AB

AB (from Abba, Syriac, Father). The eleventh month of the Jewish civil year, and the fifth of the sacred. It answers to the moon that begins in July, and consists of thirty days. On the 24th is observed a feast in memory of the abolishment of the Sadducean law, which required sons and daughters to be equal heirs of their parents' estate. Brown's Dict. of Bible, Jahn's Bib. Antiq. AB, at the beginning of English Saxon names of places, is generally a contraction of Abbot or Abbey; whence it is inferred, that those places once had an abbey there, or belonged to one elsewhere, as Abingdon in Berkshire, Abbotsbury in Dorsetshire, &c. Blount's Law Glossary.

ABACINARE, a punishment, described by historians of the middle ages, which blinded a criminal by holding red-hot irons before his eyes. Encyc. Lond. ABACÍST, or ABACISTA, one who casts accounts, an arithmetician. Blount, Cowell's Interpreter.

ABACOT, the royal cap of state formerly worn by the Kings of England, wrought in the shape of two crowns. Chron. Angl. 1463. ABACTOR (ab abigendo, Lat.), a stealer and driver away of cattle or beasts by herds or in great numbers at once, in distinction from him who steals only a single sheep. Encyc. Lond.

ABACUS (abağ, Gk., a buffet) arithmetic, from the Abacus, an ancient instrument for facilitating operations by means of counters. Its form is various, but that chiefly used in Europe is made by drawing parallel lines distant from each other at least twice the diameter of a counter, which, placed on the lowest line, signifies 1; on the second, 10; on the third, 100; on the fourth, 1000, and so on. In the intermediate spaces, the same counters are estimated at one half of the value of the line immediately superior. There were also other inventions similarly denominated; viz. Abacus Pythagoricus, a multiplication table invented by Pythagoras; Abacus Logisticus, a rectangled triangle, whose sides forming the right angle, contain all the numbers from 1 to 60, and its area the products of each two of the opposite numbers; it is also called a canon of sexigesimals; and the Aba

ABA

cus, or table strewed with dust, upon which the ancient mathematicians drew their schemes. Dyche's Dict., Encyc. Lond.

ABALLABA, the antient name of Appleby in Westmoreland.

ABALIENATE, to make over to another, a term of the Civil Law. Encyc. Lond. ABALIENATION, a making over of an estate, goods, or chattels, to another, by due course of law. Ib.

ABANDONMENT, the exercise of a right, which the assured has to call upon the underwriters or assurers to accept of what is saved and to pay the full amount of the assurance, as if a total loss had happened, where the matter assured is by some of the usual perils of the seas, become of little value. Sel. Nisi Prius, 866. The damage to a cargo must exceed half its value, to entitle the assured to abandon, and recover as for a total loss, and to justify the abandonment of a ship, the particular injuries must be such, that any repairs could not have rendered her seaworthy for the remainder of the voyage. The assured must give notice of his intention to abandon and claim as for a total loss to the underwriters, or their agents, within a reasonable time after he has received intelligence of the casualty, otherwise it will be taken that he intends to claim for a partial loss only. Abandonment very frequently takes place in cases of capture: the loss is then total, and no question can arise in respect to it. In cases, however, in which a ship and cargo are re-captured within such a time that the object of the voyage is not lost, the insured is not entitled to abandon. The mere stranding of a ship is not deemed of itself such a loss as will justify an abandonment. If by some fortunate accident, by the exertions of the crew, or by any borrowed assistance, the ship be got off and rendered capable of continuing her voyage, it is not a total loss, and the insured are only liable for the expences occasioned by the stranding. It is only where the stranding is followed by shipwreck, or in any other way renders the ship incapable of prosecuting her voyage, that the insured can abandon. Consult Marshall or Park on Insurance. ABANDUN, any thing sequestered, pros

B

cribed, or abandoned. Abandon, i. e., in bannum res missa, a thing banned or denounced as forfeited or lost, from whence to abandon, desert, or forsake, as lost and gone. Cowel. Pasquier thinks it a coalition of à ban donner, to give up to a proscription, in which sense we used to mention the ban of the empire. Ban, in our own old dialect, signifies a curse; and to abandon, if considered as compounded between French and Saxon, is exactly equivalent to diris de

vovere.

ABANNITION, a banishment of one or two years for manslaughter. Obsolete. ABARNARE (Abarian, Ang. Sax.), denudare, detegere, to lay bare, discover, detect. Hence abere theof, a detected or convicted thief; abere morth, a detected homicide. Also to detect and discover to a magistrate any secret crime. Antient Laws and Institutes of England, Leg. Canuti, c. 104. ABARSTICK (from a priv and Berstan, Sax., disrumpi), insatiable. Cowel. Ab assuetis non fit injuria. Jenk. 8. Cent. Reports.-(From things to which we are accustomed, no injury arises).

If a person neglect to insist on his right he is deemed to have abandoned it. "A Court of Equity," said Lord Camden, “which is never active in relief against conscience or public convenience, has always refused its aid to stale demands, where a party has slept upon his right, and acquiesced for a great length of time. Nothing can call forth this Court into activity but conscience, good faith, and reasonable diligence: where these are wanting the Court is passive and does nothing. Laches and neglect are always discouraged; and, therefore, from the beginning of this jurisdiction, there was always a limitation to suits in this Court." Smith v. Clay, Ambl. 645; 3 Bro. C. C. 639. ABATAMENTUM, an entry by interposition. 1 Inst. 277.

ABATE (abbatre), to prostrate, break down,

remove, or destroy; also, to let down the price in buying or selling. Encyc. Lond. ABATEMENT is used in six senses, as follows:

(1) Abatement of Freehold. Where a person dies seized of an inheritance, and before the heir or devisee enters, a stranger, having no right, makes entry and gets possession of it. Such an entry is technically called an abatement, and the stranger, an abator It is, in fact, a figurative expression, denoting that the rightful possession or freehold of the heir or devisee is overthrown by the rude intervention of a stranger. Abatement differs from intrusion, in that it is always to the prejudice of the heir or immediate devisee, whereas the latter is to the prejudice of the reversioner or remainder-man: and a disseissor differs from the both, for he disseises, i. e., puts a person seised of the freehold out of possession, such act being called a disseisin. Finch L. 195; 3 Bl. Com. 167.

(2) Abatement or removal of Nuisances. A remedy allowed by law to the party injured by a nuisance to abate, destroy, remove, or put an end to the same by his own act. Whatever unlawfully annoys or damages another is a nuisance, which may be abated, i. e., taken away or removed by the aggrieved party, so that he commit no riot in the doing of it. This seems to be the primitive sense of the term abatement. The reason why the law allows this sunmary method of doing one's self justice, is because injuries of this kind require an immediate remedy and cannot wait for the slow progress of the ordinary forms of justice. It is also used in a privative sense, in Statute, Westm. 1, 3 Edw. 1, c. 17, where mention is made of abating a castle or fortress, clearly signifying to pull it down and level it even with the ground. 3 Bl. Com.

(3) Plea of Abatement. Delivered by the defendant, in which he shows cause to the Court why he should not be impleaded or sued, or, if impleaded, not in the manner and form in which he then is, and praying that the action may abate, i. e., cease. For the learning on this subject consult Chitty on Pleading, vol. 1, and Stephen's Principles of Pleading in Civil Actions.

(4) Abatement of Legacies and Debts. If specific and pecuniary legacies are bequeathed, and the estate fall short to satisfy the pecuniary legacies in full, they shall abate in proportion. 2 Fonbl. 369. Also in case of a deficiency of assets to pay the debts, the pecuniary legacies inust abate in proportion, nor will Equity prefer one legatee to another, but will apply the general rule of equality, unless there be strong and insuperable words in the will or codicil to the contrary. 2 Ves. 421. Specific legacies abate lastly. If the equitable assets fall short, all the creditors are required to abate in proportion. Equity Juris., vol. 2, p. 449. (5) Abatement by death, &c. The death of parties to actions at law and suits in equity before they are completed causes their abatement. At law, they must be revived by scire facias, in equity by bill of revivor. Mariage, change of interest, &c., operate similar effects. See 2 Chit. Arch. Prac., and Story's Comm. on Equity Pleading.

Story's

(6) Abatement or rebate in commerce, an allowance or discount made for prompt payment. Lex Mercatoria. It is also sometimes used to express the deduction that is occasionally made at the Custom House from the duties chargeable upon such goods as are damaged, and for a loss in warehouses, regulated by 3 & 4 Wm. IV., c. 52, s. 32.

ABATOR, he that abates, i. e., enters into a house or land vacant by the death of the former possessor and not yet taken possession of by his heir. Cowel. Also an agent or cause by which an abatement procured.

is

ABATUDA, or ABATUDE. Any thing diminished. Moneta abatuda is money clipped or diminished in value. Du Fresne's Glossary. Used in old records. ABAWED (Echalier, Fr., attonitum reddere, Lat.), terrified. Blount.

ABAVUS, a grandfather's grandfather. ABBACY (Abbatia, or Abbathia, Lat.) The government of a religious house and the revenues thereof, subject to an abbot, as a bishopric is to a bishop. Cowel. The rights and privileges of an abbot. ABBANDUNUM, ABBENDOMA, ABBENDONIA, Abingdon in Berkshire, which took its present name soon after Cissa, King of the West Saxons, had founded the abbey there. It was also called Sewsham and Cloveshoe.

ABBAS (æstuarium), Humber in Yorkshire. ABBAT, or ABBOT (abbas, Lat., abbé, Fr.,

abbud, Sax.; others derive it from Abba, Syriac, father). A spiritual lord or governor, who had the rule of a religious house. An abbot, with the monks of the same house, were called the convent, and made a corporation. Terms de Ley, 4. Henry VIII., as is well known, dissolved the monasteries, &c. ABBATIS, an avener or steward of the stables, an oastler. Spelm.

ABBEY, or ABBY (abbatia), a place or house for religious retirement, governed by an ab bess where nuns are, and by an abbot where monks are. Formerly in England, and now on the continent, great privileges were and are granted to them, such as being exempt. ed from the bishop's visitation, and as a sanctuary for persons escaping from the penalties of an infringed law, even although they be murderers. 190 abbeys were dissolved by Henry VIII., whose yearly revenue amounted to 2,853,0001. per annum (an almost incredible sum considering the value of money in those days), a great part of which went to Rome, the governors and governesses of several of the richest among them being foreigners resident in Italy. It was because certain abbots and priors in England, in right of the monasteries, held lands of the crown, for which they owed military service, that they obtained the title of Lords, and were summoned as barons to parliament, from which custom the Bishops of the present day have the same honour, and are denominated Spiritual Peers. Hallam's Middle Ages. Monasticon Anglicanum. ABBREVIATE OF ADJUDICATION. A term applied to an abstract of adjudication. Scotch Law. Adjudication is that diligence of the law by which the heritage of a debtor is adjudged to belong to his creditor in payment of debt; and the abbreviate of the ad. judication is an abridgement of the record, containing the names of the creditor, debtor and lands, with the amount of the debt; it is signed by the Judge who pronounced the decree in the process of adjudication, and must be recorded in the register of abbreviates. Scotch Dict.

ABBREVIATION. The 4 Geo. II., c. 26,

provided, that all law proceedings should be in the English language, written legibly, and in words at length, and not abbreviated; but the 6 Geo. II., c. 14, permitted numbers to be expressed in figures, and such abbreviations as are commonly used. In 9 Co. 48, is this maxim, Abbreviationum, ille numerus et sensus accipiendus est, ut concessio non sit inanis. (In abbreviations, that number and sense is to be taken, by which the meaning is not rendered void.)

ABBREVIATORS, officers who assist in drawing up the Pope's briefs, and reducing petitions into proper form, to be converted into Papal Bulls.

ABBROCH, to monopolise goods or forestall

a market. ABBROCHMENT, or ABROACHMENT, (ab, Lat., and broche, Fr., a spit). The forestalling of a market or fair. MS. Antiq. Forestalling is abolished by 7 & 8 Vict. c. 24, by which are repealed many statutes in restraint of trade. This act extends to Scotland and Ireland.

ABBUTTALS, or ABUTTALS, (abutter or abouter, Fr., to limit or bound). The but

tings and boundings of lands, east, west, north, and south, with respect to the places by which they are limited and bounded. The sides of the land are properly said to be adjoining, and the ends abutting to the thing contiguous. Termes de la Ley, 9. The 2 & 3 Wm. IV., c. 64, settled the divisions of counties and the limits of cities and boroughs within England and Wales. The enclosure acts of 41 Geo. III., c. 109, s. 3, and 6 & 7 Wm. IV, c. 115, s. 28, empowered the commissioners to settle the boundaries of parishes and manors, hamlets and districts between lands to be enclosed, and adjoining lands.

ABDICANT, giving up, renouncing. ABDICATE, to renounce or refuse anything. Termes de la Ley, 5.

ABDICATION. Where a magistrate or person in office renounces or gives it up before the time of service is expired. It differs from resignation, in that abdication is done purely and simply, whereas resignation is in favour of some other person. It is said to be a renunciation, quitting, and relinquishing, so as to have nothing further to do with a thing, or the doing of such actions as are inconsistent with the holding of it. Chamb. Dict. On King James II.'s leaving this kingdom, and abdicating the crown, the Lords would have had the word “desertion” made use of, but the Commons thought it was not comprehensive enough, for that the King might then have liberty of returning. The Scots called it a forefalture (forfeiture) of the crown, from the verb forisfacio. This was fully canvassed in the then Parliamentary Debates. Involuntary resignations are also termed abdications, as Napoleon's abdi. cation at Fontainbleau.

ABDITORIUM. An abditory or hiding place to hide and preserve goods, plate, or money, or a chest in which reliques were kept, as

mentioned in the inventory of the church of York. Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum, p. 173.

ABDUCTION. The forcible and fraudulent abduction of women or girls on account of their fortune. This offence is punished in England, under 9 Geo. IV., c. 31, and in Ireland under 10 Geo. IV., c. 34, by transportation for life, or not less than seven years; or imprisonment with or without hard labour, not exceeding four years. The taking of any unmarried girl under sixteen out of the possession of a parent or guardian, is declared a misdemeanor, punishable by fine and imprisonment. See the remarkable case of the King v. Edward Gibbon Wakefield, published by Murray, which occasioned the passing of the two above named acts of parliament.

In logic, a particular form of argument, by the Greeks called apagoge, wherein the greater extreme is evidently contained in the medium, but the medium not so evidently in the less extreme as not to require some further medium or proof to make it appear. Encyc. Lond.

ABEARANCE, signifying carriage or behaviour. A recognizance to be of good abearance means to be of good behaviour. 4 Bl. 251, 256. ABECHED (abecher, Fr.), to be satisfied. Cowel. ABEREMURDER (abere, apparent, notorious, and mord, murder, Sax.). Plain or downright murder as distinguished from the less heinous crime of manslaughter or chance medley. It was declared a capital offence, without fine or commutation, by the laws of Canute, c. 93, and of Hen. I, c. 13. Spelm.

ABERFRAW (aber-fraw, Welch, efflux of the Fraw). The princely seat of Venedotia (North Wales) was situated where the brook Fraw flows into the sea. Here was

erected the Supreme Court of Law for the administration of justice in that part of the Principality. Antient Laws and Institutes of Wales.

ABESSED (abaisser, Fr.,) humbled, depressed, abased. Blount.

ABET (abettare, from a (ad vel usque), and bedan or beteren, to stir up or excite, Saxon; or boutli, Fr., impellere, excitare,) to encourage or set on, the substantive abetment signifying the same. An abettor is an instigator or setter on, one who promotes or procures a crime to be committed. Old Nat. Br. 21. Treason is the only crime in which abettors are excluded by law, every one concerned being a principal. ABEYANCE, or ABBAYANCE (beer or bayer, to expect, Fr.) It is what is in expectation, remembrance, and contemplation of law. Cowel. The word abeyance has been compared to what the civilians call hereditatem jacentem; for as the civilians say, lands and goods jacent, so the common lawyers say that things in a similar condition are in abeyance, as the logicians term it in posse, or in understanding. Abeyance in

gremio legis, or in nubibus, means in consideration of law. Plowd. Rep. 547. The strict interpretation of this word as to freehold interests has puzzled eminent lawyers, but as Mr. Justice Coleridge once observed, it is more a matter of curiosity than practical importance.

ABGATORIA, the alphabet. Matt. Westm. The Irish call the alphabet abghitten. ABIB (signifying green ears of corn or fresh fruits, sometimes called Nisan, a Babylonish name,) the first sacred, and seventh civil month of the Jewish year. It contained

thirty days, and answers to part of our March and April. Brown's Dict. of Bible, Jahn's Bib. Antiq.

ABIDING-BY, Where a deed is challenged as forged, the party founding on the deed must appear in Court and abide by it. This is done by his signing a declaration that he abides by the deed quarrelled or challenged, sub periculo falsi, which has the effect of pledging him to stand to the consequences of founding on a forged deed. The abidingby is usually qualified thus, in the case of a bill of exchange, the holder will state that it came fairly into his hands in the course of business, and he will abide by it under that protestation and qualification, and as in no shape accessory to the alleged forgery. Scotch Law.

ABIGEAT, the crime of stealing cattle by droves or herds. It was severely punished, the delinquent being often condemned to the mines, banishment, or something capital. Also a miscarriage procured by art. Ash. ABIGEVUS (abigens), a stealer of cattle, the same as abactor. Cowel. ABINTESTATE, inheriting from a person who died without having made a will. ABISHERING, or ABISHERSING, quit of amercements. It originally signified a forfeiture or amercement, and is more properly mishering, mishersing, or miskering, according to Spelman. It has since been termed a liberty or freedom, because, wherever this word is used in a grant or charter, the persons to whom made have the forfeitures and amercements of all others, and are themselves free from the control of any within their fee. Rastal's Abr. ABJUDICATE, to give away in judgments. Obsolete.

ABJURATION, a forswearing or renouncing by oath. In the old law it signified a sworn banishment, or an oath taken to forsake the realm for ever by a person claiming sanctuary, abolished by 21 Jac. I., c. 28, and now it extends to persons and doctrines as well as to places, ex. gra., the oath which is taken by every person entering upon any public office or trust, whereby he abjures the Pretender, and recognizes the right of her Majesty under the act of settlement, engaging to support her, and promising to disclose all treasons and traitorous conspiracies against her. Stamford's Pl. C., b. 2, c. 40. ABJURE, to retract, recant, or abnegate a position upon oath.

ABLADIUM, corn cut down. Old Records. ABLATO-BULGIO, Bulness, or Bolness, in Cumberland.

ABLEGATE, to send abroad a person on some public business or embassy. ABLOCATION, a letting out to hire. ABO, a carcase of an animal killed by a wolf or other beast of prey. Antient Laws and

Inst. of Wales. ABOLITION, a destroying, effacing, or putting out of memory; also, the leave given by the King or Judges to a criminal accuser to desist from further prosecution. 25 H. VIII, c. 21.

ABONE (Abonis), Avington or Aventon, in Gloucestershire.

ABORIGENES (ab, from, and errare, Lat., to wander), a name given to the original or first inhabitants of any country, but more particularly used for the antient inhabitants of Latium, who lived there when Æneas and the Trojans arrived in Italy. Clas. Dict., Dion Halicar, Livy, Aurelius Victor. ABORTION from ab, which in composition signifies defect, according to Martinius, and orior, Lat., to arise), a miscarriage, or the exclusion of the fœtus before its due time. By 9 Geo. IV., c. 31, s. 13, it is enacted, that if any person, with intent to procure the miscarriage of any woman, then being quick with child, shall cause her to take poison, or use any other means with the like intent, every such offender, and all who counsel and abet him, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof, shall suffer death. And if the woman were not quick with child, then such offender, his counsellors or abettors, shall be guilty of felony, and being convicted thereof, shall be liable, at the discretion of the Court, to be transported for any terin not exceeding fourteen years, nor less than seven years, or be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, for any term not exceeding three years, and if a male, to be once, twice, or thrice publicly or privately whipped, if the Court shall so think fit, in addition to such imprisonment.

The motion of the foetus when felt by the mother, is called quickening. Now it is important to understand the sense attached to this term formerly, and at the present day. The antient opinion, and on which indeed the laws of some countries have been founded, was, that the foetus became animated at this period; that it acquired a new mode of existence. This is altogether abandoned. The foetus is certainly, if we speak physiologically, as much a living being immediately after conception, as at any other time before delivery, and its future progress is but the developement aud increase of those constituent principles which it then received. The next theory attached to the term, and which is yet to be found in many of our standard works, is, that from the increase of the foetus, its motions, which had hitherto been feeble and imperfect, now are of sufficient strength to communicate a sensible impulse to the adjacent parts of the mother. In this sense,

then, quickening implies the first sensation which the mother has of the motion of the child which she has conceived.

A far more rational and undoubtedly correct opinion, is that which considers quickening to be produced by the impregnated uterus starting suddenly out of the pelvis into the abdominal cavity. This explains several peculiarities attendant on the phenomenon in question; the variety in the period of its occurrence, (the extremes being from the tenth to the twenty-fifth week, taking place generally at the completion of four calendar months after conception,) the faintness which usually accompanies it, owing to the pressure being removed from the iliac vessels, and the blood suddenly rushing to them, and the distinctness of its character, differing, as all mothers assert, from any subsequent motions of the foetus. Its occasional absence in some females is also readily accounted for, the ascent from the pelvic cavity into the abdomen being gradual and unobserved.

The absurd error of denying to the fœtus any vitality until after the time of quickening, has received the sanction of the laws of this country, and accordingly, the punishment denounced against abortion procured after quickening is much severer than before. Again, our laws allow a reprieve, ex necessitate legis, where a woman is capitally convicted and pleads pregnancy; though this is no cause to stay judgment, yet it is to respite her execution till she be delivered. "In case this plea," observes Blackstone, in the 31st chapter of the 4th volume of his Commentaries, "be made in stay of execu tion, the Judge must direct a jury of twelve matrons or discreet women to inquire the facts; and if they bring in their verdict quick with child, (for barely with child, unless it be alive in the womb, is not sufficient,) exe.cution should be stayed generally until the next session, and so from session to session, till either she is delivered or proves by the course of nature not to have been with child at all. But if she once hath had the benefit of this reprieve, and been delivered, and afterwards becomes pregnant again, she shall not be entitled to the benefit of ano

ther respite for that cause. For she may now be executed before the child is quick in the womb, and shall not, by her own incontinence, evade the sentence of justice."

The absurdity of the principle upon which these distinctions are founded is of easy demonstration. Now the foetus before quickening must be either dead or alive. That it is not dead is most evident from neither putrefaction nor decomposition taking place, which would be the inevitable consequences of the extinction of the vital principle. To say that the connection with the mother prevents this is wholly untenable; facts are opposed to it. Foetuses do actually die in the uterus before quickening, and then all the signs of death are present. The embryo, therefore, before that crisis, must be in a state different from that of death, and this