s own line of practice
in detail, and evolving and confirming particular formulas which have
become characteristic of it.

_Classification of Documents._--If we classify these documents under the
two main heads of public and private deeds, we shall have to place in
the former category the legislative, administrative, judicial,
diplomatic documents emanating from public authority in public form:
laws, constitutions, ordinances, privileges, grants and concessions,
proclamations, decrees, judicial records, pleas, treaties; in a word,
every kind of deed necessary for the orderly government of a civilized
state. In early times many of these were comprised under the general
term of "letters," _litterae_, and to the large number of them which
were issued in open form and addressed to the community the specific
title of "letters patent," _litterae patentes_, was given. In
contradistinction those public documents which were issued in closed
form under seal were known as "close letters," _litterae clausae_.

Such public documents belong to the state archives of their several
countries, and are the monuments of administrative and political and
domestic history of a nation from one generation to another. In no
country has so perfect a series been preserved as in our own. Into the
Public Record Office in London have been brought together all the
collections of state archives which were formerly stored in different
official repositories of the kingdom. Beginning with the great survey of
Domesday, long series of enrolments of state documents, in many
instances extending from the times of the Angevin kings to our own day
in almost unbroken sequence, besides thousands of separate deeds of all
descriptions, are therein preserved (see RECORD).

Under the category of private documents must be included, not only the
deeds of individuals, but also those of corporate bodies representing
private interests and standing in the position of individual units in
relation to the state, such as municipal bodies and monastic
foundations. The largest class of documents of this character is
composed of those numerous conveyances of real property and other title
deeds of many descriptions and dating from early periods which are
commonly described by the generic name of "charters," and which are to
be found in thousands, not only in such public repositories as the
Public Record Office and the British Museum, but also in the archives of
municipal and oth