ACTION OF A WRIT, a phrase used, when a defendant pleads some matter by which he shows that the plaintiff had no cause to have the writ he brought, yet it may be that he is entitled to another writ or action for the same matter.Corcel.

ACTION OF ABSTRACTED MULTURES, an action for multures or tolls against those who are thirled to a mill (i. e. bound to grind their corn at a certain mill), and fail to do so.-Jacob. ACTION FOR POYNDING ON THE GROUND, so called because founded upon some infeoffment for an annuity (whether annual-rents, life-rent, or feu-duty, &c.), that affects the ground, and that ground being thus debitor, it is called debitum fundi (a debt of the ground), for which movables found upon the ground may be poynded (distrained), and these failing, the property affected by this servitude may be apprized or adjudged even in prejudice of intervening singular successors.-Scotch Law.

ACTION IN THE SCOTCH LAW, a prosecution of his right by any party, in order to obtain a judicial determination.-Scotch Dict. ACTIONARE (i. e. in jus vocare, Lat.), to prosecute a person in a cause at law.-Thorn's Chron.

ACTIONARY, a foreign commercial term for the proprietor of an action or share of a public company's stock, a stockholder.

Actiones compositæ sunt, quibus inter se homines disceptarent, quas actiones, ne populus prout vellet institueret, certas solemnesque esse voluerunt. (Forms of actions have been framed by which men dispute among themselves, which forms are made definite and solemn, lest the people proceed as they think proper.)

Actiones in personam, quæ adversus eum intenduntur, qui ex contractu vel delicto obligatus est aliquid dare vel concedere. (Personal actions are those which are brought against him who, from a contract or tort, is obliged to give or allow something.)

Actionem quædam sunt in rem, quædam in personam, et quædam mixtæ. Co. Litt. 284. (Some actions are upon the thing (contract), some against the person, and some mixed.)

ACTITATION, a debating of law-suits. ACTIVE DEBT, a debt due to a person. ACTIVE TRUST, a confidence connected with a duty.

ACTIVE USE, a present legal estate. ACTO (Acton, Aketon, Fr. Hanqueton). coat of mail.-Du Fresne.

A

ACTON-BURNELL, the statute giving the remedy by statute merchant, 11 Edw. I. A. D. 1283, so termed from the place where it was made, situated in Shropshire.-Cowel.

ACTOR, a doer, generally a plaintiff or complainant. In a civil or private action the plaintiff was often called by the Romans petitor; in a public action (causa publica), he was called accusator. (Cic. ad Att. i. 16.) The defendant was called Reus, both in private and public causes; this term, however, according to Cicero (De Orat. ii. 43), might signify either party, as indeed

Actor qui contra regulam quid adduxit, non est audiendus. (A plaintiff is not to be heard who has advanced anything against authority.) Actor sequitur forum rei. Home's L. T. 232. (A plaintiff follows the court of the defendant.) Actore non probante reus absolvitur. (In case of a non-proving plaintiff, the defendant is acquitted.)

Actori incumbit onus probandi. Hob. 103. (The weight of proof lies on a plaintiff.) ACTS OF COURT, legal memoranda of the nature of pleas, especially in Admiralty Courts. ACTS DONE, distinguished into acts of God, of the law, and of men, hence the following

maxims:

Actus contra actum, a mutual consent.

Actus curiæ nemini gravabit. Jenk. Cent. 118. (An act of the court will hurt no person.) See this maxim exemplified Cumber v. Wane, 1 Str. 126 ; & 1 Smith L. C. 245-255.

Actus Dei necnon legis nemini est damnosus, or facit injuriam. 5 Co. 87. (An act of God and also of law is hurtful, or operates an injury, to no one.)

Actus inceptus cujus perfectio pendet voluntate partium, revocari potest; si autem pendet ex voluntate tertiæ persona, vel ex contingenti, revocari non potest. Bacon. (An act already begun the completion of which depends on the will of the parties, may be recalled; but if it depend on the consent of a third person, or on a contingency, it cannot be recalled.)

Actus legitimi non recipiunt modum. Hob. 153. (Legal actions do not admit a limitation.)

Actus me invito factus, non est meus actus. (An act done by me against my will is not my act.)

Actus non facit reum, nisi mens sit rea. 3 Inst. 307. (An act does not make a man guilty, unless his intention be so.)

Actus repugnans non potest in esse produci. Plowd. 355. (A repugnant act cannot be produced as in responsible existence.)

ACTS NOT IN USE, repealed by 19 & 20 Vict. c. 64.

ACTS OF SEDERUNT, ordinances of the Court of Session, under authority of the act 1540, c. 93, by which authority is given to make such statutes as may be necessary for the ordering of processes and the expedition of justice. The court is also authorized by other acts of Parliament to make enactments relative to certain matters therein pointed out.--Scotch Law.

ACTS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND. The acts of the general assembly, issued under their legislative powers, are binding on all the members and judicatories of the church. The form of their procedure is regulated by an act of the church (1679) termed the barrier act.--Scotch Law.

ACTUARIUS, a notary.

ACTUARY, a short-hand writer, a registrar of a public body. Also a clerk that registers the acts and constitutions of the Lower House of Convocation; or a registrar in a Court Christian. -Jacob. Also an officer appointed to keep Savings-Banks' accounts, or the proceedings of a common court. The manager of an Insurance Company; also a person skilled in the doctrine of life-annuities and insurances, and who is in the habit of giving opinions upon the value of property-interests.

ACTUS, a footway and horseway. ADAR (the same meaning as Aries, a ram, mighty). The twelfth sacred month of the Jewish calendar, aud sixth of their civil year, answering to the end of February and beginning of March. As the lunar year which the Jews followed in their calculations is shorter than the solar by about eleven days, which at the end of three years make a month, they then intercalate a thirteenth month, which they call Veadar, or the second Adar.-Brown's Dict. of Bible; Jahn's Bib. Antiq. c. vi. s. 103.

ADAWLUT, justice, equity; a court of justice. The terms Dewanny Adawlut, and Foujdarry Adawlut denote the civil and criminal courts of justice. See DEWANNY and FOUJDARRY. -Indian Words.

ADCORDABILIS DENARII, money paid by a vassal to his lord upon the selling or exchanging of a feud.—Encyc. Lond.

ADCREDULITARE, to purge one's self of an offence by oath.-Leg. Ma. c. 36.

AD DAMNUM (to the damage). ADDECIMATE, to take tithes. ADDICTIO, the giving up to a creditor of his debtor's person by a magistrate, as the ordinary means of execution under a law which did not allow execution of a debtor's property.Sand Just. 422.

AD DIEM (at the day).

ADDITION, the title, or mystery, and place of abode of a person besides his names.--1 Hen. V. c. 5; Termes de la Ley, 20. By 14 & 15 Vict. c. 100, s. 24, no indictment shall be held insufficient for want of, or imperfection in, the addition of any defendant.

Additio probat minoritatem. 4 Inst. 80. (An addition proves minority.)

ADDITIONALES, propositions or terms added to a former agreement or contract.

Ad ea quæ frequentius accidunt jura adaptantur. Wing. 216. (The laws are adapted to those cases which more frequently arise.)

ADELING, ETHLING or EDLING (ædelan, Sax.), noble, excellency. A title of honor among the Anglo-Saxons, properly belonging to the king's children.-Spelm. Glos.

AD INQUIRENDUM, a judicial writ commanding inquiry to be made of anything relating to a cause in the superior courts.-Reg. Judic. AD INTERIM (in the meantime).

ADJOURNMENT, a putting off to another time or place. An adjournment of Parliament is a continuance of the session from one day to another.-1 Bl. Com. 185. The consul used to dismiss the Roman Senate in the following words: "Nil vos moramur, Patres Conscripti." Adjournment of Parliament differs from prorogation, the former being not only for the shorter time. but also done by the houses themselves, whereas the latter is an act of royal authority.

Either House may interrupt or postpone any debate, defer the consideration of any measure, or altogether adjourn its sittings. The Lords frequently adjourn "during pleasure," which means that the Lord Chancellor or other speaker of the House may, in the exercise of his discretion, take his seat on the woolsack, two other peers being present, and cause business to proceed at any hour within the day on which such adjournment during pleasure" takes place, otherwise their Lordship's House will stand adjourned to the usual hour on the following day; but usage has fixed five o'clock P.M. as the time for resuming after an adjournment “during pleasure." The Commons, on the contrary, always adjourn to a time specified. The adjournment of one House is no adjournment of the other. In Committee, to move that the Chairman report progress is equivalent to moving that the debate be then adjourned. Adjournment does not close the session; prorogation does not terminate the Parliament; the former is an act of either House; the latter an act of the Crown, the duration of which may be subsequently extended or curtailed, according to the royal pleasure. All unfinished proceedings during an adjournment remain in statu quo.

A member who moves the adjournment of a debate, or is addressing the House at the time of adjournment, is said to be in possession of the House, and can speak again when the sittings are resumed. When Committees of the whole House adjourn, however, this rule does not prevail.-Dod's Parl. Comp.

Adjournamentum est ad diem dicere, seu diem dare. 4 Inst. 27. (An adjournment is to appoint a day, or to give a day.)

ADIRATUS, a price of value set upon things stolen or lost, as a recompense to the owner.— Cowel.

ADJUDICATION, giving or pronouncing a judgment, sentence, or decree. But in Scotch Law it is used to express the diligence by which land is attached in security and payment of a debt, or by which a feudal title is made up in a person holding an obligation to convey without procuratory or precept. There is thus (1.) the adjudication for debt; (2.) the adjudication in security; and (3.) the adjudication in implement. ADJUDICATION IN IMPLEMENT, the

TISFACTION.

ADHERING, cleaving to or joining. A digniori fieri debet denominatio et resolutio. Wing. 265. (The title and exposition ought to be made from that which is the more worthy.)

ADJUDICATION SPECIAL, when the Lords of Sessions, proportionably to the sums due, adjudge to the creditor some part of the debitor's lands, with a fifth part more beside composition due to the superior, and the expenses

for obtaining enfeoffment; but if the debitor do not consent to such an adjudication, in the terms of the act 1672, all his lands and other heritable subjects are adjudged in the same manner as they were formerly apprized.-Scotch Law. ADJUDICATION AFTER THE OLD FORM, when the hæreditas jacens (the heir having renounced) is adjudged to the creditor for payment of his money.-Scotch Law.

ADJUDICATION UPON OBLIGEMENT, when a man, having obliged himself to enfeoff another in lands disponed by him, the Lords adjudge upon his refusal to perform.-Scotch Law.

ADJUNCTION, when a thing belonging to one is attached or united to that which belongs to another, whether by inclusion, soldering, sewing, construction, writing, or painting, the whole generally becomes the property of the latter.-Civil Law.

ADJUNCTS, additional judges. ADJUNCTUM ACCESSORIUM, an accessory or appurtenance.

AD JURA REGIS, a writ which was brought by the king's clerk presented to a living against those who endeavored to eject him, to the prejudice of the king's title.-Reg. of Writs, 61.

ADJURATION, a swearing or binding upon

oath.

ADJUSTMENT OF A LOSS, the settling and ascertaining the amount of the indemnity which the assured, after all allowances and deductions made, is entitled to receive under the policy, and fixing the proportion which each underwriter is liable to pay.-Marsh, 529.

ADIATION, a term used in the laws of Holland for the application of property by an executor.-Knapp. Rep. Privy Council, p. 107. ADLAMWR (ad-lam-gwr, Cym., one returning), a proprietor who, for some cause, entered the service of another proprietor without agreement, if he left him after the expiration of a year and a day, he was liable to the payment of thirty pence to his patron.— Welch Law.

AD LAPIDEM, Stoneham in Hampshire. AD LARGUM (at large), used in the following and other expressions: title at large, assize at large, verdict at large, to vouch at large, &c. -Cowel.

ADLEGIARE (fr. aleier, Fr.), to purge of a crime by oath.-Brompt. Chron. c. 4 & 13.

ADMANUENSES, persons who swore by laying their hands on the book.-Old Law Books. ADMEASUREMENT, WRIT OF. It lay against persons who usurped more than their share, in the two following cases: Admeasurement of dower, where the widow held from the heir more land, &c., as dower, than rightly belonged to her; and admeasurement of pasture, which lay between those having common of pasture, where any one or more of them surcharged the common.-Termes de la Ley.

ADMINICLE, aid, help, or support, 1 Edw. IV. c. 1. In the Scotch Law, it is a term used in the action of proving the tenor of a lost deed, and applicable to any deed or even scroll tending to establish the existence or terms of the deed in question.

ADMINICULAR EVIDENCE, explanatory or completing testimony.

ADMINISTRATION, the disposing of an intestate's property; the body of ministers deputed by the Crown to manage the affairs of state.

ADMINISTRATOR, the manager of a business; he to whom the goods and effects of a person dying intestate are committed by the Probate Court. The following are limited administrations: Administration durante minori ætate, is where an infant is made executor, in which case administration, with will annexed, is granted to another, until the infant executor attain the age of seventeen years, when this administration ceases. But where an infant is sole executor, the 38 Geo. III. c. 87, s. 6, provides that probate shall not be granted unto him until his full age of twenty-one years, and that administration, with the will annexed, shall in the meantime be granted to his guardian, or such other person as the court shall think fit. Administration durante absentia is granted when the next of kin is beyond sea, lest the goods perish or the debts be lost. Administration pendente lite is granted where a suit is commenced in the Probate Court concerning the validity of a will, until the suit be determined, in order that there should be somebody to take care of the testator's estate. Administration cum testamento annexo, granted when there is not any executor named in the will, or if an incapable person be named, or a person named who refuses to act. Administra tion de bonis non, granted when the first administrator dies before he has fully administered. An ancillary administration, because it is subordinate to the original administration, for collecting the assets of foreigners. It is taken out in the country where the assets are locally situate. Consult Toller on Executors; Williams's Executors and Administrators; and Story's Conflict of Laws, 518, 522.

ADMINISTRATRIX, a woman who has goods and chattels of an intestate committed to her charge in like manner as an administrator. -Blount.

ADMIRAL (supposed to be derived from Amir al bahar, Arab., commander of the sea or fleet), an officer having high command in the Royal Navy. An admiral has two subordinate commanders under him, a vice-admiral and rearadmiral, distinguished into three classes by the color of their flags, white, blue, and red. The admiral carries his flag at the main-topmast head, the vice-admiral at the fore-topmast head, and the rear-admiral at the mizzen-topmast head.

ADMIRALTY, THE HIGH COURT OF, held before the Lord High Admiral of England, or his deputy, styled the Judge of the Admiralty. There are two courts, the Instance Court and the Prize Court. The same judge presides in both courts; in the former he sits by virtue of a commission under the Great Seal, enumerating the objects of the jurisdiction, but specifying nothing relative to prize; in the latter he sits by virtue of a commission, which issues in every war, under the Great Seal, to the Lord High Admiral, or commissioners for executing that office, requiring the court "to proceed upon all and all manner of captures, seizures, prizes, and reprisals of ships and goods, which are or shall be taken, and to hear and determine according

(2.) Collision of ships. (For which there is also remedy at common law.)

(3.) Restitution of possession of a ship where there is no bona fide claim to withhold her; and (4.) Piratical and illegal takings at sea. In cases of contract, its jurisdiction is confined to those of a maritime nature, as

(1.) Between part owners of a ship. (Equity has a concurrent jurisdiction in this case.) (2.) Mariners' and officers' wages. (Also recoverable by action at law, or before a magistrate.)

(3.) Pilotage.

(4.) Bottomry and respondentia bonds; and (5.) Salvage (which is the compensation to be made to persons by whose assistance a ship, or her freight, or her loading, has been saved from impending peril, or recovered after actual loss), and those relating to wreck. Salvage is also recoverable by action at law, or by summary hearing before magistrates or the Cinque Port Commissioners.

The court, however, has no jurisdiction to enforce a claim of lien on a ship, or her stores, for repairs, or stores found in this country, or for any claim of the master; and if such a proceeding should be instituted, a prohibition may be issued from the Court of Queen's Bench, in favor of a mortgagee who has not taken possession, or in cases of adverse title.

The proceedings in this court (which sits at Doctors' Commons, in London) are greatly conformable to the civil law, in conjunction with marine customs. In 1840, the Court of Admiralty was entirely reconstructed, its practice improved, and civil jurisdiction extended by the 3 & 4 Vict. cc. 65, 66. The advocates, surrogates, and proctors of the Court of Arches were admitted to practise there, the proceedings of the court were assimilated to those of the common law courts, particularly in respect of viva voce evidence taken in open court; power to compel the attendance of witnesses and the production of papers; to direct evidence to be taken, viva voce, before a court, to order issues to be tried in any of the courts of Nisi Prius; bills of exception to be allowed on the trials of such issues, and with power to the Admiralty Court to direct a new trial of such issues; to make rules of court, and to commit for contempt. The judge may have the assistance of a jury; and, in suits for collision, he usually decides upon his own view of the facts and law, after having been assisted by, and hearing the opinion of two or more Trinity masters.

There is a summary form of proceeding, by an act on petition, in which the parties state shortly their respective cases, supporting them by affi

davits; this is adopted in order to enforce payment of a bottomry bond.

The first process in a plenary suit is frequently the arrest of the defendant's person, upon which he must find bail, or fidejussors in the nature of bail. The court may fine and imprison for a contempt in its presence, although it is not a court of record.

The arrest of a ship, apparel, and furniture, in order to obtain restitution, is sometimes allowed, when, in order to release her, bail for her value, and intermediate earnings must be given, and for the return of the vessel into the hands of the claimant, if the court should ultimately adjudge the possession to him.

A monition is sometimes the first proceeding, as when an agent is required to bring in his account of the sale of a ship and cargo, and to distribute the balance of the proceeds, as in case of prize.

The court may rehear and revise its own decrees; but it will very reluctantly permit such a proceeding. An appeal lies to the Judical Committee of the Privy Council. See 2 & 3 Wm. IV. c. 51.

This court formerly had cognizance of all crimes and offences, committed either upon the sea, or on the coasts, out of the boundary or extent of any English county, until the 4 & 5 Wm. IV. c. 36, establishing "The Central Criminal Court," enacted by its 22d section, that with a view to speedy justice, it should be lawful for the judges to be appointed by the commissions to be issued under the authority of the act, or any two or more of them, to inquire of, hear, and determine any offence committed or alleged to have been committed on the high seas and other places within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England, and to deliver the gaol of Newgate of any person or persons committed to or detained therein for any offence alleged to have been done and committed upon the high seas aforesaid, within the jurisdiction of the Admiralty of England, and all indictments found and trials and other proceedings had and taken by and before the judges of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery, should be valid and effectual, to all intents and purposes whatsoever; and any three of such judges of oyer and terminer and gaol delivery, might order and direct the payment of the costs and expenses of such prosecutions in manner prescribed and directed by the 7 Geo. IV. c. 64.

There is a Court of Admiralty in Ireland; but the Scotch Court was abolished by 1 Wm. IV. c. 69. Vice-Admiralty Courts exist in many of our colonies. Consult Bac. Ab. tit. Court of Admiralty; Com. Dig. tit. Admiralty; and Browne's Law of the Admiralty. See PRIZE Court.

As to the jurisdiction of the Admiralty in the colonies, see 12 & 13 Vict. c. 96.

Serjeants, barristers-at-law, attorneys, and solicitors may practise in the High Court of Admiralty.-22 & 23 Vict. c. 6. [See Walker's Introduction to American Law, 115, 661.] ADMIRALTY, DROITS OF. See DROITS OF ADMIRALTY.

ADMISSION OF A CLERK by the bishop, when a patron of a church has presented him to

it. It is, in fact, the ordinary's declaration that he approves of the presentee to serve the cure of the church to which he is presented.-Co. Litt. 344 a.

ADMITTANCE, giving possession of a copyhold estate. It is of three kinds: (1.) Upon a voluntary grant by the lord, where the land has escheated or reverted to him. (2.) Upon surrender by the former tenant. (3.) Upon descent, where the heir is tenant on his ancestor's death. — Wood, b. 2, c. 1.

ADMITTENDO CLERICO, a writ of execution upon a right of presentation to a benefice being recovered in quare impedit, addressed to the bishop or his metropolitan, requiring him to admit and institute the clerk or presentee of the plaintiff.-Reg. Orig. 33 a.

ADMITTENDO IN SOCIUM, a writ for associating certain persons, as knights and other gentlemen of the county, to justices of assize on the circuits. Reg. Orig. 206.

ADMONITION, a judicial reprimand. ADMORTIZATION, the reduction of property of lands or tenements to mortmain, in the feudal customs.-Encyc. Lond.

AD MURUM, Waltown or Walton. ADNEPOS, a direct male descendant in the fifth degree.

Ad officium justiciariorum spectat, unicuique coram eis placitanti justitiam exhibere. 2 Inst. 451. (It is the duty of justices to administer justice to every one pleading before them.)

ADNICHILED (fr. nichil or nihil, Lat.), annulled, cancelled, made void.-28 Hen. VIII. ADOLESCENCE, the period between 12 in females and 14 in males till 21 years of age.

ADOPTION, an act by which a person rears the child of another, and appoints him as heir. There is not any law of adoption in this country. -Sand. Just. 121 et seq.

AD OSTIUM ECCLESIÆ (Dower). Where tenant in fee-simple of full age, openly, at the church door (where all marriages were formerly celebrated), after affiance made and troth plighted between them, endowed his wife with the whole or such quantity of his land as he pleased, specifying and ascertaining the same; on which the wife, after her husband's death, might have entered without further ceremony. Abolished by 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 105, s. 13.

AD PONTEM, Pawnton in Lincolnshire. ADPROMISSOR, an accessory to a promise, in order to give a stipulator greater security; he guaranteed the fulfilment of a promise.-Sand.

Just. 453.

Ad proximum antecedens fiat relatio, nisi impediatur sententiâ. Jenk. Cent. 180. (Let relation be made to the nearest antecedent, unless it be prevented by the context.)

AD QUEM (Lat.) (to whom).
ADQUIETO, payment.-Blount.

Ad quæstiones facti non respondent judices; ad quæstiones legis non respondent juratores. Co. Litt. 295. (Judges do not answer to questions of fact; juries do not answer to questions of law.)

AD QUOD DAMNUM, a writ which ought to be issued before the Crown grants further liberties, as a fair, market, &c., which may be prejudicial to others; it is addressed to the

sheriff, to inquire what damage it may do to grant a fair, market, &c. It is also used to inquire of lands given in mortmain to any honse of religion, &c. It may likewise be used for the turning and changing of ancient highways, which could not formerly be done without a license from the Crown, which was obtained by this writ on inquisition found, that such a change would not be a public detriment; but now a highway may be diverted by order of two magistrates.— Termes de la Ley, 26.

ADRECTARE, to do right, satisfy, or make amends.-Gerve Doroberen, anno 1170.

Ad rectè docendum oportet primum inquirere nomina, quia rerum cognitio a nominibus rerum dependet. Co. Litt. 68. (In order rightly to teach a thing, inquire first into the names, for a knowledge of things depends upon their names.) ADROGATION, the adoption of an impubes, i. e. a male under 14, and a female under 12 years old.

AD SECTAM (Lat.) (at the suit of), abbreviated into ads or ats.

ADSTIPULATOR, an accessory party to a promise, who received the same promise as his principal did, and could equally receive and exact payment; or he only stipulated for a part of that for which the principal stipulated, and then his rights were co-extensive with the amount of his own stipulation.-Sand. Just. 453.

AD TERMINUM QUI PRETERIT, a writ of entry, which lay for a lessor or his heirs, where a lease of premises had been made for life or years, and after the term had expired the premises were withheld from the lessor or his heirs, by the tenant or other person possessing the same; but now by the 4 Geo. II. c. 28, if a tenant for life, or years, or person holding under him, shall wilfully hold over after the expiration of a notice in writing, given by the landlord, and after demand of possession, the tenant will be liable to double the yearly value for so long a time as he detains the premises, to be recovered by an action of debt. And by the 11 Geo. II. c. 19, § 18, it is enacted, that if a tenant give notice of his intention to quit the premises (which needs not be in writing), and do not deliver up possession at the time mentioned in his notice, he, or his executors or administrators, will be liable to pay double rent, to be recovered by the landlord, either by distress or action at law.

AD TUNC ET IBIDEM (Lat.) (then and there).

ADULT, a person of full age.

ADULTERATION, the corrupt production of any article, especially food or beverage. It is a criminal offence, 6 & 7 Wm. IV. c. 37.

ADULTERINE, the issue of an adulterous

intercourse.

ADULTERINE GUILDS, traders acting as a corporation without a charter, and paying a fine annually for permission to exercise their usurped privileges.--Smith's Wealth of Nations, b. i. c. 10.

ADULTERIUM, a fine imposed for the commission of adultery.

ADULTERY (ad Lat. and alter another person), anciently termed Advowtry (quasi ad alterius thorum.) The violation of conjugal fidelity; the sin of incontinence between two married per