PROTECTOR-continued.

standing such owner may have wholly alienated his estate, or have incumbered the same; and by s. 23, each of two or more persons, co-owners of such prior estate, is sole protector in the proportion of his share; and by s. 24, a married woman being owner of such prior estate, if settled to her separate use, is sole protector, and if not so settled, is protector together with her husband. But by ss. 27 and 31, the following persons, as such, are not to be capable of being protectors, viz., dowresses, bare trustees, heirs, executors, administrators, or assigns: but a tenant by the curtesy may be protector (s. 22), and also a bare trustee under a settlement dated on or before the 31st of December, 1833.

The protector is, in the exercise of his own unlimited discretion, to accord or to withhold his consent to any disposition of an actual tenant in tail; but once he has accorded the same, he cannot afterwards recall it, s. 44. The protector, by s. 42, is to give his consent either in the deed of disposition, or by any deed prior to or contemporaneous with the deed of disposition, the distinct deed (if any such is used) requiring to be inrolled in the Court of Chancery either with or before the inrolment of the deed of disposition. The Lord Chancellor or Court of Chancery may signify his or its consent by order.

PROTEST. In its most general and enlarged sense signifies an open declaration or affirmation. Thus, when in the House of Lords any vote passes contrary to the sentiments of any of its members, such members may, by leave of the House, enter their dissent on the journals of the House, with the reasons of such dissent, which is usually styled their protest. So also the term "protest," as applied to foreign bills of exchange, signifies a solemn declaration by the notary that the bill has been presented for acceptance or payment and dishonoured. So also amongst mariners, a declaration made on oath before a magistrate or notary public in any distant port of the damage likely to ensue from a ship's delay is termed a protest.

PROTESTATION. A particular formula which was used in pleading was so termed; the nature of it may be thus explained.— It is frequently expedient for a party to plead in such a manner as to avoid any implied admission of a fact which cannot with propriety or safety be positively affirmed or denied; and this might be done by the party interposing an oblique allegation or denial of some fact, protesting that such a matter did or did not exist, and at the same time avoiding a

PROTESTATION-continued.

direct affirmation or denial; and this was technically termed a protestation. This, however, by a late rule of Court (Hil. T. 4 Will. 4) is disallowed. In a demurrer to a bill in the Court of Chancery, the form begins with a protestation in this manner : "This defendant by protestation not confessing or acknowledging all or any of the matters or things in the said bill of complaint contained to be true in such manner and form as the same are therein set forth and alleged, doth demur, &c." See Hunter's Suit in Equity, App. p. 275.

PROVISIONAL ASSIGNEE. Was an assignee to whom the property of a bankrupt was assigned until the regular or permanent assignees were appointed by the creditors. But the 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 56, s. 22, and 5 & 6 Vict. c. 122, s. 48, having enacted that until assignees should be chosen by the creditors of each bankrupt, the official assignee to be appointed to act with the creditors' assignees should be enabled to act, and should be deemed to be to all intents and purposes a sole assignee of each bankrupt's estate and effects, provisional assignees ceased to be any longer necessary, the official assignees acting, in fact, as such provisional assignees in all cases. The like simplification of the bankruptcy law is preserved under the Act of 1869, under which the registrar of the Court is the official trustee until the Court or the creditors have appointed a particular trustee of the bankrupt.

PROVISIONS. The nominations to benefices by the pope were so called, and those who were so nominated were termed provisors. Various statutes were passed in the reign of Edward III. forbidding all ecclesiastical persons from purchasing these provisions: see in particular the stats. 25 Edw. 3, st. 6, and 27 Edw. 3, st. 1, which are pre-eminently called the Statutes of Provisors.

See also title PREMUNIRE.

PROVISO. A condition or provision which is inserted in deeds, and on the performance or non-performance of which the validity of the deed frequently depends; it usually begins with the word "provided." Thus, in leases there is usually a proviso that if the rent be unpaid for the space of twenty-one days after the day appointed for the payment of it, then it shall be lawful for the lessor to enter into possession of the premises (4 Cruise, 376). So in mortgage deeds, that part which provides that on payment of the mortgagemoney and interest and costs by the mortgagor, the mortgagee shall re-convey the estate to the mortgagor, is termed the pro

PROVISO-continued. viso for redemption, because it is by virtue of that proviso that the mortgagor is empowered to redeem his estate.

See also title PROVISO, TRIAL BY.

PROVISORS: See title PROVISIONS.

PROVISO, TRIAL BY. In all cases in which the plaintiff, after issue joined, does not proceed to trial, when by the course and practice of the Court he might have done so, the defendant may, if he wishes, give the plaintiff notice of trial, and proceed to trial as in ordinary cases; this is termed a trial by proviso. It is so called because, in the distringas to the sheriff there is a proviso that provided two writs shall come to his hands he shall execute one of them only (2 Arch. Prac. 1492-3). But as this mode of proceeding is tedious and expensive, the defendant in ordinary cases more usually takes proceedings under the C. L. P. Act, 1852, s. 101, to compel the plaintiff to proceed to trial.

PUBLIC ACT OF PARLIAMENT is an Act which concerns the whole community, and of which the Courts of Law are bound judicially to take notice. See for distinction between a Public and Private Act, title PRIVATE ACT OF PARLIAMENT. also title PRIVATE BILLS.

See

PUBLICATION. This word, as applied to the depositions of witnesses in a suit in Chancery, signified the right which was exercised by the clerks in Court, or the examiner, of openly shewing the depositions as taken at the examination of such witnesses. There was a limited time only, namely, eight weeks after issue joined, within which this public shewing of the depositions was permitted to be made; after which time publication was said to have passed. But the Court would enlarge the time for publication, and latterly even upon summons at chambers. The closing of the time for taking evidence under the modern practice is the same thing as the passing of publication under the former.

PUBLIC COMPANY: See title JOINT STOCK COMPANIES.

PUIS DARREIN CONTINUANCE (since the last adjournment, or continuance). By the ancient practice, when adjournments of the proceedings took place for certain purposes from one day or one term to another, there was always an entry made on the record expressing the ground of the adjournment, and appointing the parties to re-appear at a given day, which entries were called continuances. In the intervals between such continuances and the day appointed the parties were of course out of Court, and consequently not in a situation to plead. But it sometimes happened, that after a plea had been pleaded, and while the parties were out of Court in consequence of such a continuance, some new matter of defence arose which did not exist before the last continuance, and which the defendant consequently had had no opportu nity of pleading before that time. This new d. fence he was therefore entitled, at the day given for his re-appearance, to plead, as a matter that had happened after or since such last continuance (puis darrein continuance); and it was, therefore, termed a plea puis darrein continuance. And under the C. L. P. Act, 1852, s. 69, in cases in which a plea puis darrein continuance has heretofore been pleadable in bane or at nisi prius, the same defence may be pleaded, with an allegation that the matter arose after the last pleading; but no such plea shall be allowed unless accompanied with an affidavit that the matter thereof arose within eight days next before the pleading of such plea, or unless the Court or a judge shall otherwise order. 2 Arch. Pr. 920.

See title CONTINUANCE.

PUISNE (Fr. puiné, younger, subor dinate). Thus all the judges, excepting the chiefs, are termed puisue judges; that is, they are subordinate to their respective chiefs. As to mulier puisne, see title EIGNÈ.

PUISSANCE PATERNELLE. In French Law the male parent has the following rights over the person of his child:—(1.) If child is under sixteen years of age he may procure him to be imprisoned for one month or under; (2.) If child is over sixteen and under twenty-one he may procure an imprisonment for six months or under, with power in each case to procure a second period of imprisonment. The female parent, being a widow, may, with the approval of the two nearest relations on the father's side, do the like.

The parent enjoys also the following rights of property over his child, viz.. a right to take the income until the child attains the age of eighteen years, subject to maintaining the child and educating him in a suitable manner.

PUR AUTRE VIE (for the life of another). | An estate pur autre vie is an estate which endures only for the life of some particular person. Thus, if A. lease lands to B. to hold and enjoy them for or during the life of C., B. is said to have an estate pur autre vie-that is, during the life of another, viz., the life of C.; and B. is also then called, in respect of his interest in such lands, a tenant pur autre vie, and C., for or during whose life B. holds his lands, is termed the cestui que vie.

See also title ESTATES. PURCHASE. The word "purchase" is used in law in contradistinction to descent: and is any other mode of acquiring real property than by the common course of inheritance. So that the word is not merely used in its popular sense, viz., that of buying for a sum of money, but implies any mode of acquiring property except by descent. Thus, if a person acquires real property by gift, grant, or by devise, or by any other mode (excepting descent), and which does not even subject him to the payment of any sum of money for such property, he is still in legal language said to acquire such property by purchase. The difference between the acquisition of an estate by descent and by purchase consists principally in two points: (1.) That by purchase the estate acquires a new inheritable quality, and is descendible to the owner's blood in general. (2.) That an estate taken by purchase will not make the person who acquires it answerable for the acts of his ancestors, as an estate by descent will. 2 Cruise, 451, 452.

A

PURPRESTURE, or PURPRESTER. word derived from the Fr. pourpris, which signifies to take from another and appropriate to oneself; hence a purpresture, in a general sense, signifies any such wrong done by one man to another. Purpresture in a forest signified any encroachment upon the king's forest, whether by building, inclosing, or using any liberty without a lawful warrant to do so. Les Termes de la Ley.

PURVIEW. The purview of an Act of Parliament is that part of it which begins with the words, "Be it enacted," &c. Cowel.

PUTATIVE FATHER. The alleged or reputed father of an illegitimate child is so called.

See also titles AFFILIATION; BASTARDY. PUTTING IN SUIT. As applied to a bond, or any other legal instrument, signifies bringing an action upon it, or making it the subject of an action. Thus in 43 Geo. 3, c. 99, it is enacted, that the collec

PUTTING IN SUIT-continued.

tors appointed by the commissioners of taxes shall give security by a joint and several bond, with two sureties, &c., "provided always that no such bond shall be put in suit (i.e., be made the subject of any action) against any surety or sureties for any deficiency other than what shall remain unsatisfied after the sale" of the defaulting collector's goods.

Q.

QUALIFIED FEE: See title BASE FEE.

QUAMDIU SE BENE GESSERIT (as long as he conducts himself well). A clause frequently inserted in the grant of offices, &c., by letters patent, and signifying that the party shall hold the same as long as he behaves himself well (quamdiu se bene gesserit) (Co. 4 Inst. 117; Cowel). Under the Act of Settlement (12 & 13 Will. 3, c. 2), the judges are made to hold office upon the like terms, namely, quamdiu se bene gesserint.

QUANDO ACCIDERINT (when they may happen). Judgment of assets quando acciderint is a judgment which is sometimes signed against an executor, and which empowers the party so signing it to have the benefit of assets which may at any time afterwards come to the hands of the executor, or whenever they may happen (2 Arch. Pract. 1229). The plaintiff, having obtained a judgment of this sort, may afterwards, upon the assets having come to the defendant's hands, proceed against him by sci. fa. to obtain payment of his debt.

QUANTUM MERUIT (as much as he deserved). These words are thus explained by Blackstone: "If I employ a person to transact my business for me, or perform any work, the law implies that I undertook or assumed to pay him so much as his labour deserved; and if I neglect to make him amends, he has a remedy for this injury by bringing his action on the case upon this implied assumpsit or promise; wherein he is at liberty to suggest that I promised to pay him so much as he reasonably deserved;" and this action on the case is thence termed an action of assumpsit on a quantum meruit, that is, an action for breach of my promise to pay him as much as he deserves. But this assumpsit may be excluded by special agreement. (See Cutter v. Powell, 2 Sm. L. C. 1, and notes thereto). There is also an action of assumpsit on a quantum valebat (i.e., as much as it was worth), which is very similar to the former, being only where one takes up goods or wares of a tradesman without expressly

QUANTUM MERUIT-continued. agreeing for the price. There, the law concludes that both parties did intentionally agree that the real value of the goods should be paid, and therefore an action may be brought for the breach of the implied promise to pay as much for the goods as they were worth.

QUANTUM VALEBAT: See title QUANTUM MERUIT.

QUARE CLAUSUM FREGIT (wherefore he broke the close). That species of the action of trespass which has for its object the recovery of damages for an unlawful entry upon another's land is termed an action of trespass quare clausum fregit; "breaking a close" being the technical expression for an unlawful entry upon land. The language of the declaration in this form of action is "that the defendant with force of arms broke and entered the close" of the plaintiff.

The foundation of this action is possession in the plaintiff, which must be actual, not merely constructive, possession; in the action of trespass to personal property, on the other hand, i.e., the action of trespass de bonis asportatis, although the foundation of the action is also possession, yet that possession may be either actual or con

structive.

QUARE EJECIT INFRA TERMINUM. A writ which lay for a lessee when he was cast out or ejected from his farm before the expiration of his term, against the lessor or feoffee who so ejected him, to recover the residue of his term, and also damages for being so ejected. Cowel; Les Termes de la Ley.

QUARE IMPEDIT (why, or wherefore, he hinders). The action of Quare impedit was the remedy by which a party whose right to a benefice was obstructed recovered the presentation, and was the form of action constantly adopted to try a disputed title to an advowson. But by the C. L. P. Act, 1860, s. 26, no Quare impedit shall be brought after the commencement of that Act, but the action may be commenced by the ordinary writ of summons, with an indorsement thereon that the plaintiff intends to declare in Quare impedit. 1 Arch. Prac. 2.

QUARTER SESSIONS: See title SESSION.

QUASH (cassum facere). To make void, to cancel, to abate. Thus, to quash a plea, an order of sessions, &c., is to annul or cancel the same.

QUASI-CONTRACT.

An implied con

tract. Maine, in his Ancient Law, objects that the implied contracts of English Law are different from the quasi-contracts of Roman Law, but his opinion is not correct; for the particular instances given in Just. iii. 27 (28), of quasi-contracts in Roman Law are all of them good as implied contracts in English Law. It is true, however, that there are in Roman Law a spe cies of contracts, not being quasi-contracts, which are called implied contracts (tacitè convenire), e.g., in Dig. ii. 14, 4, where a landlord's right to take the furniture of his tenant in distress for rent is instanced as an implied contract.

QUE ESTATE. A term used in pleading, the nature of which may be thus explained. Formerly it was necessary, when there was occasion to plead a prescriptive right to any easement, or profit, or benefit arising out of land (as, for example, a prescriptive right of way or common), to allege seisin in fee of the land in respect of which the right was claimed, and then to allege that the plaintiff AND all those whose estate he had in the land, had from time immemorial exercised the right in question, and this was termed prescribing in a que estate, from the word AND (que).

This is a

QUEEN ANNE'S BOUNTY. perpetual fund for the augmentation of poor livings in the Church of England, arising out of the revenue of the first fruits and tenths which Queen Anne (by charter subsequently confirmed by stat. 2 & 3 Anne, c. 11) vested in trustees for ever for that purpose. Those "first fruits" and "tenths," having been (as explained under their own titles) originally a tax enforced by the popes from the richer English clergy, formed subsequently to the Reformation a branch of the revenue of the Crown; and, subject to various alterations in amount, they so remained until the reign of Queen Anne, who did not remit them unconditionally, but applied these superfluities of the larger benefices to make up the deficiencies of the smaller. This fund still exists, and is regulated by a variety of statutes, of which the principal are, 2 & 3 Anne c. 20, 55 Geo. 3, c. 147, 16 & 17 Vict. c. 70, and 28 & 29 Vict. c. 69.

See also title ECCLESIASTICAL COMMIS

SIONERS.

QUEEN'S ADVOCATE. An advocate of the Civil Law Bar appointed by the Crown to maintain its interests and to advise it in all matters in which the learning of the Civil Law is involved. Those matters include important questions of international law, upon which (as in framing treaties with foreign nations) the counsel of the Queen's Advocate is frequently taken by the government. In the legal profession this officer holds a distinguished place. He now ranks next in dignity to the Attorney and Solicitor-Generals, and formerly, indeed, the Queen's Advocate took precedence even of them. The Queen's Advocate used to practise in the Ecclesiastical Courts at Doctors' Commons, and at the present day confines his practice, as a rule, to the Courts of Probate, Divorce, and Admiralty.

QUEEN'S BENCH, COURT OF: See title KING'S BENCH.

QUEEN'S BENCH PRISON. Sometimes called the Prison of the Marshalsea of the Court of Queen's Bench, was a prison for debtors and for persons confined under the sentence, or charged with the contempt of Her Majesty's Court of Queen's Bench. This prison, the Fleet, and the Marshalsea Prisons, were, by the 5 Vict. c. 22, consolidated under the title of the Queen's Prison, which latter is by the above Act appointed to receive all the prisoners formerly distributed among the three. 6 Jur. 254.

QUERELA. An action preferred in any Court of justice in which the plaintiff was querens, or complainant, and his brief, complaint, or declaration was querela, whence the use of the word "quarrel" in law. Quietus esse à querela sometimes meant to be exempted from the customary fees paid to the king or lord of a Court for liberty to prefer such an action; but more commonly it meant to be freed from the fines or amercements which would otherwise have been imposed upon the exempted person for trespasses and such like offences. Cowel.

QUI TAM, Suing. Prosecuting a popu lar action for the purpose of recovering the penalty is called suing qui tam, because the prosecutor or informer sues as well for the Crown as he does for himself.

See title QUI TAM ACTIONS.

QUI TAM ACTIONS. Those kinds of popular actions in which one part of the penalty recovered is given to the king, to the poor, or to some public use, and the other part to the informer or prosecutor. It is called a qui tam action, because it is brought by a person "qui tam pro domino rege, &c., quam pro se ipso in hac parte sequitur" (i.e., who sues as well for our

QUI TAM ACTIONS-continued. lord the king as for himself). The case of Thomas v. Sorrell (Vaughan), which is otherwise famous as having first stated the true nature and limits of the king's dispensing power, was a qui tam action.

QUIA EMPTORES (because purchasers). The stat. 18 Edw. 1, c. 1, is so called. This statute took from the tenants of common lords the feodal liberty they claimed of disposing of part of their lands to hold of themselves, and instead of it gave them a general liberty to sell all or any part, to hold of the next superior lord, which they could not have done before without consent (Wright's Ten. 161; 4 Cruise, 6). The effect of the statute was twofold-(1.) To facilitate the alienation of fee simple estates; and (2.) To put an end to the creation of any new manors, i.e., tenancies in fee simple of a subject.

See title ALIENATION.

QUID PRO QUO (what for what). Used in law for the giving one valuable thing for another. It is nothing more than the mutual consideration which passes between the parties to a contract, and which renders it valid and binding. Cowel.

QUIETUS. A word which was commonly used by the clerk of the pipe and auditors in the Exchequer in their acquittances or discharges given to accountants, signifying to be freed, acquitted, or discharged. Cowel.

See also title CROWN DEBTS.

QUIT CLAIM. The release or acquitting of one man by another, in respect of any action that he has or might have against him, also acquitting or giving up one's claim or title. Bracton, b. 5, tract. 5, c. 9, num. 6; Les Termes de la Ley.

QUIT RENT (quietus redditus). Certain established rents of the freeholders and ancient copyholders of manors are denominated quit rents, quieti redditus, because thereby the tenant goes quit and free of all other services. 3 Cruise. 314.

See also title RENTS.

QUO MINUS. A writ upon which all proceedings in the Court of Exchequer were formerly grounded, in which the plaintiff suggested that he was the king's farmer or debtor, and that the defendant had done him the injury or damage complained of, quo minus sufficiens exstitit, by which he was the less able to pay the king his debt or rent. It was also a writ which formerly lay for one who had a grant of house-bote and hay-bote in another man's woods against the grantor for making such waste as interfered with the grantee's enjoyment of his grant. Cowel.