ABBROCHMENT, obsolete. The forestalling of a market or fair.
ABDICATION, government. 1. A simple renunciation of an office, generally understood of a supreme office. James II. of England; Charles V. of Germany; and Christiana, Queen of Sweden, are said to have abdicated. When James III of England left the kingdom, the Commons voted that he had abdicated the government, and that thereby the throne had become vacant. The House of Lords preferred the word deserted, but the Commons thought it not comprehensive enough, for then, the king might have the liberty of returning. 2. When inferior magistrates decline or surrender their offices, they are said to make a resignation. (q.v.)
ABDUCTION, crim. law. The carrying away of any person by force or fraud. This is a misdemeanor punishable by indictment. 1 East, P.C. 458; 1 Russell, 569. The civil remedies are recaption, (q.v.) 3 Inst. 134; Hal. Anal. 46; 3 Bl. Com 4; by writ of habeas corpus; and an action of trespass, Fitz. N. B. 89; 3 Bl. Com 139, n. 27; Roscoe, Cr. Ev. 193.
ABEARANCE. Behaviour; as, a recognizance to be of good abearance, signifies to be of good behaviour. 4 Bl. Com.,251, 256.
ABEREMURDER, obsolete. An apparent, plain, or downright murder. It was used to distinguish a wilful murder, from a chance-medley, or manslaughter. Spelman; Cowell; Blount.
TO ABET, crim. law. To encourage or set another on to commit a crime. This word is always taken in a bad sense. To abet another to commit a murder, is to command, procure, or counsel him to commit it. Old Nat. Brev 21; Col Litt. 475.
ABETTOR, crim. law. One who encourages or incites, persuades or sets another on to commit a crime . Such a person is either a principal or, an accessory to the crime. When present, aiding, where a felony is committed, he is guilty as principal in the second degree ; when absent, "he is merelyan accessory. 1. Russell, 21; 1 Leach 66; Foster 428.
ABEYANCE, estates, from the French aboyer, which in figurative sense means to expect, to look for, to desire. When there is no person in esse in whom the freehold is vested, it is said to be in abeyance, that is, in expectation, remembrance and contemplation.
- 2. The law requires, however, that the freehold should never, if possible, be in abeyance. Where there is a tenant of the freehold, the remainder or reversion in fee may exist for a time without any particular owner, in which case it is said to be in abeyance. 9 Serg. & R.. 367; 8 Plowd. 29 a. b 35 a.
- 3. Thus, if sn estate be limited to A for life, remainder to the right heirs of B, the fee simple is in abeyance during the life of B, because it is a maxim of law, that nemo est hoeres viventis. 2 Bl. Com. 107; 1 Cruise, 67-70; 1 Inst. 842, Merlin, Repertoire, mot Abeyance; 1 Com. Dig. 176; 1 Vin. Abr. 101.
- 4. Another example may be given in the case of a corporation. When a charter is given, and the charter grants franchises or property to a corporation which is to be brought into existence by some future acts of the corporators, such franchises or property are in abeyance until such acts shall be done, and when the corporation is thereby brought into life, the franchises instantaneously attach. 4 Wheat. 691. See, generally, 2 Mass. 500; 7 Mass. 445; 10 Mass. 93; 15 Mass. 464; 9 Cranch, 47. 293; 5 Mass. 555.
ABIDING BY PLEA. English law. A defendant who pleads a frivolous plea, or a plea merely for the purpose of delaying the suit; or who for the same purpose, shall file a similar demurrer, may be compelled by rule in term time, or by a Judge's order in vacation, either to abide by that plea, or by that demurrer, or to plead peremptorily on the morrow; or if near the end of the term, and in order to afford time for notice of trial, the motion may be made in court for rule to abide or plead instanter; that is, within twenty-four hours after rule served, Imp. B.R. 340, provided that the regular time for pleading be expired. If the defendant when ruled, do not abide, he can only plead the general issue; 1 T.R. 693; but he may add notice of set-off. Ib. 694, n. See 1 Chit. Rep. 565, n.
ABIGEAT, civ. law, A particular kind of larceny, which is committed not by taking and carrying away the property from one place to another, but by driving a living thing away with an intention of feloniously appropriating the same. Vide Taking.
ABIGEI, civil law. Stealers of cattle, who were punished with more severity than other thieves. Dig. 47, 14; 4 Bl. Com. 239.
ABJURATION- A renunciation of allegiance to a country by oath.
2. - 1. The act of Congress of the 14th of April, 1802, 2 Story's Laws, U.S. 850, requires that when an alien shall apply to be admitted a citizen of the United States, he shall declare on oath or affirmation before the court where the application shall be made, inter alia, that he doth absolutely and entirely renounce and abjure all allegiance and fidelity which he owes to any foreign prince, &c., and particularly, by name, the prince, &c., whereof he was before a citizen or subject. Rawle on the Const. 98.
3. - 2. In England t he oath of abjuration is an oath by which an Englishman binds himself not to acknowledge any right in the Pretender to the throne of England.
4. - 3 it signifies also, according to 25 Car. H., an oath abjuring to certain doctrines of the church of Rome.
5. - 4. In the ancient English law it was a renunciation of one's country and taking an oath of perpetual banishment. A man who had committed a felony, and for safety flee to a sanctuary might within forty days' confess the fact, and take the oath of abjuration and perpetual banishment; he was then transported. This was abolished by Stat. 1 Jac. 1, c. 25. Ayl. Parerg. 14.
ABLEGATI, diplomacy. Papal ambassadors of the second rank, who are sent with a less extensive commission to a court where there are no nuncios. This title is equivalent to envoy (q. v.).
ABNEPOS, civil law. The grandson of a grandson or grand-daughter, or fourth descendant. Abneptis, is the grand-daughter of a grandson or grand-daughter. These terms are used in making genealogical tables.
ABOLITION. An act by which a thing is extinguished, abrogated or annihilated. Merl. Repert, h. t., as, the abolition of slavery is the destruction of slavery.
2 . In the civil and French law abolition is used nearly synonymously with pardon, remission, grace. Dig. 39, 4, 3, 3. There is, however, this difference; grace is the generic term; pardon, according to those laws, is the clemency which the prince extends to a man who has participated in a crime, without being a principal or accomplice; remission is made in cases of involuntary homicides, and self-defence. Abolition is different: it is used when the crime cannot be remitted. The prince then may by letters of abolition remit the punishment, but the infamy remains, unless letters of abolition have been obtained before sentence. Encycl. de d'Alembert, h. t.
3. The term abolition is used in the German law in the same sense as in the French law. Encycl. Amer. h. t. The term abolition is derived from the civil law, in which it is sometimes used synonymously with absolution. Dig. 39, 4, 3, 3.
ABORTION, med jur. and criminal law. The expulsion of the foetus before the seventh mouth of utero-gestation, or before it is viable. q. v.
2. The causes of this accident are referable either to the mother, or to the foetus and its dependencies. The causes in the mother may be: extreme nervous susceptibility, great debility, plethora, faulty conformation, and the like; and it is frequently induced immediately by intense mental emotion. The causes seated in the foetus are its death, rupture of the membranes, &c.
3. It most frequently occurs between the 8th and 12th weeks of gestation. When abortion is produced with a malicious design, it becomes a misdemeanor, at common law, 1 Russell, 553; and the party causing it may be indicted and punished.
4. The crimjnal means resorted to for the purpose of destroying the foetus, may be divided into general and local. To the first belong venesection, emetics, cathartics diuretics, emmenagogues &c. The second embraces all kinds of violence directly applied.
5. When, in consequence of the means used to produce abortion, the death of the woman ensues, the crime is murder.
6. By statute a distinction is made between a woman quick with child, (q. v.) and one who, though pregnant, is not so, 1 Bl. Com. 129. Physiologists, perhaps with reason, think that the child is a living being from the moment of conception. 1 Beck. Med. Jur. 291. General References. 1 Beck, 288 to 331; and 429 to 435; where will be found an abstract of the laws of different countries, and some of the states punishing criminal abortion; Roscoe, Cr. Ev. 190; 1 Russ. 553; vilanova y Manes, Materia Criminal Forense, Obs. 11, c. 7 n. 15-18. See also 1 Briand, Med. Leg. 1 ere partie, c. 4, where the question is considered, how far abortion is justifiable, and is neither a crime nor a misdemeanor. See Alis. Cr. L. of Scot. 628.
ABORTUS. The fruit of an abortion; the child born before its time, incapable of life. See Abortion; Birth; Breath; Dead bord; Gestation; Life. ABOVE. Literally higher in place: But in law this word is sometimes used to designate the superior court, or one which may revise proceedings of an inferior court error, from such inferior jurisdiction. The court of error is called the court above; the court whose proceedings are to be examined is called the court below.
2. By bail above, is understood bail to the action entered with the prothonotary or clerk, which is an appearance. See Bail above. The bail given to the Sheriff, in civil cases, when the defendant is arrested on bailable process, is called bail below; (q.v.) vide Below.