BATTALION, a fmall body of infantry, ranged in form of battle, and ready to engage. A battalion usually contains from 500 to 800 men; BATTATAS, the Indian name of the potatoe. BATTEL, a town of Suffex, five miles north-weft not in them appeal to the decifion of Providence. An- Battel' 1. The laft trial by battel that was waged in the When the tenant in a writ of right pleads the general iffue, viz. that he hath more right to hold than the demandant hath to recover; and offers to prove it by the body of his champion, which tender is accepted by the demandant; the tenant in the first place muft produce his champion, who, by throwing down his glove as a gage or pledge, thus wages or ftipulates battel with the champion of the demandant; who, by taking up the gage or glove, ftipulates on his part to ac cept the challenge. The reafon why it is waged by champions, and not by the parties themselves, in civil actions, is becaufe, if any party to the fuit dies, the fuit must abate and be at an end for the prefent; and therefore no judgment could be given for the lands in question, if either of the parties were slain in battel: and alfo that no perfon might claim an exemption from this trial, as was allowed in criminal cafes, where the battel was waged in perfon. BATTEL, in law, or Trial by wager of Battel, a fpecies of trial of great antiquity, but now much difufed. It seems to have owed its original to the military spirit of our ancestors, joined to a fuperftitious frame of mind; it being in the nature of an appeal to Providence, under an apprehenfion and hope (however prefumptuous and unwarrantable), that heaven would give the victory to him who had the right. The decifion of fuits, by this appeal to the God of battels, is by fome faid to have been invented by the Burgundi, one of the northern or German clans that planted themselves in Gaul. And it is true, that the firft written injunction of judiciary combats that we meet with, is in the laws of Gundebald, A. D. 501, which are preferved in the Burgundian code. Yet it does not seem to have been merely a local cuftom of this or that particular tribe, but to have been the common ufage of all those warlike people from the earliest times. And it may alfo feem, from a paffage in Velleius Paterculus, that the Germans, when firft they became known to the Romans, were wont to decide all contefts of right by the A piece of ground is then in due time fet out, of 60 fword: for when Quintilius Varus endeavoured to in- feet fquare, inclofed with lifts, and on one fide a court troduce among them the Roman laws and method of erected for the judges of the court of common pleas, trial, it was looked upon (says the hiftorian) as a no- who attend there in their fcarlet robes; and also a bar vitas incognita difciplinæ, ut folita armis decerni jure is terminarentur. And among the ancient Goths in Sweden we find the practice of judiciary duels established upon much the fame footing as they formerly were in our own country. This trial was introduced in England among other Norman cuftoms by William the Conqueror; but was only used in three cafes, one military, one criminal, and the third civil. The first in the court martial, or court of chivalry and honour; the fecond in appeals of felony; and the third upon iffue joined in a writ of right, the laft and moft folemn decision of real property. For in writs of right the jus proprietatis, which is frequently a matter of difficulty, is in queftion; but other real actions being merely queftions of the jus poff fionis, which are ufually more plain and obvious, our ancestors did prepared for the learned ferjeants at law. When the court fits, which ought to be by funrifing, proclamation is made for the parties and their champions; who are introduced by two knights, and are dreffed in a coat of armour, with red fandals, barelegged from the knee downwards, bareheaded, and with bare arms to the elbows. The weapons allowed them are only batons, or itaves, of an ell long, and a four-cornered leather target; fo that death very feldom enfued this civil combat. In the court military, indeed, they fought with fword and lance, according to Spelman and Rufhworth; as likewife in France, only villeins fought with the buckler and baton, gentlemen armed at all points. And upon this, and other circumftances, the prefident Montefquieu hath with great ingenuity not only deduced the impious cultom of private duels upon imagi nary Battel. nary points of honour, but hath alfo traced the heroic madness of knight-errantry from the fame original of judicial combats. But to proceed : • See Ap peals, When the champions, thus armed with batons, arrive within the lifts or place of combat, the champion of the tenant then takes his adverfary by the hand, and makes cath that the tenements in difpute are not the right of the demandant; and the champion of the demandant, then taking the other by the hand, fwears in the fame manner that they are; fo that each champion is, or ought to be, thoroughly perfuaded of the truth of the cause he fights for. Next an oath against forcery and enchantment is to be taken by both the champions, in this or a fimilar form: "Hear this, ye juftices, that I have this day neither eat, drank, nor have upon me neither bone, ftone, ne grafs; nor any inchantment, forcery, or witchcraft, whereby the law of God may be abafed, or the law of the devil exalted. So help me God and his faints " The battel is thus begun, and the combatants are bound to fight till the ftars appear in the evening: and, if the champion of the tenant can defend himself till the ftars appear, the tenant fhall prevail in his caufe; for it is fufficient for him to maintain his ground, and make it a drawn battel, he being already in poffeffion; but, if victory declares itfelf for either party, for him is judgment finally given. This victory may arife from the death of either of the champions: which indeed hath rarely happened; the whole ceremony, to fay the truth, bearing a near refemblance to certain rural athletic diverfions, which are probably derived from this original. Or victory is obtained if either champion proves recreant, that is, yields, and pronounces the horrible word of craven; a word of difgrace and obloquy, rather than of any determinate meaning. But a horrible word it indeed is to the vanquished champion: fince, as a punishment to him for forfeiting the land of his principal by pronouncing that flameful word, he is condemned as a recreant, amittere liberam legem, that is, to become infamous, and not to be accounted liber et legalis homo; being fuppofed by the event to be proved forfworn, and therefore never to be put upon a jury, or admitted as a witness in any cause. This is the form of a trial by battel; a trial which the tenant, or defendant in a writ of right, has it in his election at this day to demand; and which was the only decifion of fuch writ of right after the conqueft, till Henry II. by confent of parliament introduced the grand afife, a peculiar fpecies of trial by jury, in concurrence therewith; giving the tenant his choice of either the one or the other. Which example, of difcountenancing thefe judicial combats, was imitated about a century afterwards in France, by an edict of Louis the Pious, A. D. 1260, and foon after by the reft of Europe. The establishment of this alternative, Glanvil, chief juftice to Henry II. and probably his adviser herein, confiders as a moft noble improvement, as in fact it was, of the law. therefore, if the appellant or approver be a woman, a priest, an infant, or of the age of 60, or lame, or blind, he or fhe may counterplead and refufe the wager of battel; and compel the appellee to put himself upon the country. Alfo peers of the realm, bringing an appeal, fhall not be challenged to wage battel, on account of the dignity of their perfons; nor the citizens of London, by fpecial charter, because fighting feems foreign to their education and employment. So likewife, if the crime be notorious; as if the thief be taken with the mainour, or the murderer in the room with a bloody knife, the appellant may refuse the tender of battel from the appellee; and it is unreasonable an innocent man fhould take his life against one who is already half-convicted. The form and manner of waging battel upon appeals are much the fame as upon a writ of right; orly the oaths of the two combatants are vastly more ftriking and folemn. The appellce, when appealed of felony, pleads not guilty; and throws down his glove, and declares he will defend the fame by his body: the ap. pellant takes up the glove; and replies that he is ready to make good the appeal, body for body. And thereupon, the appellee taking the book in his right hand, and in his left the right hand of his antagonist, fwears to this effect: Hoc audi, homo, quem per manum teneo, &c. "Hear this, O man, whom I hold by the hand, who calleft thyfelf John by the name of baptifm, that I, who call myself Thomas by the name of baptifm, did not feloniously murder thy father, William by name, nor am any way guilty of the faid felony. So help me God, and the faints; and this I will defend againft thee by my body, as this court fhall award." award." To which the appellant replies, holding the bible and his antagonist's hand in the fame manner as the other: "Hear this, O man, whom I hold by the hand, who calleft thyfelf Thomas by the name of baptifm, that thou art perjured; and therefore perjured, because that thou felonioufly didft murder my father, William by name. So help me God, and the faints: and this I will prove against thee by my body, as this court fhall award." The battel is then to be fought, with the same weapons, viz. batons, the fame folemnity, and the fame oath against amulets and forcery, that are used in the civil combat: and if the appellee be fo far vanquished that he cannot or will not fight any longer, he fhall be adjudged to be hanged immediately; and then, as well as if he be killed in battel, Providence is deemed to have determined in favour of the truth, and his blood fhall be attainted. But if he kills the appellant, or can maintain the fight from funrifing till the ftars appear in the evening, he fhall be acquited. So alfo, if the appellant becomes recreant, and pronounces the horrible word craven, he shall lofe his liberam legem, and become infamous; and the appellee fhall recover his damages, and alfo be for ever quit, not only of the appeal, but of all indictments likewife for the fame offence. BATTEN, a name that workmen give to a fcantling of wooden ftuff, from two to four inches broad, and about one inch thick; the length is pretty confiderable, but undetermined. This term is chiefly ufed in fpeaking of doors and windows of shops, &c. which are not framed of whole deal, &c. with ftiles, rails, and pannels like wainfcot; but are made to appear as if they were Battel, Batten. Battery. Battenburg were by means of thefe battens bradded on the plain Battering board round the edges, and fometimes crofs them, and up and down. BATTENBURG, a town of Dutch Guelderland, feated on the north banks of the Meufe, almost oppofite to Ravenftein. E. Long. 5. 35. N. Lat. 50. 55. BATTERING, the attacking a place, work, or the like, with heavy artillery. To batter in breach, is to play furiously on a work, as the angle of a half-moon, in order to demolish and make a gape therem. In this they obferve never to fire a piece at the top, but all at the bottom, from three to fix feet from the ground. The battery of a camp is ufually furrounded with a trench, and pallifadoes at the bottom, with two redoubts on the wings, or certain places of arms, capable of covering the troops which are appointed for their defence. See BATTERY. BATTERING- Ram, in antiquity, a military engine ufed to batter and beat down the walls of places befieged. It is faid to have been invented by Artemanes of Clazomene, a Greek architect who flourished 441 B. C.-The machine is thus defcribed by Jofephus It-is a vaft beam, like the maft of a fhip, ftrengthened at the one end with a head of iron, fomething refembling that of a ram, whence it took its name. This was hung by the middle with ropes to another beam, which lay acrofs two pofts; and hanging thus equally balanced, it was by a great number of men drawn backwards and pufhed forwards, ftriking the wall with its iron head. But this engine did moft execution when it was mounted on wheels, which is faid to have been firft done at the fiege of Byzantium under Philip of Macedon. Plutarch informs us, that Marc Anthony, in the Parthian war, made ufe of a ram fourfcore feet long: and Vitruvius tells us, that they were fometimes 106, and fometimes 120, feet in length; and to this perhaps the force and ftrength of the engine was in a great measure owing. The ram was managed at one time by a whole century of foldiers; and they being fpent were feconded by another century, fo that it played continually without any intermiffion. Plate XCV. fig. 1. reprefents the battering-ram fufpended. 2. The ram. 3. The form of its head, faftened to the enormous beam by three or four bands of iron, four feet in breadth. At the extremity of each of these bands (4) was a chain (5) of the fame metal, one end of which was faftened to a hook (6), and at the other extremity of each of thefe chains was a cable firmly bound to the laft link. Thefe cables ran the whole length of the beam to the end of the ram (7), where they were all bound together as faft as poffible with fmall ropes. To the end of thefe cables another was fixed, compofed of feveral ftrong cords platted together to a certain length, and then running fingle (8). At each of thefe feveral men were placed, to balance and work the machine. 10. The chain or cable by which it hung to the crofs beam (11), fixed on the top of the frame. 12. The bafe of the machine.-The unfufpended 1am differed from this only in the manner of working it for inftead of being flung by a chain or cable, it moved on fmall wheels on another large beam. BATTERING-Rams, in heraldry, a bearing or coat N° 42. of arms resembling the military engine of the fame BATTERY, in the military art, a parapet thrown BATTERY of Mortars differs from a battery of guns; for it is funk into the ground, and has no embraffures. Cross-BATTERIES, are two batteries which play a thwart one another upon the fame object, forming there an angle, and beating with more violence and deftruc tion; because what one bullet fhakes, the other beats down. BATTERY funk or buried, is when its platform is funk or let down into the ground, fo that there must be trenches cut in the earth, against the muzzles of the guns, for them to fire out at, and to serve for embraffures. BATTERY d'Enfilade, is one that fcours or fweep the whole length of a straight line. BATTERY en Echarpe is that which plays obliquely. BATTERY de Reverfe, that which plays upon the enemy's back. Camerade BATTERY is when feveral guns play at the fame time upon one place. BATTERY, in law, is the unlawful beating of another. The leaft touching of another's perfon wilfully, or in anget, is a battery, for the law cannot draw the line between different degrees of violence, and therefore totally prohibits the firft and loweft ftage of it; every man's perfon being facred, and no other having a right to meddle with it, in any the flightest manner. And therefore, upon a fimilar principle, the Cornelian law de injurii prohibited pulfation as well as verberdtion; diftinguishing verberation, which was accompa nied with pain, from pulfation which was attended with none. But battery is in some cases justifiable or lawful; as where one who hath authority, a parent or mafter, gives moderate correction to his child, his fcholar, or his apprentice. So alfo on the principle of self-defence: for if one ftrikes me first, or even only affaults me, I may ftrike in my own defence; and if fued for it, may plead fon assault demesne, or that it was the plaintiff's own original affault that occafioned it. So likewife in defence of my goods or poffeffion, if a man endeavours to deprive me of them, I may juftify laying hands upon him to prevent him; and in cafe he perfifts with violence, I may proceed to beat him away. Thus too in the exercife of an office, as that of church-warden or beadle, a man may lay hands upon another to turn him out of church, and prevent his difturbing the congregation. And if fued for this or the like battery, he may fet forth the whole case, and plead that he laid hands upon him gently, melliter |