445 



PETITION OF RIGHT. 



PETJTINGERIAN TABLE. 



443 



requiring the party to appear in court to answer the complaint. Where 

 the claim is against the crown itself, as this course cannot be pursued, 

 the mode of proceeding provided by common law is to present a petition 

 to the crown, praying for an inquiry and for the remedy to which the 

 party conceives himself to be entitled. As by Magna Charta the king is 

 not to delay right, he is bound, if the petition presents that which has 

 the semblance of a legal or equitable claim, to indorse the petition with 

 the words " let right be done ; " which indorsement operates, in the 

 case of a claim of a legal nature, as a warrant and command to the lord 

 chancellor to issue a commission to inquire into the truth of the 

 matters alleged in the petition. A commission accordingly issues to 

 six or eight persons, who summon a jury, of whom not less than twelve 

 or more than twenty-three are impannelled, and who, under the super- 

 intendence of the commissioners, hear the evidence which the peti- 

 tioner, or, as he is called, the suppliant, has to adduce in support of his 

 statement. If the jury negative the allegations contained in the peti- 

 tion, the commission is at an end ; but the suppliant is at liberty to 

 sue out a new commission or commissions till a jury return an inquisi- 

 tion iu which the allegations are found to be true. The crown may, 

 upon this return, insist that the facts alleged by the suppliant, and 

 found by the inquisition, do not in point of law entitle the suppliant 

 to the remedy which he claims. The question of law thus raised by 

 demurrer to the inquisition is argued before the lord chancellor. The 

 crown, however, notwithstanding the finding of the jury, may deny the 

 truth of the facts, or, admitting them to be true, may allege other facts 

 which show that the suppliant is not entitled to what he claims. To 

 such facts the suppliant must reply. Any issue of fact joined between 

 the suppliant and the crown is tried in the court of Queen's Bench, the 

 lord chancellor uot having the power to summon a jury. Final judg- 

 ment is given for or against the suppliant according to the result of 

 the argument upon the demurrer or of the trial of the issue. 



If the suppliant in his petition pray that the investigation may take 

 place in a particular court, and the royal indorsement on the petition 

 directs that course to be pursued, the proceedings take place in the 

 court indicated by the indorsement, instead of the Court of Chancery. 



Before the abolition of the feudal tenures by the Commonwealth 

 (confirmed after the Restoration, by 12 Car. II., c. 24), the rights of 

 the crown and of the subject being often brought into collision, occa- 

 sions for proceeding by petition of right were very frequent, and as 

 this mode of proceeding was dilatory and expensive, two acts, passed 

 in the reign of Edward III., enabled parties aggrieved in certain cases 

 by legal proceedings of the crown, to enter their claim upon those 

 proceedings, without being put to their petition of right, with its 

 expensive commission to inquire. This new course was called a 

 " traverse of office," where the subject denies the matters contained in 

 the " office " or ex parte record constituting the king's title, and a 

 " monstraunce de droit," where the fact* upon which the king's title 

 rests are admitted, but their effect is avoided by the allegation of other 

 facts showing a better title in the claimant. In modern practice the 

 petition of right is not resorted to, except in cases to which neither a 

 traverse of office nor a monstraunce de droit applies, or after those 

 remedies have failed. 



The petition of right U supposed by Lord Coke and others to be no 

 called because the investigation prayed for is demandable as of right, 

 and not granted as a matter of grace or favour ; but the Latin term 

 " petitio justituc," shows that the words are used in the sense of a 

 " petition fur riijhi." 



The petition of right hitherto spoken of is the method of redress pro 

 vided by the common law. The statute 23 & 24 Viet. c. 35, has provided 

 a simpler mode of proceeding. It enables the suppliant to entitle bis 

 petition in any of the supreme courts of law or equity, at Westminster ; 

 and to leave the same with the home secretary for the fiat of the 

 crown. When this fiat is obtained, the petition is served on the soli- 

 citor to the treasury, who must appear and answer it, in the name of 

 the attorney-general ; all the subsequent pleadings and proceedings, 

 including the trial, being according to the ordinary practice of the 

 court in which the suit is pending. The suppliant and the crown in 

 proceedings under this statute may recover costs, which are neither 

 paid nor received by the crown upon a petition of right at common 

 law, BO that the statutory proceeding must in due course supersede the 

 other. 



''iclal. Com.,' Mr. KBIT'S ed., vol. UL, ch. 17.) 

 PETITION OF HKiHT. In the first parliament of Charles L, 

 which met in 1626, the commons refused to grant supplies until certain 

 rights and privileges of the subject, which they alleged had been vio- 

 lated, should have been solemnly recognised by a legislative enactment. 

 With this view they framed a petition to the king, in which, after 

 reciting various statutes by which their righto and privileges were 

 recognised, they pray the king " that no man be compelled to make or 

 yield any gift, loan, benevolence, tax, or such-like charge, without 

 common consent by act of paliament, that none be called upon to 

 make answer for refusal so to do, that freemen be imprisoned or 

 detained only by the law of the land, or by due process of law, and not 

 by the king's special command, without any charge, that persons be 

 not compelled to receive soldiers and mariners into their houses against 

 the laws and customs of the realm, that commissions for proceeding 

 by martial law be revoked : all which they pray as their right* and 

 liberties according to the laws and statute* of the realm." 



To this petition the king at first sent an evasive answer : " The 

 ting willeth that right be done according to the laws and customs of 

 ;he realm, and that the statutes be puf in due execution, that his sub- 

 jects may have no cause to complain of any wrongs or oppressions 

 ;ontrary to their just rights and liberties, to the preservation whereof 

 le holds himself in conscience obliged as of his own prerogative." This 

 answer being rejected as unsatisfactory, the king at last pronounced 

 the formal words of unqualified assent, " Let right be done as it is 

 desired." (1 Car. I., c. 1.) Notwithstanding this, however, the minis- 

 ters of the crown caused the petition to be printed and circulated with 

 the first insufficient answer. 



PETKOLIN. [BiTCMEN.] 



PETHOSELINUM. [PARSLEY.] 



PEUCEDANIN. [IMPEEATORIX.] 



PEUCYL. Tercbi/ene. A liquid resembling camphine, obtained by 

 the action of lime upon the monohydrochlorate of turpentine 



PEUTINGERIAN TABLE is the name given to a map of the 

 roadi) of the ancient Roman world, which is on parchment, and was 

 found in a library at Speyer in the 15th century. It was bequeathed 

 by the proprietor Conrad Celtes to his friend Conrad Peutinger, a 

 learned man of Augsburg, who began to prepare a copy of it for pub- 

 lication, but died in 1547, before he could effect his purpose. Mark 

 Velter however copied it on a scale less than one-half of its original size, 

 and sent his copy to Ortelius, who forwarded it to Muretus, who pub- 

 lished it in 1598. This reduced copy has been inserted in the Ptolemy 

 of Bertius, in Horn's ' Orbis Dehneatio,' and in Bergier's ' Histoire 

 des grands Chemina de 1'Empire Romain.' The original map 

 remained at Augsburg, in the possession of Peutinger's descendants, 

 till 1714, when it' was purchased by a bookseller, and sold by him to 

 Prince Eugene, who gave it to the imperial library of Vienna. An 

 exact copy of it was made by F. C. Von Scheyb, at Vienna, with an 

 introduction and index, and dedicated to the empress Maria Theresa ; 

 ' Tabula Itineraria Peutingeriana, quae in Augusta Bibliotheca Vindo- 

 bonensi mine servatur, adcurate exscripta a Fr. Christoph. L)e Scheyb, 

 cum Indice,' fol., Vienna. 1753. The map is 21 feet in length, and 

 about one foot wide. The author, whoever he was, did not intend to 

 draw a proper geographical map, with the relative positions of 

 countries, but merely to collect all the great roads of the empire 

 into a long narrow strip, marking the stations upon each, and the 

 distances between the stations, for the information of travellers and 

 chiefly of military and civil officers. The towns on the roads are 

 marked by small houses; some, being worthy of particular notice, are 

 designated by square buildings like barracks ; and some more impor- 

 tant towns and military stations, such as Aquileia, Ravenna, &c., are 

 distinguished by walls and towers. Rome is distinguished by a 

 circle with a crowned figure seated in the middle, and the port of 

 Trajan is conspicuously sketched near the right bank of the Tiber, 

 at the mouth of the river. Constantinople is marked by a circle 

 and a figure, which however is not crowned. Autioch is the only 

 other city which is also distinguished by a circle and a figure, in 

 which last Mannert thinks that he recognises the Virgin Mary, 

 which he believes to be an interpolation of some copyist of the 

 middle ages, who had before him an older map of the time of the 

 Pagan emperors. ( Mannert's ' Introduction' to his new edition of 

 Peutinger's Table, folio, Leipzig, 1824.) That the original map was 

 drawn while the old religion of the empire was still dominant, seems 

 proved by the heathen temples which are marked upon it, whilst there 

 is no Christian name, with the exception of St. Peter's at Rome, 

 which is probably also an interpolation of the copyist. 



Several other particulars on the map seem to -fix the date of 

 its original construction to about the time of Alexander Severus, 

 after the Persians had overthrown the Parthian dominion, A.D. 226. 

 The Persi m empire is marked in its full extent and written in large 

 capitals, whilst Parthia is indicated by smaller characters as a province. 

 Palmyra is marked as an important place, with roads leading to it 

 through the desert, which would seem to refer to an epoch previous to 

 its destruction by Aurelian. Edessa in Macedonia is marked under 

 that name, whilst in the Antonine Itinerary it is called Diocletiano- 

 polis. This and other evidence collected by Mannert indicate at all 

 events an epoch between the reign of Alexander Severus and the end 

 of the onl century, making allowance for the interpolations of subse- 

 quent copyists. 



The Peutingerian Table does not always agree with the Antonine 

 Itinerary ; several stations and towns which are in the one are not in 

 the other ; the distances between the stations marked on both some- 

 times disagree ; besides which, in consequence of the form of the map, 

 several roads which are distinct on the Itinerary are placed on the 

 map consecutively, as if they all formed one line ; whilst others, which 

 are single roads on the Itinerary, are cut into two or three in the map. 

 However the Itinerary is still of great use in explaining the map, and 

 the two together are among the most valuable ancient works on geo- 

 graphy which have come down to us. 



The map extends to the right, or east, as far the mouths of the 

 Ganges. Roads are traced through India to several emporia, or places 

 of trade, on the coast. To the west the map ends abruptly on the 

 borders of Spain, including farther north only the eastern part of 

 Britain. It is evident, as Mauuert maintains, that one leaf is wanting, 

 and it has perhaps been lost. 



