C E S 



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C E S 





Cenrantetia ceived the approaches of the disease which tcrmina- 

 xistence. He appears to have contemplated 

 IIH dissolution with serenity, and even with gaiety ; 

 though an angry or perhaps a just critic would say, 

 with a l)lame;it>le hardihood or indifference. There 

 is some proof of the insinuation now made, in the 

 letter \vliich he addressed to the Count de Le- 

 .1 short time before his death. And in his last 

 performance, The Troubles of l\-rsilcx and Sigis- 

 wnindu, he mentions, that boing on a journey to To- 

 ledo, a scholar, on learning who he was, sprung in 

 rapture from his mule, and communicated to him a 

 regimen for the dropsy, under which he laboured. 

 But Cervantes declined complying with the advice, 

 adding these words, not remarkable for their serious- 

 ness : " My life is drawing to a period ; and by the 

 daily journal of my purse, which I find will have fi- 

 nished its course by next Sunday at farthest, I shall 

 also have finished my career ; so that you are come in 

 the very nick of time to be acquainted wil/i me." 



See the Life of Cervantes prejixed to the Edition 

 qf Don Quixote, by the Spanish Academy ; Life by 

 Smollet ; (Euvrcs de Florian, vol. ii. ; Aikin's Biogra 

 phical Dictionary, article Cervantes ; and Curiosities 

 of Literature, vol. ii. See also BUTLER, Samuel. (/<) 



CERVANTESIA, a genus of plants of the 

 class Pentandria, and order Monogynia. See BOTA- 

 NY, p. 177. 



CERVUS. See MAMMALIA, Index. 



CESSAVIT, in the law of England, is a writ 

 which lies, by the statutes of Glocester, 6 Edw. I. 

 c. 4. and of Westm. 2. 13 Edw. I. c. 21. and 4-1. 

 against the tenant of a lord by rent or other services, 

 on the ground that he hath, for two years together, 

 neglected to perform his services, or to pay his rent, 

 in terms of his tenure ; or against a religious house, 

 having lands given it on condition of performing cer- 

 tain spiritual service, which it neglects. In either of 

 these cases, if the cesser, or neglect, have continued 

 for two years, the lord or donor, and his heirs, shall 

 have a writ of cessavit to recover the land itself, eo 

 quod tcnens in faciendis servitiis per biennium jam 

 cessavit. 



By the statute of Glocester, the cessavit does not 

 lie for lands let upon fee farm rents, unless they have 

 lain fresh and uncultivated for two years, and there 

 be no sufficient distress upon the premises ; or unless 

 the tenant hath so inclosed the land that the lord can- 

 not come upon it to distrein. And if the tenant 

 come into court before judgment, and tender the ar- 

 rears and damages, and give security for the future 

 performance of his services, the process shall be at 

 an end, and the tenant shall retain the land. If the 

 lord distreins while the writ of cessavit is depending 

 against his tenant, the writ shall abate. Blackst. 

 Comment, b. iii. ch. 15. Jacob's Lau Diet, (z) 



CESSIO BONORUM, in the civil and Scots law, 

 is a process whereby persons who have become in- 

 solvent, by misfortune, may obtain their liberation 

 from imprisonment, upon surrendering their whole 

 estate, real and personal, to their creditors. 



During the period of the Roman republic, the 

 laws against insolvent- persons were exceedingly se- 

 vere ; indeed, so hardly were they dealt with, that they 

 were left almost entirely to the mercy of their credi- 

 tors. By a law of the twelve tables, it had been 



1 



enacted, that debtors, if they were not solvent with- 

 in a specified time, should be delivered over to their 

 creditors, to be kept in chains, and subjected to the 

 harshest treatment. (Aul. Cell. Noct. All. xx. i.) 

 This law produced great discontent among the peo- 

 ple, which necessarily occasioned the introduction of 

 the Lex Poetelta, by which it was enacted, that the 

 persons of debtors should not be given up to the 

 creditors,, but only their effects. As this law, how- 

 ever, provided no means of liberation from imprison- 

 mcnt, and the people were still clamorous for some 

 new enactment on the subject, the cetrio bonorunt 

 was at length introduced by Julius Caesar, which, at 

 first, was only intended for the benefit of Rome and 

 Italy, but was afterwards, before the time of Dio- 

 clesian, extended to the provinces. The prorisions 

 of this remedy are expressed in the following law of 

 the code : Qi bonis cesterint, nisi solidum creditor 

 recenerit, non xunt liberati. In eo eiiirn tantummo* 

 do hoc benejicium eis prodcst, ne judicati , del rah an - 

 tur in carcerem. L,. i. Cod. Q//i oonis cedere pox- 

 sitnt. See also Digest, lib. xlii. tit. S. This law was 

 adopted, in substance, by those among the modern 

 European states, whose systems of jurisprudence 

 were formed upon the model of the Roman code. 



It would appear, however, that a certain degree of 

 infamy was always attached to those who had re- 

 course to this process. The Italian lawyers describe 

 the ceremony of cession to consist in striking the 

 bare breech three times against a stone, called lapis 

 vituperii t in the presence of the judge. Formerly it 

 consisted partly in giving up the girdles and keys i 

 court ; aa the ancients used to carry at their girdles 

 the chief utensils wherewith they got their living. 

 The following is said to have been the form of ces- 

 sion among the ancient Romans and Gauls : theces- 

 sionary gathered up dust in his left hand, from the 

 four corners of the house, and standing on the thresh- 

 old, holding the door-post in his right hand, threw 

 the dust back over his shoulders ; then stripping to 

 his shirt, and quitting his girdle and bags, he leapt 

 with a pole over a hedge ; hereby giving the world 

 to understand that he had nothing left, and that 

 when he jumped, all that he possessed was in the air 

 along with him. 



In modern France, every debtor who claimed the 

 privilege of a judicial cession des biens, was required 

 to appear personally in court, in the most humiliating 



farb, with his doublet unbraced, and no hat on his 

 ead. Afterwards he was carried to the market- 

 place, where the cessio was published. Even the 

 most innocent was compelled to wear a green bonnet, 

 which was his sole protection against imprisonment. 

 In course of time, however, the green bonnet fell 

 into disuse in the case of innocent debtors. 



By the law of Scotland, the process of cessio bo- 

 noruin is competent only before the supreme court ; 

 and the privilege is granted only to those against 

 whom no fraud can be proved. The debtor must 

 have been a. month in prison, at the time of bringing 

 his process. The cessio t both by the civil and Scot* 

 law, operates only as a security against imprisonment, 

 and not as an extinction of the debt ; for if the debt- 

 or acquire any estate, subsequently to his release, it 

 may be attached by his creditors. Persons liberated 

 on a cessio bonorum, are obliged to wear a particu. 



