Ban, in the old dialect, signifies a curse; and to abandon, if considered as compounded of French and Saxon, is exactly equivalent to diris devovere.

Ab antiquo, of an ancient date.

Abarnare [fr. abarian, Ang.-Sax., denudo, detego, Lat.], to lay bare, discover, detect. Hence abere theof, a detected or convicted thief; abere morth, a detected homicide. Also to detect and discover any secret crime to a magistrate. Ancient Laws and Institutes of England; Leg. Canuti, c. 104.

Ab assuetis non fit injuria. Jenk. Cent. Rep. (From things to which we are accustomed, no legal wrong results).

If a person neglect to insist on his right, he is deemed to have abandoned it. A Court 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.-Smith v. Clay, Ambl. 645; 3 Bro. C.C. 639. Compare the maxim 'Vigilantibus, non dormientibus jura subveniunt.'

Abatamentum, Abatement, an entry by interposition. 1 Inst. 277.

Abate [fr. abbattre, Fr.], to prostrate, break down, remove, or destroy; also, to let down or cheapen the price in buying or selling.Encyc. Lond. See ABATEMENT.

Abatement, a making less, used in seven

senses:

(1) Abatement of Freehold. This takes place where a person dies seised of an inheritance, and, before the heir or devisee enters, a stranger, having no right, makes a wrongful entry, and gets possession of it. Such an entry is technically called an abatement, and the stranger an abater. It is, in fact, a figurative expression, denoting that the rightful possession or freehold of the heir or devisee is overthrown by the unlawful 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 disseisin differs from them both, for to disseise, is to put forcibly or fraudulently a person seised of the freehold out of possession.--1 Inst. 277 a; 3 Bl. Com. 166. See OUSTER.

(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. Nuisances are either public or private. Public nuisances may be abated, that is, taken away or removed, by urban sanitary authorities and other public bodies under various public acts (see e.g., Public Health Act, 1875, s. 98),

and also by private individuals, where the abatement does not involve a breach of the peace. Private nuisances may also be abated by the individuals aggrieved. The law allows this, because injuries of this kind require an immediate remedy, and cannot wait for the slow progress of the ordinary forms of justice.

(3) Plea in abatement.-A defence by which a defendant showed cause to the Court why he should not be sued, or, if sued, not in the form adopted by the plantiff, and praying that the action might abate, i.e., cease.

A plea in abatement at Common Law (which by 4 Anne c. 16, s. 11, had to be substantiated by affidavit) was one which stated some fact which gave a reason for quashing or abating the original writ in a real, or the declaration in a personal, action, on account of an informality, or offered an exception to the personal competency of the parties suing or sued; e.g., that the plaintiff was an alien enemy, or that the defendant was a married woman. But now, by the Judicature Act, 1875, Ord. XIX., Rule 13, it is provided that no plea or defence shall be pleaded in abatement.' See STATEMENT OF DEFENCE.

In equity declinatory pleas to the jurisdiction and dilatory to the persons were (prior to the Judicature Act) sometimes, by analogy to common law, termed pleas in abatement.

In Criminal proceedings, a plea in abatement might have been given in writing by a prisoner or defendant on account of misnomer, wrongful or no addition, annexing thereto an affidavit of its truth. But this plea is now obsolete, since, by 7 Geo. IV. c. 64, s. 19, in case of misnomer the judge may amend the indictment or information, and call upon the prisoner or defendant to plead in bar to the merits; and by 14 & 15 Vict. c. 100, s. 1, no indictment or information is to be held insufficient for want of or imperfection in the addition of any defendant.

(4) Abatement of Debts and Legacies.-In Equity, when equitable assets are insufficient to satisfy fully all the creditors, their debts must abate in proportion, and they must be content with a dividend; for æquitas est quasi æqualitas.

So in the case of legacies, upon a deficiency of assets after payment of the debts they abate proportionably, unless a priority is specially given to any particular legacy. A testator is always presumed to intend that the legacies shall be equally paid, unless he express in his will a contrary intention. But a widow's legacy in lieu of dower has the priority, and very properly so, since she gives up a legal right for it.

When there are specific and pecuniary

legacies, and the assets are not sufficient to pay both, the specific have the preference, and only abate proportionately amongst themselves, unless one of them is payable out of a particular fund, and others out of other funds, for then each must bear the loss arising from any deficiency of the particular fund.

(5) Abatement of Litigation. By the Supreme Court of Judicature Act, 1875, Ord. L., it is provided that an action shall not become abated by reason of the marriage, death, or bankruptcy of any of the parties, if the cause of action survive or continue, and shall not become defective by the assignment, creation, or devolution of any estate or title pendente lite (r. 1). Further rules of the same order provide for making the husband, or other successor in interest, party to the action by order of the Court.

The order is modelled upon the former rules with regard to abatement of litigation at common law; see C. L. P. Act, 1852, ss. 135-142, 161—3, 164–7, 190–9.

As to the former rules in equity, see Daniell's Chanc. Prac., 5th ed., 1390 et seq.

Bankruptcy proceedings abate altogether where the bankrupt dies before adjudication. By the Bankruptcy Act, 1869, s. 80, when a debtor who has been adjudicated a bankrupt dies, the Court may order that the proceedings in the matter be continued as if he were alive. As to abatements of informations in the Exchequer, see 28 & 29 Vict. c. 104, s. 23.

(6) Abatement or rebate in commerce, an allowance or discount made for prompt payment. Lex. Merc. It is 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.

(7) A badge in coat-armour, indicating dishonour of some kind. It is called also rebatement.

Abator, or Abater, one who abates a nuisance or enters into a house or land vacant by the death of the former possessor, and not yet taken possession of by his heir or devisee.— Correl. Also an agent or cause by which an abatement is procured.

Abatuda, or Abatude, anything diminished. Moneta abatuda is money clipped or diminished in value.-Du Fresne's Glos. Used in old records..

Abavia, a great grandmother's mother. Abavus [fr. avusavus, avavus, Lat.], a great grandfather's father.

Abbacy [fr. 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, Abbedoma, Abbendonia, Abingdon in Berkshire, which took its present name soon after Cissa, King of the West Saxons, had founded the abbey there; also, as some say, called Sewsham and Cloveshoe. Abbas [fr. æstuarium, Lat.], Humber in Yorkshire.

Abbatis, an avener or steward of the stables, an ostler.—Spelm.

Abbe, the old Norman-French word for Abbot.-Vide Bro. Abr. ‘Abbe.'

Abbey, or Abby [fr. abbatia, Lat.], a place or house for religious retirement, governed by an abbess where nuns are, and by an abbot where monks reside. Formerly in England great privileges were granted to them, such as being exempted from the bishop's visitation, and as a sanctuary for persons escaping from the penalties of an infringed law, even although they were murderers. No less than 190 abbeys were dissolved by Henry VIII., the yearly revenue of which amounted to 2,853,000l. 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. Certain abbots and priors in England, in right of their monasteries, held lands of the crown, for which they owed military service, and on that account obtained the title of Lords, and were summoned as barons to parliament. For a like reason the bishops of the present day have the same honour, and are denominated spiritual peers.-1 Hall. Const. Hist. c. ii., p. 74; and see 27 Hen. VIII. c. 28, and other acts for the suppression of religious houses collected in the Supplement to the Revised Statutes, vol. 15.

An

Abbot, or Abbat [fr. abbas, Lat.; abbé Fr.; abbud, Sax.: others derive it from abba, Syr., father], a spiritual lord or governor, who had the rule of a religious house. abbot, with the monks of the same house, were called the convent, and made a corporation. Termes de la Ley. Henry VIII. dissolved the monasteries (see ABBEY). See Du Cange, and Carpenter's Supp.

Abbreviatio Placitorum, is an abstract of ancient pleadings prior to the year-books. See Stephen on Pleading, 7th ed., 410.

Abbreviate of Adjudication, an abstract of the decree of adjudication, and of the lands. adjudged, with the amount of the debt. Adjudication is that diligence (execution) of the law by which the real estate of a debtor is adjudged to belong to his creditor in payment of a debt; and the abbreviate must be recorded in the register of adjudications.-Scotch Law; see Belb's Dictionary.

Abbreviation, an abridging or contraction.

The 4 Geo. II. c. 26, which provides that all law proceedings should be in the English language, written legibly, prescribed also that they should be in words at length, and not abbreviated; but the 6 Geo. II. c. 14, permits numbers to be expressed in figures, and such abbreviations as are commonly used. Order XIX., Rule 3, prescribes that 'dates, sums, and numbers' shall, in pleading, 'be expressed in figures, and not in words.' In 9 Co. 48, is this maxim, Abbreviationum ille numerus et sensus accipiendus est, ut concessio non sit inanis. (In abbreviations, such number and sense is to be taken, that the grant be not made void.)

Abbreviators, officers who assisted in drawing up the Pope's briefs, and reducing petitions into proper form, for their conversion into Papal Bulls.

Abbreviature, a short draft.

Abbroach, to monopolize goods or forestall a market.

Abbroachment, or Abroachment [fr. ab., Lat., and broche, Fr., a spit], the forestalling of a market or fair.-M.S. Antiq. See FORE

STALLING.

Abbuttals, or Abuttals [fr. abutter, or aboutir, Fr., to limit or bound; or perhaps fr. to butt or strike.-Wedgw.], the buttings and boundings of land, 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 to, and the ends abutting on, the land contiguous. -Termes de la Ley. See Reg. Gen. H.T. 1853, r. 18; and also BOUNDARIES.

Abdicant, giving up, renouncing.

Abdicate [fr. abdico, Lat.], to renounce or refuse anything-Termes de la Ley—to disinherit in the civil law.

Abdication, where a magistrate or person in office voluntarily renounces or gives it up before the time of service has expired. It differs from resignation, in that resignation is made by one who has received his office from another and restores it into his hands; as an inferior into the hands of a superior: abdication is the relinquishment of an office which has devolved by act of law. 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 abdication at Fontainebleau.

Abditorium [fr. abditus, Lat.], an abditory or hiding-place to conceal and preserve goods, plate, or money, or a chest in which reliques are kept, as mentioned in the inventory of the church of York.-Dugdale's Monasticon Anglicanum, p. 173.

Abduction, the forcible or fraudulent taking away of women or children. This criminal offence is of three kinds-viz., (1) Kidnapping; (2) carrying away infant females under sixteen; and (3) stealing heiresses.-See these treated of under their respective heads, and 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, ss. 53, 54, 55. There may also be abduction of a ward or of a wife. See titles GUARDIAN and WIFE.

Abduction of Voters. By the Corrupt Practices Prevention Act, 1854, s. 5, this is made a misdemeanour, and punishable by fine and imprisonment.

Abearance, carriage or behaviour. A recognisance to be of good abearance means to be of good behaviour.-4 Bl. Com. 251, 256.

Aberemurder [fr. 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 Henry I. c. 13.-Spelm.

Aberfraw [aber-fraw, Welsh, efflux of the Fraw]. The princely seat of Venedotia (North Wales) was situated where the brook Fraw flows into the sea. Here was elected the Supreme Court of Law for the administration of justice in that part of the principality.— Ancient Laws and Institutes of Wales.

Abessed [fr. abassier, Fr.], humbled, depressed, abased.—Blount.

Abet [fr. abettare, from a (ad vel usque), and bedan or beteren, to stir up or excite, Sax.; or boutli, Fr., impello, excito, Lat.], to maintain or patronise; to encourage or set The act is called abetment.

on.

Abettor, or Abettator, 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 every one concerned is a principal. See ACCESSORY.

Abettors in indictable misdemeanours are punishable as principal offenders by 24 & 25 Vict. c. 94, s. 8, and abettors in offences punishable on summary conviction by the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1848, 11 & 12 Vict. c. 43, s. 5, and, as to particular offences so punishable, under the Larceny Act,' 24 & 25 Vict. c. 96, s. 99; and the 'Malicious Injuries to Property Act,' 24 & 25 Vict. c. 97, s. 63.

Abeyance, or Abbayance [fr. abayer, Fr., to expect, to look at anything with open mouth], in expectation, remembrance, and contemplation of law.-Cowel. The word abeyance has been compared to what the civilians call hereditas jacens; 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. Thus in the case of a parson, who has an estate for life only, the fee simple of his glebe is in abeyance; and when the parsonage is void, the freehold, until a successor be appointed, is in abeyance.-1 Steph. Bl., 7th ed., 236. Abeyance in gremio legis, or in nubibus, means in consideration of law.-Plowd. Rep. 547. The strict interpretation of this word as to freehold interest has puzzled eminent lawyers, but it is rather a matter of curiosity than practical importance.

Abgetoria, the alphabet.-Matt. Westm. The Irish call the alphabet abghitten.

Abigeat, the crime of stealing cattle by droves or herds. It was severely punished, the delinquent being often condemned to the mines, banishment, or death. Also a miscarriage produced by art.-Ash.

Abigeus [fr. abigo, Lat.], a stealer of cattle, the same as abactor.-Cowel; Civil Law.

Ab initio [Lat.] (from the beginning). A person who abuses an authority given him by law becomes a trespasser ab initio, i.e., is liable as a trespasser from the beginning. See the Six Carpenters' Case, 8 Rep. 146; 1 Smith's L.C. A party making an irregular distress for rent is not deemed a trespasser ab initio, by virtue of 11 Geo. II., c. 19, s. 19.

Ab intestato, from a person who died without having made a will.

Ab irato [Lat.] (by a man in anger).—

Civil Lawn.

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 of freedom, because, wherever this word is used in a grant, the persons to whom the grant is made have the forfeitures and amercements of all others, and are themselves free from the control of any within their fee.-Rastall's Abr.; Termes de la Ley, 7.

Abjuration [fr. abjuro, Lat.], a forswearing or renouncing by oath. In the old law it signified a sworn banishment, or an oath taken by a person who had claimed sanctuary, to forsake the realm for ever, now abolished by 21 Jac. I. c. 28. The oath of abjuration

(introduced by 13 Wm. III. c. 16, and altered by 6 Geo. III. c. 53) was to be taken by every person entering upon any public office or trust. By this he renounced the Pretender, and recognized 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.-Staundford's Pl. C. b. 2, c. 40. By the 21 & 22 Vict. c. 48, one form of oath was substituted for the oaths of allegiance, supremacy, and abjuration. For this form another was substituted by the act 30 & 31 Vict. c. 75, s. 5. This has in its turn been superseded by the Promissory Oaths Act, 31 & 32 Vict. c. 72, by which a new form of the oath of allegiance is provided. The numerous obsolete acts in relation to oaths are repealed by the Promissory Oaths Act, 1871, 34 & 35 Vict. c. 48. See QUAKERS and ROMAN CATHOLICS.

Abjure, to retract, to recant, or abnegate a position upon oath.

Abladium, cut corn.-Old Records. Ablato-Bulgio, Bulness, or Bolness, in Cumberland.

Ablegate [fr. ablego, Lat.], to send abroad a person on some public business or embassy. Ablegati, Papal ambassadors of the second rank, who are sent to a country where there is not a nuncio, with a less extensive commission than that of a nuncio.

Ablocation, a letting out to hire for money. Abnepos, the grandson of a grandson or granddaughter.

Abneptis, the granddaughter of a grandson or granddaughter

Abo, a carcase of an animal killed by a wolf or other beast of prey.-Ancient Laws and Inst. of Wales.

Abode, habitation or place of residence; stay or continuance. In law it is used in different senses, to denote the place of a man's residence or business, temporary or permanent. For some purposes, in law a man may be deemed to have an 'abode' where he has a place of business, even although he reside elsewhere, or where he has a temporary residence, although his permanent residence is elsewhere or even abroad. But abode' or residence is quite distinct from domicil, which means much more than even a place of permanent residence (see that word, post); whereas, it would seem that 'abode' does not even necessarily imply that. 'Abode' seems larger and looser in its import than the word 'residence,' which in strictness means the place where a man lives, i.e., where he sleeps or is at home.

Abolition [fr. abolir, Fr.: fr. abolco, Lat.], a destroying; also the leave given by the sove

reign or judges to a criminal accuser to desist from further prosecution. 25 Hen. VIII. c. 21.

Abone [Abonis, Lat.], Avington or Aventon, in Gloucestershire.

Aborigines [fr. ab, from, and origo, Lat.], a name given to the original or first inhabitants of any country, but more particularly used for the ancient inhabitants of Latium, who lived there when Æneas and the Trojans arrived in Italy. It is frequently employed in the sense of Autochthones, i.e., people coeval with the land which they inherit.Class. Dict.; Dion. Halicar.; Livy.

Abortion [fr. ab, which in composition signifies defect, according to Martinius, and orior, Lat., to arise], a miscarriage, or the premature expulsion of the contents of the womb, before the term of gestation is completed.

Our law does not recognize the distinction adopted by some medical commentators on the subject, who consider miscarriages during the first six months as abortions, and those during the last three as premature labours; but applies the term abortion to the throwing off of the foetus at any period of the pregnancy.-Beck. Med. Jur. 238.

To kill an infant in its mother's womb is not murder in legal contemplation; because to constitute this crime the individual slain must be a reasonable creature, in being, and under the queen's peace, at its perpetration. –Bract. 121; 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 31, s. 16.

By 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 58, the administration of drugs or unlawful use of instruments, by a pregnant woman to herself, or by any person to her, with intent to procure miscarriage, is made felony, punishable by penal servitude or imprisonment, in the discretion of the court.

It is no excuse that the woman consented to, or even solicited, the perpetration of the offence; for this would be to set the law at nought, inasmuch as the crime is seldom attempted but with the woman's approval.

Connected with this subject is this very serious question :-Is it, under any circumstances, morally and legally justifiable for a medical man to induce premature delivery? Seen Guy's For. Med. 117, and Taylor's Med. Jurisp., 2nd ed., ii., 179-205.

Abortion [fr. abortus, Lat.], the fruit of an abortion incapable of life.

Above-cited, or Mentioned quoted before. A figurative expression taken from the ancient manner of writing books on scrolls, where whatever is mentioned or cited before in the same roll must be above.-Encyc. Lond.

Abrevicum, Berwick-upon-Tweed.

Abridge [fr. abreger, Fr., abbreviare, Lat.], to make shorter in words retaining the sense and substance. Also the making a declaration or count shorter by subtracting or severing some of the substance therefrom, i.e., a man was said to abridge his plaint in assize, and a woman her demand in action of dower, where any land was put into the plaint or demand which was not in the tenure of the defendant; for if the defendant pleaded non-tenure, joint-tenancy, or the like, in abatement of the writ as to part of the lands, the plaintiff might leave out those lands, and pray that the tenant might answer to the rest.-Brooke, tit. Abridgment. Now obsolete in consequence of the abolition of real and mixed actions, by 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 27, s. 36, and 23 & 24 Vict. c. 126, s. 26.

Abridgment [fr. abreviamentum, Lat.], a large work contracted into a narrow compass; a summary, epitome, or compendium. As to how far this may be done without breach of copyright, see Butterworth v. Robinson, 5 Ves. 709.

Abridgment of Damages, the right of the Court to reduce the damages in certain cases. Vide Brooke, tit. Abridgment.

Abridgments, or Digests of the Law, of ancient authority. See 1 Steph. Com., 7th ed., 51. The principal of these are Brooke's, Fitzherbert's, Rolle's, and Comyn's Digest. Besides these there are Viner's and Bacon's Abridgments, and Harrison's, Chitty's, and Fisher's Digests, of later date.

Abrogate, to annul; to abrogate a law is to repeal it. Cowel. The maxim is Leges posteriores priores, contrarias abrogant. 11 Co. 626. (Subsequent laws repeal prior contrary laws.)

Abrogation, the annulment of a law by constitutional authority. It stands opposed to rogation; and 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 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.

Absconding Debtors' Arrest Act, 1851, 14 & 15 Vict. c. 52. By this act, upon proof by affidavit of the debt, and that the debtor was about to leave England, any commissioner of the Court of Bankruptcy acting for any district in the county, or the judge of any county court (except in Middlesex and Surrey), might issue a writ for the arrest