HEIR-PRESUMPTIVE.

One who will succeed to the inheritance if be outlives the ancestor and no person is born before the ancestor's death who has a nearer claim.

HEREDITAMENT. Any thing capable of being inherited.

HIGHWAY. A street or road, or way by land or water, which all citizens have a right in common to use.

HOMESTEAD. In this country, that portion of land belonging to the same owner, which the law exempts from liability to debt

I.

ILLICIT. That which is forbidden by the law.

IMPEACHMENT. Criminal trial of high public officers by special procedure. IMPERTINENT. This word means, in law, matters introduced into any proceeding in a suit which are not properly before the court in that stage of the proceeding.

IMPOSTS. Duties or taxes laid upon imported goods or merchandise. INDEMNITY. Compensation for damage suffered, or that which is given or promised to a person to prevent his suffering damage.

INDENTURE. A written and sealed instrument between two or more persons, each of whom has a copy. It is distinguished from a deed-poll, which is made by one person only.

INDICTMENT. A written accusation, made by the government through the proper officer, and presented as true by a grand jury.

INDORSE, INDORSEMENT, and INDORSER (sometimes spelled endorsement). See chapter on BILLS AND NOTES.

INFANT. In law, is one under the age of twenty-one years. See chapter on INFANTS.

INFORMATION. A complaint or accusation against a person, charging him with some offence, presented to a court having jurisdiction by a proper officer. It differs from an indictment in that it does not require the intervention of a grand jury.

INFRINGEMENT. In patent law, means the act of violating the right secured by a patent or copyright.

INJUNCTION. A probibitory writ, issued by a judge or court having jurisdiction, forbidding the doing of some specified act.

INQUEST. A body of men authorized by law to inquire into certain matters. A grand jury is often called the Grand Inquest.

INSOLVENCY. In this country, means much the same as bankruptcy; inability to pay one's debts.

INSURANCE. By a contract of insurance, the insurers, for an agreed premium, promise to indemnify the insured against loss by marine perils, or by fire, or accident, or the death of a life-insured. INTERNATIONAL LAW. That system of rules which Christian and civilized States acknowledge to be binding upon them in their conduct towards each other, and to the subjects or citizens of each other. It is founded upon moral right, and not upon any controlling and sovereign an thority.

INFESTATE.

One who dies without a valid will.

INVENTION. In patent law, signifies, strictly, the finding out and making of something which is new, or which will accomplish a new use. INVOICE. In commercial law, signifies a paper which describes the merchandise sent by consignors to consignees, with marks or numbers designating each package

ISSUE. In the law of descent and distribution of property, includes all those who have descended from the common ancestor. In pleading, this word means a single and certain point material to the action affirmed by one party and denied by the other.

J.

JETTISON. Sometimes called jetsam. of the cargo to relieve the vessel. thrown over.

The throwing overboard of a part
Sometimes it means the things so

JOINTURE. An estate or interest in lands or tenements which will take effect when the husband dies, for the benefit of the wife, and during her life.

JUDGMENT. The final conclusion, or decision, or sentence of the law, pronounced by a competent court, as the final result of proceedings instituted therein.

JURISDICTION. The right and power of a court lawfully to hear and determine the cause before it, and enforce the execution of their judgment.

JUSTICE. As a title, is used in the United States as synonymous with judge.

L.

LACHES. Negligeno.

LANDLORD AND TENANT. See chapter on LEASES.

LAPSED LEGACY. A legacy lapses if the legatee dies before the testator, that is, it becomes void, unless the legacy is in words of inheritance, as to A B and his heirs, in which case it survives to the heirs. LAW-MERCHANT. The body of rules and usages in force in matters of

commerce.

LEASE. See chapter on LEASES.

LEGITIMATE CHILDREN. Those born in wedlock.

LEVY. This word means to raise, as to levy a tax; or to begin, as to levy war. In practice, it commonly means the obtaining the money for which an execution has been issued.

LIBEL. Published words or pictures injurious to another or society. LIEN. A hold which one person has upon the property of another by way of security for a debt or claim.

LIMITATIONS. See chapter on LIMITATIONS.

LIQUIDATE. To pay; to settle an account. Liquidated damages are damages agreed upon in anticipation of the breach for which they shall be paid.

M.

MALFEASANCE. The doing of some injurious act, which the party had no

right to do.

MALICIOUS PROSECUTION.

A civil or criminal suit, instituted maliciously

and without probable cause.

MANDAMUS. A writ issued by the highest court of general jurisdiction in a State, ordering some person, corporation, or inferior court to do the thing therein specified, which belongs to their office or duty.

MANIFEST. A written statement of a cargo of a commercial vessel. It is required by law in this country.

MANSLAUGHTER. The killing of another, which is unlawful, but without malice aforethought.

MANUMISSION. Making a slave free.

MARKET OVERT. An open or public market, legally constituted. It is nearly unknown in this country, or rather every store, shop, or place of sale is a market overt here.

MAYHEM. Depriving a person with force, and unlawfully, of a member, the loss of which makes him less able to fight with an adversary; as his eye, hand, finger, or foretooth. The common word maim is derived from this, but has a less limited meaning.

MAYOR. The chief executive magistrate of a city.

MESNE. Middle or intermediate. Mesne profits are those which a man draws from an estate from the time that he obtained possession to the time when he was evicted, by one having a better title.

MISDEMEANor. This word includes offences punishable by indictment, and inferior to felony; such as perjury, conspiracy, libel, and battery. MISFEASANCE. The doing in a wrongful and an injurious way an act which might lawfully be done in a proper manner.

MISREPRESENTATION. This word signifies, in law, a statement which a party to a contract makes concerning it, and which he knows to be untrue. MOIETY. The half of a thing.

MONITION. A process like a summons, used in this country in admiralty

courts.

MORTGAGE. See chapter on Mortgages.

MORTMAIN. Literally, a dead hand. In England, real property granted

or devised to a religious corporation could not pass out of its possession by death, because a corporation does not die; and statutes of mort main were passed, impeding such grants or sales.

MOVABLES. Personal chattels which a man can carry with him wherever he goes.

MULCT.

A fine imposed for some offence.

MUNICIPAL. Of or belonging to a city; but municipal law is the name given to the system of law of any one nation or State, as distinguished from international law.

MURDER. The wilful killing of any person with malice aforethought. In most of our States murder is defined as of various degrees, according to the circumstances which indicate the character of the malice. MUTINY. The unlawful resistance of a superior officer by sedition or revolt, in the army or navy, or on board of any vessel.

N.

NATURAL CHILDREN. Children born out of wedlock.

NATURALIZATION. Conferring citizens' rights on foreigners. NAVIGABLE. All navigable waters are subject to the use of the public, as navigable highways, the soil beneath them remaining the property of the riparian proprietors, or of the State. Navigable waters are in this country held to be all those capable of floating vessels, boats, logs, rafts, or any products of the country through which they flow. NISI PRIUS. A nisi prius term is that held by a court for the trial of cases by a jury.

NONAGE. Minority, or a less age than twenty-one years. See chapter on INFANTS.

NONSUIT. Usually means an abandonment of his cause by the plaintiff, whereupon a judgment is entered against him.

NOTARY PUBLIC. An officer, appointed variously under the laws of different States, whose acts are respected by the law-merchant and the law of nations, and hence have force out of their own State or country. NOVATION. The substitution of a new debt or obligation for a former one, which it extinguishes.

NUNCUPATIVE WILL. A will declared orally before witnesses, by a tea tator when dying, and afterwards reduced to writing.

0.

OBLIGATION. In law, is much the same thing as a bond. Obligor is he who enters into the obligation; obligee, he in whose favor it is con tracted.

ORDINANCE. A rule, or order, or law. Usually applied to the laws of a

city. ORDINARY.

The name given in some of our States to the officer elsewhere called a surrogate or judge of probate. OUTRAGE. A great wrong or injury to the person, property, rights, or honor of another.

PANDECTS.

P.

The name of a compilation of the civil law, made by the Emperor Justinian, A.D. 533. It is sometimes called the Digest. PANEL. Usually means, in law, the body of jurors who are impanelled to try a case; also the whole list returned by the sheriff.

PART OWNERS. In law, is usually applied to two or more persons, whe are not partners, but who own a vessel together.

PARTIAL LOSS. See AVErage.

PARTITION. The division of lands, tenements, or hereditaments, goods and chattels, between persons who own them as co-proprietors. It is usually applied to the division of estates among such persons. PARTNERSHIP. See chapter on PARTNERSHIP.

PASSPORT. A document by which the Secretary of State certifies that the bearer, who is described therein, is a citizen of the United States. PATENT, or LETTERS-PATENT. Is the grant by the government to some person of an exclusive right to make and sell some new and useful invention made by him. He to whom a patent is granted is called a

patentee.

PAYMENT. See chapter on PAYMENT. PENITENTIARY. A prison or place of confinement for convicted criminals. PER CAPITA. A Latin phrase, opposed to per stirpes. Descendants of a deceased take per capita when they are all counted as individuals, and they take per stirpes, or by right of representation, when a certain number of them take together what their deceased parent would have taken. PEREMPTORY CHALLENGE. A challenge of a juror, which means a refusal to permit him to sit on the trial, allowed to certain criminals without showing cause, up to a certain number of jurors.

PERILS OF THE SEA. A phrase used in bills of lading, and in policies of insurance, which includes all the dangers naturally incident to navigation. It has been held in this country to mean and include perils of the

river.

PERISHABLE GOODS. Goods which easily decay and lose their value by being kept. Mainly used in insurance law.

PERJURY. A wilfully false statement, by one who is lawfully required to depose the truth, and who is lawfully sworn, made in a judicial proceeding, and in relation to a matter that is material to the point in question.

PIRACY. Any forcible robbery or deprivation, on the high seas, done without lawful authority, and with wrongful purpose. A pirate is considered in law the enemy of the human race, and all men may attack him.

PLEA. In conversation, this word is often used as meaning an argument in court. In law, it means the special written answer, showing why an action is not maintainable.

PLEDGE, OF PAWN. A bailment or delivery of personal property as security for some debt or undertaking.

POLICE. Officers appointed to maintain public peace among persons are

called officers of the police; but the word is sometimes used as meaning the general care of a city or other place for the same purpose, or the rules and ordinances made therefor.

POLICY OF INSURANCE. The instrument whereby insurance is made against perils of the sea, or fire, or accident, or on life.

FOLL.

An old word siguifying head; thus a poll-tax is that imposed upon the people, at so much a head, equally.