Notaries Public

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, Receiv…