REPLEADER-continued.

will, on motion of the unsuccessful party, award a repleader, that is, will order the parties to plead de novo, for the purpose of obtaining a better issue. For example, if in an action of debt on bond, conditioned for the payment of £10 108. at a certain day, the defendant pleads the payment of £10 according to the form of the condition; and the plaintiff, instead of demurring, tenders issue upon such payment; it is plain that whether this issue be found for the plaintiff or the defendant, it will remain equally uncertain whether the plaintiff is entitled or not to maintain his action; for in an action for the penalty of a bond, conditioned to pay a certain sum the only material question is whether the exact sum were paid or not, and repayment in part is a question quite beside the legal merits. The Court will after trial grant such repleader only if that will be the means of effecting substantial justice between the parties; nor will the Court grant it where it can give judgment non obstante veredicto on the whole record. If a repleader is granted where it should be refused, or vice versa, that is ground of error. The form of the judgment of repleader is "quod partes replacitent." 2 Arch. Pract. 1553-4.

REPLEVIABLE. Capable of being replevied. Property is said to be repleviable or replevisable when proceedings in replevin may be resorted to for the purpose of trying the right to such property. Thus goods taken under a distress are repleviable, for the validity of the taking may be tried in an action of replevin; but goods delivered to a carrier and unjustly detained are not repleviable, for the unjust detention of goods delivered on a contract is not an injury to which the action of replevin applies, but forms the ground of an action of detinue or trover. See Galloway v. Bird, 4 Bing. 299.

REPLEVIN (from replegiare, to deliver to the owner upon pledges). A personal action adapted to try the validity of a distress, or to recover the possession of goods unlawfully distrained (Com. Dig. "Replevin"). Where goods have been distrained, and the tenant thinks the distress unlawful, and wishes to contest its validity, the action of replevin is the appropriate remedy to resort to for the purpose. The mode adopted is by the aggrieved party making plaint (i.e., complaint) to the sheriff, and his goods are thereupon replevied, that is, delivered to him upon his giving security to prosecute an action against the distrainor for the purpose of trying the legality of the distress; and if upon such trial the right be determined in favour of the latter, then the

REPLEVIN-continued.

goods are returned. In form it is an action for damages for the illegal taking and detaining of the goods and chattels (Com. Dig. tit. "Replevin"; 2 Arch. Pr. 1081; Woodfall's Land. and Ten. lib. 3, c. 6, s. 1.

REPLEVY. This word, as used in reference to the action of replevin, signifies to re-deliver goods which have been distrained to the original possessor of them, on his pledging or giving security to prosecute an action against the distrainor for the purpose of trying the legality of the distress. It has also been used to signify the bailing or liberating a man from prison on his finding bail to answer for his forthcoming at a future time.

See title REPLEVIN.
REPLICATION (replicatio).

A reply

made by the plaintiff in an action to the defendant's plea, or in a suit in Chancery to the defendant's answer.

See also titles ANSWER; REBUTTER. REPORT OF COMMITTEE. The report of a parliamentary committee is that communication which the chairman makes to the House at the close of the investigation upon which it has been engaged: and it is usually in the form of a series of resolutions. In the House of Commons he appears at the Bar shortly after the Speaker has taken the chair, and on being called upon, reads his report, brings it up, and it is received by a vote of the House.

REPORTS. The published periodical volumes, which contain the various cases argued and determined in the several Courts of Law and Equity, are so termed. Since the year 1866 inclusive, the chief of these reports are brought out under the superintendence of a council styled the Incorporated Council of Law Reporting for England and Wales; formerly the matter was left to the enterprise of private publishers or of private reporters; and at one time the reports were brought out at the cost of the State.

See title YEAR-BOOKS.

REPRESENTATION AND REPRESENTATIVE. Representation is the act of one person representing or standing in the place of another; and he who so represents or stands in the place of another is termed his representative. Thus, an heir is the representative of the ancestor; and an executor is the representative of the testator; the heir standing in the place of his deceased ancestor with respect to his realty, the executor standing in the place of his deceased testator with respect to his personalty; and hence the heir is frequently denominated the real representative, and the executor the personal representative.

REPRESENTATION AND REPRESEN-
TATIVE-continued.

In the law of contracts, a representative is an agent; but the term "representative" is little used for this purpose.

In Constitutional Law representatives are those chosen by the people to represent their several interests in Parliament. For this use of the word, see title REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENT.

REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENT. The custom of sending representatives to Parliament appears to have grown up at a very early period, but the first extant traces of it are comparatively recent. Thus,

(1.) As regards County Representation— The earliest extant trace is in 1214, King John having in that year directed the sheriff's to send four discreet knights (quatuor discretos milites) of the county to represent it at the Parliament which was to be held at Oxford; and

(2.) As regards Borough Representation— The earliest extant trace is in 1265, Simon de Montford having in that year issued writs to the sheriff's directing them to return two citizens or burgesses for every city or borough in their shrievalty; but as Montford was assuming an excess of authority in issuing those writs, that instance of borough representation is not considered of much value, while on the contrary the writs issued to the like effect by Edward I. in 1235 are considered of great value, and they afford the first distinct legal trace that is extant of the summoning of burgesses to Parliament.

It has been suggested, however, that all that Edward I. did in 1295 was to remodel, and for the time being complete, an already existing system of borough representation; and the cases of the boroughs of St. Albans (1315) and of Barnstaple (1315) are commonly adduced in support of the earlier origin of borough representation. For the borough of St. Albans in its petition to the King claimed that to send two burgesses to Parliament was its prescriptive right existing from immemorial autiquity, and the borough of Barnstaple in its petition to the King claimed that to send two burgesses to Parliament was its right under a charter of King Athelstan. Now, the interval between 1295 and 1315 being only twenty years, and the interval between 1295 and 1345 being only forty years, it is clear that the claims put forward by these two boroughs in the manner and to the extent that the same were put forward, would have been egregious and self-confuting if borough representation had originated in 1295, or even in 1265.

But the probability, or rather certainty, of an earlier origin of borough representation is borne out and corroborated by the

REPRESENTATION IN PARLIAMENT -continued.

causes which led to the deputies from boroughs being summoned at all, these causes having been the following:

The boroughs were increasing in wealth from the growing prosperity of commerce; and the spirit of liberty in England, which had always been strong, and which since Magna Charta grew stronger still, prevented the King or his Government froin laying tallages at his own will and pleasure upon the townspeople; and the Crown being in constant want of money, it became a canstitutional usage to summon deputies from boroughs for the express and single purpose of granting the necessary tallages.

See also titles CONSTITUTION; ELEC

TORAL FRANCHISE.

REPRESENTATIVE PEERS. The representative peers are those, who at the commencement of every new parliament are elected to represent Scotland and Ireland in the British House of Lords; namely, sixteen for the former, and twenty-eight for the latter country. At the union of Scotland with England in 1707, and of Ireland in 180, the peers of those two countries were not admitted en masse to seats in the British Parliament, but were allowed to elect a certain number of their body to represent them therein; hence the term "representative peers." The Scottish representative peers must have descended from ancestors who were peers at the time of the union.

See also title REPRESENTATION IN PAR

RESCOUS,

or RESCUE (Fr. recous, rescue). A resistance against lawful authority. As for instance, the taking back by force goods which have been taken under a distress; or the violently taking away a man who is under arrest, and setting him at liberty, or otherwise procuring his escape, are both so denominated; and for which writs of rescous used to lie, and now an ordinary prosecution for the rescue lies against such offenders, offending parties, or rescussors, as they were termed. Co. Lit. lib. 2, cap. 12; Parrett Navigation Company v. Stower, 6 M. & W. 564.

RESERVATION. In conveyancing a clause of reservation is a clause whereby the grantor or lessor reserves either to himself or to the lord of the fee some money, chattel, or service not being part of the thing granted or demised or an appurtenant thereto. A reservation, strictly so called, cannot be made in favour of a stranger, although such an attempted reservation might be good as a condition for payment of an annual sum in gross. And it follows from the definition, that a man cannot grant an estate and reserve part thereof, or make a feoffment in fee, and reserve a lease for life; also, that a man cannot reserve rent to his heirs without first reserving it to himself. A reservation is often confounded with an exception, but the true distinction between them is, that in a reservation some new hereditament is

created, and that usually of an incorporeal kind, whereas in an exception a slice (so to speak) of an already existing hereditament is merely withheld, or (as the name denotes), excepted, out of the conveyance.

See title EXCEPTION.

SIMONY.

RESPITE, TO-continued.

RESPONDEAT, or RESPONDEAS, OUSTER. Upon an issue in law arising on a dilatory plea, the form of the judgment is that the defendant answer over, which is thence called a judgment of respondeat ouster. This not being a final judgment, the pleading is resumed, and the action proceeds. Steph. Pl. 115.

RESPONDEAT SUPERIOR (let the superior answer). The phrase is thus used in an old work,-Pur insufficiency del bayliff d'un liberty respondeat dominus libertatis, i.e., for the insufficiency of the bailiff of a liberty, let the lord of the liberty answer, (4 Inst. 114; Cowel). The phrase, as used at the present day, simply denotes that the principal is to answer for the act of his agent, special or general, done within the limits of his agency. A landlord also answers for, i.e., defends, his tenant.

RESPONDENT. The party who appeals against the judgment of an inferior Court, is termed the appellant; and he who contends against the appeal the respondent. The word also denotes the persons upon whom an ordinary petition in the Court of Chancery is served, and who are, as it were, defendants thereto. The terms respondent and co-respondent are used in like manner in proceedings in the Divorce Court.

RESPONDENTIA. A contract by which the master or owner of a ship borrows money upon the goods and merchandize in the vessel, which must necessarily be sold or exchanged in the course of the voyage, and in which case the borrower personally is bound to answer the contract, and is therefore said to take up money at respondentia. The general nature of a respondentia bond is this, the borrower binds himself in a large penal sum, upon condition that the obligation shall be void if he pay the lender the sum borrowed

RESPONDENTIA― continued.

and so much a month from the date of the bond till the ship arrives at a certain port, or if the ship be lost or captured in the course of the voyage (2 Park on Insurance, 615). But such a contract is now usually called a bottomry bond, although (as the name denotes), the latter phrase was appropriate only where the vessel itself, or bottom, was included in the security. Maude & P. Merch. Sh. 433; Kay's Law of Shipping.

See titles BOTTOMRY BOND; HYPOTHE

CATION.

RESTS. The days of grace which, according to the custom of commercial countries, are allowed for the payment of foreign bills and notes. The word is also used in reference to account between a debtor and a creditor, and in this sense, signifies the making a pause in the account by striking a balance therein (see Butter v. Harrison, Cowp. 566). The account

which is taken against a mortgagee in possession is commonly directed to be taken with rests, and he is thereby charged with interest as from the dates of the respective rests upon the balance of proceeds over interest.

RESULTING USE: See title USE.

RESUMPTION. This word, as used in the stat. of 31 Hen. 6, s. 7, particularly signifies the taking again into the king's hands such lands or tenements as before, upon some false suggestion or other error, he had delivered to the heir, or granted by letters patent to any man (Cowel; Les Termes de la Ley). The policy of the resumption of royal grants of lands, was much agitated after the Revolution in 1688, owing chiefly to the lavish way in which William III. made such grants to the Duke of Portland and others.

RETAINER. Is commonly used to signify a notice given to a counsel by an attorney on behalf of the plaintiff or defendant in an action, in order to secure his services as advocate when the cause comes on for trial. This notice is invariably accompanied with a fee called a retaining fee.

See also titles ATTORNEY; BARRISTER.

RETORNO HABENDO. A writ that lies for the distrainor of cattle, goods, and chattels, &c, (and who, on replevin brought, has proved his distress to be a lawful one), against him who was so distrained, to have them returned to him according to law, together with damages and costs (2 Arch. Pract. 1091). If to the retorno habendo the sheriff returns that the goods, &c., are cloigned, the defendant may then sue out a

RETORNO HABENDO-continued. writ of capias in withernam, requiring the sheriff to take other goods, &c., of the plaintiff instead of those eloigned; and in the absence of any such other goods, the goods of the pledges may then be taken on a sci. fa. 2 Arch. Pract. 1096.

A

RETRAXIT (he has withdrawn). retraxit is an open and voluntary renunciation in Court of a suit by the plaintiff, by which he for ever loses his action. A retraxit is very similar to a nolle prosequi, the difference between them being that a retraxit is a bar to any future action for the same cause, whereas a nolle prosequi is not, unless made after judgment. 2 Arch. Pract. 1515; Herber v. Sayer, 2 Dowl. & L. 65, n. (b).

See title JUDGMENT.

RETURN. This is a word which is commonly applied to writs and judges' summonses, and literally signifies much the same as it does in its popular sense, viz., to return or send back anything. Thus, writs are directed to certain persons (as to sheriffs, for instance), commanding them to perform certain acts, and after a certain time to return the same into the Court again, together with a certificate or memorandum certifying or stating what they have done in pursuance of such command. This memorandum or certificate is written on the back of the writ, and is now commonly called the return to it; so that when a writ is directed to a sheriff commanding him to perform certain acts (as to arrest a man, or to return an M.P. for instance), and the sheriff in due time returns the writ, together with such a memorandum as above described, indorsed thereon, this memorandum is then called the sheriff's return; and for a false return, he is civilly responsible. Before the 2 Will. 4, c. 39, writs for the commencement of personal actions, viz., writs of summons, capfas, and detainer, were obliged to be returned upon certain fixed days in term, which were thence called the return days of the term: now, however, this is not the case, the return day being regulated by the service, or execution, of the writ. The meaning of the word "returnable," as applied to a judge's summons, is nearly the same, signifying the time appointed by the judge in the summons for hearing the parties on the subject-matter of dispute; the summons is said to be returnable at such time, because the party who takes out such summons returns with it at the time therein appointed to the place whence he took it out. 1 Arch. Pract. 160; Smith's Action at Law, 241.

REVE, or GREEVE (from the Sax.

REVE, or GREEVE-continued. gerefa, a prefect). The bailiff of a franchise or manor; hence, shire-reve is used for a sheriff, &c. Cowel.

REVELAND. Such land as having reyerted to the king after the death of his thane, who had it for life, was not afterwards granted out to any other person by the king, but remained in charge on the account of the reve or bailiff of the manor, who it seems usually kept the profit of it himself, till it was discovered and presented to the king. Domesday; Spelman on Feuds.

REVENUE: See title TAXATION.

The

REVERSAL OF JUDGMENT. annulling or making a judgment void on account of some error in the same.

REVERSION. That which reverts or returns to a person. An estate in reversion is defined, or rather described, by Lord Coke to be "the returning of the land to the grantor or his heirs after the grant is determined." The idea of a reversion is founded on the principle that where a person has not parted with his whole estate or interest in a piece of land, all that which he has not given away remains in him, and the possession of the land reverts or returns to him upon the determination of the preceding estate. Thus, if a person who is seised in fee of lands conveys them to A. for life, he still retains the fee simple of the lands, because he has not parted with it; but as that fee simple can only return or fall into possession upon the determination or ending of the preceding estate (i.e., of A.'s estate for life), it is only a fee simple estate in reversion. So that, perhaps, a reversion may be shortly defined

as

"the residue of an estate left in the grantor." The interest which a man has in lands in reversion is commonly called a reversionary interest. 2 Cruise, 395, 396.

REVERSIONARY INTEREST. The right, title, or interest, which a person has in or to the reversion of lands or other property. A right to the future enjoyment of property at present in the possession or occupation of another is also frequently so called.

See title REVERSION.

REVERSIONS, SALES OF. These are no longer to be set aside on the ground of undervalue merely (31 Vict. c. 4); but this statute does not affect the jurisdiction of Courts of Equity over improper sales by unwary young men. Tyler v. Yates, L. R. 6 Ch. 665.

See also title USURY.

REVERTER, FORMEDON IN: See title FORMEDON.

REVEST. To place one in the possession of anything of which he has been divested, or put out of possession. See 1 Roper, Husband and Wife, 353. It is opposed to DIVEST.

REVIEW, BILL OF. A bill filed to reverse a decree in Chancery, which, after it has been duly inrolled, a party may find good grounds for having reversed, either from error apparent on the face of it, or from new facts discovered since the decree was made, or at least since publication passed in the cause, and which consequently could not be used when the decree was made. 2 Dan. Ch. 1422; Hunter's Suit in Eq. 182. This bill is an alternative remedy with an appeal to the House of Lords.

See also title RE-HEARING.

REVIEW, COMMISSION OF. A commission sometimes granted in extraordinary cases to reverse the sentence of the Court of Delegates when it was apprehended they had been led into a material

error.

REVIEW, COURT OF. A Court established by 1 & 2 Will. 4, c. 56, for the adjudicating upon such matters in bankruptcy as before were within the jurisdiction of the Lord Chancellor. It formed a constituent and most important part of the Court of Chancery, and exercised a general jurisdiction in bankruptcy, the same as had theretofore been exercised by the Lord Chancellor; and all such matters to be heard and determined in the Court of Review were to be subject to an appeal to the Lord Chancellor on matters of Law and Equity, or on the refusal or admission of evidence. This Court has long ceased to exist, and in lieu of it there is an appeal to the Lords Justices in Chancery, or (in matters of unusual legal importance) to the Lord Chancellor and Lords Justices together. See Bankruptcy Act, 1869.

REVIEWING TAXATION. The retaxing or re-examining an attorney's bill of costs by the Master. The Courts sometimes order the Masters to review their taxation, when, on being applied to for that purpose, it appears that items have been allowed or disallowed on some erroneous principle, or under some mistaken impression. Arch. Pract.

REVIVING. In law signifies much the same as it does in its popular sense, viz., renewing, calling to life again, &c. Thus, when a certain time (formerly a year and a day, but now six years) has elapsed after judgment is signed, without execution being sued out upon it, the law presumes that the judgment has been exe