EAT INDE SINE DIE. Words used on an acquittal, or when a prisoner is to be discharged, that he may go without day, that is, that he be dismisssed. Dane's Abr. Index, h. t.

EAVES-DROPPERS, crim. law, are such persons as wait under walls or windows or the eaves of a house, to listen after discourses, and thereupon to frame mischievous tales. The common law punishment for this of fence is fine, and finding sureties for good behaviour. 4 Bl. Com. 167; Burn's Just. h. t.; Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.; 1 Russ. Cr. 302.

EBRIOSITY. This word is used by the Germans to describe that condition of a man which gradually results from the excessive use of intoxicating liquors, and is characterised by certain abiding effects. When insanity is produced by a long continued use of intoxicating drinks, it excuses those acts which would otherwise be considered crimes. 5 Mason's R. 28; 1 Russ. on Crimes, 7. Vide Drunkenness.

tained the names of counties. They | 129; 4 McCord's R. 102; Whatl. have now nothing to do with the on Eas. passim; and the article Sergovernment of counties, which has vitude. entirely devolved on the sheriff, the earl's deputy, or vice-comes. EARNEST, contracts, is the payment of a part of the price of goods sold, or the delivery of part of such goods, for the purpose of binding the contract. The effect of earnest is to bind the goods sold, and upon their being paid for without default, the buyer is entitled to them. But notwithstanding the earnest the money must be paid upon taking away the goods, because no other time for payment is appointed; earnest only binds the bargain, and gives the buyer a right to demand, but a demand without payment of the money is void; after earnest given the vendor cannot sell the goods to another, without a default in the vendee, and therefore if the latter does not come and pay, and take the goods, the vendor ought to go and request him, and then if he does not come, pay for the goods and take them away in convenient time, the agreement is dissolved, and he is at liberty to sell them to any other person. 1 Salk. 113; 2 Bl. Com. 447; 2 Kent, Com. 389; Ayl. Pand. 450; 3 Campb. R. 426. EASEMENTS, estates. An easement is defined to be a liberty, privilege or advantage, which one man may have in the lands of another, without profit; it may arise by deed or prescription. Vide 1 Serg. & Rawle, 298; 5 Barn. & Cr. 221; 3 Barn. & Cr. 339; 3 Bing. R. 118; 3 McCord, R. 131, 194; 2 McCord, R. 451; 14 Mass. R. 49; 3 Pick. R. 408. This is an incorporeal hereditament, and corresponds nearly to the servitudes or services of the civil law. Vide Lilly's Reg. h. t.; 3 Kent, Com. 344; Cruise, Dig. t. 31, c. 1, s. 17; 2 Hill. Ab. c. 5; 9 Pick. R. 251; 1 Bail. R. 56; 5 Mass. R.

ECCHYMOSIS, med. jur. Blackness. It is an extravasation of blood by rupture of capillary vessels, and hence it follows contusion, but it may exist, as in cases of scurvy, and other morbid conditions without the latter. Ryan's Med. Jur. 172.

ECCLESIASTICAL. Belonging to, or set apart for the church; as distinguished from civil or secular. Vide Church.

ECCLESIASTICAL COURTS, English law, are courts held by the king's authority as supreme governor of the church, for matters which chiefly concern religion. There are ten courts which may be ranged under this class; 1. The Archdeacon's court; 2. The Consistory court; 3. The Court of Arches; 4. The Court

of Peculiars; 5. The Prerogative the latter are only declarations of a court; 6. The Court of Dele- law, which has been before enacted gates, which is the great court of by congress. appeals in all ecclesiastical causes; 7. The Court of Convocation; 8. The Court of Audience; 9. The Court o Faculties; 10. The Court of Commissioners of Review.

ECCLESIASTICAL Vide Law, Canon.

Among the Romans this word sometimes signified a citation to appear before a judge. The edicts of the emperors, also called constituiones principum, were new laws LAW. which they made of their own motion, either to decide cases which they had foreseen, or to abolish or change some ancient laws. They were dif ferent from their rescripts or decrees. &These edicts were the sources which contributed to the formation of the

ECCLESIASTICS, canon law, are those persons who compose the hierarchial state of the church. They are regular and secular. Aso Man. Inst. B, 2, t. 5, c. 4, § 1.

rian, and Justinian codes. Vide Dig. 1, 4, 1, 1; Inst. 1, 2, 7; Code, 1,1; Nov. 139.

EDICT, PERPETUAL, is the title of a compilation of all the edicts. This collection was made by Salvius Julianus, a jurist who was selected by the emperor Adrian for the purpose, and who performed his task with credit to himself.

EDICTS OF JUSTINIAN, are

prince, found, in most editions of the corpus juris civilis, after the Novels. Being confined to matters of police in the provinces of the empire, they are of little use.

ECLAMPSIA PARTURIEN- Gregorian, Hermogenian, TheodoTIUM, med. jur. The name of a disease accompanied by apoplectic convulsions, and which produces aberration of mind at child-birth. An ordinary person, it is said, would scarcely observe it, and it requires the practised and skilled eye of a physician to discover that the patient is acting in a total unconsciousness of the nature and effect of her acts. There can be but little doubt that many of the tragical cases of infanti-thirteen constitutions or laws of that cide proceed from this cause. The criminal judge and lawyer cannot inquire with too much care in order to discover the guilt of the mother, where it exists, and to ascertain her innocence, where it does not. The innocent should not suffer for the guilty; and what, in the eye of science is a mere misfortune, should not, when it can be avoided, be punished as a crime. See two well reported cases of this kind in the Boston Medical Journal, vol. 27, No. 10, p. 161. EDICT, in some countries, is a EFFECT. The operation of a law ordained by the sovereign, by law; an agreement, or an act, is callwhich he forbids or commands some-ed its effect. What is null produces thing, and extends either to the whole no effect. country, or only to some particular EFFECTS. This word used provinces. Edicts are somewhat similar to the president's proclamation; their difference consists in this, that the former have authority and force of law in themselves, whereas

EE, in the termination of words, has a passive signification, usually denoting the person to whom an act is done; as the grantee, he to whom a grant is made; the donee, he to whom a gift is made; the lessee, he to whom a lease is made. Vide Litt. s. 57; 2 Bl. Com. 140.

simpliciter is equivalent to property or worldly substance, and may carry the whole personal estate, when used in a will. 5 Madd. Ch. Rep. 72; Cowp. 299; 15 Ves. 507; 6 Madd.

EFFIGY, crim. law, is the figure or representation of a person. To make the effigy of a person with an intent to make him the object of ridi- | cule is a libel, (q. v.) Hawk. b. 1, c. 73, s. 2; 14 East, 227; 2 Chit. Cr. Law, 866.

Ch. R. 119. But when it is prece- | ejected by the other claimant, or some ded and connected with words of a one else for him, brings a suit against narrower import, and the bequest is the ejector in his own name; to susnot residuary, it will be confined to tain the action the lessee must prove species of property ejusdem generis a good title in the lessor, and, in this with those previously described. 13 collateral way, the title is tried. To Ves. 39; 15 Ves. 326; Roper on obviate the difficulty of proving these Leg, 210. forms, this action has been made substantially, a fictitious process. The defendant agrees, and is required to confess that a lease was made to the plaintiff, that he entered under it, and has been ousted by the defendant; or, in other words, to admit lease, entry, and ouster, and that he will rely only upon his title. An actual entry, however, is still supposed, and therefore, an ejectment will not lie, if the right of entry is gone. 3 Bl. Com. 199 to 206. In Pennsylvania, New York, Arkansas, and perhaps other states, these fictions have all been abolished, and the writ of ejectment sets forth the possession of the plaintiff, and an unlawful entry on the part of the defendant.

EIGNE, persons. This is a corruption of the French word ainé, eldest or first born. It is frequently used in our old law books; bastard eigne signifies an elder bastard when spoken of two children one of whom was born before the marriage of his parents, and the other after; the latter is called mulier puisne. Litt. sect. 399.

EIRE or EYRE, English law, signifies a journey. Justices in eire, were itinerant judges, who were sent once in seven years with a general commission in divers counties, to hear and determine such causes as were called pleas of the crown. Vide Justices in eyre.

2. This action is in general sustainable only for the recovery of the possession of property upon which an entry might in point of fact be made, and of which the sheriff could deliver actual possession; it cannot, therefore, in general, be sustained for the recovery of property which in legal consideration is not tangible, as, for a rent, or other incorporeal heredita

EJECTMENT, rem dies, is the name of an action which lies for the recovery of the possession of real property, and of damages for the un-ments, a water-course, or for a mere lawful detention. This subject may be considered with reference, 1st, to the form of the proceedings; 2d, to the nature of the property or thing to be recovered; 3d, to the right to such property; 4th, to the nature of the ouster or injury; 5th, to the judg

ment.

1. In the English practice, which is still adhered to in some states, in order to lay the foundation of this action, the party claiming title enters upon the land, and then gives a lease of it to a third person, who being

privilege of a landing held in common with other citizens of a town. 2 Yeates, 331; 3 Bl. Com. 206; Yelv. 143; Run. Eject. 121 to 136; Ad. Eject. c. 2; 9 John. 298; 16 John. 284.

3. The title of the party having a right of entry may be in fee-simple,' fee-tail or for life or years; and if it is the best title to the property the plaintiff will succeed. The plaintiff must recover on the strength of his title, and not on the deficiency of that of the defendant. Addis. Rep.

390; 2 Serg. & Rawle, 65; 3 Serg. | those by persons in their representa& Rawle, 288; 4 Burr. 2487; 1 East, R. 246; Run. Eject. 15; 5 T. R. 110.

tive capacities, which are viva voce. And to render this freedom as perfect as possible, electors are generally exempted from arrest in all cases, except treason, felony, or breach of the peace, during their attendance on elections, and in going to and returning from them. And provisions are made by law in several states to prevent the interference or appearance of the military on the election-ground.

4. The injury sustained must in fact or in point of law have amounted to an ouster or dispossession of the lessor of the plaintiff, or of the plaintiff himself, where the fictions have been abolished; for if there be no ouster, or the defendant be not in possession at the time of bringing the action, the plaintiff must fail. 7 T. One of the cardinal principles on R. 327; 1 B. & P. 573; 2 Caines's the subject of elections is, that the R. 335. person who receives a majority or 5. The judgment is that the plain-plurality of votes is the person elected. tiff do recover his term, of and in the tenements, and, unless the damages be remitted, as is most usual, the damages assessed by the jury with the costs of increase.

Vide, generally, Adams on Ej.; Run. Ej.; Com. Dig. h. t.; Dane's Ab. h. t.; 1 Chit. Pl. 188 to 193; 18 E. C. L. R. 158; Woodf. L. & T. 354 to 417; 2 Phil. Ev. 169; 8 Vin. Ab. 323; Arch. Civ. Pl. 503; 2 Sell. Pr. 85; Chit. Pr. Index, h. t.; Bac. Ab. h. t.; Doct. Pl. 227; Am. Dig. h. t.

ELECTION. This term, in its most usual acceptation, signifies the choice which several persons collectively make of a person to fill an office or place; in another sense, it means the choice which is made by a person having the right, of selecting one of two alternative contracts, or rights. Elections, then, are of men or of things.

§ 1. Of men. These are either public elections or elections by companies or corporations.

1. Public elections. These should be free and uninfluenced either by hope or fear. They are, therefore, generally made by ballot, (though there are exceptions, as in Virginia, where elections to any office of honour, trust, or profit, are viva voce, Const. of Virg. art. 3, s. 15;) except

Generally a plurality of the votes of
the electors present is sufficient, but
in some states, as in Maine, Const.
art. 4, part 1, § 5, a majority of all
the votes is required.
Each elector
has one vote.

2. Elections by corporations or companies are made by the members in such a way as their respective constitutions or charters direct. It is usual in these cases to vote a greater or lesser number of votes in proportion as the voter has a greater or less amount of the stock of the company or corporation, if such corporation or company be a pecuniary institution. And the members are frequently permitted to vote by proxy. See 7 John. 287; 9 John. 147; 5 Cowen, 426; 7 Cowen, 153; 8 Cowen, 387; 6 Wend. 509; 1 Wend. 98.

§ 2. The election of things. 1. In contracts when a debtor is obliged, in an alternative obligation, to do one of two things, as to pay one hundred dollars or deliver one hundred bushels of wheat, he has the choice to do the one or the other, until the time of payment; he has not the choice, however, to pay a part in each. Poth. Obl. part 2, c. 3, art. 6, No. 247; 11 John. 59. Or if a man sell or agree to deliver one of two articles, as a horse or an ox, he has the elec