In English law, abatement refers to legal proceedings that are formerly abated, or ended, on the marriage, death or bankruptcy of one party, or some change of interest in the matter in dispute.
Abatement of nuisances is the remedy allowed to a person injured by a public or private nuisance, of destroying or removing it himself. A plea in abatement is brought forward by a defendant when he wishes to defeat or quash a particular action on some formal or technical ground. Abatement, in mercantile law, is an allowance, deduction, or discount made for prompt payment or other reason. Research Abatement
Glossic was a phonetic system of spelling invented by A J Ellis, intended to be used concurrently with the existing English orthography (Nomic) in order to remedy some of its defects without changing its form or detracting from its value. The following is a specimen of Glossic: Ingglish Glosik konvai'z whotever proanunsiai'shon iz inten'ded bei dhi reiter. Glosik buoks kan dhairfoar bee maid too impaar't risee'vd aurthoa'ipi too aul reederz. Research Glossic
In law, habeas corpus is a writ ordering a person to be brought before a court or judge. The term is particularly applied to a writ so issued so that the court may ascertain whether the person's detention is lawful. From the time of the Magna Charta imprisonment at the discretion of any person has been unlawful in England, but for long the royal prerogative was so indefinite and the power of the crown so great that persons were frequently detained in custody at the discretion of the crown. It was not until the 17th century that the Habeas Corpus Act, passed in 1679 provided the great remedy for the violation of personal liberty by the writ of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum (that you have the body to answer).
The provisions of the act may be stated generally thus : 1. That on complaint or request in writing, by, or on behalf of, any person committed and charged with any crime (unless treason, felony, etc, expressed in the warrant), the lord-chancellor, or any of the judges shall award a habeas corpus for such prisoner, and shall discharge the party, if bailable, upon security being given to appear and answer to the accusation. 2. The writ shall be returned, and the prisoner brought up within a limited time, not exceeding twenty days. 3. No person once delivered by habeas corpus shall be recommitted for the same offence. 4. Every person committed for treason or felony may insist on being tried at the next assizes, or admitted to bail, and if not tried at the second assizes or sessions, he shall be discharged from the imprisonment. The writ may be applied for by persons confined in any part of England, or Jersey and Guernsey. As the writ originally had to do solely with crimes, the statute 56 George III. cap. c. was passed, which extended the writ to other than criminal cases.
The result was that no person could be illegally confined in England for any length of time, since some friend could always apply for a habeas corpus, which, on a good prima facie case, would be issued. If the party was confined under recognized authority, as a child by a parent, this fact had to be stated.
In times of great political excitement, and suspected treasonable conspiracies, the operation of the Habeas Corpus Act has been occasionally suspended, and during the early 21st century under the pretext of 'combatting terrorism' exceptions made to it. But such suspension does not enable any one to imprison without cause or valid pretext for so doing. It only prevents persons who are committed from being bailed, tried, or discharged during the suspension, leaving to the committing magistrate all the responsibility attending on illegal imprisonment.
In Scotland similar protection of the liberty of the subject was secured by the Wrongous Imprisonment Act of 1701. The English statute was copied in the United States without essential change.
In the United States habeas corpus was suspended on July the 5th, 1861. Attorney-GeneralBates gave an opinion in favour of the President's power to declare martial law and suspend the writ of habeas corpus. A special session of Congress approved this opinion. Thereafter many arbitrary arrests were made, arousing much indignation. On September the 24th, 1862, the suspension was made general by the President so far as it might affect persons arrested by military authority for disloyal practices. An act of Congress, on March the 3rd, 1863, again authorized the suspension of the writ by the President in cases of prisoners of war, deserters, those resisting drafts and offenders against the military or naval service. The arrest of Vallandigham, in Ohio, and of Milligan, in Indiana, caused great excitement. The case of the latter being brought before the Supreme Court of the Union, that body decided that Congress could not give to military commissions the power of trial and conviction, and that the suspension of the privilege of habeas corpus did not suspend the writ itself. In the case of the Ku-Klux rebellions there was a brief suspension of habeas corpus in 1871. Research Habeas Corpus
The Kentucky Resolutions were the outgrowth, together with the Virginia Resolutions, of a feeling in the United States that the Federal party was making a strained and illegitimate use of the powers granted to the Federal Government by the American Constitution. The resolutions were directly due to the passage of the Alien and Sedition laws. The Kentucky Resolutions were framed by Thomas Jefferson, and introduced, in 1798, into the Kentucky Legislature by John Breckenridge. They were passed for the purpose of defining the strict construction view of the relative powers of State and Government.
There were nine in number. They declared that the Union was not based on the principle of unlimited submission to the General Government; that the Constitution was a compact, to which each State was a party as over against its fellow States; and that, in all cases not specified in the compact each party had a right to judge for itself, as well of infractions as of the mode and measure of redress. They proceeded to set forth the unconstitutionality of the Alien and Sedition Acts, and invited other States to join in declaring them void. No favourable response was evoked. In 1799 the Kentucky Legislature went further, and declared a nullification of a Federal law by a State to be the rightful remedy in cases of Federal usurpation. Upon these resolutions the doctrines of nullification and secession in the USA were later founded. Research Kentucky Resolutions
The New Jersey Plan was a scheme of a Federal Constitution suggested in the Convention of 1787 by William Paterson, of New Jersey, on June the 15th. It proposed: The enlargement and correction of the Articles of Confederation; that Congress should remain a single body, and should regulate taxation and commerce, and should choose the executive; that requisitions from States should be continued; that a judiciary should be established; that naturalization should be uniform; that the executive should coerce refractory States or individuals, and other provisions of less importance. This plan was unfavourably reported, the Randolph plan being preferred, as creating a stronger government and doing more to remedy the defects of the Confederation. Research New Jersey Plan
In America, nullification is the formal suspension by a State government of the operation of a law of the United States within the territory under the jurisdiction of the State. It was first suggested as the rightful remedy in the case of illegal stretches of Federal legislative authority, in the Kentucky Resolutions of 1799. Practical exemplifications of its operation were afforded by Pennsylvania in the Olmstead case in 1809, by Georgia in the matter of the Cherokees 1825 to 1830, etc. But the theory was most completely developed by John C Calhoun, and its most important application was in South Carolina in 1832, in her protest against the tariff of that year, which was exceedingly distasteful to the Southern States. Calhoun's nullification contemplated a suspension of the objectionable law by an aggrieved State, until three-fourths of the States in national convention should overrule the nullification. The question turned upon the dogma of State sovereignty. The State Legislature of 1832, made up of nullifiers, put the State in a position for war and passed various acts resuming powers expressly prohibited to the States by the Constitution. On December the 11th, President Jackson issued the 'nullification proclamation', declaring nullification to be incompatible with the existence of the Union and contrary to the Constitution. On February the 1st, 1833, a bill called the 'bloody bill', was passed by Congress, authorizing the enforcement of the tariff. On February the 26th, Clay submitted a compromise tariff bill, which was enacted. In consequence of this the South Carolina Convention repealed the nullification ordinance on March the 16th, 1833. Research Nullification
In America, after the adoption of the Constitution of 1787 the thought that the States were sovereign remained familiar to the minds of many, if not most, Americans. This led easily to the thought of secession by a State or States as a remedy for aggressive action on the part of the Federal Government.
The Federalists of New England made threats of secession in 1811 and 1814. As the slavery agitation began to be foremost among political issues, secession was extensively suggested as the constitutional right of the Southern States if the system of slavery was attacked. South Carolina was ready to secede in 1850. In 1860, upon news of the election of Abraham Lincoln, she did so, on December the 20th, by convention, which passed an ordinance purporting to repeal her adoption of the Constitution in 1788 and to revive her independence. Mississippi seceded on January the 9th, 1861, Florida on January the 10th, Alabama on January the 11th, Georgia on January the 19th, Louisiana on January the 26th, Texas on February 1st, all by conventions. These seven States formed the Confederate States of America, on February the 4th, 1861.
Buchanan's government could find no constitutional warrant for coercing a seceded State. After the firing on Fort Sumter and the decision of Abraham Lincoln and the North to suppress rebellion by armed force, four more States seceded - Arkansas on May the 6th, North Carolina on May the 20th, Virginia on May the 23rd and Tennessee on June the 8th. In most of these States there had been strong opposition to secession, but on the ground that it was inexpedient. That a State had a right to secede was the nearly universal belief. The national Government never recognized this right, nor the validity of the ordinances. Research Secession
Andira is a genus of leguminous American trees, with fleshy plum-like fruits. The wood is well fitted for building. The bark of Andira inermis, or cabbage-tree, is narcotic, and is used as an anthelminthic under the name of worm-bark or cabbage-bark. The powdered bark of Andira araroba was formerly used as a remedy in certain skin diseases, such as herpes. Research Andira
Chaulmugra is a tree found in South Asia. The oil was used in India and China as a remedy in skin diseases and blood impurities. The medicinal use of the oil in skin and chest infections was introduced to Europe and America around 1900. Research Chaulmugra
The Probert Encyclopaedia was designed, edited and programed by
Matt and Leela Probert
Abbreviations
Research Abatement
