of a corporation for taxes, it may be replevied from him. LeRoy v. East Saginaw, 18 Mich. 233. Publication of Statutes.-The courts take judicial notice of the time at which a statute takes effect by publication. Duncan v. Cobb, 32 Minn. 460. The courts of Indiana, being authorized by its constitution to take judicial notice of all its laws, both public and private, the circuit court of the United States will likewise take judicial notice of all the laws of that State. Junction R. Co. v. Bank of Ashland, 12 Wall. (U. S.) 226. Municipal Officer.-The courts of the United States take judicial notice of the laws of all the States, respectively, and in the case cited, that by the law of the State, the mayor of a certain city is a magistrate. Gordon v. Hobart, 2 Sumn. (U. S.) 401. Private Acts Must be Proved.-Public acts of State legislatures may be read in federal courts, but private acts, such as those concerning the estates of deceased individuals, are to be proved like other matters of fact. Leland v. Wilkinson, 6 Pet. (U. S.) 317. Municipal Corporation.-The United States courts will take judicial notice of an act conferring powers upon a municipal corporation, such an act being public in its nature. Fauntleroy v. Hannibal, 1 Dill. (U. S.) 118. Donation of Swamp Lands.-Courts take judicial notice of the act of congress of September 28th, 1853, granting swamp lands to the States, and a patent for such lands from the United States to the State of Iowa, dated in 1869, is sufficient proof of title in that State at the date of the act of congress. Hamilton v. Shoaff, 99 Ind. 63. of the District of Columbia, and the like. In like manner the 1. Acts of Congress.-Both the State and United States courts also take judicial notice of all public acts of congress, or which are declared to be such. Morris v. Davidson, 49 Ga. 361; Chesapeake etc. Co. v. Balt. R. Co., 4 Gill & J. (Md.) 1 & 63; Kessel v. Albetis, 56 Barb. (N. Y.) 362; Mims v. Swartz, 37 Tex. 13; Bird v. State, 21 Gratt. (Va.) Soo; Bayly's Admrs. V. Chubb, 16 Gratt. (Va.) 284; The Scotia, 15 Wall. (U. S.) 171. The United States circuit courts take judicial notice of the State laws applying to causes depending before them. Merrill v. Dawson, Hempst. (U. S.) 563; Jones v. Hays, 4 McLean (U. S.) 521; Jasper v. Porter, 2 McLean (U. S.) 579. "The circuit courts of the United States are created by congress not for the purpose of administering the local law of a single State alone but to administer the laws of all the States in the Union in cases in which they respectively apply. The judicial power conferred on the general government by the constitution extends to many cases arising under the laws of the different States, and this court is called upon, in the exercise of its appellate jurisdiction, constantly to take notice of and administer the jurisprudence of all the States. That jurisprudence, then, is in no just sense a foreign jurisprudence, to be proved in the courts of the United States by the ordinary modes of proof by which the laws of a foreign country are to be established; but it is to be judicially taken notice of in the same manner as the laws of the United States are taken notice of by these courts." Carpenter v. Dexter, 8 Wall. (U. S.) 515; Fourth National Bank v. Francklyn, 120 U. S. 747. "And it can never be maintained in the courts of the United States that the laws of any State of this Union are to be treated as the laws of a foreign nation and ascertained and determined as a matter of fact by a jury upon testimony of witnesses." United States v. Turner, 11 How. (U. S.) 563; Miller v. McQuerry, 5 McLean (U. S.) 469. “And in further affirmation of this doctrine we hold that the courts of the United States can and should take notice of the laws and judicial decisions of the several States in this Union, and that with respect to these nothing is required to be specially averred in pleading which would not be so required by the tribunals of those States respectively." Hinde v. Vattier, 5 Pet. (U. S.) 398; Pennington v. Gibson, 16 How. (U. S.) 65, 81. State Courts-Laws of Other States.— "It Following the foregoing principle it is held that, where judgments of a State court, by reason of their affecting a right under the federal constitution and legislation, would be reversible in the supreme court of the United States, the State courts will take judicial notice of such laws of other States as the United States court would on appeal. would be a very imperfect and discordant administration for the court of original jurisdiction to adopt one rule of decision while the court of final resort was governed by another; and hence it follows that in questions of this sort we should take notice of the local laws of a sister State in the same manner as the supreme court of the United States would do on a writ of error to our judgment." Ohio v. Hinchman, 27 Pa. St. 479; Jarvis v. Robinson, 21 Wis. 523; Butcher v. Brownsville, 2 Kan. 70; Paine v. Schenectady Ins. Co., 11 R. I. 411; Shotwell v. Harrison, 22 Mich. 410; Salter v. Applegate, 3 Zab. (N. J.) 115. By statute the supreme court of Tennessee is authorized to take judicial notice of the laws of other States. Held, that where a foreign statute is put in evidence in the trial court it need not be incorporated in the bill of exceptions to secure such notice; but if such evidence be not offered below, the appellate court will not take such notice where the result will be to put the court below in error. Bagwell v. McTighe, 85 Tenn. 616; Templeton v. Brown (Tenn.), 5 S. W. Rep 441. Compare Hobbs V. Memphis etc. R. Co., 9 Heisk. (Tenn.) 873. Acts of Congress Confirming Foreign Laws.-The acts of congress confirming claims to lands in Missouri are public, not private acts, and will be judicially noticed without being read in evidence. Papin v. Ryan, 32 Mo. 21. Amendments to the United States Constitution. The provisions of the amendment to the United States constitution abolishing slavery are a part of the public law of the land, of which courts will take judicial notice. Graves v. Keaton, 3 Coldw. (Tenn.) 8. |