ACT 
and the remedy: that is, how the common law flood at the 
making of the ad, what the mifchief was for which the 
common law did not provide, and yvhat remedy the par¬ 
liament hath provided to cure this mifchief. Id.. 87. 
Where the common law and a flatute differ, the com¬ 
mon law gives place to the flatute ; and an old flatute gives, 
place to a new one. Id. 89. 
If a flatute that repeals another is itfelf repealed after¬ 
wards, the firft datute is thereby revived, without any 
formal words for that purpofe. Id. 90. 
A datute made in the affirmative, without any nega¬ 
tive expreffed or implied, doth not take away the common 
law ; and therefore the - party may wave his benefit by fuch 
datute, and take his remedy by the common law. 2 Injl. 200. 
Regularly, a datute in the affirmative doth not repeal a 
precedent affirmative datute; but if the latter is contrary 
to the former it amounts to a repeal of the former. L. 
Raym. 160. 
Penal datutes mud be condrued ftridly: but ftatutes 
againd frauds are to be condrued liberally and beneficial¬ 
ly. iJUackft. 88. 
One partof a datute mud be fo condrued by another, that 
the whole, if poffibie, may Hand together: but a faying to¬ 
tally repugnant to the body of the datute is void. Id. 89. 
Where things of an inferior degree are fird mentioned 
in a datute, thofe of a higher dignity fhall not be included 
under fubfequent general words; as where a datute fpeaks 
of indictments to betaken before juftices of the peace, or 
others having power to take indictments, it fhall be un- 
derdood only of other inferior courts, and not of the King’s 
Bench or other courts at Wedminder. 2 Co. 46. 
All felonies by the common law have the benefit of 
clergy; therefore, where a datute enads a felony, and 
fays, the offender fhall fuffer death, clergy lies notwith- 
ftanding, and is never oufted without exprefs words. 3 
Injl. 73. 
Saving of dower in a datute making an offence felony is 
fuperfluous ; for by 1 Edw. VI. c. 12. dower is notloff by 
the felony of the hufband. 
Where no particular penalty is appointed for difobedi- 
ence to an act of parliament, it is puniihable as a contempt, 
by fine and imprifonment at the difcretion of the king’s 
courts of judice. 4 Blackjl. 122. 
Acta Consistorij, the edids or declarations of the 
council of date of the emperors, Thefe edids were gene¬ 
rally expreffed in this manner:—“The augud emperors, 
Dioclefian and Maximilian, in council declared, That the 
children of decurions ffiould not be expofed to wild beads 
in the amphitheatre.” 
The fenate and foldiers often fwore, either through ab- 
jed flattery or by compulfion, upon the Edifts of the 
Emperor, as we do upon the Bible. And the name of 
Apidius Merula was erafed by Nero out of the Regiderof 
Senators, becaufe he refilled to fwear upon the Edids of 
the Emperor Augudus. 
Acta Ditjrna, was afort of Roman gazette, containing 
an authorized narrative of the tranladions worthy of no¬ 
tice which happened at Rome. Petronius has given us a 
1'pecimen of the ada diurna in his account of Tnmalchis ; 
and, as it may not perhaps be unentertaining to -fee how 
exaftly a Roman newfpaper runs in the ftyle of an Eng- 
liffi one, the following is an article or two out of it : 
“ On the 26th of July, thirty boys and forty girls were 
born at Trimalchi’s edate at Cuma. 
“ At the fame time a flave was put to death for utter¬ 
ing difrefpedful words againd his lord. 
“ The fame day a fire broke out in Pompey’s gardens, 
which began in the night, in the deward’s apartment.” 
Acta Populi, among the Romans, were journa’s or 
regiders of the daily occurrences; as affirmblies, trials, 
executions, buildings, births, . marriages, deaths, &c. 
Thefe were otherwife called Ada Publicaand AdaDiur- 
na, or fimply Ada. The Ada differed from Annals, in 
that only the greater and more important matters were in 
the latter, and thofe of lefs note were in the former. Their 
ACT 99 
origin is attributed to Julius Caefar, who firft ordered the 
keeping and making public the ads of the people. Some 
trace them higher, to Servius Tullius; who, to difcover 
the number of perfons born, dead, and alive, ordered that 
the next of kin, upon a birth, ffiould put a certain piece 
of money into the treafury of Juno Lucina; upon a death, 
into that of Venus Libitina: the like was alfo to be done 
upon afliiming the toga virilis, &c. Under Marcus An¬ 
toninus, this was carried further : perfons were obliged to 
notify the births of their children, with their names and 
furnames, the day, conful, and whether legitimate or fpu- 
rious, to the prsefeds of the iErarium Saturni, to be en¬ 
tered in the Public Ads; though before this time the 
births of perfons of quality appear thus to have been re- 
giftered. 
Acta Senatus, among the Romans, were minutes, of 
.what palfed and was debated in the fenate-houfe. Thefe 
were alfo called Commentarii, and by a Greek name 
Yvrc/y.viruaiM. They had their origin in the confulfhip of 
Julius Caefar, who ordered them both to be kept and pub- 
liffied. 
Public Acts. The knowledge of public ads forms 
part of a peculiar fcience, called the Diplomatic, of 
great importance to an hiftorian, llatefman, chronologer, 
and even critic. The prefervation of them was the firit 
occafion of ereding libraries. The ftyle of ads is gene¬ 
rally barbarous Latin. Authors are divided as to the rules 
of judging of their genuinenefs, and even whether there 
be any certain rules at all. F. Germon will have the 
greater part of the ads of former ages to be fpurious. 
Fontanini afferts, that the number of forged ads now ex¬ 
tant is very fmall. It is certain there were l'evere puniffi- 
ments inflided on the forgers and fallifiers of ads. The 
chief of the Englifh ads, or public records, are publifh- 
ed by Rymer, under the title of Faedera, and continued 
by Saunderfon; an ex r rad whereof has been given in 
French by Rapin, and tranflated into Engliffi under the 
title of Ada Regia. Great commendations have been 
given this work : alfo fome exceptions made fo it; as that 
there are many fpurious ads, as well as errors, in it; forae 
have even charged it with faliifications. The public ads 
of France fell into the hands of the Englifh af er the battle 
of Poidiers, and are commonly faid to have been carried 
by them out of the country. But the tradition is not fup- 
ported by any fufficient teftimony. 
Acts of the Apostles, one of the facred books of 
the New Teftament, containing the hiffory of the infant 
church, during the fpace of twenty-nine or thirty years, 
from the afcenfion of our Lord to the year of Chi iff 63. 
It was written by St. Luke; and addreffed to Theophi- 
lus, the perfon to whom the evangelift had before dedica¬ 
ted his gofpel. We find here the accompliffiment of fe- 
veral of the promifes made by our Saviour; his afcen¬ 
fion; the defcent of the Holy Ghoft; the firft preaching 
of the apoftles, and the miracles whereby their doctrines 
were confirmed; an admirable pidure of the manners.of 
the primitive Chriftians; and, in (hort, every thing that 
paffed in the church till the difperlion of the apoftles, who 
feparated themfelves in order to propagate the gofpel 
throughout the world. From the period of that repara¬ 
tion, St. Luke quits the hiffory of the other apoftles, who 
were then at too great a difrance from him, and confines 
himfelf more particularly to that of St. Paul, who had 
chofen him for the companion of his labours. He fol¬ 
lows that apoflle in all his millions, and even to Rome it¬ 
felf ; for it appears that the Ads were publifhed in the.fe- 
cond year of St. Paul’s refidence in that city, or the 36th 
year of the Chriftian aera, and in the ninth or tenth year of 
Nero’s reign. The ftyle of this work, which was origi¬ 
nally compofed in Greek, is much purer than that of the 
other canonical writers; and it is obfervable,. that St. 
Luke, who was much better acquainted with the Greek 
than with the Hebrew language, always, in his quotations 
from the Old Teftament, makes ufe of the, Septuagint 
verfion. The council of Lacdicea places the Ads of the 
, Apolties 
