Defamation.-See LIBEL. Defendant.-Is the person sued in a personal action or suit, or indicted for a misdemeanour. He who is sued in a real action is called the tenant; the former term is, however, the one most commonly used. Defender of the Faith (Fidei Defensor), a peculiar title belonging to the king of England, first conferred by Leo X. on King Henry VIII. for writing against Martin Luther; it was afterwards confirmed by Clement VII. On Henry's suppressing the houses of religion at the time of the Reformation, the Pope not only deprived him of his title, but deposed him from his crown also; though in the thirty-fifth year of his reign, his title, &c., was confirmed by Parliament, and has continued to be used by all succeeding kings to the present time. Chamberlayne says, the title belonged to the kings of England before that time, and for proof of which appeals to several charters granted to the University of Oxford. Delegates, High Court of.-Was formerly the great court of appeal in all ecclesiastical causes. These delegates were appointed by the king's commission under his great seal, issuing out of Chancery, to represent his royal person, and hear all appeals to him made by virtue of the statute 25 Henry VIII. c. 19. This commission was usually filled by lords spiritual and temporal, judges of the courts at Westminster, and doctors of the civil law. Appeals to Rome were always looked upon by the English nation, even in the times of Popery, with an evil eye, as being contrary to the liberty of the subject and the independence of the whole realm; and were first introduced in very turbulent times, in the sixteenth year of King Stephen (A.D. 1151), at the same period that the civil and canon laws were first imported into England. But in a few years after, to obviate this growing practice, the constitutions made at Clarendon expressly declare, that appeals in causes ecclesiastical ought to lie from the archdeacon to the any diocesan; from the diocesan to the archbishop of the province; and from the archbishop to the king; and are not to proceed farther without special license from the crown. The advantage however that was given in the reign of King John, and his son Henry III. to the encroaching power of the Pope, who was ever desirous of improving all opportunities of extending his jurisdiction to Britain, at length riveted the custom of appealing to Rome in causes ecclesiastical so strongly, that it never could be thoroughly broken off, till the grand rupture happened in the reign of Henry VIII., when all the jurisdictionusurped by the Pope in matters ecclesiastical was restored to the crown, to which it originally belonged, This court was afterwards abolished, and the Judicial Committee of the Privy Council constituted the Court of Appeal in ecclesiastical causes. Demain, or Demesne, in law, is commonly understood to be the lord's chief manor-place, with the lands thereto belonging, which he and his ancestors have, time out of mind, kept in their own manual occupation. Demurrage, in commerce, an allowance made to the master of a ship by the merchants, for staying in a port longer than the time first appointed for his departure. The claim for demurrage ceases as soon as the ship is cleared out and ready for sailing, even if she be detained by tempestuous weather. Demurrer, in law, a stop put to any action upon some point of difficulty which must be determined by the court before any further proceedings can be had in the suit. Denizen, in law, an alien made a subject by letters-patent; or who has acquired the privileges of a natural born subject pursuant to 7 & 8 Vict. c. 66. A denizen is in a kind of middle state between an alien and a natural born subject, and partakes of both of them. He may take lands by purchase or devise, which an alien may not; but cannot take by inheritance; for his parent, through whom he must claim, being an alien, had no inheritable blood, and therefore could convey none to the son; and, upon a like defect of blood, the issue of a denizen born before denization cannot inherit to him; but his issue born after may. A denizen is not excused from paying the alien's duty, and some other mercantile burdens. No denizen can be of the Privy Council, or either House of Parliament, or have any office of trust, civil or military, or be capable of any grant of lands, &c., from the crown. Deodand.-Any personal chattel which was forfeited by "moving to the death" of a person. In strictness, if the thing which kills was in motion, not only that part which gave the wound (as the wheel which runs over a man's body and kills him), but all things which moved with it and helped to make the load more dangerous (as the cart and loading, which increase the pressure of the wheel) were forfeited. Where a thing not in motion was the occasion of a man's death, as if a man fell from a cart wheel, the thing alone, i.e., wheel, was forfeited. The deodand, viz., the produce of the sale, generally belonged or was forfeited to the Crown, but, by prescription or custom, it might belong to the lord of a manor or franchise; in either case it was, by ancient law, to be laid out in pious, i.e., charitable, uses, not for superstitious or even religious purposes. This forfeiture was abolished by 9 & 10 Vict. c. 62. Deponent.-A person who makes an affidavit ; a witness; one who gives his testimony in a court of justice. Deposition, in law, the testimony given in court by a witness upon oath. It is also used for the sequestering or depriving a person of his dignity and office. Deprivation, in the common law, the act of bereaving, divesting, or taking away a spiritual promotion or dignity: as when a bishop, vicar, prebend, or the like, is deposed or deprived of his preferment, for some matter, or fault, in fact, or in law. Deprivation is of two kinds: a beneficio, et ab officio. PROVINCE OF CANTERBURY. Deprivation a beneficio is, when for some great crime a minister is wholly and for ever deprived of his living or preferment: which differs from suspension, in that the latter is only temporary. Deprivation ab officio, is when a minister is for ever deprived of his order which is the same, in reality, with what we otherwise call deposition and degradation; and is usually for some heinous crime, and is performed by the bishop in a solemn manner. Detinue, in law, a writ or action that lies against one who has goods or other things delivered to him to keep, and afterwards refuses to deliver them. In this action, the thing detained is generally to be recovered, and not damages; but if one cannot recover the thing itself, damages may be recovered for the thing, and also for the detainer. Detinue lies for any thing certain and valuable, wherein one may have a property or right; as for a horse, cow, sheep, hens, dogs, jewels, plate, cloth, bags of money, sacks of corn, &c. Diocese. The circuit of every bishop's jurisdiction; it is divided into archdeaconries, each archdeaconry into rural deaneries, and rural deaneries into parishes. A table of the English and Welsh dioceses and their jurisdictions is subjoined. Jurisdiction. Gloucestershire and city of Bristol, a part of Herefordshire and parts of Salop, Monmouth, Staffordshire, and the greatest part of Derby Lincoln and Nottingham shires. London, Middlesex, and parishes in counties of Surrey, Essex, and Kent, about ten miles round London. All Norfolk and Suffolk, with the exception of the Archdeaconry of Sudbury. Oxfordshire, Buckinghamshire, Berkshire, and parts of Wiltshire. Northampton, Rutland, and Leicester shires. The deanery and city of Rochester in Kent; Hertfordshire and Essex, except the parishes in the latter within eight or ten miles of London. All Dorsetshire ; the parishes of Holwell Surrey (except certain parishes near London), Nearly all Worcestershire, the archdeaconry The whole counties of Flint and Denbigh, and parts of the counties of Salop, and Montgomery. The whole counties of Anglesea, Carnarvon, All the county of York not in the diocese of The county of Cheshire, with the archdea- Almost the whole of Lancashire. The greater part of the West Riding of The Isle of Man. PROVINCE OF YORK. |