end of marriage proves that polygamy and polyandry are contrary to the law of nature. Hence it follows that the husband and wife have a mutual and exclusive right over each other. 4. Man from his birth is wholly unable to provide for the least of his necessities; but the love of his parents supplies for this weakness. This is one of the most powerful laws of nature. The principal duties it imposes on the parents are to bestow on the child all the care its weakness requires, to provide for its necessary food and clothing, to instruct it, to provide for its wants, and to use coercive means for its good, when requisite. 5. The religious sentiment which leads us naturally towards the Supreme Being is one of the attributes which belong to humanity alone; and its importance gives it the rank of the moral law of nature. From this sentiment arise all the sects and different forms of worship among men. The need which man feels to live in society is one of the primitive laws of nature whence flow our duties and rights; and the existence of society depends upon the condition that the rights of all shall be respected. On this law are based the assistance, succors, and good offices which men owe to each other, they being unable to provide each every thing for himself. LAW OF THE STAPLE. See Law MERCHANT. LAWFUL. Legal. That which is not contrary to law. That which is sanctioned or permitted by law. That which is in accordance with law. The terms "lawful," "unlawful," and "illegal" are used with reference to that which is in its substance sanctioned or prohibited by the law. The term "legal" is occasionally used with reference to matters of form alone: thus, an oral agreement to convey land, though void by law, is not properly to be said to be unlawful, because there is no violation of law in making or in performing such an agreement; but it is said to be not legal, or not in lawful form, because the law will not enforce it, for want of that written evidence required in such cases. LAWFUL MONEY. Money which is a legal tender in payment of debts: e.g. gold and silver coined at the mint. 2 Salk. 446; 5 Mod. 7; 3 Ind. 358; 2 How. 244; 3 id. 717; 16 Ark. 83. See 1 Hempst. C. C. 236. LAWING OF DOGS. Mutilating the fore-feet of mastiffs, to prevent them from running after deer. 3 Blackstone, Comm. 71. LAWLESS COURT. An ancient local English court, said to have been held in Essex once a year, at cock-crowing, without a light or pen and ink, and conducted in a whisper. LAWLESS MAN. An outlaw. LAWSUIT. An action at law, or litiga tion. LAWYER. One skilled in the law. LAY. In English Law. That which relates to persons or things not ecclesiastical. In the United States, the people are not by law divided, as in England, into ecclesias tical and lay. The law makes no distinction between them. In Pleading. To state or to allege. The place from whence a jury are to be summoned is called the venue, and the allegation in the declaration of the place where the jury is to be summoned is, in technical language, said to lay the venue. 3 Stephen, Comm. 574; 3 Bouvier, Inst. n. 2826. LAY CORPORATION. A corporation composed of lay persons or for lay purposes. Angell & A. Corp. 28-30; 1 Sharswood, Blackst. Comm. 470. TO LAY DAMAGES. To state at the conclusion of the declaration the amount of damages which the plaintiff claims. LAY DAYS. In Maritime Law. The time allowed to the master of a vessel for loading and unloading the same. In the absence of any custom to the contrary, Sundays are to be computed in the calculation of lay days at the port of discharge. 10 Mees. & W. Exch. 331. See 3 Esp. 121. They differ from DEMURRAGE, which see. LAY FEE. A fee held by ordinary feudal tenure, as distinguished from the ecclesiastical tenure of frankalmoign, by which an ecclesiastical corporation held of donor. The tenure of frankalmoign is reserved by stat. 12 Car. II., which abolished military tenures. 1 Sharswood, Blackst. Comm. 101. LAY IMPROPRIATOR. Lay rector, to whom the greater tithes are reserved, the lesser going to the vicar. 1 Burn, Eccl. Law, 75, 76. LAY PEOPLE. Jurymen. Finch, Law, 381. LAYMAN. In Ecclesiastical Law. One who is not an ecclesiastic nor a clergy man. LAZARET, LAZARETTO. A place, selected by public authority, where vessels coming from infected or unhealthy countries are required to perform quarantine. See HEALTH. consider of it. This phrase is used by the LE ROI S'AVISERA. The king will English monarch when he gives his dissent to an act passed by the lords and commons. The same formula was used by the late king of the French for the same purpose. 1 Touilier, n. 52. See VETO. LE ROI LE VEUT. The king assents. This is the formula used in England, and formerly in France, when the king approved of a bill passed by the legislature. I Toullier, n. 52. LE ROI VEUT EN DELIBERER. The king will deliberate on it. This is the formula which the late French king used when he intended to veto an act of the legislative assembly. 1 Toullier, n. 42. GA USE. A term applied to ing the use of a fine: .e. specise use the fine shall enure before levied. 2 Sharswood, Blackst. See DEED. G CASE. A case decided by ast resort, which decides some oint in question, and to which constantly or frequently made, pose of determining the law in tions. ments go to the constitution of a eading case: among which are, of the case, the character of the mount of consideration given to the freedom from collateral mattions. The term is applied to ding either in a particular state -n law. A very convenient means the law upon any subject is found, ection of a leading case upon the an arrangement of authorities the questions decided. See BenLead. Crim. Cas.; Smith, Lead. & W. Sel. Dec.; Tudor, Lead. variety of others. G COUNSEL. That one of counsel employed on the same use who has the principal manthe cause. So called as distinthe other, who is called the zel. NG QUESTION. In Practice. which puts into the witness's mouth be echoed back, or plainly sugswer which the party wishes to m. 7 Serg. & R. Penn. 171; 4 247. In that case the examiner ad him to the answer. It is not to determine what is or is not a stion. stions cannot, in general, be put s in his examination in chief. 3 . 130; 6 id. 483; 1 Phillipps, Ev. kie, Ev. 123. But, in an examiief, questions may be put to lead the witness to the subject of inthey are allowed when it appears wishes to conceal the truth or to pposite party, or where, from the ie case, the mind of the witness directed to the subject of inquiry rticular specification of such submpb. 43; 1 Stark. 100. examinations, the examiner has e right to put leading questions. Ev. 132; 3 Chitty, Pract. 892; . Ev. 94; 3 Bouvier, Inst. n. 3203, E. A measure of length, which three geographical miles. The of the United States extends into marine league. See Acts of Conine 5, 1794, 1 Story, U. S. Laws, April 20, 1818, 3 Story, U. S. Laws, ait, State Papers, 195. See CAN II.-2 In Criminal Law. A conspiracy to do an unlawful act. The term is but little used. In Contracts. An agreement between on war against their common enemies. Se- ! LEAKAGE. The waste which has taken By the act of March 2, 1799, s. 59, 1 Story, LEAL. Loyal; that which belongs to the law. LEAP YEAR. See BISSEXTILE. LEASE. A species of contract for the possession and profits of lands and tenements either for life or for a certain term of years, or during the pleasure of the par ties. 2. One of its essential properties is, that its duration must be for a shorter period than the duration of the interest of the lessor in the land; for if he disposes of his entire interest it becomes an assignment, and is not a lease. In other words, the granting of a lease always supposes that the grantor reserves to himself a reversion in the leased premises. And a distinction is to be noted between a leaso and a mere agreement for a lease. The whole possession to be given. 21 Vt. 172; 24 Wend. N. 3. The party who leases is called the lessor, he The words lease and demise are frequently used to When a lessee parts with the estate granted to bim, reserving any portion thereof, however small, he makes an underlease. Taylor, Landl. & Ten. 14; 15 Wend. N. Y. 667; 2 Ohio, 221; 8 Pick. Mass. 339; 1 W. Blackst. 482; 13 Mees. & W. Exch. 209. The estate created by a lease, when for years, is called a term (terminus), because its duration is limited and determined,-its commencement as well as its termination being ascertained by an express agreement of the parties. And this phrase signifies not only the limitation of time or period granted for the occupation of the premises, but includes also the estate or interest in the land that pass during such period. A term, however, is perfected only by the entry of the lessee; for previous to this the estate remains in the lessor, the lessee having a mere right to enter, which right is called an inter esse termini. 1 Washburn, Real Prop. 292-297; 5 Barnew. & C. 111; 5 Coke, 23 b; Croke Jac. 60; 1 Barnew. & Ald. 606; 1 Brod. & B. 238. 4. Any thing corporeal or incorporeal lying in livery or in grant may be the subjectmatter of a lease; and therefore not only lands and houses, but commons, ways, fisheries, franchises, estovers, annuities, rent charges, and all other incorporeal hereditaments, are included in the common-law rule. Sheppard, Touchst. 268; 23 Penn. St. 106; 3 N. Y. 151; 1 Root, Conn. 318. See 1 Washburn, Real Prop. 310. Goods, chattels, or live | stock may also be demised; and, although rent cannot technically be said to issue out of these, the contract for its payment is good, and an action for rent in arrear may be maintained upon such leases. Coke, Litt. 57 a; 3 Hen. & M. Va. 470; 31 Penn. St. 20. 5. Leases are made either by parol or by deed. The former mode embraces all cases where the parties agree either orally or by a writing not under seal. The technical words generally made use of in the written instrument are, "demise, grant, and to farm, let;" but no particular form of expression is required in any case to create an immediate demise. 8 Bingh. 182; 9 Ad. & E. 650; 5 Term, 168; 2 Wend. N. Y. 438; 1 Den. N. Y. 602; 8 Penn. St. 272; 12 Me. 135; Williams, Real Prop. 327. Any permissive holding is, in fact, sufficient for the purpose, and it may be contained in any written memorandum by which it appears to have been the intention of one of the parties voluntarily to dispossess himself of the premises for any given period, and of the other to assume the possession for the same period. Taylor, Landf. & Ten. § 26; 1 Washburn, Real Prop. 300. The English statute of frauds, of 29 Charles II., first required all leases exceeding three years to be in writing; and this statute has been generally adopted in the United States. But New York, Connecticut, Michigan, Indiana, and Illinois have reduced the period of an oral lease to one year. 1 Washburn, Real Prop. 299, 391; 5 Ad. & E. 856; Browne, Stat. of Frauds, 501-532. 6. A written agreement is generally sufficient to create a term of years, 3 Greene, N. J. 116; 21 Wend. N. Y. 635; but at common law every conveyance of a freehold interest was required to be by deed. This rule is in force in New York and South Carolina, and, consequently, applies to leases for life in those states. Virginia and Kentucky require all estates exceeding a term of five years to be by deed; while Vermont and Rhode Island apply the rule to a term that exceeds one year. In Louisiana, it must, in addition, be registered in the office of a notary. In England, by a recent statute, all leases that are required to be in writing must also be under seal. 4 Kent, Comm. 443; Taylor, Landl. & Ten. 234. See Browne, Stat. of Frauds, Appx. 503-531. 7. All persons seised of lands or tenements may grant leases of them, unless they happen to be under some legal disability: as, of unExch. 487; 4 id. 17; 9 id. 309; 8 Carr. & P. sound mind, immature age, or the like, 2 679; 10 Pet. 65; 5 Pick. Mass. 431; 11 id. 304; 17 Wend. N. Y. 133; 4 Dev. & B. No. C. 289; 1 N. H. 75; and in case of many of these disabilities the leases are voidable merely, and not void. See, as to infants, 10 Pet. 65; 5 Ohio, 251; 15 id. 192; 11 Humphr. Tenn. 468; 11 Johns. N. Y. 539; 14 id. 124; intoxicated persons, 13 Mees. & W. Exch. 623; married women, Smith, Landl. & Ten. 48; 1 Platt, Leases, 48; 19 N. H. 483. See PARTIES; CONTRACTS. But it is essential to the validity of a lease that the lessor has, at the time he undertakes to make the grant, pos session of the premises; otherwise, whatever he does will amount to nothing more than the assignment of a chose in action. Croke Car. 109; Sheppard, Touchst. 269. For this reason, it was held in Pennsylvania that a purchaser at a sheriff's sale who had not received his deed could not make a valid lease. 1 Penn. St. 402. 8. But, unless there is an adverse holding, possession will be deemed to follow the ownership. And although a lease may not be sufficient to authorize a lessee to demand possession for the want of a possessory title in his lessor, it will still operate by way of estoppel, and enure to his benefit if the lessor afterwards comes into possession of the land before the expiration of the lease. Bacon, Abr. Leases (14); Croke Eliz. 109; 28 Barb. N. Y. 240; 2 Hill, N. Y. 554; 16 Johns. N. Y. 110, 201; 5 Ark. 693; 7 Mann. & G. 701. 9. The power to lease will, of course, depend upon the extent of the lessor's estate in the premises; and if he has but an estate for life, his lease can only be coextensive therewith; when for a term of years, its commencement as well as its termination must be ascertained, for certainty in these respects is of the essence of a term of years. But although this term may not at first appear to be certain, it may be rendered so by reference to some fact or event: as, if a lease be made to a man for so many years as he has in the manor of Dale, and he happens to have a term of two years in that manor, the lease will be good for that period. Coke, Litt. 45 b; 3 Term, 463; 4 East, 29; 1 Mees. & W. Exch. 533. 10. Lord Coke states that, originally, ex could not endure beyond an or- spective parties are regulated by law in the ration of forty years, lest men absence of any particular agreement in reinherited; but the doctrine had spect thereto; but express covenants are quated even in his day, and at usually inserted in a lease, for the purpose time there is no limitation to a of limiting or otherwise defining their rights rs except in the state of New and duties in relation to repairs, taxes, inland cannot be leased for agri-surance renewals, residence on the premises, poses for a longer period than modes of cultivation, fixtures, and the like. See Coke, Litt. 45 b, 46 a; 9 3 Ohio, 334: 1 Platt, Leas. 3; 1 Real Prop. 310. es of uncertain duration, or if no on agreed upon for the continuaerm, or if after the expiration of tenant continues to hold over, effort on the part of the landlord im, the tenancy is at the will of . And it remains at will until yment and receipt of rent on acew tenancy, or until the parties me other act which recognizes of a tenancy, from which event a tenancy from year to year. either party has a right to terefore the expiration of the curon which they have entered, nor at having first given reasonable e other party of his intention to length of this notice is regulated ates of the different states. 11 .616; 13 Johns. N. Y. 109; 8 Ired. No. C. 294; 3 Zabr. N. J. formal parts of a lease by deed he date, which will fix the time encement, unless some other peified in the instrument itself for e; but if there is no date, or an one, the time will be considered ommenced from the delivery of 2 Johns. N. Y. 231; 15 Wend. N. Barnew. & C. 272. Second, the e parties, with respect to which ws but one Christian name; and e middle letter of the name of is immaterial, and a person may w he is as well known by one other. 14 Pet. 322. Third, some must appear, although it need t is technically called rent, or a ender of compensation for the use nises; but it may be a sum in he natural affection which one or the other. It may also consist nimals, or the personal services e. 3 Hill, N. Y. 345; 1 Speers, Fourth, the description of the ed not specify all the particulars ect-matter of the demise, for the will follow the principal thing 1, the garden is parcel of a dwelland the general description of a des all the houses and lands apto the farm. 9 Conn. 374; 4 an. 330; 9 Cow. N. Y. 747. But rtain premises are parcel of the not is always matter of evidence. N. Y. 434; 3 Barnew. & C. 870. rights and liabilities of the re 12. In every well-drawn lease, provision is made for a forfeiture of the term in case the tenant refuses to pay rent, commits waste, or is guilty of a breach of the covenant to repair, insure, reside upon the premises, or the like. This clause enables the lessor or his assigns to re-enter in any such event upon the demised premises and eject the tenant, leaving both parties in the same condition as if the lease were a nullity; but in the absence of a proviso for re-entry the lessor would possess no such power, the mere breach of a covenant enabling him to sue for damages only. 3 Wils. 127; 2 Cow. N. Y. 591; 2 Öv. Tenn. 233. The forfeiture will generally be enforced by the courts, except where the landlord's damages are a mere matter of computation and can be readily compensated by money. 7 Johns. N. Y. 235; 4 Munf. Va. 332; 2 Price, Exch. 200. But in case of a forfeiture for the non-payment of rent, the proviso is allowed to operate simply as a security for rent, and the tenant will be relieved from its effects at any time by paying the landlord or bringing into court the amount of all arrears of rent, with interest and costs. 13. A lease may also be terminated before the prescribed period if the premises are required to be taken for public uses or improvements, or the subject-matter of demise wholly perishes or is turned into a house of ill fame. 24 Wend. N. Y. 454; 29 Barb. N. Y. 116; 5 Ohio, 303. The same result will follow when the tenant purchases the fee, or the fee descends to him as heir at law; for in either case the lease is merged in the inheritance: since there would be a manifest inconsistency in allowing the same person to hold two distinct estates immediately expectant on each other, while one of them includes the time of both, thus uniting the two opposite characters of landlord and tenant. 10 Johns. N. Y. 482; 2 Carr. & P. 347; Taylor, Landl. & Ten. 502. See LANDLORD AND TENANT. LEASE AND RELEASE. A species of conveyance much used in England, consisting theoretically of two instruments, but which are practically united in the same instrument. It was invented by Sergeant Moore, soon after the enactment of the statute of uses. It is thus contrived: a lease, or rather bargain and sale upon some pecuniary consideration for one year, is made by the tenant of the freehold to the lessee or bargainee. This, without any enrolment, makes the bargainor stand seised to the use of the bargainee, and vests in the bargainee the use of the term for one year, and then the statute immediately annexes the possession. Being thus in pos session, he is capable of receiving a release and documents of the middle ages, also with of the freehold and reversion, which must be the Romance or ancient Castilian, the Limade to the tenant in possession, and ac-mousin, used in the ancient provinces of Arcordingly the next day à release is granted ragon, paleology, Spanish history and chronoto him. logy; and, third, that he could decipher the ancient manuscripts preserved in the archives of Spain, the ancient modes of writing, and the changes introduced in it by time. This examination to be conducted under the superintendence of the Chefe Politico, and the proLEASEHOLD. The estate held by vir- with the observations of the board of exacess-verbal forwarded to the queen, together tue of a lease. The lease and release, when used as a conveyance of the fee, have the joint operation of a single conveyance. 2 Blackstone, Comm. 339; 4 Kent, Comm. 482; Coke, Litt. 207; Cruise, Dig. tit. 32, c. 11. 2. The statute of 4 Ann. c. 16, s. 4, provides that it shall be lawful for any defendant or tenant in any action or suit, or for any plaintiff in replevin, in any court of record, with leave of the court, to plead as many several matters thereto as he shall think necessary for his defence. The principles of this statute have been adopted by most of the states of the Union. 3. When the defendant, in pursuance of this statute, pleads more than one plea in bar to one and the same demand or thing, all of the pleas except the first should purport to be pleaded with leave of the court. But the omission is not error nor cause of demurrer. Lawes, Plead. 132; 2 Chitty, Plead. 421; Story, Plead. 72, 76; Gould, Plead. c. 8, 21; Andr. 109; 3 N. H. 523. 4. Asking leave of court to do any act is an implied admission of jurisdiction of the court, and in those cases in which the objection to the jurisdiction must be taken, if at all, by plea to the jurisdiction, and it can be taken in no other way, the court, by such asking leave, becomes fully vested with the jurisdiction. Bacon, Abr. Abatement (A); Bacon, Abr. Pleas, etc. (E 2); Lawes, Plead. 91; 6 Pick. Mass. 391. But such admission cannot aid the jurisdiction except in such cases. LECTOR DE LETRA ANTIQUA. In Spanish Law. The person duly authorized by the government to read and decipher ancient documents and titles, in order to entitle them to legal effect in courts of justice. The importance of the functions of this officer caused the queen of Spain to issue an ordinance on the 2d of July, 1838, ordering that no person should be permitted to exercise it unless he justified, first, that he was a man of good character; second, that he was twenty-five years of age, and submitted to a strict examination, justifying that he was acquainted with the Latin language, and especially with the idioms of it used in writings miners. Escriche, Dict. LEDGER. In Commercial Law. A book in which are inscribed the names of all persons dealing with the person who keeps it, and in which there is a separate account, composed generally of one or more pages for each. There are two parallel columns, on one of which the party named is the debtor, and on the other the creditor, and presents a ready means of ascertaining the state of the account. As this book is a transcript from the day-book or journal, it is not evidence per se. LEDGER-BOOK. In Ecclesiastical Law. The name of a book kept in the prerogative courts in England. It is considered as a roll of the court, but, it seems, it cannot be read in evidence. Bacon, Abr. LEGACY. A gift by last will. The term is more commonly applied to money or with reference to a charge upon real estate. personal property, although sometimes used 2 Williams, Exec. 947; 5 Term, 716; 1 Burr. 268; 7 Ves. Ch. 391, 522. condition, to vest immediately. 1 Vern. Ch. An absolute legacy is one given without 254; 2 id. 181; 5 Ves. Ch. 461; 19 id. 86; Comyns, Dig. Chancery (I 4). An additional legacy is one given to a legatee to whom a legacy has already been given. It may be either by an increase in a codicil of a prior legacy given in the will, or by another legacy added to that already given by the will. 6 Mod. 31; 2 Ves. Ch. 449; 3 Mer. Ch. 154. An alternative legacy is one by which the testator gives one of two or more things without designating which. A conditional legacy is a bequest whose existence depends upon the happening or not happening of some uncertain event, by which it is either to take place or be defeated. I Roper, Leg. 3d ed. 645. A demonstrative legacy is a bequest of a certain sum of money with reference to a particular fund for payment. Williams, Exec. 995. A general legacy is one so given as not to amount to a bequest of a particular thing or money of the testator, distinguished from all others of the same kind. I Roper, Leg. 3d ed. 170. An indefinite legacy is a bequest of things which are not enumerated or ascertained as to numbers or quantities: as, a bequest by a testator of all his goods, all his stocks in the |