whereas

But it was of “the Publick” that we were speaking, and I believe that “the publick” first becomes prominent in connexion with the National Debt...
“Whereas,” said an Act of 1786, “the Publick stands indebted to” the East India Company in a sum of four millions and more.
What is the Publick which owes the National Debt? We try to evade that question. We
try to think of that debt not as a debt owed by a person, but as a sum charged upon a
pledged or mortgaged thing, upon the Consolidated Fund.
One of our subterfuges has been that of making the king a trustee (vel quasi) for
unincorporated groups. Another of our subterfuges has been that of slowly
substituting “the Crown” for King or Queen.

Frederic Maitland, Collected Papers