ALIEN, in Law, a Person born out of the King’s Allegiance, and consequently not capable of inheriting Lands in England, till naturalized by Act of Parliament. See NATURALIZATION.Of these there are two Kinds, viz. Alien-Friends, who are of those Countries which are at peace and league with us; and Enemies, who are of Countries at war with us. A Man born out of the Land, so it be within the Limits of the King’s Obedience beyond the Seas; or of English Parents out of the King’s Obedience, so the Parents at the Time of the Birth be of such Obedience, is no Alien, but a Subject of the King: Stat. 25 Edw. III. commonly called the Statute De natis ultra mare. Add, that if one born out of the King’s Allegiance come and dwell in England; his Children begotten here are not Aliens, but Denizens. See DENIZEN. Alien Priories, were those Cells of Monks, formerly established in England, which belonged to foreign Monasteries. See PRIORY, ABBEY, MONASTERY, etc.
ALIENATION, Alienatio, in Law, the Act of making a thing another Man’s; or the altering, and transferring the Property and Possession of Lands, Tenements, or other Things, from one Man to another. See TRANSFERRING, POSSESSION, etc.To alienate, or alien, in Mortmain, is to make over Lands or Tenements to a Religious Community, or other Body Politick. See MORTMAIN. To alienate in Fee, is to sell the Fee-simple of any Land, or other incorporeal Right. See FEE.Crown-Lands are only alienable under a Faculty of perpetual Redemption. See REDEMPTION.The Council of Lateran, held in 1123, forbids any Clerk to alienate his Benefice, Prebend, or the like. See PREBEND, etc.
ALIMONY, Alimonia, in Law, anciently signified Nourishment, or Maintenance; but in a more modern Sense, denotes that Portion, or Allowance which a married Woman sues for, upon any occasional Separation from her Husband, wherein she is not charged with Elopement or Adultery. See WIFE, DOWER, etc. This was anciently called Rationale Effoverium, Reasonable Maintenance, and was recoverable in the Spiritual Court; but now only in Chancery.
ALLODIAL, Allodran, in ancient Customs.——Allodra, or Allodran Land, is that whereof a Person has the absolute Property; or which he holds without paying any Service or Acknowledgment to any Superior Lord. See PROPERTY, etc. Such an Inheritance is Allodial, i.e., not subject to any Charge, Service, &c. See FREE LAND. In this Sense, Allodial stands opposed to Feudal, or Beneficiary. See FEE, BENEFICE, etc. —See also ALLODIUM.
ALLUVION, Alluvio, in the Civil Law, an Accessior or Accretion made along the Sea-shore, or the Banks of large Rivers, by means of Tempests or Inundations, Accretion, &c.
The Civil Law places Alluvio among the lawful means of Acquisition; and defines it to be a latent imperceptible Accretion. Hence, where any considerable Portion of Ground is torn away at once, by an Inundation; and joined to some neighbouring Estate; this is not acquired by right of Alluvion, but may be claimed again by the former Proprietor. The Word is formed of the Latin alluo, I wash to; compounded of ad, and lavo, I wash.
The Civil Law places Alluvio among the lawful means of Acquisition; and defines it to be a latent imperceptible Accretion. Hence, where any considerable Portion of Ground is torn away at once, by an Inundation; and joined to some neighbouring Estate; this is not acquired by right of Alluvion, but may be claimed again by the former Proprietor. The Word is formed of the Latin alluo, I wash to; compounded of ad, and lavo, I wash.
ALPHABET, the several Letters of a Language, disposed in their natural or accustomed Order. See LETTER, and LANGUAGE.The Word is formed from the Names of the two first Letters of the Greek Alphabet, Alpha, Beta; which were borrowed from those of the Hebrew, Aleph, Beth. See AREA, etc.
In the English Alphabet, we reckon 26 Letters, viz. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u w v x y z.See each under its proper Article.But as there is a much greater Number of different Sounds in our Language; 'tis not without Reason that some Grammarians maintain, that there ought to be a greater Number of Letters; As also, that the double Letters, x and y, and the superfluous ones, k and g, should be retrenched. See CONSONANT, VOWEL, etc.The French Alphabet only contains 23 Letters.—Pasquier indeed maintains it to consist of 25, by reason he adds the two double Letters & for "et", and ꝯ for "us"; but those are only Abbreviatures.The Abbe d’ Angeau, on better Grounds, reckons 34 different Sounds in the French Tongue; and urges, that the Alphabet ought of Consequence to consist of 34 different Characters, setting aside the double Letters x and y, and the superfluous one q. See FRENCH.The Difference between Languages, with respect to the Number of Letters, is very considerable: The Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Samaritan Alphabets, have each 22; the Arabic 28; the Persian 31; the Turkish 33; the Georgian 36; the Coptic 32; the Muscovite 43; the Greek 24; the Latin 22; the Slavonic 27; the Dutch 26; the Spanish 27; the Italian 20; the Indians of Bengal 21; the Baramas 19.The Ethiopic has no less than 202 Letters in its Alphabet, there being 7 Vowels, which they combine with each of their 26 Consonants; to which they add 20 other aspirated Syllables.— The like is said of the Tartarian; each of their Letters is a Syllable; having one of the Vowels joined to its Consonant: as La, Le, Li, &c.;The Chinese have no Alphabet, properly speaking; except we call their whole Language their Alphabet;their Letters are Words, or rather Hieroglyphics, and are in Number about 80,000. See CHINESE, and CHARACTER.In effect, Alphabets were not contrived with Design, according to the just Rules of Reason and Analogy; but successively framed, altered, &c. as occasion offered—And hence many grievous Complaints as to their Deficiencies;and divers attempts to establish new, and more adequate ones in their place. Bishop Wilkins charges the Alphabets extant with great Irregularities, with respect both of the Order, Number, Power, Figure, &c. -As to the Order, it appears inartificial, precarious, and confused; in that the Vowels and Consonants are not reduced into Classes, with such order of precedence and subsequence as their Natures will bear. Even the Hebrew Alphabet, from which the rest are derived, is not free from this Imperfection. As to Number, they are both redundant, and deficient: Redundant, either by allotting several Letters to the same Power, and Sound; as in the Hebrew ך and כ, and the ordinary Latin c and k, s and ph: or by reckoning double Letters among the simple Elements of Speech; as in the Hebrew צ, the Greek ξ and ψ, the Latin x, cz, sc, and the j Consonant, or Jod.—Deficient in divers respects, especially in regard of Vowels, of which there are seven or eight kinds commonly used; tho the Latin Alphabet only takes notice of five; whereof two, viz. i and u, according to our English Pronunciation, are not properly Vowels, but Diphthongs.Add, that the Difference among Vowels in respect of long and short, is not sufficiently provided for: The Ancients, we know, used to express a long Vowel by doubling its Character; as Aimaabam, Naata, Ree, Seedes, Sanctissimus; tho the Vowel i, instead of being doubled, was frequently prolonged, as apIxis, piso, vivus.—The ways used in English for lengthening and abbreviating Vowels, viz. by adding e quiescent to the End of a Word, for prolonging a Syllable; and doubling the following Consonants, for the Shortening of a Vowel, as Wane Wann, Ware Warr, &c. or else by inserting some other Vowel, for the lengthening of it, as Meat Met, Read Red, &c. are all improper; in that the Sign ought ever to be where the Sound is.As to their Powers, again, those are not always fixed to the same Signification: The Vowels, for instance, are generally acknowledged to have each of them several Sounds: Vocales ouaes plurifone, says Lipsius; and Vossius assures us, the Ancients used their Vowels very different ways, aliquando tenus exilisgite, nunc crassius, nunc intermedio sono. Thus the Power of the Vowel e is expressed in writing no less than six several ways, viz. by e; as in be, me, she, ye: —by ee, in thee, free, we; —by ie, in field, yield, shield, chief; —by ea, in wear, dear, bear;—by eo, in people;—by i, in privilege. So is the Power of the Vowel a; as in all, aul, aw, fault, caught, brought: which are all only various ways of writing the same long Vowel; besides the other distinct ways of expressing the same Vowel when used short: Again, the Power of the Vowel o is written five Ways; o, as in lo, who, move;—oe, in doe.—oo, in foo, moon, noon;—ou, in could, world;—wo, in two; and so of the rest. Nor are the Consonants of more determinate Powers: witness the different Pronunciation of the same Letter (c) in the same Word, Circo; and of g in negligence,—To say no more, the Letters c, s, t, are used alike, to denote the same Power; and the Letter ss is commonly used for z: and which is yet worse, some Letters of the same Name and Shape, are used at one time for Vowels, and at another for Consonants; as i, u, w, y; which yet differ from one another, says Bishop Wilkins, sicut corpus & anima.From this Confusion in the Power of Letters, there arise divers Irregularities; as, that some Words are distinguished in Writing, which are the same in Pronunciation, e.g. Cessia and Sessio, &c. and others are distinguished in Pronunciation, which are the same in Writing; as give, dare, and Give vinculum, &c. Hence also the Latin Asal, is a Disyllable, and the English sale, a Monosyllable.The Names also, in most Alphabets, are very improperly expressed by Words of divers Syllables; as Alpha, Beta, &c. in which respect, the Roman and our English Alphabets, which only name the Letters by their Powers, have a great Advantage over the rest.:Lastly, their Figures are not well concerted; there being nothing in the Characters of the Vowels answerable to the different Degrees of Apertion: nor in the Consonants, analogous to the Agreements or Disagreements thereof. All these Imperfections are endeavoured to be obviated in the Universal Alphabets, or Characters of Mr. Lodowic Bishop Wilkins, &c. See UNIVERSAL CHARACTER.
In the English Alphabet, we reckon 26 Letters, viz. a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u w v x y z.See each under its proper Article.But as there is a much greater Number of different Sounds in our Language; 'tis not without Reason that some Grammarians maintain, that there ought to be a greater Number of Letters; As also, that the double Letters, x and y, and the superfluous ones, k and g, should be retrenched. See CONSONANT, VOWEL, etc.The French Alphabet only contains 23 Letters.—Pasquier indeed maintains it to consist of 25, by reason he adds the two double Letters & for "et", and ꝯ for "us"; but those are only Abbreviatures.The Abbe d’ Angeau, on better Grounds, reckons 34 different Sounds in the French Tongue; and urges, that the Alphabet ought of Consequence to consist of 34 different Characters, setting aside the double Letters x and y, and the superfluous one q. See FRENCH.The Difference between Languages, with respect to the Number of Letters, is very considerable: The Hebrew, Chaldee, Syriac, and Samaritan Alphabets, have each 22; the Arabic 28; the Persian 31; the Turkish 33; the Georgian 36; the Coptic 32; the Muscovite 43; the Greek 24; the Latin 22; the Slavonic 27; the Dutch 26; the Spanish 27; the Italian 20; the Indians of Bengal 21; the Baramas 19.The Ethiopic has no less than 202 Letters in its Alphabet, there being 7 Vowels, which they combine with each of their 26 Consonants;
AMEND, or Amende, in the French Customs, a Mulet, or pecuniary Punishment, imposed by a Sentence of the Judge; for any Crime, false Prosecution, or groundless Appeal. See MURDER, PUNISHMENT, APPEAL, etc.