thing which is contrary to it; to abrogate a law is to abolish it entirely. Dig. lib. 50, t. 17, l. 102.

DESCENDANTS are the posterity, or those who have issued from an individual, and include his children, grand-children, and their children to the remotest degree. Ambl. 397; 2 Bro. C. C. 30; Ib. 230; 3 Bro. C. C. 367; 1 Rop. Leg. 115. The descendants form what is called the direct descending line. Vide Line. The term is opposed to that of ascendants, (q. v.) There is a difference between the number of ascendants and descendants which a man may have every one has the same order of ascendants, though they may not be exactly alike as to

writ. In general a deputy has power to do every act which his principal might do; but a deputy cannot make a deputy. A deputy should always act in the name of his principal. The principal is liable for the deputy's acts performed by him as such, and for the neglect of the deputy. Dane's Ab. vol. 3, c. 76, a. 2; and the deputy is liable himself to the person injured for his own tortious acts. Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.; Com. Dig. Officer, D ;-Viscount, B; vide 7 Vin. Ab. 556; Arch. Civ. Pl. 68; 16 John. R. 108. DEPUTY ATTORNEY GENERAL, an officer appointed by the attorney-general, who is to hold his office during the pleasure of the latter, and whose duty it is to per-numbers, because some may be desform, within a specified district, the cended from a common ancestor. In duties of the attorney-general. He must be a member of the bar.

DERELICT, common law. This term is applied in the common law in a different sense from what it bears in the civil law. In the former it is applied to lands left by the

sea.

When so left by degrees the derelict land belongs to the owner of the soil adjoining, but when the sea retires suddenly, it belongs to the government. 2 Bl. Com. 262; 1 Bro. Civ. Law, 239.

DERELICTO, civil law, are goods voluntarily abandoned by their owner; he must, however, leave them, not only sine spe revertendi, but also sine animo revertendi; his intention to abandon them may be inferred by a great length of time during which he may have been out of possession, without any attempt to regain it. 1 Bro. Civ. Law, 239; 2 Bro. Civ. Law, 51; Wood's Civ. Law, 156; 19 Amer. Jur. 219, 221, 222; Dane's Ab. Index, h. t.

the line of descendants they fork differently according to the number of children, and continue longer or shorter as generations continue or cease to exist. Many families become extinct for want of descendants while others will last to the remotest ages; the line of descendants is therefore diversified in each family.

DESCENT. Hereditary succession. Descent is the title, whereby a person, upon the death of his ancestor, acquires the estate of the lat ter, as his heir at law. This manner of acquiring title is directly opposed to that of purchase, (q. v.) It will be proper to consider 1, what kind of property descends; and, 2, the general rules of descent.

§ 1. All real estate, and all freehold interest in land descend to the heir. And, as being accessory to the land and making a part of the inheritance, fixtures, and emblements, and all things annexed to, or connected with the land descend with DEROGATION, civil law, is the it to the heir. Terms for years and partial abrogation of a law; to dero- other estates less than freehold, pass gate from a law is to enact some-' to the executor, and are not subjects

L

of descent. It is a rule at common | scendants take double the share of law that no one can inherit real es- females; and in South Carolina, the tate unless he was heir to the person last seised. This does not apply as a general rule in the United States. Vide article Possessio fratris. § 2. The general rules of the law of descents.

widow takes one-third of the estate in fee; and in Georgia, she takes a child's share in fee, if there be any children, and, if none, she then takes in each of those states, a moiety of the estate. In North and South

1. It is a general rule in the law Carolina, the claimant takes in all of inheritance, that if a person own-cases, per stirpes, though standing ing, real estate, dies seised, or as in the same degree. 4 Kent, Com. owner without devising the same, 371; Reeves's Law of Desc. pasthe estate shall descend to his de- sim; Griff. Law Reg., answers to scendants in the direct line of lineal the 6th interr. under the head of descent, and if there be but one per- each state. In Louisiana the rule son, then to him or her alone; and if is, that in all cases in which repremore than one person, and all of sentation is admitted, the partition is equal degree of consanguinity to the made by roots; if one root has proancestor, then the inheritance shall duced several branches, the subdividescend to the several persons as sion is also made by root in each tenants in common in equal parts, branch, and the members of the however remote from the intestate branch take between them by heads. the common degree of consanguinity Civil Code, art. 895. may be. This rule is in favour of 2. It is also a rule that if a perthe equal claims of the descending son dying seised, or as owner of the line, in the same degree, without land, leaves lawful issue of different distinction of sex, and to the exclu- degrees of consanguinity, the inherision of all other claimants. The tance shall descend to the children following example will illustrate it; and grand-children of the ancestor, it consists of three distinct cases: 1. if any be living, and to the issue of Suppose Paul should die seised of such children and grand-children as real estate, leaving two sons and a shall be dead, and so on to the redaughter, in this case the estate motest degree, as tenants in comwould descend to them in equal mon; but such grand-children and parts; but suppose, 2, that instead their descendants, shall inherit only of children, he should leave several such share as their parents respecgrand-children, two of them the chil- tively would have inherited if living. dren of his son Peter, and one the This rule may be illustrated by the son of his son John, these will in- following examples: 1. Suppose herit the estate in equal proportions; Peter, the ancestor, had two chilor, 3, instead of children and grand-dren, John, dead, (represented in the children, suppose Paul left ten great grand-children, one the lineal descendant of his son John, and nine the descendants of his son Peter, these, like the others, would partake equally of the inheritance as tenants in common. According to Chancellor Kent, this rule prevails in all the United States, with this variation, that in Vermont the male de

following diagram by figure 1,) and Maria, living, (fig. 2,) John had two children, Joseph, living (fig. 3,) and Charles, dead, (fig. 4,); Charles had two children, Robert, living, (fig. 5,) and James, dead, (fig. 6,); James had two children, both living, Ann, (fig. 7,) and William, (fig. 8.)

(4)

(8)

Peter (0) the ancestor. the descendants of those who are dead inherit only the share which their immediate parents would have received if living. When the direct lineal descendants stand in equal degrees, they take per capita, by the head, each one full share; when on the contrary, they stand in different degrees of consanguinity to the common ancestor, they take per stirpes, by roots, by right of representation. It is nearly a general rule that the ascending line, after parents, is postIn this case Maria would inherit poned to the collateral line of broone half; Joseph the son of John, thers and sisters. Considerable difone half of the half, or quarter of the ference exists in the laws of the whole; Robert, one eighth of the several states when the next of kin whole; and Ann and William, each are nephews and nieces, and uncles one-sixteenth of the whole, which and aunts claim as standing in the they would hold as tenants in com- same degree. In many of the states mon in these proportions. This is all these relations take equally as called inheritance per stirpes, by being next of kin; this is the rule in roots, because the heirs take in the states of New Hampshire, Versuch portions only as their imme-mont, (subject to the claim of the diate ancestors would have inheri- males to a double portion as above ted, if living.

stated,) Rhode Island, North Carolina and Louisiana. In Alabama, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Indiana, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Missouri, New Jersey, New

3. When the owner of land dies without lawful issue, leaving parents, it is the rule in some of the states, that the inheritance shall ascend to them, first to the father, and then to the mother, or jointly to both, un-York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South der certain regulations prescribed by

statute.

Carolina, Tennessee, and Virginia, on the contrary, nephews and nieces 4. When the intestate dies with- take in exclusion of uncles and aunts, out issue or parents, the estate de- though they be of equal degree of scends to his brothers and sisters, consanguinty to the intestate. In and their represensatives. When Alabama, Connecticut, Georgia, there are such relations, and all of Maryland, New Hampshire, Ohio, equal degree of consanguinity to the Rhode Island, and Vermont, there intestate, the inheritance descends is no representation among collateto them in equal parts, however re- rals after the children of brothers mote from the intestate the common and sisters; in Delaware, none after degree of consanguinity may be. the grand-children of brothers and When all the heirs are brothers and sisters. In Louisiana the ascensisters, or all of them nephews and ding line must be exhausted before nieces, they take equally. When the estate passes to collaterals. some are dead who leave issue, and Code, art. 910. In North Carolina, some are living, then those who are claimants take per stirpes in every living take the share they would case, though they stand in equal have taken if all had been living, and degree of consanguinity to the com

mon ancestor. As to the distinction between whole and half blood, vide Half blood.

purchase or by descent from an ancestor.

8. When there is a failure of heirs under the preceding rules, the inheritance descends to the remaining next of kin of the intestate, according to the rules in the statute of distribution of the personal estate, subject to the doctrine in the preceding rules in the different states as to the half blood, to ancestoral estates, and as to the equality of distri

ral states, subject to some peculiarities in the local laws of descent, which extend to this rule.

5. Chancellor Kent lays it down as a general rule in the American law of descent, that when the intestate has left no lineal descendants, nor parents, nor brothers, nor sisters, or their desendants, that the grandfather takes the estate, before uncles and aunts, as being nearest of kin to the intestate. 6. When the intestate dies leav-bution. This rule prevails in seveing no lineal descendants, nor parents, nor brothers, nor sisters, nor any of their descendants, nor grandparents, as a general rule, it is presumed, the inheritance descends to the brothers and sisters of both the intestate's parents, and to their descendants, equally. When they all stand in equal degree to the intestate, they take per capita, and when in unequal degree, per stirpes. To this general rule, however, there are slight variations in some of the states, as, in New York, grandparents do not take before collaterals.

It is proper before closing this article, to remind the reader, that in computing the degrees of consanguinity, the civil law is followed generally in this country, except in North Carolina, where the rules of the common law in their application to descents are adopted, to ascertain the degree of consanguinity. Vide the articles Branch, Consanguinity, Degree, Line.

DESCRIPTION is a written account of the state and condition of 7. When the inheritance came to personal property, titles, papers, and the intestate on the part of the the like. It is a kind of inventory father, then the brothers and sisters (q. v.) but is more particular in asof the father and their descendants certaining the exact condition of the shall have the preference, and, in property, and is without any apdefault of them, the estate shall de- praisement of it. When goods are scend to the brothers and sisters of found in the possession of a person the mother, and their descendants; accused of stealing them, a deand where the inheritance comes to scription ought to be made of them. the intestate on the part of his mo- Merl. Rép. h. t. A description is ther, then her brothers and sisters, less perfect than a definition (q. v.) and their descendants, have a pref- It gives some knowledge of the acerence, and in default of them the cidents and qualities of a thing; for brothers and sisters on the side of example, plants, fruits, and animals, the father, and their descendants, in- are described by their shape, bulk, herit. This is the rule in Connecti-colour, and the like accidents. Ayl. cut, New Jersey, New York, North Pand. 60. Description may also be Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode of a person, as description of a legaIsland, Tennessee, and Virginia. In tee. 1 Roper on Leg. chap. 2. some of the states there is perhaps DESERTION OF SEAMEN, no distinction as to the descent whe-contracts, is the abandonment by a ther they have been acquired by sailor of a ship or vessel in which

he engaged to perform a voyage, before the expiration of his time, and without leave. Desertion without just cause renders the sailor liable, on his shipping articles, for damages, and will, besides, work a forfeiture of his wages previously earned. 3 Kent, Com. 155.

of such a person, would be a desig nation of the legatee. Vide 1 Rop. Leg. ch. 2. A bequest of the farm which the testator bought of such a person; or of the picture he owns painted by such an artist, would be a designation of the thing devised or bequeathed.

DESSEISED, pleading. This is a word with a technical meaning, which when inserted in an indictment for forcible entry and detainer has all the force of the words expelled or unlawfully, for the last is superfluous, and the first is implied in the word desseised. 8 T. R. 357; Cro. Jac. 32; vide 3 Yeates's R. 49; S. C. 4 Dall. Rep. 212.

DESERTION, crim. law, is an DESPOTISM, in government, is offence which consists in the aban- that abuse of government, where the donment of the public service, in the sovereign power is not divided, but army or navy, without leave. The united in the hands of a single man, act of March 16, 1802, s. 19, en- whatever may be his official title. acts that if any non-commissioned It is not properly a form of governofficer, musician, or private, shall ment. Toull. Dr. Civ. Fr. tit. prel. desert the service of the United n. 32; Rutherf. Inst. b. 1, c. 20, States, he shall, in addition to the § 1. penalties mentioned in the rules and articles of war, be liable to serve for and during such period as shall, with the time he may have served previous to his desertion, amount to the full term of his enlistment; and such soldier shall and may be tried by a court martial and punished, although the term of his enlistment may have elapsed previous to his being apprehended or tried. By the articles of war it is enacted that "any noncommissioned officer or soldier who shall, without leave from his commanding officer, absent himself from his troop, company, or detachment, shall, upon being convicted thereof, be punished according to the nature of his offence, at the discretion of a court martial." Art. 21. By the articles for the government of the navy, art. 16, it is enacted that "if any person in the navy shall desert to an enemy or rebel, he shall suffer death," and by art 17, " if any person in the navy shall desert or shall entice others to desert, he shall suffer death, or such other punishment as a court martial shall adjudge."

DESIGNATION, wills, is the expression used by a testator instead of the name of the person or the thing he is desirous to name; for example, a legacy to the eldest son

DESTINATION, wills, legacies, is the application which the testator directs shall be made of the legacy he gives; for example, when a testator gives to a hospital a sum of money, to be applied in erecting buildings, he is said to give a destination to the legacy.

DETAINER. 1. The act of keeping a person against his will, or of keeping goods or property. All illegal detainers of the person amount to false imprisonment, and may be remedied by habeas corpus. 2. A detainer or detention of goods is either lawful or unlawful; when lawful the party having possession of them cannot be deprived of it. The detention may be unlawful although the original taking were lawful; as when goods were distrained for rent, and the rent was afterwards paid; or when they were pledged, and the money borrowed