from circulation. The king and queen had been forced to send their plate to the mint. (Thiers, vol. i. p. 100.) Under these circumstances, it was determined to issue a paper money, based on the security of the unsold lands belonging to the state. The notes thus issued (each of which was for 100 francs, equal to 41.) were called assignats, as representing land which might be transferred or assigned to the holder; and all notes which came back in this manner to the government in payment for national lands were to be cancelled. They moreover bore an interest by the day, like English exchequer bills. The object of this measure was, therefore, to obtain the full value of the confiscated lands of the clergy (which in the actual state of France was impossible), and to supply the deficiency of coin in the circulation (arising from a feeling of insecurity) by a forced issue of inconvertible paper money, which, as was predicted by M. de Talleyrand, the bishop of Autun, would inevitably be depreciated, and cause misery and ruin to the holders of it. (Thiers, vol. i. pp. 233-37, and note xviii. p. 382). The first issue of assignats was to the amount of 400 millions, bearing interest. Shortly afterwards, 800 millions in addition were issued, but without the liability to pay interest (ib. p. 256). The last of these issues was made in September 1790. But, as in the beginning of the following year, the Legislative Assembly sequestered the property of all the emigrants, a numerous and wealthy class, for the benefit of the state (Thiers, vol. ii. p. 51), it was thought that the amount of the national securities having been increased, the issues might be safely increased likewise. Accordingly, in September 1792, although 2500 millions had been already issued, a fresh issue to the amount of 200 millions was ordered by the Convention. (Thiers, vol. iii. p. 151.) Towards the end of this year, the double effects of the general insecurity of property and person, and of the depreciation of assignats caused by their overissue, was felt in the high price of corn, and the unwillingness of the farmers to supply the markets with provisions. Wholly mistaking the causes of this evil, the violent revolutionary party clamoured for an assize, or fixed maximum of prices, and severe penalties against accapareurs, or engrossers, in order to check the avarice and unjust gains of the rich farmers. The Convention, however, though pressed both by factious violence and open insurrection, refused at this time to regulate prices by law. (Thiers, vol. iii. pp. 311-17.) Prices however, as was natural, still continued to rise; and although corn and other necessaries of life were to be had, their value, as represented in the depreciated paper currency, had been nearly doubled. The washerwomen of Paris came to the Convention, to complain that the price of soap, which had formerly been fourteen sous, had now risen to thirty. On the other hand, the wages of labour had not risen in a corresponding degree (see Senior on Some Effects of Government Paper,' p. 81); so that the evils arising from the depreciation of the assignats greatly aggravated the poverty and scarcity which would, under any circumstances, have been consequent on the troubles and insecurity of a revolution. The labouring classes accused the rich, the engrossers, and the aristocrats, of the evils which they were suffering, and demanded the imposition of a maximum of prices. Not only however in the Convention did the most violent democrats declare loudly against a maximum, but even in the more popular assembly of the Commune, and the still more democratic club of the Jacobins, was this measure condemned, frequently amidst the yells and hisses of the galleries. As the Convention refused to give way, Marat, in his newspaper, recommended the pillage of the shops as a means of lowering prices a measure immediately adopted by the mob of Paris, who began by insisting to have goods at certain fixed prices, and ended by taking the goods without paying for them. (Thiers, vol. iv. pp. 38-52.) These and other tumults were however appeased, partly by the interference of the military, and partly by the earnest remonstrances of the authorities. But the evil still went on increasing; corn diminished in quantity and increased in price; the national lands, on account of the uncertainty of their title and the instability of the government, were not sold, and thus the number of assignats was not,contracted, and they were continually more and more depreciated.

At length the Convention, thinking that the depreciation might be stopped by laws, made it penal to exchange coin for paper, or to agree to give a higher price if reckoned in paper than if reckoned in coin. Still the over-issue had its natural effects: in June 1793, one franc in silver was worth three francs in paper; in August it was worth six. Prices rose still higher; all creditors, annuitants, and mortgagees were defrauded of five-sixths of their legal rights; and the wages of the labourers were equal in value only to a part of their former earnings. The Convention, unable any longer to resist, in May 1793 passed a decree which compelled all farmers to declare the quantity of corn in their possession, to take it to the markets, and sell it there only, at a price to be fixed by each commune, according to the prices of the first four months of 1793. No one was to buy more corn than would suffice for a month's consumption, and an infraction of the law was punished by forfeiture of the property bought and a fine of 300 to 1000 francs. The truth of the declaration might be ascertained by domiciliary visits. The commune of Paris also regulated the selling of bread; no person could receive bread at a baker's shop without a certificate obtained from a revolutionary committee, and the quantity was proportioned to the number of the family. A rope was moreover fixed to the door of each baker's shop, so that, as the purchasers successively came, they might lay hold of it, and be served in their just order. Many people

in this way waited during the whole night; but the tumults and disturbances were so great that they could often only be appeased by force, nor were they at all diminished by a regulation, that the last comers should be served first. A similar maximum of prices was soon established for all other necessaries, such as meat, wine, vegetables, wood, salt, leather, linen, woollen and cotton goods, &c.; and any person who refused to sell them at the legal price was punished with death. Other measures were added to lower the prices of commodities. Every dealer was compelled to declare the amount of his stock; and any one who gave up trade, after having been engaged in it for a year, was imprisoned as a suspected person. A new method of regulating prices was likewise devised, by which a fixed sum was assumed for the cost of production, and certain percentages were added for the expense of carriage, and for the profit of wholesale and retail dealers. The excessive issue of paper had likewise produced its natural consequence, over speculation, even in times so unfavourable for commercial undertakings. Numerous companies were established, of which the shares soon rose to more than double or treble their original value. These shares being transferable, served in some measure as a paper currency, upon which, the Convention thinking that they contributed still further to discredit the assignats, suppressed all companies whose shares were transferable or negociable. The power of establishing such companies was reserved to the government alone.

In August 1793 there were in circulation 3776 millions of assignats; and by a forced loan of 1000 millions, and by the collection of a year's taxes, this amount was subsequently reduced to less than two-thirds: the confidence, moreover, inspired by the recent successes of the republic against its foreign and domestic enemies, tended to increase the value of the securities on which the paper-money ultimately reposed: so that towards the end of 1793 the assignats are stated to have been at par. This effect is attributed by M. Thiers, in his ' History of the French Revolution' (vol. v. p. 407), to the severe penal laws against the use of coin: nevertheless we suspect that those who made this statement were deceived by false appearances, and that neither at this nor any other time, nor even at their first issue, did the real value of assignats agree with their nominal value. (Thiers, vol. v. pp. 145-62, 196-208, 399-413.) However, this restoration of the paper-currency, whether real or apparent, was of very short duration, as the wants of the government led to a fresh issue of assignats; so that in June 1794 the quantity in circulation was 6536 millions. By this time the law of the maximum had become even more oppressive than at first, and it was found necessary to withdraw certain commodities from its operation. Nevertheless, the commission of provisions, which had attempted to perform the part of a commissariat for the whole population of France, began to interfere in a more arbitrary manner with the voluntary dealings of buyers and sellers, and to regulate not only the quantity of bread, but also the quantity of meat and wood which each person was to receive. (Thiers, vol. vi. pp. 146-51, 307-14.) Other arbitrary measures connected with the supply of the army, as compulsory requisitions of food and horses, and the levying of large bodies of men, had contributed to paralyse all industry. Thus not only had all commerce and all manufactures ceased, but even the land was in many places untilled. After the fall of Robespierre, the Thermidorian party (as it was called), which then gained the ascendancy, being guided by less violent principles, and being somewhat more enlightened on matters of political economy than their predecessors, induced the Convention to relax a little of its former policy, and succeeded in first excepting all foreign imports from the maximum, and afterwards in abolishing it altogether. The transition to a natural system was, however, attended with great difficulty and danger, as the necessary consequence of the change was a sudden and immense rise of the avowed prices; and trade having been so long prevented from acting for itself, did not at once resume its former habits; so that Paris, in the middle of winter, was almost in danger of starvation, and wood was scarcely more abundant than bread. As at this time the power of the revolutionary government to retain possession of the lands which it had confiscated, and to give a permanently good title to purchasers, was not doubted, it is evident that a fear lest the national lands might not ultimately prove a valuable security did not now tend to discredit the assignats: their depreciation was solely owing to their over-issue, as compared with the wants of the country, and their inconvertibility with the precious metals. The government, however, began now to find that, although it might for some time gain by issuing inconvertible paper in payment of its own obligations, yet when the depreciated paper came to return upon it in the shape of taxes, it obtained in fact a very small portion of the sum nominally paid. Consequently they argued that, as successive issues depreciated the currency in a regular ratio (which, however, is very far from being the case), it would be expedient to require a larger sum to be paid for taxes, according to the amount of paper in circulation. It was therefore decreed that, taking a currency of 2000 millions as the standard, a fourth should be added for every 500 millions added to the circulation. Thus, if a sum of 2000 francs was due to the government, it would become 2500 francs when the currency was 2500 millions, 3000 francs when it was 3000 millions, and so on. This rule, however, was only applied to the taxes due to the government, and was not extended to payments made by the government, as to public creditors or public functionaries. Nor did it comprehend any private

dealings between individuals. (Thiers, vol. vii.) Iniquitous as this regulation was, as employed solely in favour of the government, it would nevertheless have been ineffective if its operation had been more widely extended; for the assignats, instead of being depreciated only a fifth, had now fallen to the 150th part of their nominal value. The taxes being levied in part only in commodities, and being chiefly paid in paper, produced scarcely anything to the government, which had, however, undertaken the task of feeding the city of Paris. Had it not in fact furnished something more solid than depreciated assignats to the fundholders and public functionaries, they must have died of starvation. Many, indeed, notwithstanding the scanty and precarious supplies furnished by the government, were threatened with the horrors of famine; and numbers of persons threw themselves every evening into the Seine, in order to save themselves from this extremity. (Storch, Economie Polit.,' vol. iv. p. 168.)

To such a state of utter pauperism had the nation been reduced by the mismanagement of its finances and the ruin of public credit by the excessive issues of paper, that when the five directors went to the Luxembourg in October 1795, there was not a single piece of furniture in the office. The doorkeeper lent them a rickety table, a sheet of letter-paper, and an inkstand, in order to enable them to write their first message to announce to the two councils of state that the Directory was established. There was not a single piece of coin in the treasury. The assignats necessary for the ensuing day were printed in the night, and issued in the morning wet from the press. Even before the entry of the directors into office, the sum in circulation amounted to 19,000 millions: a sum unheard of in the annals of financial profligacy. One of their first measures, however, in order to procure silver, was to issue 3000 millions in addition, which produced not much more than 100 million francs.

In this formidable state of things, the next measure adopted was worthy of the violent and short-sighted administration from which it emanated. A forced loan of 600 millions was raised from the richest classes, to be paid either in coin, or in assignats at the hundredth part of their nominal value. So that if the current paper was 20,000 millions, a payment of 200 millions would be sufficient to extinguish the whole. The government, however, refused to sanction this prineiple as against itself; for in paying the public creditor, it gave the assignat the tenth part of its nominal value. The land-tax and the duties in farm were required to be paid half in kind and half in assignats; the custom-duties, half in corn and half in assignats. In the mean time, until the funds produced by this loan, which was enforced with great severity, could be at the disposition of the state, the government went on issuing assignats, till they had absolutely lost all value, and had become waste paper. It therefore anticipated its resources by issuing promissory notes payable in specie, when the forced loan should be collected, and with difficulty prevailed on bankers to discount them to the amount of 60 millions. At this time the Directory gave up the task of supplying Paris with bread, and allowed the bakers' shops to be opened as before: an exception being made in favour of the indigent, and of fundholders and public functionaries whose annual incomes were not more than 5000 francs. The payment of the loan, however, went on slowly, the produce of the government bills was exhausted, and fresh funds were required. Again the resource of assignats was resorted to, and in two months the currency had been raised to 36,000 millions, by the issue of 20,000 millions, which even to the government were not worth the 200th part of their nominal value.

By this time some new financial expedient became necessary. It was expected that, by payments of taxes and of the forced loan to the government, the paper in circulation would soon be reduced to 24,000 millions. It was therefore determined to make a new issue of paper, under the name of mandats, to the amount of 2400 millions. Of this sum 800 millions were to be employed in extinguishing 24,000 millions of assignats, which were to be taken at a thirtieth part of their legal value: 600 millions were to be allotted to the public service, and the remainder retained in the public coffers. These mandats were to enable any person who was willing to pay the estimated value of any of the national lands to enter at once into possession; and therefore they furnished a somewhat better security than the assignats, as these could only be offered in payment at sales by auction; and consequently the price of the lands rose in proportion to the depreciation of the paper. The estimate of the lands having been made in 1790, was not true in 1795, at which time they had in some cases lost a half, in others two-thirds or three-fourths of their former value. The mandat of 100 francs, however, at its first issue, was worth only fifteen francs in silver; and the new paper was soon so much discredited that it never got into general circulation, and was not able to drive out the coined money which was now almost universally employed in transactions between individuals. The only holders of mandats were speculators, who took them from the government and sold them to purchasers of national lands. By this entire discredit of the government-paper the prosperity of individuals had been in some measure restored, and trade revived a little from its long sleep. The government was destitute of all resource; its agents received nothing but worthless paper, and refused any longer to do their duties. The armies of the interior were in a state of extreme misery; while those of Germany and Italy were maintained only from

the countries where they were quartered. The military hospitals were shut, the gens-d'armes were not paid or equipped, and the high roads were infested with bands of robbers, who sometimes even ventured into the towns.

In a short time the government were forced to abandon the mandats, as they had abandoned the assignats, and to declare that they should be received in payment of taxes and national lands only at their real value. Having fallen to near a seventieth of their ostensible value, they were, in the course of 1796, returned to the government in pay. ment of taxes and for the purchase of lands; and with them ended the revolutionary system of paper-money, which probably produced more wide-spreading misery, more sudden changes from comfort to poverty, more iniquity in transactions both between individuals and the government, more loss to all persons engaged in every department of industry and trade, more discontent, disturbance, profligacy, and outrage, than the massacres in September, the war in La Vendée, the proscriptions in the provinces, and all the sanguinary violence of the Reign of Terror.

From the extinction of the mandats to the present time the legal currency of France has been exclusively metallic. (Thiers, vol. viii. pp. 85-9, 103-19, 158-62, 177, 183-91, 334-44, 423-4; Storch,' Cours d'Econ. Pol.,' vol. iv. p. 164.)

ASSIGNÉE OF BANKRUPT. [BANKRUPTCY.] ASSIGNEE OF BILL OF LADING. [BILL OF LADING.] ASSIGNEE OF INSOLVENT DEBTOR'S ESTATE. [INSOLVENT DEBTOR.]

one,

ASSIGNEE OF A LEASE is the party to whom the whole interest of the lessee is transferred by assignment, which assignment may be made without the privity or consent of the lessor, unless the lessee is expressly restrained by the lease from assigning over. The assignee becomes liable to the lessor, from the date of the assignment, for the payment of the rent and performance of the covenants in the lease; but such liability is limited to breaches of covenant during the existence of the assignee's interest, and may be got rid of by assigning over all his interest, and this even to an insolvent; for his liability, arising only from privity of estate, that is, from the actual enjoyment of the premises leased, ceases with such enjoyment; whereas the lessee remains liable to the rent and covenants during the whole term. It results also from the circumstance of the assignee's liability arising from privity of estate, that he is not liable to mere personal covenants which the lessee may have made with the lessor (as, for example, to build on premises not demised, or to pay a sum of money in gross), but only to such covenants as run with the land, as for instance, covenants to pay rent, to repair, to reside on the demised premises, to leave part of the land in pasture, to insure premises situate within the weekly bills of mortality, to build a new mill on the site of an old &c. [COVENANT.] The assignee, in order to become liable to the covenants, must take the whole estate and interest of the lessee; for if the smallest portion is reserved, he is merely an under-lessee, and not responsible to the original lessor. The interest of the assignee must also be a legal, not merely an equitable interest; and therefore if the lessee devise the premises leased to trustees in trust for A B, A B will not be chargeable as the assignee of the lessee's interest. The interest must also be an interest in lands or tenements; for if a lease is made of chattels (as for instance, of sheep or cows, which sometimes happens), and the lessee covenant for himself and his assigns to re-deliver them, the assignee is not liable to the owner on this covenant; for there is no privity between the assignee and the owner, such privity only existing where the subject of the demise is real estate. Wilmot, C. J., says, in Bally v. Wells, "The covenant in this case is not collateral; but the parties, that is, the lessor and assignee, are total strangers to each other, without any line or thread to unite and tie them together, and to constitute that privity which must subsist between debtor and creditor to support an action."(Wilmot, 345.) The assignee may acquire his interest by operation of law as well as by an actual assignment from the lessee, and therefore a tenant by elegit, who has purchased a lease under an executor, is liable as assignee to the lessor in respect of his privity of estate. [As to the liability of assignees of bankrupt on the leases of the bankrupt, see BANKRUPT.]

ASSIGNMENT, a deed or instrument of transfer, the operative words of which are usually assign, transfer, and set over,' and which passes both real and personal property. Estates for life and estates for years are the principal real interests which are passed by an assignment; and by the statute of Frauds and Perjuries (29 Čar. II.) the assignment of such estate is required to be in writing. An assignment differs from a lease, in being a transfer of the entire interest of the lessor; whereas a lease is carved out of a greater estate, creates the relation of landlord and tenant, and reserves to the lessor a reversion after its expiration. If, however, a deed in effect passes the whole interest of the tenant, it operates as an assignment, though it be in form a lease, and though it reserve a rent. As if A having a term of twenty years in land, grants to B the whole twenty years, reserving a rent: in such case B is assignee of the whole term and interest, and not under-lessee to A; and A, for want of having any reversion, cannot distrain for the rent (a distress being only enforceable where the landlord has a reversion expectant on the determination of the tenancy). A, in such case, can only sue B for the rent as for money

due upon a contract. In all under-leases, therefore, it is necessary that part (a day will suffice) of the original term should remain in the lessor. See Sheppard's Touchstone,' 266; Blackst. Comm.' vol. ii. p. 324 (Mr. Kerr's ed.); Bacon's 'Abr.' (7th edit.) tit. Assignment. [BILL OF SALE.] An Assignment of Goods, Chattels, &c., is frequently made by bill of sale, as to which, see BILL of Sale. As to all goods and chattels in possession, no objection ever existed to their transfer and assign ment by deed or writing: but with respect to things in action (as debts, contracts, right of entry, and suit), according to an ancient rule of the common law, now considerably modified, they could not be assigned over by the party to whom they were due, since the assignment gave to a third party a right of action against the debtor, and thus led to the offence of maintenance-that is, the abetting and supporting of suits in the king's courts by others than the actual parties to them. In the courts of common law this rule exists (with some exceptions) at the present day. Thus, if the obligee in a bond assign over the bond to a third party, the assignee cannot sue on the bond at common law in his own name; but such an assignment generally contains (and ought always to do so) a power of attorney from the obligee to the assignee, to sue in the obligee's name on the bond. Courts of equity have always protected such assignments, and regarded the assignee, for valuable consideration, as the actual owner of the bond; and the courts of common law so far recognise the right of the assignee, that if the obligor, after notice of the assignment, pay the money on the bond to the obligee, the courts will not permit him to plead such payment to an action brought by the assignee in the obligee's name on the bond. In order to constitute a good equitable assignment of a bond, or chose in action, writing is not necessary. A personal trust or confidence cannot be assigned over, however able the assignee may be to execute it; and therefore all trust deeds and settlements contain express provisos for the retiring of trustees, and for fresh appointments, with the consent of the cestui que trusts. Neither the future whole-pay nor the future half-pay of an officer are capable of being assigned, it being considered contrary to public policy that a stipend given to a man for his public services should be transferred to another man not capable of performing them. The exceptions to the rule that choses in action are not assignable at law are many. The king might at all times become the assignee of a chose in action; and after such an assignment was entitled to have execution against the body, lands, and goods of the debtor. But this prerogative, having been abused by the king's debtors, was restrained by stat. 7 Jac. I. c. 15, by a privy seal, in 12 James I., and by rule of court of 15 Car. I.; and the practice of actually assigning debts to the king by his debtors has long become obsolete. Bills of exchange are assignable by indorsement, in virtue of the custom of merchants [BILL OF EXCHANGE]; and promissory notes, by virtue of the 3 & 4 Ann. cap. 9. Bail bonds are assignable by the sheriff to plaintiff in the suit under 4 Ann. c. 16, s. 20. [BAIL.] Replevin bonds, by the 11 Geo. II. c. 19. [BANKRUPT; BOND; CHOSE IN ACTION; INSOLVENT DEBTORS; REPLEVIN.]

ASSIZE. This word has been introduced into our legal phraseology from the French assis, and is ultimately derived from the Latin verb assideo, to sit by, or, as Lord Coke translates it, to sit together. The word assido is also to be found in legal records, and has in law-latin a different meaning from assideo, signifying to assess, fix, or ordain. Thus in the postea, or formal record of a verdict in a civil action, it is said that the jury find for the plaintiff, et assidunt damna ad decem solide; and they assess the damages at ten shillings;' and then the judgment of the court is given for the damages 'per juratoris in formâ prædictâ assessa. It is possible that the word assize, in cases where it signifies an ordinance, decree, or assessment, may be derived from this word. This etymology is not, however, given by Du Cange, Spelman, or any learned writer on this subject; though it obviously leads much more distinctly to several meanings of the word assize than the derivation from assideo. With reference to English law, the word assize has been called by Littleton nomen æquivocum, on account of its application to a great variety of objects, in many of which neither the etymology of the word nor its original meaning can be readily traced. Thus, 1. The term is used to signify an ordinance or decree made either immediately by the king, or by virtue of some delegation of the royal authority. The Assizes of Jerusalem are a well-known code of feudal jurisprudence framed for the kingdom of Jerusalem, formed in 1099, under Godfrey of Bouillon. In this sense, Fleta speaks of the laws, customs, and assizes of the realm,' and the ordinances made by the great council of nobles and prelates assembled by Henry II. in 1164 and commonly known as the Constitutions of Clarendon,' are called by Hoveden 'Assisa Henrici Regis factæ apud Clarendonum.' In like manner the assizes of the forest were rules and regulations made by the courts to which the management of the royal forests belonged. 2. Analogous to these were the assizes or ordinances regulating the price of bread, ale, fuel, and other common necessaries of life; called in Latin assisæ venalium. The earliest express notice of any regulation of this kind in England is in the reign of John (1203), when a proclamation was made enforcing the observance of the assize of bread; but it is probable that there were more ancient ordinances of the same kind. In very early times these assisa venalium appear to have been merely royal ordinances, and their arrangement and superintendence

were under the direction of the clerk of the market of the king's household. But at a subsequent period many statutes were passed regulating the assize of articles of common consumption; the earliest of these is the assize of bread and ale, assisa panis et cervisia, commonly called the stat. of 51 Henry III., though its precise date is somewhat doubtful. The provisions of the act with regard to ale, establishing a scale of prices varying with the price of wheat, were altered in some measure by 23 Henry VIII. c. 4, which left a discretionary power with the justices of the peace of fixing the price of ale within their jurisdiction [ALE]; but the assize of bread was imposed by this Act, and enforced from time to time by orders of the privy council until the reign of Queen Anne. In cities and towns corporate the power of regulating the assize of bread and ale was frequently given by charter to the local authorities, and the interference of the clerk of the King's household was often expressly excluded. Books of assize were formerly published, under authority of the privy council, by the clerk of the market of the king's household, and there is one still in existence which was printed in the reign of Henry VIIL The stat. 8 Anne, c. 19, repealed the 51 Henry III. and imposed a new assize of bread, making various other regulations respecting it. Several subsequent Acts have been passed on the subject; but by the 55 Geo. III. c. 99, the practice was expressly abolished in London and its neighbourhood, and in other places it has fallen into disuse. There was also an assize of wood and coal (34 & 35 Henry VIII. c. 3); and so late as the reign of Queen Anne, we find an Act (9 Anne, c. 20) enforcing former regulations for the assize of billet. Besides these, various other articleswine, fish, tiles, cloths, &c., have at different times been subject to assize. The object of these regulations was the prevention of fraud and monopoly; and it is not surprising that in the early stages of legislation it should have appeared to be one of the first duties of government to secure to its subjects the prime necessaries of life at a reasonable and uniform rate. But subsequent experience and more enlightened views have shown, that to attempt to fix by law the prices of commodities, is not only useless and mischievous, but in most cases impracticable; and that when government has established an uniform scale of weights and measures, and, so far as it can be done, an uniform measure of value, the rest may safely be left to competition, and to the mutual bargaining which takes place between the buyer and the seller.

3. The word assize is also used to denote the peculiar kind of jury by whom the writ of right was formerly tried, who were called the grand assize. The trial by the grand assize is said to have been devised by Chief Justice Glanville, in the reign of Henry II., and was a great improvement upon the trial by judicial combat, which it in a great degree superseded. Instead of being left to the senseless and barbarous determination by battle, which had previously been the only mode of deciding a writ of right, the alternative of a trial by the grand assize was offered to the tenant or defendant. Upon his choosing this mode of trial, a writ issued to the sheriff directing him to return four knights by whom twelve others were to be elected, and the whole sixteen composed the jury, or grand assize by whom the matter of right was tried. The stat. 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 27, has abolished this mode of trial, the cumbrous machinery of which was entirely unfit for the habits of modern society. [JURY.] The jury in criminal cases in Scotland, which is fifteen in number, are still technically called the assize.

4. The common and popular use of the term assize, at the present day in England, is to denote the sessions of the judges of the superior courts, holden periodically in each county for the purpose of administering civil and criminal justice. These assemblies no doubt originally derived their denomination from the business which was at first exclusively imposed upon them, namely, the trial of writs of assize. According to the common law, assizes could only be taken (that is, writs of assize could only be tried) by the judges sitting in term at Westminster, or before the justices in eyre at their septennial circuits. This course was productive of great delay to suitors, and much vexation and expense to the juries, or grand assize, who might have to travel from Cornwall or Northumberland, to appear in court at Westminster. To remedy this grievance, it was provided by Magna Charta, in 1225, that the judges should visit each county once in every year, to take assizes of novel disseisin and mort d'ancestor. From this provision the name of justices of assize was derived; and by several later Acts of parliament various authorities have been given to them by that denomination. The 13 Edward I. c. 3, (stat. of Westminster the second,) enacted that the justices of assize for each shire should be two sworn judges, associating to themselves one or two discreet knights of the county; and they are directed to take the assizes not more than three times in every year. By the same statute, authority is given them to determine inquisitions of trespass and other pleas pleaded in the courts of King's Bench and Common Pleas. From this important Act of parliament the jurisdiction of the judges of assize to try civil causes, other than the writs of assize above mentioned, originally arose; and as, with some modifications, it forms the basis of their civil authority at the present day, it may be desirable to endeavour to explain the complex and argumentative process by which the provisions of the statute are practically effected. Besides the general authority to determine civil issues, it was provided by the statute of Westminster 2, that no inquest in a civil action should be taken by the judges of the superior courts when sitting at Westminster unless the judicial writ

which summoned the jury for such inquest appointed a certain day and place for hearing the parties in the county where the cause of action arose. Thus, if a suit arose in Cornwall, the writ from the superior court must direct the sheriff of that county to return a jury at Westminster for the trial of the inquest in the next term, unless before' (nisi prius) the term, namely on a certain day specified in the writ, the justices of assize came into Cornwall. This was sure to happen under the directions of a previous clause in the statute, in the course of the vacation before the ensuing term, and the jury were then summoned before the justices of assize in Cornwall, where the trial took place, and the parties avoided all the trouble and expense of conveying their witnesses and juries to London. The jurisdiction of the judges of nisi prius is therefore an annexation to their office of justices of assize; and thus, from the alteration in the state of society since the above laws were made, the principal or substantial part of their jurisdiction has, by the abolition of writs of assize, become merely nominal, while their annexed or incidental authority has grown into an institution of immense practical importance.

For several centuries, until a few years ago, the whole of England was divided into six circuits, to each of which two judges of assize were sent twice a year. Previously to 1830, the Welsh counties and the county palatine of Chester were independent of the superior courts at Westminster, and their peculiar judges and assizes were appointed by the crown under the provisions of several statutes. This separation of jurisdiction being found inconvenient, the statute 1 William IV. c. 70 increased the number of judges of the superior courts, and enacted that, in future, assizes should be held for the trial and despatch of all matters criminal and civil within the county of Chester and the principality of Wales under commissions issued in the same manner as in the counties of England. Since the passing of this statute, therefore, the assizes throughout the whole of England and Wales (excepting London and Middlesex, where the administration of justice is regulated by custom and Acts of parliament) have been holden twice a year in each county upon a uniform system. In addition to these ordinary assizes, a third assize for the trial of criminals has for the last ten years taken place in the more populous counties.

The judges upon the several circuits derive their civil authority ultimately from the ancient statutes of assize and nisi prius in the manner before described; but they have also a commission of assize which is issued for each circuit by the crown under the great seal. This commission pursues the authority originally given by Magna Charta and the statutes of nisi prius, and seems to have been nearly in the same form ever since the passing of those statutes. It is directed to two of the judges and to the Queen's counsel (13 & 14 Vict. c. 25), and serjeants, the latter deriving their authority to be judges of assize from the statute 14 Edward III. c. 16, which mentions" the king's serjeant sworn," under which words Lord Coke (2 Inst. 422) says that any serjeant at law is intended, and commands them "to take all the assizes, juries, and certificates, before whatever justices arraigned." Under the direct authority given by these words, the commissioners have in modern times nothing to do, the "assizes, juries, and certifi cates " mentioned in the commission having only a technical reference to the writs of assize, now wholly discontinued. It is stated in most of the common text books that the judges of assize have also a commission of nisi prius. This is, however, a mistake, no such commission being known in our law, and the only authority of the judges to try civil causes being annexed to their office of justices of assize in the manner above described.

In certain cases, the justices of assize, as such, have by statute a criminal jurisdiction; but the most important part of their criminal authority is derived from other commissions. The first of these is a general commission of Oyer and Terminer for each circuit, which is directed to the lord chancellor, several officers of state, resident noblemen and magistrates, and the queen's counsel and serjeants on their respective circuits; but the judges, queen's counsel, and serjeants, are always of the quorum, so that the other commissioners cannot act without one of them. This commission gives the judges of assize express power to try treason, felony, and a great variety of offences against the law of England, committed within the several counties composing their circuit. [OYER AND TERMINER.]

The judges of assize have also commissions of gaol delivery, which in their legal effect give them several powers, which, as justices of Oyer and Terminer only, they would not possess. They are directed to the judges, the queen's counsel, and serjeants on the circuit, and the clerk of assize and associate. Every description of offence is cognizable under this commission; but the commissioners are not authorised to try any persons except such as are in actual or constructive confinement in the gaol specifically mentioned in their commission. There is a distinct commission under the great seal for the delivery of the prisoners in each particular gaol. [GAOL DELIVERY.] In addition to the above authorities, the judges on the circuit are also fortified by the commission of the peace. The judges of the three superior courts of common law, for the time being, are always inserted in the commissions of the peace periodically issued for each English county; and consequently they may exercise all the powers and functions communicated by the commissions of the particular counties which compose their respective circuits.

The judges on circuít have also authority to try by a jury of the

county to which they are sent, issues joined in the Court of Probate and in the Court for Divorce and Matrimonial Causes. [PROBATE; DIVORCE.] In practice, the judges of the courts at Westminster choose their circuits by arrangement among themselves on each separate occasion. They are then formally appointed by the crown under the sign manual; and the several commissions are afterwards made out in the Crown Office of the Court of Chancery from a fiat of the lord chancellor. ASSOCIATION is one of the mental phenomena. It does not rank among the primary powers of the mind, like sensation, perception, and judgment, because it does not form one of the separate steps of all mental operations; nor do its functions consist, like those of memory, in re-embodying past impressions. It acts as an agent to all these powers, though not a power itself. The office which it performs is to connect and arrange rather than to originate ideas. By its influence over the sensations, perceptions, and judgments, it regulates the succession of the thoughts. When one thought is suggested by another, or when a train of past images is summoned by something present, whether spontaneously or by an exertion of memory, the process by which this effort is made is called association. Dr. Brown has designated it "the principle of suggestion:" a term which, if its operations were discriminative and voluntary, would be preferable to the one in present use. But suggestion implies deliberation, choice; whereas, it is the province of association to awaken perceptions, not to perceive; to link the thoughts, not to think; to lead the memory to successive images and trains of ideas, between which there is a bond of connection, not always obvious, but when discovered, traceable to one or other of those affinities, analogies, or contrasts by which the prin ciple of association acts. Mr. Hume was the first writer who traced the influences of our associations to certain principles, which he denominated "resemblance, contiguity in time or place, and cause or effect." "Contrast" has since been added to these, which completes the classification of those sympathies and predilections, seated in the mind and acting with all the force and certainty of established laws. It is not pretended that there may not be large classes of our associations not referable to any of these principles, such as the names of things, the terms of art, the words by which we designate moral and intellectual qualities and operations; in short, the whole vocabulary of language, in which there is little or no connection either in the way of resemblance, contiguity, cause, effect, or contrast with the objects or ideas represented, although none of them ever fail to summon up the images of the things for which they stand. Anomalies like this, when reducible to certain limits, establish rather than invalidate the laws to which they form an exception. Even the terms of a language, when once connected with their representative objects, offer one of the most remarkable illustrations of simple association. In the word flower, for instance, there is nothing to stamp upon the mind any particular image. To one who was ignorant of language it would convey no idea; but let the word be explained, let it once be associated with its representative genus of objects, and it instantly calls up the picture of some beautiful plant in blossom whenever the name is seen or pronounced. The distinction between association and memory is here plainly visible. The knowledge of the term flower is an act of memory; the knowledge of the object which it represents implies also an act of memory; but the connection between the name and the object, and still more, between the name and the particular flower that blooms before the mind's eye, are the results of association.

Mr. Hume has annexed to his enunciation of the three principles above enumerated an example illustrative of each. That these principles," he observes, " serve to connect ideas will not, I believe, be much doubted. A picture naturally leads our thoughts to the original. The mention of one apartment in a building naturally introduces an inquiry or discourse concerning the others. And if we think of a wound, we can scarce forbear reflecting on the pain which follows it.” The first of these illustrations is founded upon the law of resemblance; the second, upon the law of contiguity; the third, upon the law of causation. "But," continues he, "that this enumeration is complete, and that there are no other principles of association except these, may be difficult to prove to the satisfaction of the reader, or even to a man's own satisfaction."

To whatever principles or laws we ascribe the association of ideas, it is evident enough that there is not only a bond of connection amongst them, but a bond of order. The greatest irregularity and confusion would obviously prevail in our mental operations, without some regulating principle. That principle is association. It is to mind what the law of attraction is to matter. It draws together ideas connected by common affinities, and repels others that cannot coalesce. When we contemplate the vast number of different impressions made upon the mind in the course of every day, which have to be referred to again, what a confusion would be created, were there not some property in the ideas by which they arrange themselves according to certain invariable laws and relations, designed not only to preserve them, but to promote their restoration at a future period. This reproduction of our thoughts in so perfect a manner, in the order in which they are wanted, comprises one, and not the least remarkable, of the phenomena of association. Most of our ideas are reproduced with facility, but occasionally it is with difficulty they are recovered, owing either to indistinctness in the original impression, or to an imperfection

of the associating faculty itself, which is not equally acute in every individual, nor equally active at all times in the same individual. Sometimes trains of associations involuntarily convey the thoughts to subjects foreign to our wishes. They run away, as it were, with our ideas; and, regardless of the unities of time or place, awaken images and recollections which not only startle us by their abruptness, but occasion us at times no little trouble to account for their presence. This mental phenomenon admits of easy explanation. While the volitions of thought are intensely directed to a particular subject, the associations act in subordination to that which is, for the time, "the ruling idea of the mind;" when this mental intensity subsides, and the attention ceases to concentrate the faculties of thought, the mind relapses into that desultory state which is its ordinary mood in the absence of excitement. Hence the attention which fixes the thoughts controls the associations; the relaxation of attention which allows the thoughts to wander, grants the same license to the associations. A striking illustration of this fact is to be found in what are called reveries a state of mental ennui, in which the mind shrinks from exertion, and resigns itself to the guidance of the associations. In sleep, this emancipation from mental direction is still more complete; in consequence of which, the order and perspicuity of thought, so conspicuous while attention presides over intellectual exertion, are deranged. Strange contradictions and anomalies present themselves, announcing the suspension of that faculty whose office it is to restrain the wild and involuntary action of the associating power.

It should be added, however, that, although our associations roam at large during slumber, and although they may occasionally refuse to come and go at our bidding at other moments, yet they are capable of being controlled and regulated to a very high degree. A habit of attention is the governing power. Attention implies abstraction from desultory thoughts, and the act of mental direction to a particular subject. The influence of this habit keeps the associations under control; the want of it renders our waking thoughts little less incongruous than the dreams of sleep. It is one of the singular properties of association, that it acts upon the moral as strongly as upon the intellectual part of our nature. Not to speak of its influence upon the generous and noble dispositions of the mind, the passions are perverted by an unlicensed association of ideas. Mr. Locke gives an example of this tendency, in reference to the origin of superstitious fear-a weakness less prevalent in the present than in the past generation. He alludes to the vulgar belief in ghosts as spirits of the night. "The ideas of goblins and sprites have really no more to do with darkness than with light; yet let but a foolish maid inculcate these often on the mind of a child, and raise them there together, possibly he shall never be able to separate them again as long as he lives; but darkness shall ever afterwards bring with it those frightful ideas, and they shall be so joined that he can no more bear the one than the other.'

To avoid this and other errors to which the mind is exposed by an undisciplined use of the associating faculty, the greatest pains ought to be taken to render it not only subordinate but obedient to reason; to place it under the guard of attention, and to fill the intellectual storehouse with such ideas as shall only awaken pure and pleasing associations.

In relation to the phenomena of associations, it is worthy of remark, that we are indebted to modern philosophy for the development, if not for the discovery, of them all. The original elucidation of the principle is ascribed to Mr. Locke, who, in one of the later editions of his Essay on the Human Understanding,' added a new chapter entitled "Of the Association of Ideas,' in which the laws of this power are noticed and some of its phenomena explained. Soon after, Dr. Hartley, in his 'Observations on Man,' investigated the principle more thoroughly, and carried its application from simple ideas to the actions and affections, tracing all the intellectual and moral phenomena up to this source. Mr. Hume, in one of his Essays, published almost contemporaneously, showed that the three connecting principles of all ideas are the relations of resemblance, contiguity, and causation, to which some subsequent writer appended a fourth-namely, contrast. In the works of these philosophers is comprised all that is known in reference to the doctrine of association, later writers having done little more than expand or illustrate the views of their predecessors.

ASSONANCE, assonancia, in Spanish romantic and dramatic and in several species of lyric poetry, is a peculiar correspondence in sound in the termination of verses, less complete than that of rhyme. In rhyme (called in Spanish consonancia) the vowel in the last accented syllable and all the subsequent consonants and vowels are required to be the same in the co-rhyming verse; but in assonance, though the vowels of the last accented syllable and in all subsequent syllables are the same, the consonants may and ought to be different. Thus, bárbaro, which has the accent on the antepenultima, is an assonant with cálamo and plátano. Búscas, which, is accented on the penultima, is an assonant with curan and stya. (So, in English, hardy, manly, and carry, would be assonants; in German, toben, hoffte, oder.) Corazón, which is accented on the last syllable, is assonant with amór, español, flor, voz. Assonants are not, like rhymes, exhibited in insulated pairs, but are continued through the whole poem, or, in dramatic compositions, through an entire act or day (jornada), without any other change than the alternation of blank verse with the assonants. Thus, the first, third, fifth, seventh lines, &c., of the act are blank verse, and the

second, fourth, sixth, and eighth lines, &c., are all assonants to each other; unless indeed the blank line and the assonanted line which follows it be considered as constituting one long line, terminating with an asonante, as in the Arabian prototype supposed to be discovered by Sarmiento in some of the metrical parts of the Koran.

But for this constant recurrence of the same assonance through a long succession of alternate lines, the ear would probably be little struck with this faint species of rhyme, even when proceeding from the mouth of a Spaniard, in which the vowels are so fully and broadly sounded, without being contracted by the use of double consonants, which, while they add to the brilliancy of Italian versification, appear to render it less susceptible of this delicate species of embel lishment, so peculiarly adapted to the use of the drama, for which rhyme is perhaps too prominent and too ostentatious an ornament. Calderón, and the other classical dramatists of Spain, always use asonantes. The asonante of the drama is that in which the accent is on the penultima, the verse consisting of eight syllables.

In lyric poetry, rhyme is more frequently adopted; but the endecha, a species of elegy, and some other lyric measures, require the assonant. The following extracts from romances contain lines alternately blank and assonanted, as is always the case in romantic and in dramatic poetry. In the first of these examples the accent is on the penultima; in the second, on the last syllable :

ASSUMPSIT is the technical term denoting one of those specific forms of action which were provided, at a very early period of the history of English law, as the course by which redress for particular injuries must be pursued. It was so called from the past tense of the Latin word assumo, barbarously applied to signify I undertake;' being taken from the use of this word, describing the defendant's undertaking, in the old Latin pleadings. The form was "that in consideration that the plaintiff had furnished goods to the defendant, the latter undertook, or rather took upon himself (super se assumpsit) to pay the former so much money." The action of indebitatus assumpsit was used for the recovery of damages occasioned by the breach of a simple contract; being preferred to the more proper action of debt, for technical reasons, which have long ceased to operate. Assumpsit is maintainable where there has been an express promise to pay money (as in the case of a promissory note), or to do any other act; or in circumstances from which the law implies a contract. An example of the latter occurs in the familiar instance of the delivery of goods by a tradesman to a customer; in which case, though no express promise to that effect has been made, it is an inference of law that the customer has promised to pay for them as much as they are worth; and, accordingly, the plaintiff's declaration, or formal relation of his cause of action, would state the debt generally, and also an actual promise to pay it. This would be called an assumpsit on a quantum valebant. If the consideration were the personal services of the plaintiff, given for the benefit of the employer, the latter is supposed to promise to pay as much as the plaintiff' reasonably deserved to have; and then the action is called an assumpsit upon a quantum meruit. So also the character and relative situations of parties will often raise a legal liability, from which an assumpsit or undertaking will be implied in the absence of any express contract. Thus, an innkeeper is bound to secure the goods of his guests; the law consequently supposes him to promise to do so; and therefore if the goods are lost or injured, he is liable to an action of assumpsit for the damage which the owner has sustained. In like manner, it is the duty of surgeons and attorneys to use proper care and skill in the service of those who employ them, and being supposed to promise to do so, they are liable to be called upon in an action of assumpsit to make compensation in damages for any negligence or want of skill.

(Blackst. Comm.' Mr. Kerr's ed. viii. pp. 165-173, and 368.) ASSURANCE. Of late years it has become usual with writers on