used. can be no other than life. But granting, for | ABRENUNCIATION, absolute denial. Little the sake of argument, that the fœtus does not stir previously to quickening, what does ABREVICUM, Berwick-upon-Tweed. the whole objection amount to? Why only ABRIDGE (abbreger, Fr.), to make shorter in that one evidence of vitality, viz., motion, is words and still retain the sense and subwanting, and it needs hardly a remark, that stance. In law, it signifies the making a this sign is not essential to the evidence of declaration or count shorter by subtracting life. The incompleteness of the embryo or severing some of the substance therefrom, previous to quickening is no objection to its ex. gra., a man is said to abridge his plaint vitality, for life does not depend upon a in excise, and a woman her demand in accomplication of organs; on the contrary, it is tion of dower, where any land is put into the found that some of the simplest animals, as plaint or demand which is not in the tenure the polypi, are the most tenacious of life, and of the defendant; for if the defendant plead besides, upon this principle, vitality must be non-tenure, joint-tenancy, or the like, in denied to the child after birth, because many abatement of the writ as to part of the lands, bones and parts of the body are even then the plaintiff may leave out those lands, and imperfect. Neither is the want of organic pray that the tenant may answer to the rest. action any argument against this doctrine. Brook., tit. Abridgement. Life appears to depend essentially as little upon organic action as it does upon a complication of organs. If it did, the foetus after quickening would be just as destitute of life as before, for its brain, lungs, stomach, and intestinal canal, perform no more action at the eighth month than they do at the third. The observations of physiologists tend to prove the vitality previous to quickening, and the fact is certain, that the fœtus enjoys life long before the sensation of quickening is felt by the mother. Indeed, no other doctrine appears to be consonant with reason or physiology, but that which admits the embryo to possess vitality from the very moment of conception. If then physiology and reason justify the position laid down in the preceding remarks, (and that they do has been shewn,) the laws which treat with less severity the time of procuring abortion at an early period of gestation, thus tempting to the perpetration of a crime at one time, which, at a subsequent period, is punished by death: besides, the laws, hanging a woman who is pregnant, but not quick with child, depriving a child, therefore, in the fifteenth week of its foetal existence for the mother's crime, while a child in the sixteenth week is protected from such an unmerited fate, are immoral, irrational, and unjust, and ought to be amended without further delay; for in the language of the admirable Percival, (vol. 2, p. 430,)"to extinguish the first spark of life is a crime of the same nature both against our Maker and society, as to destroy an infant, a child, or a man; these regular and successive stages of existence being the ordinances of God, subject alone to his divine will, and appointed by sovereign wisdom and goodness, as the exclusive means of preserving the race and multiplying the enjoyments of mankind." Consult Beck's Medical Jurisprudence, 122, 136, 343, 357, where all the chief medical authorities upon midwifery are collected and quoted. ABOVE-CITED, quoted before. A figurative expression taken from the ancient manner of writing books on scrolls, where, whatever is cited or mentioned before in the same roll must be above. Encyc. Lond. ABRIDGEMENT (Abbreviamentum). A large work contracted into a narrow compass. Jacob. ABROGATION, to disannul or take away anything; to abrogate a law is to lay aside or repeal it. Cowel. The maxin is Leges posteriores priores contrarias abrogant. 11 Co. 626. (Subsequent laws abrogate prior laws contrary to them). Abrogation stands opposed to rogation; it is distinguished from derogation, which implies the taking away only some part of a law; from subrogation, which denotes the adding a clause to it; from obrogation, which implies the limiting or restraining it; from dispensation, which only sets it aside in a particular instance, and from antiquation,. which is the refusing to pass a law. Encyc. Lond. ABSCOND, to go out of the jurisdiction of the Courts, or to lie concealed in order to avoid any of their processes. ABSENCE, want of appearance. A decree is said to be in absence where the defender does not appear; every Scotchman within the kingdom is liable to be called in an action before the Court of Session, in which action decree may be given against the defender, although he does not appear. Even a foreigner, though not within the kingdom, provided he possess a land estate in it, or goods, which have been attached for the purpose of founding jurisdiction, may be exposed to a decree in absence. Scotch Law. Absence, generally, is of a fivefold kind or species:-1. a necessary absence, as in banished or transported persons; this is entirely necessary. 2. Necessary and voluntary, as upon the account of the commonwealth, or in the service of the church. 3. A probable absence, according to the civilians, as that of students on the score of study. 4. Entirely voluntary, on account of trade, merchandize, and the like. Absence cum dolo et culpá, as not appearing to a writ, subpœna, citation, &c., or to delay or defeat creditors, or avoiding arrest either on civil or criminal process. Ayliffe. ABSENTEES, or des absentees. A parliament so called was held at Dublin, 10th May, 8 Hen. VIII., and mentioned in letters patent dated 29 Hen. VIII. 5. ABSOLVE, to acquit of a crime, to pardon or set free from excommunication. See "Assoile." Absoluta sententia expositore non indiget, 2 Inst. 533. (An absolute sentence requires no expositor). ABSOLUTE, complete, unconditional, not relative, as a rule-absolute, which can be forthwith enforced in contradistinction to a rule nisi, which is incomplete until cause shewn or opposite party makes default in appearing. ABSOLUTE WARRANDICE, a warrant against all mortals. Scotch Law. ABSOLUTION, a dispensation from Rome, declaring a remission of sins; an acquittal by sentence of law. Ayliffe. ABSONIARE, to shun or avoid, used by the English Saxons in the oath of fealty. Somner. ABSQUE HOC (without this). The technical words of exception made use of in a traverse; as the defendant pleads that such a thing was done at B., &c., without this (absque hoc), that it was done at, &c. 1 Saund. 22. ABSQUE IMPETITIONE VASTI. (Without impeachment of waste.) A reservation frequently made to a tenant for life, that no man shall impetere or sue him for waste committed. This reservation only excuses from permissive waste, but is never extended to allow malicious waste to the destruction of the estate. 2 Ch. C. 32. ABSTRACT OF TITLE, an epitome of the evidences of ownership. Martin's Conv. Introd. Absurdum est affirmare re credendum esse non judici, 12 Co. 25. (It is absurd to affirm that the subject-matter is to be relied upon, not the Judge.) Abundans cautela non nocet, 11 Co. 6. (Abundant caution hurts not.) ABUT (aboutir, Fr., to touch at the end), to border upon or approach to. Encyc. Lond. ACCAPITARE, or ACCAPITUM, to pay relief to lords of manors. Capitali domino accapitare, i. e., to pav a relief, homage, or obedience to the chief lord on becoming his vassal. Fleta, l. 2, c. 50. ACCAPITUM, money paid by a vassal upon his admission to a feud; the relief due to the chief Lord. Encyc. Lond. ACCEDAS AD CURIAM. (That you go to the Court.) An original writ to the sheriff, issued out of Chancery, where a man has received false judgment in a Hundred Court or Court Baron, or justice has been delayed. If a plaint in replevin be levied it is removed by this writ, which is in every respect the same as the recordari facias loquelam, excepting that it directs the sheriff to go to the Lord's Court, and there cause the plaint to be recorded, and so to return it to the Court above, being one of the Superior Courts of Common Law at Westminster. F. N. B. 71 D. ACCEDAS AD VICECOMITEM. (That you go to the sheriff.) Where the sheriff has a writ called pone delivered to him, but sup presses it, this writ is sent to the coroner, commanding him to deliver a writ to the sheriff. Reg. Orig. 83. ACCEPTANCE, the taking and accepting of anything in good part, and as it were a tacit agreement to a preceding act, which might have been defeated or avoided if such acceptance had not been made. Blount. Acceptance, in commercial language, is an engagement to pay a bill of exchange according to the tenor of the acceptance, which may be either absolute or conditional. In the case of English and Irish bills of exchange, the acceptance must be in writing on the bill, but Scotch and foreign bills of exchange may be accepted verbally, or by letter or other collateral memorandum, 1 & 2 Geo. IV., c. 78. An absolute acceptance is either general or qualified, and is usually written across the face of the bill of exchange thus, "Accepted, payable at Messrs. Bankers, London," if it is to be qualified, the words "and not otherwise or elsewhere" are added, and then follows the signature of the person accepting. If the acceptance be qualified, non-presentation of the bill of exchange at the specified place, and in the proper time, would exonerate the person who accepted it, and all the other parties, but the person who accepted it would not so be exonerated if the acceptance were general. It may be conditional, as "It will not be accepted until the ship with the wheat arrives," or, cannot accept till stores are paid for," these are undertakings to accept when the ship with the wheat arrives, or the stores are paid for. Acceptance supra (under) protest for honour is sometimes resorted to in the case of foreign bills of exchange, where the person upon whom the bill is drawn cannot be found or refuses to accept, some friend after the bill has been protested for non-acceptance accepts thus, Accepted, supra protest, for the honour of Messrs. --. . A. B." The bill must still be presented to the person on whom it was originally drawn, and after refusal and protest for non-payment, resort must be had to the person accepting for honour. 6 & 7 Wm. IV., c. 58. Consult Story, Chitty, or Bayley on Bills of Exchange. 66 ACCEPTILATION, the extinction of a debt, with a declaration that the debt has been paid when it has not, or the acceptance of something merely imaginary in satisfaction of the debt. Scotch Low, Smith's Dict. of Antiq. ACCEPTOR, a person upon whom a bill of exchange is drawn, he is called drawee before acceptance, and acceptor after; he is the first and principal party liable to pay the amount of the bill, for hardly anything but payment or a release will discharge him. 2 Starkie, 228; 1 Camp. 35. ACCESSARY, or ACCESSORY (particeps criminis quasi accedens ad culpam, Lat., as though assenting to the offence). He who is not a chief actor in a felony, nor present at its perpetration, but is some way concerned therein, either before or after the fact committed. An accessary before the fact is one, who being absent at the time of the commission of the felony, yet procures, counsels, or commands another to commit a crime. Absence is necessary to make him an accessary, for if he be present, he becomes a principal. An accessary after the fact may be, where a person knowing a felony to have been committed, receives, relieves, comforts or assists the felon. To make an accessory ex post facto, it is in the first place requisite that he knows of the felony committed; in the next place, he must receive, relieve, comfort, or assist the felon, and generally, any assistance whatever given to hinder the apprehension, trial, or punishment of the felon, makes the assistor an accessary. In high treason, and misdemeanours, there are no accessaries, either before or after the offence, every person implicated being principals. Consult Archbold's Criminal Pleading; Blackstone's Commentaries, 4th vol.; Hale's Hist. Pl. C., or Hawk. P. C. for a full elucidation of this subject. ACCESSION, property by. The doctrine of property arising from accession is grounded on the right of occupancy, and derived from the Roman law; thus, if any given corporeal substance receive an accession, either by natural or artificial means, as by the growth of vegetables, the pregnancy of animals, the embroidering of cloth, or the conversion of wood or metal into utensils, the original owner of the thing was entitled by his right of possession to the property of it under its improved state, but if the thing itself, by such operation, was changed into a different species, as by making wine, oil, or bread out of another's grapes, olives, or wheat, it belongs to the new operator, who only makes a satisfaction to the former proprietor for the materials so converted. The brood of tame and domestic animals belongs to the owner of the dam or mother, the English law agreeing with the civil, that partus sequitur ventrem (the issue follows the mother); and in accordance with the Roman law principle si equam meam equus tuus prægnatem fecerit non est tuum sed meum quod natum est (if your horse get my mare with foal, the foal is not your property, but mine). But this maxim is for the most part disallowed in the human species. Bracton, 1.2, c. 2, s. 3; Puff. De Jur. Nat. et G., l. 4, c. 7. The rule of the Roman law was expressed thus: Accessio cedit principali. Dig. 34, 1. 2, c. 19, § 13. This term is also used in speaking of the commencement of a sovereign's reign. Accessorium non ducit sed sequitur suum principale, Co. Litt. 152. (That which is accessary does not lead but follows its principal). Accessorius sequitur naturam sui principalis, 3 Inst. 139. (An accessary follows the nature of his principal). ACCIDENT, a class of Equity jurisdiction, concurrent with Courts of Law. The Equity meaning to be attached to this word, is not ACCOLA, an husbandman who came from ACCOMMODATION, a friendly agreement branch of commerce may be affected, and the trader unable to bring his commodities to a fair market in time to meet the payments for which he has to provide, then, by | the temporary assistance of friends, through the medium of "accommodation paper" (to use the commercial phrase applicable to such transactions), his credit may be saved, and he may be enabled to hold his goods till some fair opportunity of sale presents itself, Chitty on Bills, &c. ACCOMPLICE [complice, Fr., from complex, Lat.], one of many equally concerned in a felony; generally applied to those admitted to give evidence against their fellow criminals. Hawk. P. C. 37. ACCOMPT, or ACCOUNT, [compte, Fr., computo, Lat.], an action which lies against a bailiff or receiver, who ought to render an account to his principal, but refuses to do so. If the plaintiff succeed, there are two judgments, the first is, that the defendant account (quod computet) before auditors appointed by the Court, and when such account is finished, then the second judgment is, that he pay the plaintiff as much as he is found in arrear. 3 Bl. C. 164. The action of account is seldom resorted to, since it is held that the balance of account, how numerous soever the items, may be recovered by assumpsit, 2 Camp. 238. But the equity remedy by bill for an account is generally resorted to, as being more complete. Consult Story's Comm. title "Account," and Maddock's Principles, c. 2. In commerce it is a registry of debts, credits, and charges. ACCOMPTANT-GENERALS, or ACCOUNTANT-GENERALS, officers of the Courts of Chancery, Exchequer, and Bank ruptcy, appointed by Act of Parliament to receive all money lodged in those Courts respectively, and place the same in the Bank of England for security. 12 Geo. I., c. 32; 1 Geo. IV., c. 35. ACCORD, an agreement between two or more persons, where any one is injured by a trespass, or offence done, or on a contract, to satisfy him with some recompence; which accord, if executed and performed, shall be a good bar in law, if the other party, after the accord performed, bring an action for the same trespass, &c. Terms de Ley. ACCOUNT, see Accompt. ACCREDULITARE, to purge an offence by oath. Blount. ACCRETION of land by alluvion. Land gained from the sea, by the washing up of sand or earth, so as to form firm ground; or by dereliction, as when the sea shrinks back below the usual water-mark. If this accre tion of land be by small and imperceptible degrees, it belongs to the owner of the land immediately behind, in accordance with the maxim de minimis non curat lex, (the law cares not about trifles,) but if it be sudden and considerable it belongs to the Crown. Hale, De Jure Maris, p. 14. ACCROCHE[accrocher, Er.], to hook or grap ple unto, to encroach. The French use it for delay, as accrocher un procès, to stay proceedings in a suit. Cowel. ACCUMULATION, a gathering together, heaping up, or amassing. The dominion over real property, and its rents, issues, and profits, is restrained only as regards perpetuity and accumulation. The rule against perpetuities is the general landmark which bounds the proprietary right on every side, and limits that species of vanity, which, in the language of Lord Nottingham, "fights against God, by affecting a stability which human providence can never attain to." (2 Swanst. 460.) The rule is thus settled,-1. That the corpus of property may be withdrawn from alienation for a life, or any number of lives in being, and twenty-one years, computed from the dropping of the life or of the surviving life.-2. That the effect may flow either indirectly from the circumstances of the takers, or directly from an arbitrary suspension of the vesting for a period measured by the life or lives of any person or number of persons in being, not otherwise connected with the gift, and for a further period of twenty-one years from the death of such person, or the survivor of such persons, not referable to minority.-3. That a child en ventre sa mère is, according to the general principle of law, and within the meaning of the particular rules, a life in being; so that such a child or any number of such children, may be selected either as objects of the settlement or as the measure of its continuance, the period of gestation being considered part of the life.-4. That if the vesting were suspended for the whole period allowed by the rule, and the object of the ultimate gift should, independently of intention, be, at the time of vesting, a child en ventre, such gift would be clearly good, and even if the gift were designedly so framed as to superadd personal disability to the suspense allowed by the rule, it should seem that the gift, though carried to the extreme verge of the law, would yet be valid.-5. That the "few months" (assuming the difficulty of fixing the limit to be overcome) are not, like the twenty-one years, admissible, as a term in gross, but only as the result of actual gestation, and as a consequence of the general principle of law, which, in construing gifts, treats a child en ventre as in esse, whence it should seem that this indeterminate allowance is not accurately introduced into the statement of the particular rule, but whether occurring at the commencement or the termination, or, as it may do, at both ends of the period, ought to be tacitly included. Thus much for the rule against perpetuity of real property. As to trusts for the accumulation of the rents, profits, and income of land, the 39 & 40 Geo. III., c. 98, (commonly called Thelluson's act,) prohibits the settlement or disposition of any "real or personal property so and in such manner that the rents, issues, C after the expiration of the first; and offen- Accusare nemo se debet, nisi coram Deo. with a crime. profits, or produce thereof, shall be wholly or partially accumulated for any longer term than the life or lives of any such grantor or grantors, settlor or settlors; or the term of twenty-one years from the death of any such grantor, settlor, devisor, or testator, or during the minority or respective minorities of any person or persons who shall be living, or en ventre sa mère, at the time of the death of such grantor, devisor, or testator, or during the minority or respective minorities only of any person or persons who under the uses or trusts of the deed, surrender, will, or other assurance directing such accumulations, would for the time being, if of full age, be entitled unto the rents, issues, and profits, or the interest, dividends, or annual produce, so directed to be accumulated. And in every case where any accumulation shall be directed otherwise than as aforesaid, such direction shall be null and void, and the rents, issues, profits, and produce of such property so directed to be accumulated, shall, so long as the same shall be directed to be accumulated contrary to the provisions of this act, go to and be received by such person or persons as would have been entitled thereto, if such accumulation had not been directed." But by § 2, the act does not extend "to any provision for payment of debts of any grantor, settlor, or devisor, or other person or persons, or to any provision for raising portions for any child or children of any grantor, settlor, or devisor, or any child or children of any person taking any interest under any such conveyance, settlement, or devise, or to any direction touch-ACHELANDA, AUCHELANDIA, AUKing the produce of timber or wood upon any lands or tenements." Consult Burton's Comp. of Real Property; Hayes' Introd. to Conveyancing; Watkins Conv.; and Sugd. Vend. and Pur. ACCUMULATIVE LEGACIES. The doctrine as to these (professedly borrowed from the Civil Law), seems to be, that where the same specific thing is given twice, or, where in the same will, a like sum or quantity is given for the same cause, in the same act, and totidem verbis, or only with a small difference a single and not a double or accumulative legacy passes; but in general, if equal, greater, or less sums be given in one will or by two distinct writings of different dates, as by a will and a codicil, or by two codicils, this is an augmentation, and the legatee takes a double or accumulative legacy; but though simpliciter and prima facie, two different instruinents giving legacies, whether of the same or of a larger amount, will be held accumulative and not a substitution, yet the rule does not hold if there appear upon the face of the instrument, an intention of the testator to the contrary. 4 Ves. 90; 1 P. Wms. 424; 3 Ves. 289. ACCUMULATIVE JUDGMENT. If a person under sentence for another crime is convicted of felony, the Court is empowered to pass a second sentence, to commence Accusator post rationabile tempus non est AC ETIAM BILLÆ (and also to a bill). ACHAT [Achet, Fr.], a contract or bargain. ACHATORS, purveyors, because they fre- LANDIA, Auckland, in the Bishopric of ACHERSET, a measure of corn, conjectured ACHWRE [Ach-gwre, near belt]. An en- a sum paid in some parts of England by copyhold tenants on the death of their landlords, as an acknowledgement of their new lords, in like manner as money is usually paid on the attornment of tenants. Cowel. ACLEA [ac, an oak, and leag, place, Sax.], a field where oaks grow. Cunningham's Abr. A communi observantiá non est recedendum et minimè mutandæ sunt quæ certam interpretationem habent. Co. Litt. 365.-(Common |