208 



GIFT 



GILBERT 



Oxford, and, after graduating in 1792, travelled on 

 the Continent with Lord Grosvenor's son. His first 

 production, the Baviad (1794), was a satire on the 

 Delia Cruscans (q.v.); in Scott's phrase, it 'squa- 

 bashed them at one blow.' The Mceviad (1796) 

 was levelled against the corrupters of the drama, 

 and An Epistle to Peter Pindar against Dr Wolcot, 

 who retorted with A Cut at a Cobbler. Giffbrd's 

 editorship of the Anti- Jacobin (1797-98) procuring 

 him favour with the Tory magnates, he was ap- 

 pointed to offices that jointly brought him 900 

 a year. In 1802 appeared his translation of Juve- 

 nal, and prefixed thereto an autobiography. He 

 edited the works of Massinger, Ford, Shirley, and 

 Ben Jonson, and in his notes assailed former 

 editors with brutal ferocity. In 1809 he became 

 the first editor of the Quarterly Review, and this 

 post he filled to within two years of his death, 

 on 31st December 1826. Gifford possessed much 

 satirical acerbity and poison, but as a poet he holds 

 no rank Avhatever. As translator and editor of the 

 old English dramatists he did good service ; but 

 his labours in this field were marred by suspicion 

 and malignity. As a critic he was bitterly partial 

 and one-sided ; and his onslaughts on Hazhtt, 

 Leigh Hunt, Lamb, Wordsworth, Shelley, and 

 Keats have as little pretension to fairness and 

 candour as has Hazlitt's own onslaught on him in 

 the Spirit of the Age ( 1825). 



Gift, in English law, means a gratuitous transfer 

 of property. Any person is at liberty to do what 

 he pleases with his own property, and to give it 

 away with or without consideration, if he is so 

 inclined. When he gives away goods or chattels, 

 mere delivery of possession, accompanied by words 

 of gift, is sufficient to transfer the property ; and 

 then the transaction is irrevocable. But if he does 

 not give possession of the goods at the same time, 

 then, that the gift may be binding upon him, he must 

 execute a deed or writing under seal. The reason 

 of this is that a mere verbal promise, without some 

 legal consideration, is nugatory and revocable ; 

 whereas, when a person executes a deed, he is 

 estopped from ever afterwards denying it. Where 

 the property given is not personal, but real, then a 

 deed is in general absolutely necessary to transfer 

 the property. A will is the most familiar example 

 of a gift of property both real and personal, for the 

 testator generally, in such a case, gives away his 

 property gratuitously. A gift of personalty by 

 will is called a legacy or bequest, and a gift of land 

 is called a devise. 



As sometimes the power of giving away property 

 gratuitously is abused in order to defraud and 

 defeat creditors, it is provided by statute that a 

 voluntary conveyance, whether of chattels or land, 

 made by a person who is at the time insolvent, 

 shall be void as against such creditors ; and they 

 are entitled, accordingly, to recover the property 

 from the donee (13 Eliz. chap. 5). The gift, how- 

 ever, even in such a case, stands good against the 

 donor himself. So, if any person give by deed gratui- 

 oously any land, and then sell the same land, the 

 gift will be void against the bond-fide purchaser 

 (27 Eliz. chap. 4). 



There is a peculiar kind of gift, or rather a gift 

 made in peculiar circumstances, called a donatio 

 mortis causa i. e. a gift of personal property made 

 in immediate expectation of death, which is not 

 meant to take effect unless the donor actually dies, 

 and the donee survives him. Such gifts may be 

 made by \vord of mouth ; and they may be proved 

 by the evidence of the donee himself a rule quite 

 inconsistent with the policy of the law, which 

 requires a will to be duly executed and attested by 

 disinterested witnesses. 



In Scotland a gift may be made of goods in 

 the same manner as in England ; but it is usually 



called a donation. Gratuitous alienations by per- 

 sons in insolvent circumstances are also held to 

 be void as against creditors (stat. 1621, chap. 18). 

 Though it is competent in Scotland to make a gift 

 of goods or money by merely delivering the posses- 

 sion thereof, accompanied by words of gift to the 

 donee, still there is this peculiarity, that if the 

 transaction is afterwards impeached it can only be 

 proved in Scotland by the donor's writ or oath, no 

 matter how many witnesses may have been present ; 

 whereas, in England, it can be proved by ordinary 

 witnesses, like any other fact. 



Gift, in the law of Scotland, is also often used 

 to denote a grant or appointment by the crown or a 

 court, such as gifts of non-entry, escheat, tutory, 

 &c. 



Giga, or GIGUE, the name of a short piece of 

 music, much in vogue in olden times ; of a joyful 

 and lively character, and in f or ^ time, some- 

 times in f ; used formerly as a dance-tune, and 

 often introduced as a movement of a larger com- 

 position. Jig is a form of the same word : the 

 Irish jig is a dance- tune in f time. 



Gijon, a seaport of Spain, stands on a peninsula 

 and bay of the Atlantic, 20 miles by rail NE. of 

 Oviedo. It manufactures tobacco, glass, and 

 earthenware ; exports butter, cheese, and fruits, 

 and to Great Britain hazel-nuts and copper ore ; 

 and imports grain, flour, sugar, oil, iron, machinery, 

 spirits, chemicals, and woven goods. Exports, 

 about 100,000 a year; imports 360,000. Here 

 Jovellanos, a native of Gijon, founded the collegi- 

 ate Asturian Institute. Pop. 35,170. 



Gila, a river of the United States, rising in New 

 Mexico, and flowing nearly 650 miles westward, 

 across Arizona, till it joins the Colorado River, 

 about 75 miles above the fall of that river into the 

 Gulf of California. 



Gila Monster is a name commonly given to 

 the poisonous lizard Heloderma suspectiim, also 

 called Sonoran Heloderm. It is one of the largest 

 lizards of North America, and is found in the sandy 



Gila Monster (Heloderma suspectum). 



deserts of New Mexico, Arizona, and Texas. Its 

 scales are brilliant orange and jet black. Its poison- 

 ous qualities it shares with its congener the Helo- 

 derma horridumoi Mexico, which, like snakes, has 

 grooved teeth and highly developed salivary glands 

 at their bases. Its bite is rapidly fatal to small 

 mammals and birds, and very injurious, though 

 seldom fatal, to man. The heloderms are the only 

 lizards ascertained to be venomous. 



Gilbert, ANNE. See TAYLOR. 



Gilbert, SIR HUMPHREY, English navigator, 

 was born at Dartmouth, Devonshire, in 1539, and 

 from Eton proceeded to Oxford. Then, abandoning 



