earl, and to persons honourable by office, as the Lord Chief Justice, &c. and sometimes to a private person, that hath the fee of a manor, and consequently the homage of the tenants within his manor; for by his tenants he is called Lord. In this last signification it is most used in our law-books; where it is divided into lord paramount, and lord mesne; and very lord, &c. Old. Nat. Br. 79. See titles Mean, Nobility, Parliament, Peers. LORD HIGH ADMIRAL. See Admiral. LORD HIGH STEWARD. A peer specially appointed by the crown to preside at the trial of any peer, or peeress, in the House of Lords, either upon an impeachment, or on an indictment found by a grand jury. His judicial authority appears to have grown out of that which appertained to the Chief Justiciar at the period when that office was abolished: and thus in effect wherever he presides for the trial of peers, the power and jurisdiction of the curia regis is revived. Of the trials of peers which have occurred before the lord high steward upon indictment, found by a grand jury, very few of those antecedent to the revolution of 1688 took place during a session of parliament. Subsequent to the revolution every trial of a peer or peeress which has occurred has taken place during some session of parliament. Foster and Blackstone represent that there are two separate tribunals for the trials of peers, differing both in their constitution and in their jurisdiction, to which they give the distinguishing appellations of the court of parliament, and the court of the high steward. Fost. 141. 4 Comm. 261. In several cases, both in Hargrave's and Howell's Collection of State Trials, there is an error in the statement of the court. It is settled that the office of lord high steward is not essential to the proceeding on impeachments; and on the impeachment of Lord Danby, and the popish lords, the Lords directed that the commission of the high officer, who was then appointed in consequence of an address to the crown, should be altered, by the omission of such expressions as intimated the necessity of his appointment; and the Lords have in several subsequent instances performed various judicial acts previous to his appointment. And in the case of Lord Ferrers, convicted of murder, it was decided by the judges that if the day appointed in the judgment for the execution of a peer convicted on an indictment should elapse before execution done, a new time of execution might be appointed, although no high steward were existing. On trials, as well by indictment as impeachment, the House directs all parties appearing to address the Lords in general, and not the lord high steward in particular. On indictments it is usual for the Lords to address the King for the appointment of a high steward in the same manner as where the proceeding is by impeachment. See Amos's Dissertation on the Court of the Lord High Steward, annexed to the second volume of Phillips's State Trials, for much curious information on the subject. And see title Peers of the Realm, IV. LORD IN GROSS, F. N. B. fol. 3. Is he that is lord, having no manor, as the King in respect of his crown. Ibid. fol. 5. And there is a case wherein a private man is lord in gross, viz. a man makes a gift in tail of all the lands he hath, to hold of him, and dieth; his heir hath but a seigniory in gross. F. N. B. 8. LORD OF A MANOR. See Copyhold. LORD AND VASSAL. In the time of the feodal tenures, the grantor of land was called the proprietor, or lord; being the person who retained the dominion or ultimate property of the feud or fee: and the grantee, who had only the use or possession, according to the term of the grant, was styled the feudatory or vassal, which was only another name for the tenant or holder of the lands; though, on account of the prejudices we have justly conceived against the doctrines which were afterwards grafted on this system, we now use the word vassal opprobriously as synonymous to slave or bondman. 2 Comm. 53. See title Tenures. LORDS OF ERECTION. On the Reformation in Scotland, the King, as proprietor of benefices formerly held by abbots and priors, gave them out in temporal lordships to favourites, who were termed Lords of Erection. Scotch Dict. LORDS LIEUTENANTS OF COUNTIES. See titles County, Militia, Soldiers. LORDS MARCHERS. See Wales. LORDS OF PARLIAMENT. See Parliament, Peer. LORDS OF REGALITY. Persons to whom rights of regality, or rights of civil and criminal jurisdiction, were given by the crown. Scotch Dict. LORIMERS [Fr. Lormiers, from Lat. lorum.] One of the companies of London, that make bits for bridles, spurs, and such like small iron ware, mentioned in st. 1 Rich. 2. c. 12. LOSINGA. A flatterer, or sycophant. Brompt. Chron. p. 991. LOT. A contribution or duty. See Scot. LOT, or LOTH. The thirteenth dish of lead in the mines of Derbyshire, which belongs to the King. Escheat. anno 16 Edw. 1. See Copy. LOTHERWITE, or LEYERWIT. A liberty or privilege to make amends of him that defileth a bond-woman without licence. Rastall's Exposition of Words; so that it is an amends for lying with a bond-woman. Cowell. See Leirwite. LOTTERIES. The 4 Geo. 4. c. 60. was the last act authorizing a public lottery, since which time they have been discontinued. These state lotteries were publicly drawn, by commissioners appointed, according to schemes, which varied almost every year. It was long a disputed point among politicians whether the benefits of a lottery arising from a large sum voluntarily subscribed to the exigencies of the government, were not more than counterbalanced by the evils through this means introduced, by private lotteries, and by the more pernicious mode of gambling by insurance of numbers. Repeated attempts were made to repress this fatal mischief, and the measure of treating the persons taking money for insurance as rogues and vagabonds, seems to have been attended with the most suc cess. The following is a short summary of the acts in force on this subject. See titles Advertisements, Gaming. Statutes 10 & 11 W. 3. c. 17. declares ALL lotteries public nuisances; and all patents for lotteries void, and against law; (the state lotteries were all managed under annual acts of parliament passed for each;) imposes a penalty of 500l. on every proprietor of a private lottery, and 201. on each adventurer. And see stat. 42 Geo. 3. c. 119. 9 Ann. c. 6. commands justices of peace to assist in suppressing private lotteries. 10 Ann. c. 26. imposes the like penalty of 500l. on persons keeping offices for illegal insurances on marriages, &c. under various pretexts. 5 Geo. 1. c. 9. puts the sale of Chances on the footing of private lotteries, and imposes a penalty of 100l. (above all other penalties,) recoverable by the persons possessed of the ticket, the chance of which was sold; and the offender may also be committed to the county gaol for a year. 8 Geo. 1. c. 2. imposes a penalty of 500l. on persons keeping offices for the disposal of houses, lands, advowsons, &c. by lottery; and adventurers to forfeit double the sum contributed. This statute and those of 10 & 11 W. 3. and 9 Ann. above mentioned, are explained and rendered more effectual by 12 Geo. 2. c. 28. which imposes 107. penalty on justices neglecting their duty under those acts; and prohibits the games of ace of hearts, pharaoh, basset, and hazard, as lotteries, and imposes 50l. penalty on the players and see 13 Geo. 2. c. 12. as to the game of passage, and other games with dice. 9 Geo. 1. c. 19. and 6 Geo. 2. c. 35. impose a penalty of 2001. and a year's imprisonment on persons selling tickets in or publishing schemes of any foreign lottery. Ireland is excepted under 22 Geo. 3. c. 47. and 29 Geo. 2. c. 7. provided that offences against the English acts against private lotteries, though committed in Ireland, shall be liable to all the penalties imposed, as if they were committed in England. The statutes 22 Geo. 3. c. 47., 27 Geo. 3. c. 1., and many subsequent acts, as to lottery-office keepers and the sale of tickets, are rendered invalid by the discontinuance of public state lotteries. As to the taking in payment of outstanding lottery tickets since the discontinuance of lotteries, see 2 Will. 4. c. 2. An act of the 1 & 2 W. 4., for the improvement of Glasgow, was inadvertently passed by the legislature, which authorized money to be raised by way of lottery. All future lotteries under that statute have, however, been prohibited by the 4 & 5 W. 4. c. 37. See further tit. Gaming. LOVE. Provoking unlawful love was one species of the crime of witchcraft, punishable by 1 Jac. 1. c. 12. now repealed. LOURCURDUS. A ram or bell-wether. Cowell. LOWBELLERS. Such persons as go out in the nighttime with a light and a bell, by the sight and noise whereof birds sitting upon the ground become stupified, and so are covered and taken with a net; the word is derived from the Saxon low, which signifies a flame of fire. Antiq. Warwick, p. 4. LOWBOTE. A recompence for the death of a man killed in a tumult, or, as we say, by the mob. Cowell. LUCRATIVE SUCCESSION of an heir to his ancestor; that succession which the heir receives by law without paying any value; and which renders him liable to the debts of his ancestor. Scotch Dict. See titles Descent, Heir, Limitation. LUDI DE REGE ET REGINA. Playing at cards, so called, because there are kings and queens in the pack. Cowell. LUMINARE. A lamp or candle, set burning on the altar of any church or chapel; for the maintenance whereof lands and rent-charges were frequently given to parish churches, &c. Kennet's Gloss. LUNATICS. See title Idiots and Lunatics. LUNDA. A weight or measure formerly used here.Lunda anguillarum constat de 10 sticis. Fleta, lib. 2. cap. 12. LUNDRESS. A sterling silver penny, which has its name from being coined only at London, and not at the country nints. Lownd's Essay on Coin, p. 17. LUPANATRIX. A bawd or strumpet; and by the custom of London a constable may enter a house, and arrest a common strumpet and carry her to prison. 3 Inst. 206, &c. Claus. 4 Ed. 1. p. 1. m. 16. LUPINUM CAPUT GERERE. Signified to be outlawed and have one's head exposed like a wolf's, with a reward to him that should bring it in. Plac. Coron. 4 John. Rot. 2. See Outlawry. LUPLICETUM [Lat.] A hop-garden, or place where hops grow. 1 Inst. 4. LURGULARY. The casting any corrupt or poisonous thing in the water was styled lowrgulary, and felony. Stat. pro Sartis London, anno 1573. LUSHBURGHS or LUXENBURGHS. A base sort of foreign coin, made of the likeness of English money, and brought into England in the reign of King Edward III. to deceive the king and his people; on account of which it was made treason for any one wittingly to bring any such money into the realm, knowing it to be false. 25 Edw. 3. st. 5. c. 2; 3 Inst. 1. LUSTRINGS. A company was incorporated for making, dressing, and lustrating alamodes and lustrings in England, who were to have the sole benefit thereof confirmed by the following statute; by which no foreign silks known by the name of lustrings or alamodes are to be imported, but at the port of London, &c. 9 & 10 W. 3. c. 43. See titles Navigation Acts, Silk. LUXURY. There were formerly various laws to restrain excess in apparel, all repealed by 1 Jac. 1. c. 25. But as to excess in diet there still remains one ancient statute unrepealed, viz. 10 Edw. 3. st. 3. which ordains that no man shall be served at dinner, or supper, with more than two courses, except upon some great holidays there specified, in which he may be served with three. 4 Comm. 170, 171. LYEF-YELD (i. e. GELD,) LEF-SILVER. A small fine or pecuniary composition, paid by the customary tenant to the lord, for leave to plow or sow, &c. Somn. of Gavelkind. LYING-IN HOSPITALS. See Hospitals. LYNDEWODE. Was a doctor both of the civil and canon laws, and dean of the arches. He was ambassador for Hen. V. into Portugal, anno 1422, as appeareth by the preface to his Commentary upon the provincials. Cowell, LYNN, An act for regulating worsted weavers and their apprentices in the town of Lynn, &c. See 14 & 15 H, 8. c. 3. LYON, KING OF ARMS. This officer takes his title from the armorial bearing of the Scotch King, the lion rampant. By Scotch acts 1592, c. 127, 1672, c. 21. he is em powered to inspect the arms, &c. of noblemen and gentlemen, and to grant arms, &c. Scotch Dict. See title Herald. M Was the letter with which persons convicted of manslaughter were formerly marked on the brawn of the left thumb. This punishment has recently been abrogated. MACE-GRIEFE, or MACE-GREFES [Machecari,] such as willingly buy and sell stolen flesh, knowing the same to be stolen. Britton, c. 29; Crompton's Justice of Peace, fol. 193. Vide Leges Innæ, c. 20. MACE-CARIA, MACHEKUNA [Macella.] The fleshmarket or shambles. Cowell. MACER. Mace-bearer; an officer attending the Court of Session. MACHECARIUS. A butcher. Cowell. Leg. Ed. Reg. c. 39. Stat. Wall. 12 E. 1. MACHECOLLARE or MACHECOULARE, from the Fr. [Maschecoulis.] To make a warlike device, especially over the gate of a castle, resembling a gate, through which scalding water or offensive things may be thrown on pioneers or assailants. 1 Inst. 5 a. MACHINERY. By the 2 & 3 W. 4. c. 72. the remedy against the hundred given by the 7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. 31. in the cases therein mentioned, was extended to threshing machines damaged or destroyed by riotous or tumultuous assemblies. See tit. Hundred. By the last act for the general regulation of the customs (3 & 4 W. 4. c. 52. § 104.) any machines, utensils, blocks, tools, &c. used in the calico, woollen, cotton, linen, or silk manufactures of this kingdom, are, together with a variety of other kinds of machinery and tools, prohibited to be exported, under the penalty of forfeiture. For the wilful destruction of machinery, see titles Frames, MACIO, a mason. MACKAREL, may be sold on Sunday, 10 & 11 W. 3. c. 24. § 29. MADDER, to be imported unmixed. 13 & 14 Car. 2. c. 30; repealed 15 Car. 2. c. 16. § 3. Tithes of madder settled, 31 Geo. 2. c. 12; 5 Geo. 3. c. 18. See title Tithes. See further titles Gardens, Malicious Injuries. MADNING MONEY. Old Roman coins, sometimes found about Dunstable, are so called by the country people; they seem to retain this name from Magintum, used by the Emperor Antoninus, in his Itinerary, for Dunstable. Camden. MADRIGALS. An old word, signifying country songs. Cowell. MAEREMIUM [Meresne, from Fr.] Properly signifies any sort of timber, fit for building; seu quodvis materiamen. Carta de Foresta; stat. Claus. 16 Ed. 2. m. 3. MAGAZINES. See Gunpowder, Malicious Injuries. MAGBOTE or MÆGBOTE, from the Sax. [Mag. i. e. Cognatus et bote, compensatio.] A compensation for the slaying or murder of one's kinsman, in ancient times, when corporal punishments for murder, &c. were sometimes commuted into pecuniary fines, if the friends and relations of the party killed were so satisfied. Leg. Canuti, c. 2. MAGIC [Magia, Necromantia.] Witchcraft and sorcery. See Conjuration. MAGISTER. This title, often found in old writings, signified that the person to whom attributed had attained some degree of eminency in scientiá aliquá, præsertim literariâ; and formerly those who are now called doctors were termed magistri. MAGISTRATE [magistratus.] A ruler; and he is said to be custos utriusque tabule; the keeper or preserver of both tables of the law. If any magistrate, or minister of justice, is slain in the execution of his office, or keeping of the peace, it is murder for the contempt and disobedience to the King and his laws. 9 Co. The most universal public relation by which men are connected together is that of government; namely, as governors and governed; or, in other words, as magistrates and people. Of magistrates some also are supreme, in whom the sovereign power of the state resides; others are subordinate, deriving all their authority from the supreme magistrate, accountable to him for their conduct, and acting in an inferior secondary sphere. In all tyrannical governments the supreme magistracy, or the right of both making and enforcing laws, is vested in one and the same man, or one and the same body of men and wherever these two powers are united together, there can be no public liberty. The magistrate (or magistracy) may enact tyrannical laws, and execute them in a tyrannical manner: since he is possessed, in quality of dispenser of justice, with all the power which as legislator he thinks proper to give himself. But when the legislative and executive authority are in distinct hands, the former will take care not to entrust the latter with so large a power as may tend to the subversion of its own independence, and therewith of the liberty of the subject. In England, therefore, this supreme power is divided into two branches; the one legislative, to wit, the parliament, consisting of King, Lords, and Commons; the other executive, consisting of the King alone. His Majesty's great officers of state, the lord treasurer, lord chamberlain, and principal secretaries, or the like, are not, in the capacity of subordinate magistrates, in any considerable degree the object of our laws; nor have they any very important share of magistracy conferred upon them; except that the secretaries of state are allowed the power of commitment in order to bring offenders to trial. 1 Leon. 70; 2 Leon. 175; Comb. 143; 5 Mod. 84; Salk. 347; Carth. 291. See titles Arrest, Commitment. As to the office and authority of the lord chancellor and the other judges of the superior courts of justice, see under those titles. The rights and dignities of mayors and aldermen, or other magistrates of particular corporations, are more private and strictly municipal rights, depending entirely upon the domestic constitution of their respective franchises. The magistrates and officers whose rights and duties are most generally in use, and have a jurisdiction and authority dispersedly throughout the kingdom, are principally these: sheriffs, coroners, justices of the peace, constables, surveyors of the highways, and overseers of the poor. The negligence of public officers entrusted with the administration of justice makes the offender liable to be fined, and in very notorious cases will amount to a forfeiture of the office, if it be a beneficial one. 4 Comm. 140. See further titles Constable, Justices, King, Office, Parliament, &c. MAGNA ASSISA ELIGENDA. A writ directed to the sheriff, to summon four lawful knights before the justices of assize, there upon their oaths to choose twelve knights of the vicinage, &c. to pass upon the great assize, between A. B. plaintiff, and C. D. defendant, &c. Reg. Orig. 8. See titles Assise, Jury. MAGNA CARTA. | That the church of England shall be free, and all ecclesiastical persons enjoy their rights and privileges. The 2d is of nobility, knights-service, reliefs, &c. The 3d concerns heirs, and their being in ward. The 4th directs guardians for heirs within age, who are not to commit waste. The 5th relates to the custody of lands, &c. of heirs, and delivery of them up when the heirs are of age. The 6th is concerning the marriage of heirs. The 7th appoints dower to women, after the death of their husbands, a third part of the lands, &c. The 8th relates to sheriffs and their bailiffs, and requires that they shall not seize lands for debts where there are The GREAT CHARTER OF LIBERTIES granted in the ninth year of King Henry III.-It is so called, either for the excel-goods, &c., the surety not to be distrained where the prinlency of the laws therein contained, or because there was another charter called the Charter of the Forest, established with it, which was the less of the two; or in regard of the great troubles in obtaining it, and the remarkable solemnity in denouncing excommunication and anathemas against the breakers thereof. Spelman calls it Augustissimum Anglicarum Libertatum Diploma, & Sacra Anchora. Edward the Confessor granted to the church and state several privileges and liberties by charter; and some were granted by the charter of King Hen. I. Afterwards Stephen and Hen. II. confirmed the charter of Henry I., and Rich. I. took an oath at his coronation to observe all just laws, which was an implicit confirmation of former charters. King John took the like oath. This king, likewise, after a difference between him and the pope, and being imbroiled in wars at home and abroad, granted the charter first specifically known by the name of Magna Carta de Libertatibus; bearing date at Runnimede, between Windsor and Staines, on 15th June, in the 17th year of his reign, being A. D. 1215; but soon after broke it, and thereupon the barons took up arms against him, and his reign ended in wars. To him succeeded Hen. III. who in the ninth year of his reign granted the Magna Carta now given in our statute books. This he confirmed by a charter granted in the 21st year of his reign. In the 37th year of his reign, after several breaches, and repeated confirmations of this charter, King Henry III. came to Westminster Hall, where, in the presence of the nobility and bishops, with lighted candles in their hands, Magna Carta was read; the king all that while laying his hand on his breast, and at last solemnly swearing faithfully and inviolably to preserve all things therein contained, as he was a man, a christian, a soldier, and a king. Then the bishops extinguished the candles, and threw them on the ground; and every one said, "Thus let him be extinguished and stink in hell, who violates this charter." Upon which the bells were set on ringing, and all persons by their rejoicing approved of what was done. cipal is sufficient. The 9th grants to London, and all cities and towns, their ancient liberties. The 10th orders, that no distress shall be taken for more rent than is due, &c. By the 11th the court of Common Pleas is to be held in a certain place. The 12th gives assizes for remedy, on disseisin of lands, &c. The 13th relates to assizes of darrein present. ment, brought by ecclesiastics. The 14th enacts, that no freeman shall be amerced for a fault, but in proportion to the offence; and by the oaths of lawful men." The 15th, no town shall be distrained to make bridges, &c. but such as of ancient times have been accustomed. The 16th is for repairing of sea-banks and sewers. The 17th prohibits sheriffs, coroners, &c. from holding pleas of the crown. The 18th enacts, that the king's debtor dying, the king shall be the first paid his debt, &c. The 19th directs the manner of levying purveyance for the king's house. The 20th concerns castleward, where a knight was to be distreined for money for keeping his cattle, on his neglect. The 21st forbids sheriffs, bailiffs, &c. to take the horses or carts of any person to make carriage without paying for it. By the 22d the king is to have lands of felons a year and a day, and afterwards the lord of a fee. The 23d requires weirs to be put down on rivers. The 24th directs the writ præcipe in capite for lords against tenants offering wrong, &c. The 25th declares that there shall be but one measure throughout the land. The 26th, inquisition of life and member, to be granted freely. The 27th relates to knight's service, petit-serjeantry, and other ancient tenures; (taken away, together with wardship, &c. by stat. 12 Car. 2. c. 24. See title Tenures.) The 28th directs, that no man shall be put to his law on the bare suggestion of another, but by lawful witnesses. The 29th, no freeman shall be disseised of his freehold, imprisoned and condemned, but by judgment of his peers, or by the law of the land. The 30th requires that merchant strangers be civilly treated, &c. The 31st relates to tenures coming to the king by escheat. By the 32d no freeman shall sell land, but so that the residue may answer the services. The 33d, patrons of abbeys, &c. shall have the custody of them in the time of vacation. The 34th, a woman to have an appeal for the death of her husband. The 35th directs the keeping of the county-court monthly, and also the times of holding the sheriff's tourn, and view of frankpledge. The 26th makes it unlawful to give lands to religious house in mortmain. The 37th relates to escuage and subsidy, to be taken as usual. And the 38th ratifies and confirms every article of this great charter of liberties. The following is Blackstone's summary of this celebrated charter, and its occasion and effect. But notwithstanding this very solemn confirmation of this charter, the very next year King Henry invaded the rights of his people, till the barons levied war against him; and after various success, he confirmed this charter, and the Charter of the Forest, in the parliament of Marlbridge, and in the 52d year of his reign. The Charter of the Forest had been first granted in the 2d year, and more fully in the 9th year of King Henry III. His son, Edward I. confirmed both these charters in the 25th year of his reign, made an explanation of the liberties therein granted to the people, and added some which are new, called Articuli super Cartas. See the statute book in the 25th and 29th of Edward I. and the In King John's time, and that of his son Henry III. the collection of charters prefixed to the first volume of the rigours of the feodal tenures and the forest laws were so Statutes of the Realm, published under the authority of his warmly kept up, that they occasioned many insurrections of Majesty's commissioners of the records. Magna Carta was the barons or principal feudatories; which at last had this confirmed more than thirty times afterwards. Co. Lit. 81. effect, that at first King John, and afterwards his son, conThis excellent charter, or body of law, at that time so be-sented to the two famous charters of English liberties, Magna neficial to the subject, and of such great equity, is the most Carta and Carta de Forestá. Of these the latter was well ancient written law of the land. It is divided into thirty- calculated to redress many grievances and encroachments eight chapters; the 1st of which, after the solemn preamble of the crown in the exertion of forest law; and the former of its being made for the honour of God, the exaltation of the confirmed many liberties of the church, and redressed many Holy Church, and amendment of the kingdom, &c. ordains, grievances incident to feodal tenures, of no small moment at the time; though now, unless considered attentively, and with this retrospect, they seem but of trifling concern. But besides these feodal provisions, care was also taken by Magna Carta to protect the subject against other oppressions, then frequently arising from unreasonable amercements, from illegal distresses, or other process for debts or services due to the crown, and from the tyrannical abuse of the prerogative of purveyance and pre-emption. It fixed the forfeiture of lands for felony, prohibited for the future the grants of exclusive fisheries, and the erection of new bridges so as to oppress the neighbourhood. With respect to private rights, it established the testamentary power of the subject over part of his personal estate, the rest being distributed among his wife and children. It laid down the law of dower, and prohibited the appeals of women, unless for the death of their husbands. In matters of public police and national concern, it enjoined an uniformity of weights and measures; gave new encouragement to commerce, by the protection of merchant strangers, and forbade the alienation of lands in mortmain. With regard to the administration of justice, besides prohibiting all denials or delays of it, it fixed the Court of Common Pleas at Westminster, that the suitors might no longer be harassed with following the king's person in all his progresses; and at the same time brought the trial of issues home to the very doors of the freeholders, by directing assizes to be taken in the proper counties, and establishing annual circuits. It also corrected some abuses incidental to the trial by wager of law and of battle; directing the regular awarding of inquests, for life or member; prohibiting the king's inferior ministers from holding pleas of the crown, or trial of any criminal charge, whereby many forfeitures might otherwise have unjustly accrued to the exchequer ; and regulated the time and place of holding the inferior tribunals of justice, the county court, sheriff's tourn and court-leet. It confirmed and established the liberties of the city of London, and all other cities, boroughs, towns, and ports of the kingdom. And lastly, (by which alone it would have merited the title that it bears, of the great charter,) it protected every individual of the nation in the free enjoyment of his life, his liberty, and his property, unless declared to be forfeited by the judgment of his peers, or the law of the land. 4 Comm. c. 33. p. 423, 4. The following are the words of the often quoted 29th chapter of Magna Carta, 9 Hen. III. relating to the personal liberty of Englishmen. "Nullus liber homo capiatur, vel imprisonetur, aut disseisiatur de libero tenemento suo vel libertatibus vel liberis consuetudinibus suis, aut utlagetur, aut exulit, aut aliquo modo destruatur, nec super eum ibimus, nec super eum mittemus, nisi per legale judicium parium suorum vel per legem terræ.-Nulli vendemus, nulli negabimus, aut differemus rectum vel justitiam." See further, title Liberty. MAGNA PRECARIA. A great or general reap-day. And in 21 R. 2. the lord of the manor of Harrow on the Hill, in com. Middlesex, had a custom that by summons of his bailiff on a general reap-day, then called Magna precaria, the tenant should do a certain number of days' work for him; every tenant that had a chimney being obliged to send a man. Phil. Purvey. p. 145. MAGNA CENTUM. The great hundred, or six score. MAGNUS PORTUS. The town and port of Portsmouth. MAHOMERIA. The temple of Mahomet; and because Rape. See title Abduction, Guardian, Marriage, MAIDEN ASSISES. Is when at any assizes no person is condemned to die. MAIDEN RENTS. A noble paid by every tenant in the manor of Builth, in com. Radnor, at their marriage; anciently given to the lord for his omitting the custom of marcheta. (See title Marchet.) More probably a fine for a licence to marry a daughter. MAIGNAGIUM, [Fr. maignen. i. e. faber ærarius.] A brazier's shop; though some say it signifies a house. Lib. Rames, § 265. MAIHEM, or MAYHEM, [maihemium, from the Fr. mehaigne, i. e. membri mutilationem.] A maim, wound, or corporeal hurt, by which a man loseth the use of any member, proper for his defence in fight. As if a man's skull be broke, or any bone broken in any other part of the body; a foot, hand, finger, or joint of a foot, or any member be cut off; if by any wound the sinews be made to shrink; or where any one is castrated; or if any eye be put out, or any fore tooth broke, &c. But the cutting off an ear or nose, the breaking of the hinder teeth, and such like, was held no maihem by the common law; as they were not a weakening of a person's strength, but a disfiguring and deformity of the body. Glanv. lib. 4. c. 7; Bract. lib. 3. tract. 2; Britton, c. 25; S. P. C. lib. 1. c. 41. Maihem is accurately thus defined; the violently depriving another of the use of such of his members as may render him the less able in fighting, either to defend himself, or to annoy his adversary. Brit. lib. 1. c. 25; 1 Hawk. P.C. c. 44. By the ancient law of England, he that maimed any man, whereby he lost any part of his body, was sentenced to lose the like part, membrum pro membro. 3 Inst. 118; Brit. c. 25. But this went afterwards out of use; partly because the law of retaliation is at best but an inadequate rule of punishment, and partly because on a repetition of the offence, the punishment could not be repeated; so that by the common law, as it for a long time stood, maihem was only punishable by fine and imprisonment. 1 Hawk. P. C. c. 44. §3. Unless perhaps the offence of maihem by castration, which all old writers held to be felony; and this, although the maihem was committed on the highest provocation, such as the party maimed being caught in adultery with the wife of the offender. See Bract. fo. 144; 3 Inst. 62; S. P. C. 32; H. P. C. 133. But subsequent statutes put the crime and punishment of maihem more out of doubt. The stat. 37 H. 8. c. 6. directed that if a man should maliciously and unlawfully cut off the ear of any of the king's subjects, he should not only forfeit treble damages to the party grieved, to be recovered by action of trespass at common law, as a civil satisfaction, but also £10 by way of fine to the king, which was his criminal amercement. But by far the most severe and effectual of these statutes was 22 & 23 C. 2. c. 1. called the Coventry Act; being occasioned by an assault on Sir John Coventry in the street, and slitting his nose, in revenge (as was supposed) for some obnoxious words uttered by him in parliament. By this statute it was enacted, that if any person should, of malice aforethought, and by lying in wait, unlawfully cut out or disable the tongue, put out an eye, slit the nose, cut off a nose or lip, or cut off or disable any limb or member of other person with intent to maim or disfigure him, such person, his counsellors, aiders, and abettors, should be guilty of felony, without benefit of clergy; though no attainder of such felony should corrupt the blood, or forfeit the dower of the wife, or lands or goods of the offender. any The above acts, as well as the subsequent one of the 43 Geo. 3. c. 58. commonly called Lord Ellenborough's Act, were repealed by the 7 & 8 Geo. 4. c. 27, and the 9 Geo. 4, c. 31. By the 11th section of the latter statute it is enacted, that if any person shall unlawfully and maliciously shoot at any person, or by drawing a trigger, or in any other manner attempt to discharge any kind of loaded arms at any person, or unlawfully and maliciously stab, cut, or wound any person with intent, in any such case, to murder such person, the of fender, and every person counselling, aiding and abetting |