STATUTE MERCHANT. 



STEAM AND STEAM-EX( : ! N ! :. 



780 



nt will only. But leases for not more than three years, 

 whereon the rent reserved shall be two-thirds of the full iuiprored 

 value of the thing demised, are ezoepted by the statute, Further, no 

 lease, estates, or interest either of freehold or ternu f yean, or any 

 uncertain interest, not being copyhold or customary interest, shall be 

 assigned, granted, or surrendered except by deed or note in writing. 

 Another section of the statute provides that all declarations or 

 creations of trust or confidences of any land, tenement*, or heredita- 

 ments shall be manifested and proved by some writing signed by the 

 party who is by law enabled to declare such trust, or by hia last will 

 in writing, or they shall be void. The fith section of this statute 

 declared that all devises of lands or tenements, as more particularly 

 described in this section, should be in writing and signed in the 

 manner here prescribed by three or four credible witnesses ; ami the 

 6th section related to the revocation of a devise in writing of lands or 

 tenements. Both these sections arerepealed by the 1 Viet. < -JO. which 

 makes alterations in other provisions also of the Statute of Frauds. 



There are several other important provisions in this statute, which 

 may be omitted here. The puqiose of the statute is to prevent fraud 

 by requiring the evidence of writing, which is a better kind of evi- 

 dence than men'a memory. Its enactments have been usefully 

 amended by the Mercantile Law Amendment Act, 1856, especially 

 with reference to guarantees. 



STATUTK MKIit'HANT. [Acros BURXKL, STATUTE or.] 



STATUTE STAI'LE. [ST.VI-LB.] 



STATUTES OF LIMITATION. There appear to have been no 

 times limited by the common law within which actions might be 

 brought; for though it is said by Bracton (lib. 2, fol. 228), that, 

 " oilmen actiones in mundo infra certa tempora liiuitationem habent ; " 

 yet with the exception of the period of a year and a day, mentioned by 

 Spelman (' Gloss.', 82), as fixed by the ancient law for the heir of a 

 tenant to claim after the death of his ancestor, and for the tenant to 

 make his claim upon a disseisor, all the limitations of actions in 

 the English law have been established by statute. Certain remarkable 

 periods were first fixed upon, within which the cause of action must 

 have arisen. Thus in the time of Henry HI., the limitations in a writ 

 of right, which was then from the time of Henry I., was by the 

 Statute of Morton, c. 8, reduced to the time of Hem-y II. ; and by the 

 Statute of Westminster,!, c. 8, the period within which write of right 

 might be sued out was brought down to the time of Kichard I. (Co. 

 Lit, 114 b.) 



Since the 4 Hen. VII., c. 24, which limited the time within which 

 persons might make their claim to land of which a fine had been levied 

 with proclamations, various statutes have been passed for the 

 purpose of limiting the time within which actions and suits relating to 

 real property may be commenced. The 21 Jac. I., c. 16, enacted 

 generally that no person should make entry into any lands, but within 

 twenty years next after his right of entry accrued. 



By the 9 Geo. III. c. 16, the right of the crown to sue or implead for 

 any manors, lands, or other hereditaments (except liberties or franchises) 

 was limited to sixty years. Before this act, the rule that 

 1 1 mil ui occurrit reyi was universal. It still prevails as a maxim where 

 not abridged by statute. 



The next statute upon this subject is the 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 27, by 

 which great changes were made in the remedies for trying the rights 

 to real property, and which embodies the greater part of the present 

 law of limitations relating thereto. 



No entry or distress can be made or action brought to recover any 

 Und or rent, but within twenty years after the right has accrued to 

 the claimant, or some person through whom he claims. 



But persons under the disability of infancy, coverture, idiotcy, lunacy, 

 unsoundness'of mind, or absence beyond seas, or persons claiming under 

 them, notwithstanding the period of twenty years shall have expired, 

 are to be allowed ten years after the person to whom the right first 

 accrued has ceased to be under any disability or has died. Forty years 

 i -, however, a complete bar. 



No part of Great Britain and Ireland, nor the adjacent islands, is to 

 be deemed beyond seas, within the meaning of this act. 



A mortgagee to whom a payment of principal or interest has been 

 made, or an acknowledgment in writing has been given, has twenty 

 years from the time of such payment or acknowledgment. (7 Will IV 

 and 1 Viet. e. 23.) 



Arrears of dower, or damage? for such arrears, are not recoverable 

 by any action or suit beyond six years before the commencement of 

 the action or suit. Before the act, there was no li it her at 



law '>r in equity to a claim for arrears of dower during the life of the 



heir. No arrears of rent or of interest in respect of any m y charged 



in any manner on land or rent, or any damages i if such 



arrear of rent or interest, can be recovered but wit liin six years next 

 after the same respectively became due, or next after an acknowledg- 

 ment in writing given to the person entitled thereto or his agent, 

 signed by the person by whom the same was payable, or his agent. 



The rents here dealt with are rents charged upon hind only, to whirl, 

 the former statute* did not apply, and not conventional rent*, the 

 limitations as to which are provided for by the 21 Jac c. 16 s 8 and 

 * 4 Will. IV. c. 4i 



Limitations as to tithes and other ecclesiatical property are now 

 regulated by 2 A 8 Will IV. c. 100, and 8 4 4 Will. IV. c. 27. 



.As to advowsons, the 844 Will. IV. c. 27,8. 80, enacts that no 

 Quart impeilit or other action is to be brought after the expiration of 

 the period during which three clerks in succession shall have held the. 

 same, all of whom obtained possession adversely to the right of the 

 person claiming, or of the person through whom he claims, if the times 

 of such incumbencies together shall amount to sixty years, and if not , 

 then after such further period as with the times of such incumbencies 

 shall make up the period of sixty years. 



Limitations as to other incor]x>real rights are now mainly regulated 

 by 2 4 3 Will. IV. c. 71. [PBKSCBIPTION.] 



The limitation in actions of assault and battery, is, by 21 Jac. I. c. 

 16, s. 8, four years after the cause of action arise*. 



Actions of slander must, by the same statute, be commenced within 

 two years next after the words spoken. 



The limitation applicable to actions arising upon simple contract, 

 and actions founded in wrong, is, by 21 Jac. I. c. 16, B. 8,'six years next 

 after the cause of action arises. 



Formerly there was no limitation applicable to a suit for a legacy, 

 though in some cases presumption of payment was admitted. The 8 4 

 I Will. IV. o. 27, . 40, is applicable to all legacies, whether charged 

 on real estate or not. 



The limitation on actions arising upon specialty is, by 3 4 4 Will. IV. 

 c. 42, twenty years. 



Actions of debt for rent upon an indenture of demise, actions of 

 covenantor debt upon bond or other specialty, and actions of del it or 

 icire facial upon recognisance must therefore be commenced an 

 within twenty years after the cause of such actions or suits arise 

 if any acknowledgment has been made, either by writing signed by 

 the party liable, by part payment, or part satisfaction, on account of 

 any principal or interest then due thereon, the person entitled may 

 bring his action for the money remaining unpaid, and so acknowledged 

 to be due, within twenty years after such acknowledgment or part 

 payment, and in case of the plaintiff being under disability, within 

 twenty years of the removal of such disability. 



The limitations of actions on penal statutes is, by 81 KHz. c. 5, s. 5 

 (which act repeals a previous one, the 7 Hen. VIII. c. 3, upon the same 

 subject), two years after the commission of the offence, if the suit be 

 by the crown ; and one year after the commission of the offence if by 

 a private prosecutor. 



A prosecution by the party grieved was not within the statute ; but 

 now, by the 844 Will. IV. c. 42, s. 8, all actions for penalties, 

 damages, or sums of money given to the party grieved by any statute 

 now or hereafter to be in force must be brought within two years after 

 the cause of such actions or suits. 



By the 24 Qeo. II. o. 44, s. 1, actions against justices of the peace 

 and constables or others acting in obedience to their warrants are 

 limited to six calendar mouths. 



There is no time limited by any statute for indictments for fr 

 and other misdemeanors when there is no forfeiture to the queen or 

 to the prosecutor. 



A charity is never considered in equity as absolutely barred by the 

 statutes, or by any rule of limitation analogous to them ; but the court 

 takes notice of a long adverse possession in considering the effect and 

 construction of instruments under which claims are set up on its 

 bebtt 



The statutes of limitation must in general be pleaded positively by 

 the defendant iu any action at law, who wishes to take advantage of 

 them, and it has been held in equity that unless the defendant ebon 

 the benefit of the statutes by plea or answer, he cannot insist upon 

 them in bar of the plaintiff's demand. 



STEALING. [LAIICSNT.] 



STEAM AMI STKA.M-EXGINE.- Steam is the gas or vapour 

 given off by a liquid, when its temperature is raised to such a degree 

 as to cause it to pass into a state of ebullition ; but as the vapour of 

 water so given off is the one most commonly applied in the mechanical 

 arts, attention will be called principally to that particular kind of 

 steam in the ensuing notice. 



Steam or vapour in its natural state, like all gases, is transparent and 

 colourless; its visibility in air being caused by its partial run 

 tion, which gives rise to the funnation of small n water, 



enclosing transparent steam, of such a nature as to refract and absorb 

 light. It seems that the phenomenon of the generation of st< 

 affected by the foil' mely: 1st, that the tempera- 



ture of the ebullition of a liquid is the same at all times, under the 

 :-ame pressure and in a vessel of the same substance : iJml, that the 

 temperature of the liquid remains constant durin,: the wh..|e period of 

 the ebullition, provided the pressure remain the same, and 

 quantity of heat be communicated to the vcs-vl containing the liquid 



tage of the process than at another, the only effect will i 

 a greater quantity of steam will be evolved : ti ! tin- 



liquid will not be raised : 3rd, that the volume of the steam will be 

 much greater than that of the liquid furnishing it. and that the 

 volume of the vapour of water, for instance, will l>e aU.ut IT" 11 films 

 greater than that of the water itself. The tempcratuivs at which 

 particular substances pass into steam are very ditlen nt, it may be 

 added; thus whilst water boils at ^Ii, ether boils at 98'6" ; 

 centrated sulphuric acid, at 0'17 J ; mercury, at 680"; sulphur, at 

 &c. Even the most refractory metals when properly treated can be 



