vol. i. p. 210.) The law on this latter point formed the subject of discussion in the Court of King's Bench in the year 1818, in the cas of Ashford v. Thornton. Upon that occasion the defendant had been acquitted upon a prior indictment for the murder of a female, whom he was supposed to have previously violated. The acquittal of the accused upon evidence which to many appeared sufficient to establish his guilt occasioned great dissatisfaction, and the brother and next heir of the deceased was accordingly advised to bring the matter again under the consideration of a jury by the disused process of an appeal. The defendant waged his battle in the manner above described, and the appellant replied circumstances of such strong and pregnant suspicion as (it was contended) precluded the defendant from asserting his innocence by battle. It was, however, decided by the court that an appeal, being in its origin and nature a hostile challenge, gave to the appellee a right to insist upon fighting, and that the appellant could not deprive him of that right by a mere allegation of suspicious circumstances. The case was settled by the voluntary abandonment of the prosecution. In the following year an act (59 Geo. III. c. 46) was passed to abolish all criminal appeals and trial by battle in all cases, both civil and criminal.

The cases in which, by the ancient law, appeals were permitted, were treason, capital felony, mayhem, and larceny. Indeed, the earliest records of our law contain proofs that appeals were a common mode of proceeding in many ordi nary breaches of the peace, which at this day are the subject of an action of trespass. The wife could prosecute an appeal for the murder of her husband; the heir male general for the murder of his ancestor; and in any case the prosecutor might lawfully compromise the suit by accepting a pecuniary satisfaction from the accused. Hence it was that the proceeding was in fact frequently resorted to for the purpose of obtaining such compensation rather than for the ostensible object of ensuring the execution of justice on the offender. (Hawkins's Crown

Besides the appeal by innocent or injured parties, a similar proceeding was in certain cases instituted at the suit of an accomplice. The circumstances under which this might be done are mentioned under the article APPROVER.

APPEAL. The removal of a Civil cause from an inferior court or judge to a superior one, for the purpose of examining the validity of the judgment given by such inferior court or judge, is called an Appeal.

An appeal from the decision of a court of common law is usually prosecuted by suing out a writ of error, by means of which the judgment of the court below undergoes discussion, and is either affirmed or reversed in the court of error.

The term appeal, used in the above sense, is by the law of England applied in strictness chiefly to certain proceedings in Parliament, in the Privy Council and Judicial Committee of the Privy Council, in the Courts of Equity, in the Admiralty and Ecclesiastical courts, and in the Court of Quarter Sessions.

Thus an appeal lies to the House of Lords from the decrees or orders of the Court of Chancery in this country and in Ireland, and from the decisions of the supreme civil courts in Scotland.

An appeal lies to the king in council from the decrees and decisions of the colonial courts, and indeed from all judicatures within the dominions of the crown, except Great Britain and Ireland.

To the same jurisdiction are referred (in the last resort) all ecclesiastical and admiralty causes, and all matters of lu nacy and idiotcy.

In 1844 an act was passed correcting an anomaly in the former state of the law under which appeals could not be brought before the Privy Council for the reversal, &c. of judgments, of any courts

grant relief. In the bill brought in by Mr. Kelly it is intended to assimilate criminal as much as possible to civil procedure as to appeal. It is left open to the party convicted to move in any of the superior courts for a rule to show cause why there should not be a new trial; upon which motion the court is to be at liberty to deal with the matter as in a civil case, and, on good cause shown, a new trial will take place. Application may be made by a convicted party upon points of law in arrest of judgment. The bill also allows a bill of exceptions, and an ultimate appeal to the House of Lords. To prevent the abuse of the privilege, it is proposed to invest the judge with a discretionary power, either to pass and execute the sentence, or to postpone the passing and execution of it. The measure was opposed by the government, and since the above was written it has been withdrawn.

APPRAISEMENT (from the French aprécier, appriser, or appraiser, and remotely from the Latin pretium, to set a price upon an article). When goods have been taken under a distress for rent, it is necessary, in order to enable the landlord to sell them according to the provisions of the statute 2 William and Mary, sess. | i. c. 5, that they should be previously appraised or valued by two appraisers. These appraisers are sworn by the sheriff, under-sheriff, or constable, to appraise the goods truly according to the best of their understanding. After such an appraisement has been made, the landlord may proceed to sell the goods for the best price that can be procured. By the statute 48 Geo. III. c. 140, an ad valorem stamp duty was imposed upon appraisements.

APPRAISERS (French, apréciateurs) are persons employed to value property. By the statute 46 Geo. III. c. 43, it was first required that any person exercising the calling of an appraiser should annually take out a licence to act as such, stating his name and place of abode, and signed by two commissioners of stamps. By the same statute a stamp duty of 6s. was imposed upon such licences; and unlicensed persons were forbidden to act as appraisers under a penalty of 50l. The duty imposed by the General Stamp Act,

55 Geo. III c. 104, is 10s. The numb of licensed appraisers in London is al nine hundred, and in other parts of E land and Wales there are about sevente hundred.

APPRENTICE (from the French prenti, which is from the verb apprens to learn) signifies a person who is boar by indenture to serve a master for a ce tain term, and receives, in return for services, instruction in his master's pr fession, art, or occupation. In addit to this, the master is often bound to pr vide food and clothing for the apprentic and sometimes to pay him small wage but the master often receives a premium In England the word was once used denote those students of the common is in the societies of the inns of court w

not having completed their professine education by ten years' study in those s cieties, at which time they were qualifie to leave their inns and to execute the fa office of an advocate, upon being calle by writ to take upon them the degree serjeant-at-law-were yet of sufficie standing to be allowed to practise in a courts of law except the court of Com mon Pleas. This denomination of a prentice (in law Latin apprenticni legem nobiliores, apprenticii ad barras, o simply apprenticii ad legem) appears have continued until the close of the six teenth century, after which this term into disuse, and we find the same class advocates designated, from their plead... without the bar, as outer barristers, nos shortened into the well-known term ‘e* risters. (Spelman, Gloss. ad vert Blackstone, Commentaries, vol. i. 23; vis iii. 27.)

The system of apprenticeship in m› dern Europe is said to have grown up conjunction with the system of associa and incorporating handicraft trades in 2twelfth century. The corporations, r* „ said, were formed for the purpose of sisting the oppression of the feudal lor and it is obvious that the union of ar sans in various bodies must have enal.. them to act with more power and ef The restraint of free competition, t maintenance of peculiar privileges, 2: the limitation of the numbers of such as should participate in them, were the

main results to which these institutions tended; and for these purposes a more effective instrument than apprenticeship could hardly be found. To exercise a trade, it was necessary to be free of the company or fraternity of that trade; and as the principal if not the only mode of acquiring this freedom in early times was by serving an apprenticeship to a member of the body, it became easy to limit the numbers admitted to this privilege, either indirectly by the length of apprenticeship required, or more immediately by limiting the number of apprentices to be taken by each master. So strict in some instances were these regulations, that no master was allowed to take as an apprentice any but his own son. In agriculture, apprenticeship, though in some comparatively later instances encouraged by positive laws, has never prevailed to any great extent. The tendency to association indeed is not strong among the agricultural population, combination being, to the scattered inhabitants of the country, inconvenient and often impracticable; whereas the inhabitants of towns are by their very position invited to it.

Subsequently to the twelfth century, apprenticeship has prevailed in almost every part of Europe-in France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, and probably in other countries. It is asserted by Adam Smith, that seven years seem once to have been all over Europe the usual term established for the duration of apprenticeships in most trades. There seems, however, to have been no settled rule on this subject, for there is abundant evidence to show that the custom in this respect varied not only in different countries, but in different incorporated trades in the same town.

In Italy, the Latin term for the contract of apprenticeship was acconventatio. From an old form of an Italian instrument, given by Beier in his learned work De Collegiis Opificum, it appears that the contract, which in most respects closely resembled English indentures of apprenticeship, was signed by the father or other friend of the boy who was to be bound, and not by the boy himself, who testified his consent to the agreement merely by being present.

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In France, the trading associations prevailed to a great extent under the names of" Corps de Marchands" and "Communautés." Many of them had been established by the crown solely for the purpose of raising revenue by the grant of exclusive privileges and monopolies. At the latter end of the seventeenth century there were in Paris six "Corps de Marchands," and one hundred and twenty-nine Communautés," or companies of tradesmen, each fraternity having its own rules and laws. Among these bodies the duration of apprenticeship varied from three to eight or ten years. It was an invariable rule in the "Corps de Marchands," which was generally followed in the "Communautés," that no master should have more than one apprentice at a time. There was also a regulation that no one should exercise his trade as a master until, in addition to his apprenticeship, he had served a certain number of years as a journeyman. During the latter term he was called the "compagnon" of his master, and the term itself was called his "compagnonage." He had also, before being admitted to practise his trade as master, to deliver to the "jurande," or wardens of the company, a specimen of his proficiency in his art, called his "chef d'œuvre." He was then said " pirer à la maîtrise." The sons of merchants living in their father's house till seventeen years of age, and following his trade, were reputed to have served their apprenticeship, and became entitled to the privileges incidental to it without being actually bound. These companies or associations were abolished at the Revolution, when a perfect freedom of industry was recognised by law, and this, with a few exceptions, has continued to the present day. But though the contract of apprenticeship, so far as a fixed period goes, has ceased in France to be imperative upon the artisan, it has not fallen into disuse; a law of 22 Germinal, An XI. (12th April, 1803), prescribes the rights and duties both of master and apprentice. It does not, however, lay down any particular form, and leaves the time and other conditions of the contract to be determined by the parties.

"as

In Germany, though we find the same

- institution, it varies not only in the name, but has some other remarkable peculiarities. The companies, there called gilden, zünfte, or innungen, appear, both on account of moral and physical defects, to have refused admission to applicants for freedom, at the discretion of the elders or masters. They seem to have occasionally admitted workmen who had not served a regular apprenticeship into the lower class of members of a trade; but only those were allowed to become masters who had gone through the regular stages of instruction. The course, which continues to the present day, is as follows:The apprentice, after having served the term prescribed by his indenture (aufdings-brief), is admitted into the company as a companion (gesell), which corresponds in many respects to the French compagnon. Having passed through the years of his apprenticeship, called lehrjahre, satisfactorily, he becomes entitled to receive from the masters and companions of the guild a certificate, or general letter of recommendation (kundschaft), which testifies that he has duly served his apprenticeship, and has been admitted a member of the company, and commends him to the good offices of the societies of the same craft, wherever he may apply for them. With this certificate the young artisan sets out on his travels, which often occupy several years, called wandel-jahre, supporting himself by working as a journeyman in the various towns in which he temporarily establishes himself, and availing himself of his kundschaft to procure admission into the fellowship and privileges of his brother-workmen of the same craft. On his return home, he is entitled, upon producing certificates of his good conduct during his wandel-jahre, to become a master. In Germany, the periods of servitude have varied in different states and at different periods; in general, the term is seven years: but in some instances an apprenticeship of five or three years is sufficient.

Neither in Ireland nor in Scotland have the laws relating to associated trades or apprentices been very rigorously enforced. In Ireland the same system of guilds and companies certainly existed; but, as it was the policy of the English government

to encourage settlers there, little attenti was paid to their exclusive privilege and in 1672 the lord-lieutenant an council, under authority of an Act Parliament, issued a set of rules and r gulations for all the walled towns in Ir land, by which any foreigner was allowe to become free of the guilds and frate nities of tradesmen on payment of a fir of 20s. A statute containing very sim lar enactments was passed in 19 Georg III. The term of apprenticeship, als in Ireland, was of a moderate lengt five years being required by 2 Anne, c. for the linen manufacture, which, by 1 George I. c. 2, was reduced to four year It is asserted by Adam Smith, that the is no country in Europe in which corp ration laws have been so little oppressiv as in Scotland. Three years are there common term of apprenticeship even the nicer trades, but there is no gener law on the subject, the custom being di ferent in different communities.

It is, perhaps, impossible to ascertai precisely at what time apprenticeship first came into general use in Englan But that the institution is one of very ol date is certain, being probably contemp raneous with the formation of the guild or companies of tradesmen. It appear from Herbert's History of the Twelv Livery Companies of London,' that i 1335, when the warder's accounts of th Goldsmiths' Company begin, there wer fourteen apprentices bound to members o the company. In the statutes of the realm however, there is no reference to such a institution for about 200 years after the guilds are known to have existed, appren tices being first incidentally noticed in an act (12 Rich. II. c. 3) passed in 1388. In 1405-6 (7 Henry IV. c. 17) a statute was passed which enacted that no one shall bind his son or daughter apprentice unless he have land or rent to the value of 20s. by the year; the cause of which provision is stated to be the scarcity of labourers in husbandry, in consequence of the custom of binding children ap prentices to trades. In the act (8 Henry VI. c. 11) which repealed this statute in favour of the city of London, the putting and taking of apprentices are stated to have been at that time a custom