Elmes's Practice in Lunacy, 1 vol.
Hunter's Suit in Equity, 1 vol.
Morgan's Chancery Acts and Orders,
1 vol.

Morgan and Davey's Costs in
Chancery, 1 vol.

Pemberton on Supplement and Re-
vivor, 1 vol.

Roche and Hazlitt on Bankruptcy, 1 vol.

Seton on Decrees, 2 vols.

III. REAL AND PERSONAL PROPERTY.

(A.) General Principles.

Burton's Compendium, 1 vol. Dart's Vendors and Purchasers, 2 vols.

Elton on Copyholds, 1 vol.

Fawcett's Landlord and Tenant, 1 vol.

Jarman on Wills, 2 vols.

Platt on Leases, 2 vols.

Preston on Conveyances, 3 vols.
Estates, 1 vol.

Scriven on Copyholds, 1 vol. Shelford's Real Property Statutes,

1 vol.

ABANDONMENT.

This is a word of very general application, and bears in every instance of its use its natural or popular meaning. Thus, the abandonment of children, or their desertion and exposure, for the law as to which see R. v. Falkingham (L. R. 1 C. C. R. 222); also, the abandonment of a distress or of an execution, for the law as to which see titles DISTRESS and EXECUTION; also, the abandonment of the excess of a claim in order to give jurisdiction to the County Court, for the law as to which see COUNTY COURT JURISDICTION,are so many uses of the word. For Abandonment in the law of Marine Insurance, see title MARINE INSURANCE; and see also two following titles.

ABANDONMENT OF LEGAL PROCEED

INGS.

Such abandonment may either be voluntary, where the plaintiff does it of his own accord, or compulsory, where the defendant compels him either to abandon or to continue his action. The plaintiff may not voluntarily abandon his action, even although adverse, without first satisfying the defendant his costs (Pugh v. Kerr, 5 M. & W. 164). Under the C. L. P. Act, 1854, the application of the defendant to compel an abandonment is to be made on summons, s. 92. In case the plaintiff voluntarily abandons his action, he should give prompt notice thereof to the defendant, in order to save further costs. See Pugh v. Kerr, supra.

See

ABANDONMENT OF RAILWAYS. Abandonment of Railways Act, 1850 (13 & 14 Vict. c. 83), and the other Acts in Godefroi and Shortt's Law of Railway Companies.

ABATEMENT OF ACTIONS AND SUITS. As applied to actions or suits, this word denotes that for some cause or other the suit is become defective, and can no longer be proceeded with until such defect is removed. Various provisions have been made by recent statutes preventing or remedying such abatements,-of these provisions the principal are the following:

1. C. L. P. Act, 1852, ss. 135-140, where the death of parties is or (but for that Act) would have been the cause of the abatement.

ABATEMENT OF ACTIONS AND SUITS --continued.

2. C. L. P. Act, 1852, s. 141, where the marriage of a feme sole (party) is, or (but for that Act) would have been, the cause.

3. Bankruptcy Act, 1869, s. 80, for the case of bankruptcy, and

4. Chancery Jurisdiction Amendment Act, 1852 (15 & 16 Vict. c. 86), s. 52, which enacts that upon any suit becoming abated by death, marriage, or otherwise, or defective by reason of some change or transmission of interest or liability, it shall not be necessary to exhibit any bill of revivor or supplemental bill in order to obtain the usual order to revive such suit, or the usual or necessary decree to carry on the proceedings; but an order to the effect of the usual order to revive or of the usual supplemental decree may be obtained as of course upon an allegation of the abatement of such suit, or of the same having become defective, and of the change or transmission of interest or liability, such order to be served upon the successors in interest or liability, and (when the same is served, to have the effect of rendering such successors parties to the abated suit, with liberty nevertheless to discharge the order for sufficient cause assigned.

In the

ABATEMENT OF NUISANCE. case of a public nuisance the party abating same must have sustained some particular or special damage from it, i.e., some damage other than and besides the general inconvenience sustained by the public at large (Mayor of Colchester v. Brook, 7 Q. B. 339); but in the case of a private nuisance the party prejudiced may at once abate same (Lonsdale (Earl) v. Nelson, 2 B. & C. 302). However, the abatement must be made without any breach of the peace, and also without doing any unnecessary damage (Roberts v. Rose, 4 H. L. C. 163). Under the statute 18 & 19 Vict. c. 121, and the other Acts relative to the preservation of the public health, local authorities and their officers may abate nuisances in the manner mentioned in the Acts.

See also title NUISANCE.

B

ABATEMENT OF POSSESSION. This is that species of injury to real property which is committed when a stranger, upon the death of an owner in fee, enters upon and takes possession of the land in exclusion of the heir or devisee of such deceased owner.

See also titles DISSEISIN; INTRUSION. ABATEMENT OF RENT. This is an agreement to accept a less sum for rent than that comprised in the original agreement. No parol agreement to make such abatement is binding. Levinge v. O'Brien, 4 Ir. Jur. 22.

an

ABATEMENT OF WRIT. This is the defeat or overthrow of a writ. Thus, in stat. 11 Hen. 6, c. 2, the words are, that the justices shall cause the said writ to be abated and quashed. So in Staundf. P. C. 148, it is said that an appeal shall abate and be defeated by reason of covin or deceit.

ABATEMENT, PLEAS IN. These pleas, which are also called dilatory pleas, because they delay for the time the further progress of the suit, or action, or prosecution, are pleas of some matter not material to the merits of the proceeding, but technically necessary or proper; and as such they are opposed to pleas in bar or peremptory pleas. They occur either in civil or in criminal proceedings.

I. In civil proceedings,-They are the following:

(1.) To the jurisdiction of the Court;
(2.) To the person of the plaintiff';
as that (a) he is an outlaw;
or (b) an alien;

or (c) an excommunicated

or (c) misdescribed (addition);

(4.) To the writ and action, and formerly

(5.) On account of certain events happening, namely,

(a.) The demise of the sovereign,
corrected by 1 Edw. 6, c. 7,
and other subsequent sta-
tutes;

(b.) The marriage of the cor-
(c.) The death parties rected
by C. L. P. Act, 1852, and
Chancery Jurisdiction Act,
1852.

II. In criminal proceedings, they are, generally speaking, the same; but under the statute 7 Geo. 4, c. 64, s. 19, no indictment or information is to be abated for

ABATEMENT, PLEAS IN-continued. misnomer, or addition, but the same shall be amended if the Court is satisfied by affidavit of the true name or description. See Rex v. Shakspeare, 10 East, 83.

Inasmuch as pleas in abatement are odious, they must be certain to every intent (2 Wms. Saund. 620), and must go so far as to specify the true mode of procedure (Evans v. Stevens, 4 T. R. 227); and the same rule holds good in criminal cases also (O'Connell v. Reg. (in error), 11 Cl. & F. 155). And so a plea in abatement for non-joinder of defendants should mention all the co-defendants who are not joined (Crellin v. Calvert, 14 M. & W. 11). Every such plea must also be verified by affidavit (4 & 5 Anne, c. 16, s. 11), otherwise the plaintiff may sign judgment (Poole v. Pembrey, 1 Dowl. 692); and such affidavit must be delivered with the plea, unless an extension of time be granted. The time for pleading is also very limited, being four days after declaration. Ryland v. Wormwald, 5 Dowl. 581.

Upon issue joined on a plea in abatement, the judgment, when for the plaintiff, may be of either of two kinds, namely,

(1.) Final, as when the issue is an issue of fact;

(2.) Respondeat ouster, as when the issue is one of law.

Large powers of amendment are, however, now given by the C. L. P. Acts, 1852 and 1854, in cases of the non-joinder or mis-joinder of parties; for which see titles MIS-JOINDER and NON-JOINDER.

Pleas generally, whether in bar or in abatement, must be pleaded in the following order, which is invariable, namely,— (i.) To the jurisdiction;

(ii.) In abatement,

(a.) To the person (1) of the plaintiff, or (2) of the defendant,

(b.) To the count,

(c) To the writ;

(iii.) In bar of the action.

Pleading a plea in any one of these classes is a waiver of the right to plead in any of the preceding classes.

See also title PLEA IN BAR.

ABBAT, called also Abbot, was a spiritual lord, and an abbacy was the lordship with the revenues thereof and the spiritual duties attaching thereto. In England, abbats were either elective or presentative; and again some abbats were mitred, having episcopal authority, and not being themselves subject to the jurisdiction of any diocesan, but others were unmitred, and were subject to such jurisdiction. The mitred abbats alone were lords of parliament. It is supposed that there were twenty-seven such parliamentary abbats. All the abbacies are supposed to have been