ARIETUM LEVATIO, an old sportive exercise, supposed to be the same with running at the quintain. Cowel. ARISTOCRACY

[ἄριστος, greatest, and Kрaréw, Gk., to govern], a form of government which is lodged in a council composed of select members or nobles, without a monarch, and exclusively of the people. 1 Bl. Com. 48; Paley's Polit. Phi.; Brougham's

Polit. Phi.

Arma in armatos sumere jura sinunt. 2 Jus. 574.— (The laws permit to take arms against armed persons.)

ARMA DARE, to dub or make a knight. The word "arma" is here rendered a sword, although a knight was sometimes made by giving to him the whole armour. Ken. Paroch. Antiq. 288.

ARMA LIBERA (free arms). When a ser

vant was set free, a sword and a lance were usually given to him. Leg. Wil., c. 65. ARMA MOLUTA, sharp weapons that cut, in contradistinction to such as are blunt (arma emolita), which only break or bruise. Fleta, l. 1, c. 33, par. 6. ARMA MUTARE, to change arms, a ceremony observed in confirmation of a league or friendship. Blount.

Cowel.

ARMA REVERSATA, reversed arms, a punishment for a traitor or felon. ARMARIA, see ALMARIA. ARMIGER, an esquire. A title of dignity belonging to gentlemen who bear arms. Ken. Paroch. Antiq. 576..

ARMISCARA, an ancient mode of punishment, which was to carry a saddle at the back as a token of subjection. Spelm. ARMORIAL BEARINGS, a device depicted on the (now imaginary) shield of one of the nobility, of which gentry is the lowest degree. The criterion of nobility is the bearing of arms or armorial bearings received from ancestry and descent. There is nothing, however, to prevent persons assuming arbitrary insignia and armorial bearings to which they are not entitled; and all persons entitled to bear arms can register their genealogies and families at the Herald's College, St. Bennet's Hill, London, on payment of a moderate fee, the heralds being the exainers of these matters and the recorders of genealogies. The 43 Geo. III., c. 161, imposes an assessed tax upon armorial bearings, whether borne on plate, carriages, seals, or in any other way. Persons keeping a coach or other carriage pay annually 21.8s. Persons not keeping a coach, &c., but liable to the house or window duty, pay 11.4s., and all other persons 12s. annually. The 3 Vict. c. 17, imposed an additional duty of 101. per cent. on all assessed taxes, which begun on the 14th May, 1840.

Armorum appellatione, non solum scuta et gladii, et galea, sed et fustes et lapides continentur. Co. Litt. 162.-(Under the words arms are included not only shields and swords and helmets, but also clubs and stones.) ARMOUR, and ARMS, things which a person wears for defence, or takes in hand, or uses

in anger, to strike or cast at another. Arms are also insignia, i. e., ensigns of honour, which were formerly assumed by soldiers of fortune and painted on their shields to distinguish them, the ancient coat of mail not being a mark of distinction from its covering the whole body. King Richard I., during his crusade, made arms hereditary. Every subject in this realm has a right, springing from the indigenous principle of personal liberty, to carry arms for defence suitable to his condition and degree and such as are allowed by law, which is embodied in the Bill of Rights, 1 W. & M. s. 2, c. 2. The 2 Edw. III., c. 3, prohibits persons going armed under circumstances which may tend to terrify the people or indicate an intention of disturbing the public peace. The 60 Geo. III., c. 1, prohibits the training of persons without lawful authority to the use of arms, and authorises any justice of the pace to disperse any assembly of persons as he may find engaged in such occupation, and to arrest any of the persons present. Power is vested in the Crown, by 3 & 4 W. IV., c. 42, s. 104, to prohibit the exportation of arms, ammunition, and gunpowder out of this kingdom, and of licensing the importation of gunpowder for the use of the royal stores. As to arins in Ireland, see 1 W. 4, s. 44, and 6 & 7 Vict., c. 74.

ARMY. It is a constitutional principle that the raising or keeping a standing army within the kingdom during peace, unless it be by consent of Parliament, is contrary to law. 1 W. & M., s. 2, c. 2; Montesq. Sp. Laws, ii. 6. It has been judged necessary ever since 1689, for the safety of the kingdom, the defence of the possessions of Great Britain, and the preservation of the balance of the European powers, to maintain, even in time of peace, a standing army, under the command of the Sovereign. 13 Car. II., c. 6. An act of Parliament, therefore, passes annually (called the Mutiny Act), authorizing the maintenance of the regular forces deemed necessary for the service of the State, who are, however, ipso facto, disbanded at the expiration of every year, unless continued by Parliament. Provision is made for the enlisting and billetting of troops, as well as their dispersion among the several innkeepers and victuallers throughout the kingdom. And for the government of the army, the Sovereign is empowered to make articles of war, which must be judicially taken notice of by all the judges and Courts; also to erect or grant authority to convene courts martial, with a jurisdiction to try and punish offences according to such articles of war, and the provisions of the Mutiny Act. Consult Mac Arthur on Courts Martial.

ARNALDIA, a disease that makes the hair fall off like the alopecia, or like a distemper in foxes. Rog. Hoved. €93. ARNALIA, arable grounds. Domesday, tit. Essex. AROMATARIUS, a word often used for a

grocer, but not held good in law proceedings. 1 Vent. 142. ARPEN, or ARPENT, an acre or furlong of ground. According to Domesday Book, 100 perches make an arpent. Blount. ARPENTATOR, a measurer or surveyor of land, Cowel.

ARQUEBUSS, a short hand-gun, a caliver or pistol, mentioned in some of our ancient statutes. Law Fr. Dict.

ARRACK, a spirit procured from distillation out of the Cocoa-nut tree, and imported from the East Indies, upon which a duty is pay

able.

ARRAIATIO PEDITUM, arraying of foot soldiers. 1 Edw. II.

ARRAIERS, officers who had the care of the soldiers' armour, and whose business it was to see them duly accoutred. Commissioners are now appointed for the same purpose. Blount.

ARRAIGN [ad rationem ponere, to set in order], to call a prisoner to the bar of the Court to answer the matter charged upon him in the indictment. The arraignment of a prisoner consists of three parts, 1, calling him to the bar, and by holding up his hand or otherwise, making it appear that he is the party indicted. Holding up the hand is a mere ceremony and is frequently dispensed with, it only being necessary for the prisoner to admit that he is the person indicted. 2, Reading the indictment to him distinctly in English, that he may fully understand the charge. 3, Demanding whether he be guilty or not guilty, and entering his plea, and then demanding how he will be tried, the common answer to which is by God and the rountry. The pleas upon arraignment are either the general issue, i. e., not guilty, or a plea in abatement or in bar, or the prisoner may demur to the indictment, or he may confess the fact, upon which the Court proreeds immediately to judgment, 7 & 8 Geo. IV., c. 28, s. 1. But if the prisoner "shall stand mute of malice, or will not answer directly to the indictment or information, in every such case it shall be lawful for the Court, if it shall so think fit, to order the proper officer to enter a plea of 'not guilty' on behalf of such person, and the plea so entered shall have the same force and effect as if the person had so pleaded the same" (s. 2). 2 Hale's P. C. 151; 4 Bl. Com. 322; Hawk. P. C., c. 28, s. 1.

ARRAY, to rank or set forth a jury of men impanelled upon a cause. To challenge the array of the panel is at once to except against all persons arrayed or impanelled, in respect of partiality or some default in the sheriff. Co. Litt. 156. If the sheriff be of affinity to any of the parties, or if any one or more of the jurors are returned at the nomination of either party, or for any other partiality, the array shall be quashed. ARRAY, military commission of. Previous to the reign of Henry VIII., in order to protect the kingdom from domestic insurrections or the prospect of foreign invasions, it was

usual from time to time for our princes to issue commissions of array and send into every county officers in whom they could confide, to muster, array, or set in military onder the inhabitants of every district; its form was settled by 5 Hen. IV., so as to prevent the insertion therein of any new penal clauses. Rushworth, pt. 3, p. 662, 667. ARREARS, or ARREARAGES, money unpaid at the due time; as rent behind; the remainder due after payment of a part of an account; money in the hands of an accounting party. Cowel. ARRECTATUS, one suspected of a crime. Offic. Coronat.

ARRECTED, reckoned, considered. 1 Inst. 173 b. & n.

ARRENÁTUS, arraigned, accused. Rot. Parl. 21 Edw. I.

ARRENTATION [arrendar, Span.], licens. ing the owner of lands in a forest, to enclose them with a low hedge and small ditch, according to the assize of the forest, under a yearly rent. Saving the arrentations, is saving a power to give such licences. Ordin. Forestæ, 34 Edw. I., s. 5.

ARREST [arréter, Fr., to stop or stay], an execution of a command of some Court of Record or officer of justice by restraining the liberty of a man's person, obliging him to be obedient to the law. Arrests are either in civil or criminal cases: civil arrests must be effected, in order to be legal, by virtue of a precept or writ issued out of some Court, but every person has authority to arrest criminals without warrant or precept. Termes de la Ley, 52. The abuses of gaolers and sheriffs' officers towards prisoners are guarded against by 32 Geo. II., c. 28; the chief provisions of which are that an officer shall not carry a prisoner to any tavern, &c., without his consent, nor charge him for any liquor but such as he shall freely call for, nor demand for caption or attendance any other than his legal fee, nor exact any gratuity money, nor carry his prisoner to gaol within twenty-four hours after his arrest, unless the prisoner refuse to go to some safe house (except his own), of his own choosing. Nor shall any officer take for the diet, lodg ing, or expenses of a prisoner, more than shall be allowed by an order of Sessions. Bailiffs must show a copy of the act to prisoners, and permit perusal of it, and the prisoner may send for his own victuals, bedding, &c. The two great Statutes for securing the liberty of the subject against unlawful arrests and suits, are Magna Charta, and Habeas Corpus Act, 31 Car. II., c. 2, which is amended and enforced by 56 Geo. III., c. 100. As to those persons who are privileged from arrest, read chap. 1, of the 2d Part, Book 2, of Chitty's Archbold's Practice.

ARREST OF JUDGMENT, moved for by an unsuccessful defendant upon affidavit, that the judgment for the plaintiff be arrested or withheld, notwithstanding a verdict given, on the ground that there is some error

and hardened at the point with steel, on pain of forfeiture and imprisonment, and marked with maker's name. 7 Hen. IV., c. 7. ARRURA, a day's ploughing. Paroch. Antiq. p. 41.

TUR, a writ which lay for a person whose cattle or goods were taken by another, who, during a contest, is likely to make away with them, and not having the ability to render satisfaction. Reg. Orig. 126. ARRESTANDO IPSUM QUI PECUNIAM RECEPIT, a writ which issued for apprehending a person who had taken the King's prest money to serve in the wars, and then hid himself in order to avoid going. Ibid. 24. ARRESTMENT, a process of attachment prohibiting a person, in whose hands a debitor's moveables are, to pay or deliver up the same to such debitor, till a creditor, who has procured an arrestment to be laid on, be satisfied, either by caution, i. e., security or payment, according to the grounds of arrestment. Scotch Law.

ARRESTMENT JURISDICTIONIS FUNDANDE CAUSE, a process to bring a foreigner within the jurisdiction of the Courts of Scotland, for a foreigner owes no obedience to the decisions of these courts, and, therefore, unless his person or effects be within such jurisdiction, a judgment of such court would be ineffective. This warrant then attaches a foreigner's person or arrests his goods, and these will not be released except by finding caution or security that the foreigner shall appear at all diets of court. Ibid.

ARRESTO FACTO SUPER BONIS MERCATORUM ALIENIGENORUM, a writ against the goods of aliens found within this kingdom, in recompence of goods taken from a denizen in a foreign country, after denial of restitution. Reg. Orig. 129. The ancient civilians called it clarigatio, but by the moderns it is termed reprisalia. ARRETTED, charged, imputed, or laid unto. The convening a person charged with a crime before a judge. Starmdf. Pl. Co. 45. It is used sometimes for imputed or laid unto; as, no folly may be arreted to one under age. Cowel.

ARRHA [arrhe, Fr.], earnest, pledge, evidence of a completed bargain. Jacob. ARRIAGE, and CARRIAGE, indefinite services formerly demandable from tenants, abolished by 20 Geo. II., c. 50. ARRIERE FEE or FIEF, a fee dependant on a superior fee. These fees originated, when dukes and counts, rendering their governments hereditary, distributed to their officers parts of the domain, and permitted those officers to gratify the soldiers under them in the same manner. Encyc. Lond. ARRIERE-VASSAL, the vassal of a vassal.

ARSENALS, dockyards, magazines, and other public stores. The wilful firing or destroying them is punished by death. 12 Geo. III.,

c. 24.

The punishment of criminals, who had the benefit of clergy, which benefit was abolished by 7 & 8 Geo. IV., c. 28. Termes de Ley. Ars fit quod à teneris primum conjungitur annis. 3 Inst. Epil.—(That becomes an art which is first joined to tender years.)

ARSON [from ardeo, Lat., to burn], the maliciously and voluntarily burning a house of another. The law upon this subject is consolidated in the 7 & 8 Geo. IV., c. 30, the second section of which constitutes it a capital offence unlawfully and maliciously to set fire to any church or chapel, or to any chapel for the religious worship of dissenters duly registered, or to any house, stable, coach-house, out-house, warehouse, office, shop, malt-house, mill, hop-oast, barn, or granary, or to any building or erection used in carrying on any trade or manufacture, or any branch thereof, whether the same or any of them respectively shall then be in the possession of the offender, or in the possession of any other person, with intent thereby to injure or defraud any person. The 17th sect. renders it also a capital offence wilfully and maliciously to set fire to any stack of corn, grain, pulse, straw, hay, or wood. Setting fire to a dwelling-house is punished by death. Leach's Hawk. P. C., i. c. 39; 1 Hale's P. C. 569.

ARSUR IN LE MAIN [Law French], burning in the hand, the punishment of criminals that had the benefit of clergy. Termes de Ley.

ARSURA, the trial of money by fire, after it was coined. Blount.

ART and PART, said of a person who has committed a crime, and was a contriver of it and acted his part in it. Scotch Law. ARTHEL, or ARDHEL, to avouch, as if a man were taken with stolen goods in his possession, he was allowed a lawful arthel, i. e., vouchee, to clear him of the felony, but provision was made against it by 28 Hen. VIII.,

c. 6. Blount.

ARTICLE, a complaint exhibited in the Ecclesiastical Court by way of libel. 3 Bl. Com. 109.

ARTICLED CLERK, a pupil of an attorney or solicitor, who undertakes, by articles of clerkship, containing covenants mutually binding, to instruct him in the principles and practice of the Profession. As to the articles of service, their registration and enrolment, the mode of service, examination, admission, and fees, see "The Attorneys and Solicitors Act," 6 & 7 Vict., c. 73.

ARTICLES, LORDS OF, a committee of the

. and fix the value of taxes, rates, &c. Also persons associated with judges of some inferior courts to advise and direct the decisions of such judges.

ASSETS [assay, Fr., i. e., Satis, Lat.], property both real and personal in the hands of an heir, executor, or administrator, enough to satisfy the debts, liabilities, and legacies of the ancestor or testator. Assets are either legal, i. e., recoverable in a Common Law Court, as land, a bill of exchange, &c.; or equitable, recoverable only in equity, as an equity of redemption, debts due from trustees to cestui que trusts; equitable assets are administered for the payment of debts pari passu, but legal according to the following scheme: 1. Personal estate, not specifically excepted; 2. Real property expressly devised for the satisfaction of debts; 3. Lands descended; 4. Lands specifically charged with the liquidation of debts; and lastly, Estates beneficially devised. The 3 & 4 Wm. IV., c. 104, renders freehold and copyhold estates in all cases equitable assets for the payment of simple contract and specialty debts. Assets are also divided into assets per descent and assets inter maines; the first are, where a person is bound in an obligation and dies seized of lands which descend to his heir, the lands will be assets per descent, the heir is charged to satisfy the obligation so far as such lands will extend: the second are, when a person who is indebted dies leaving to his executors assets sufficient to pay his debts and legacies, they are called assets in their hands. Termes de Ley, 56, 77.

In commerce the terin is used to designate the stock in trade and the entire property of all sorts, belonging to a merchant, or to a trading association.

ASSEWIARE, to draw or drain water from marsh grounds. Cowel. ASSIDERE, or ASSIDARE, to tax equally. Sometimes used in the sense of assigning an annual rent to be paid out of a particular farm, &c. Mat. Par., anno 1232. ASSIGN, variously applied; generally, to set over a right to another, or appoint a deputy; specially, to set forth or point at, as to assign error, false judgment, &c. The judges are said to be assigned to take assizes. ASSIGNATION, anything simply ceded, yielded, and assigned to another. Scotch Law.

Assignatus utitur jure auctoris.-(That which is assigned is made use of in right of the author.) ASSIGNEE, or ASSIGN, a person appointed by another to do any act or perform any business; also a person, who takes some right, title, or interest in things by an assigninent from an assignor. They are divided into 1, assignees by deed, as when a lessee of a term sells or assigns it to another, he is an assignee by deed; and, 2, assignees by law, as when property devolves upon an executor, without any specific appointment, the executor is an assignee in law to the testator: assignees, however, are especially those persons

:

in whom the property of a bankrupt vests by virtue of their appointment. These are either official assignees, appointed by the commissioner, or creditors' assignees, appointed by the creditors who prove debts under the fiat to the value of 107. or upwards, at the first public sitting, and confirmed by the commissioners. As to their duties, rights, and liabilities, consult Flather's Arch. Bankruptcy, and Montagu and Ayrton's Bankruptcy, by Koe and Miller, tit. Assignees. ASSIGNMENT, a transferring or setting over to another the interest which a person possesses in any thing. 2 Bl. Com., 326. ASSIMULARE, to put highways together. Leg. Hen. I., c. 8.

ASSISA CADERE, to be nonsuited, as when there is such a plain and legal insufficiency in a suit, that the plaintiff cannot successfully proceed any further in it. Fleta, lib. 4, c. 15; Bracton, lib. 2, c. 7.

ASSISA CADIT IN JURATAM, to submit a controversy to trial by jury. Fleta, lib. 4, c. 15. ASSISA CONTINUANDA, an ancient writ addressed to the justices of assize for the continuation of a cause, when certain words alleged could not have been produced in time by the party having occasion for them. Reg. Orig. 217. ASSIŠA PANIS ET CEREVISA, the power or privilege of assizing or adjusting the weight and measure of bread and beer. 51 Hen. III. Cowel.

ASSISA PROROGANDA, an obsolete writ, which was directed to the judges assigned to take assizes, to stay proceedings, by reason of a party to them being employed in the King's business. Reg. Orig. 208. ASSISE [assidere, Lat., to sit together], a jury, who sit together for the purpose of trying a cause, or rather a court or jurisdiction, which summons a jury by a commission of assize to take the assizes. Hence the judicial assemblies held by the Queen's commission in every county as well to take indictments as to try causes at Nisi Prius, are commonly termed the assizes. There are two commissions, 1, general, which is issued twice a year to the judges of the Superior Courts of Common Law at Westminster; two of whom are assigned to every circuit. The English counties are divided into six circuits, viz:-the Northern, Midland, Oxford, Norfolk, Home, and Western circuits. Middlesex is excepted, for the Superior Courts being there situated, sittings, both in London and at Westminster, are held in and after every term for the trial of Nisi Prius causes; and for criminal trials, the Central Criminal Court, at Justice Hall, in the Old Bailey, hold 12 sessions in the year. The twelve counties of Wales are divided into two drcuits, viz.: the North and South circuits. The judges have four several commissions: 1, of oyer and terminer, directed to them and many other gentlemen of the county, by which they are empowered to try treasons felonies, &c. This is the largest commission