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WILL, ROMAN. 



WINCH AND AXLE. 



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witnesses, and to call on them to witness that what he so presented to 

 them was his will. It was not unusual for a man to make several 

 copies of his will, and to deposit them in some safe keeping. At the 

 opening of the will the witnesses or the greater part, ii alive and on 

 the spot, were present, and after acknowledging their signatures the 

 will was opened. 



It has been mentioned that, in order to make a Roman will valid, it 

 must appoint or institute a heres. The heres was a person who repre- 

 sented the testator, and who paid the legacies which were left by the 

 will. He stood in the place of the familix emptor, or formal purchaser 

 of the property in the old form of will. A heres might be appointed 

 in such words as follow :" Titius heres esto" ("let Titius be my 

 heres "), or " Titium heredem esse jubeo " (" I will Titius to be my 

 heres "). Generally, all Roman citizens who could make a will could 

 be heredes; but persons could be heredes who could not make a will 

 slaves, for instance, and others who were not nui juris. 



Fraud in the case of wills and other instruments was punished by 

 severe penalties under a Lex Cornelia. 



The development of the Edictal or Praetorian law at Rome intro- 

 duced a leas formal kind of will. If there were seven proper witnesses 

 and seven seals, and if the testator had the power of disposition both 

 at the time of making his will and at the time of his death, the edict 

 dispensed with the ceremony of mancipation and gave to the heres or 

 heredes the bonorum possessio. This mode of testamentary disposition 

 existed under the Republic, and, accordingly, a man could either make 

 his will by the civil form of mancipatio, or he might make it after the 

 praetorian form, with seven seals and seven witnesses, without any 

 mancipatio. The form of testamentary disposition by mancipatio was 

 ultimately superseded by the more convenient praetorian form. The 

 legislation of Justinian required several male witnesses of proper age 

 and due legal capacity ; and it was sufficient if the testator declared 

 his will orally before these witnesses. 



A Roman will, as already observed, was valid if the testator had a 

 disposing power at the time of making his will and at the time of his 

 death. It follows that his will, though made at any time before his 

 death, was sufficient to dispose of all the property that he had at the 

 time of his death. In order to render a Roman will valid, it was 

 necessary that the heredes sui of a man (his sons and daughters were 

 in the class of heredes sui) should either be appointed heredes or 

 should be expressly excluded from the inheritance. A will which was 

 illegal at the time of being made was testamentum injustum ; that is. 

 " non jure factum " (not made in due legal form). A will which was 

 justum might become invalid ; it might become ruptum (broken) or 

 irritum (ineffectual). 



A second will duly (jure) made rendered a former will invalid 

 (ruptum) ; and it was immaterial whether the second will took effect 

 or not. If it was duly made, it rendered a former will of no effect, and 

 the testator died intestate. 



If a testator sustained a capitis diminutio after making his will, 

 that is, if he lost any part of his status of a Roman citizen which was 

 essential to give him a full testamentary power, the will became 

 irritum ( ineffectual). A prior will might become ruptum by the making 

 of a subsequent will ; and such subsequent will might become irritum 

 in various ways ; for instance, if there was no heres to take under the 

 second will. 



Though a will had become ruptum or irrituni, and consequently lost 

 all its effect by the Jus Civile, it might not be entirely without effect. 

 The Bouorum Possessio might be granted by the Pratorian law, if the 

 will was attested by seven witnesses, and if the testator had a disposing 

 power, though the proper forms required by the Jus Civile had not 

 been observed. 



The rule of Roman law. which required heredes eui to be expressly 

 exheredated applied to posthumous children. If a suus heres was born 

 after the making of the will, and was not recognised as heres or exhere- 

 dated in due form, the will became ruptum. This rule of law was thus 

 expressed : " adgnasceudo rumpitur testamentum." There were also 

 cases in which a will might become ruptum by a quasiadgnatio. 



A testament was called Inofficiosum when it was made in due legal 

 form, but not " ex officio pietatis." Thus, when a man did not give 

 the hereditas, or a portion of it, to his own children or to others who 

 were in a near relation to him ; and when there was no sufficient 

 reason for passing them by, the person so injured might have an action, 

 called Inofficiosi Querela. The persons who could maintain this action 

 were particularly defined by the legislation of Justinian. If the testa- 

 mentum was declared by the competent authorities to be inolticiosum, 

 it was rescinded to the amount of one-fourth of the hereditas, which 

 wax distributed among the claimants. 



The ground of the Inofficiosi Querela is explained by Savigny. 

 (' System des Heutiges Rom. Rechts,' ii. 127, &c.) When the testator 

 in his will passed by persons who were his nearest kin, it was presumed 

 that such persons had merited the testator's disapprobation. If this 

 was not so, it was considered that the testator had by his will done 

 them a wrong, and the object of the action was to get redress by 

 setting the will aside. The main object, however, was the establish- 

 ment of the complainant's character, to which the obtaining of part of 

 the testator's property was a subsidiary means. The expression Testa- 

 mentum Inomciosum occurs in Cicero and in Quintilian ; but it in not 

 known when the Inofficiosi Querela waa introduced. 



A Roman codicil (Codicili, for the word is not used in the singular 

 number till a late period under the Empire) was a testamentary dispo- 

 sition, but it had not the full effect of a will. Codicils were, in fact, 

 useless unless there was a will prior or subsequent, which confirmed 

 them either retrospectively or prospectively. (Gains, ii. 270 ; ' Dig.,' 

 29, 7, 8.) 



The subject of Roman wills is of great extent, and it involves ques- 

 tions of considerable difficulty. The principal authorities have been 

 mentioned in this article, to which may be added Ulpian, 'Fragmenta,' 

 tit. 20 ; ' Dig.,' 28, tit. 1, &c. ; 29, tit. 1, &c. ; ' Cod.,' 6, tit. 23.) 



WILLOW, ECONOMICAL USES OF THE. The willow is applied 

 to a very large number of use fxil purposes. The wh$te willow, the weeding 

 willow, and the osier willow, may be regarded as the types of three 

 great classes, marking out three different kinds of applications. Taking 

 them one with another, almost every part of the plant, in each of the 

 three classes, is made available. The leaves of the growing tree furnish 

 food for insects ; the flowers for the honey-bee ;' the young leaves and 

 shoots for cattle, horses, 'and goats. Sometimes they are dried and 

 stored for this last-named purpose. In the north of Europe the 

 inner bark is dried, ground, and mixed with oatmeal for peasants' food 

 in years of scarcity. Willow twigs are much used in rude states of 

 society for bridles, boat-cables, fishing-tackle, and various household 

 implements. The bark of the young shoots is woven by the Russians 

 for the upper parts of their shoes ; while the outer bark serves for the 

 soles. The outer bark as a material, and strips of the inner bark as a 

 fastening, are much used for making baskets and boxes, and roofing 

 houses. The bark, when steeped in water, may easily be stripped into 

 fibres, and spun to make thread for cloth. The bark also yields a black 

 dye.ortanniug ingredient, and a medicinal agent. The wood of the willow 

 is applied to many useful purposes. The timber of the larger trees is 

 soft, smooth, and light. Its lightness led to its employment by the 

 ancients in making shields. It has qualities which render it fitted 

 to be used in making cutting boards for tailors and shoemakers ; 

 sharpening boards for fine steel instruments, such as cork-cutting 

 knives ; many kinds of turnery articles ; shoemakers' lasts, &c. It is 

 durable enough to form a good material for rafters in dry buildings, 

 on account of its lightness. Its softness renders it applicable as a 

 lining for waggons and carts intended to contain coal or stone, as it 

 will not splinter from blows of hard angular materials. Being dur- 

 able in water, it is much employed for water-wheels, floats of paddle- 

 wheels, &c. Before the invention of iron hoops for cart-wheels, felloes 

 were often made of red-willow wood, which speedily shod itself with 

 small angular fragments of durable stone and gravel. The smaller 

 portions of the wood of the trees are applied to an almost infinite 

 variety of purposes. In some cases the straight stems of young trees, 

 either split or whole ; in some, the more vigorous shoots cut in two ; 

 and in some, the smaller shoots are thus employed. Styles for 

 ladders, fencing-poles, hop- poles, vine-props, clothes-props, rake-handles, 

 handles of various tools and implements, hurdles, crates, hampers, hay 

 and straw ricks, barrel hoops, binders for brocoli and other vegetables 

 when sent to market, binders for standard trees and shrubs, skeleton 

 frames for plants, are all made in large quantities from the parts of the 

 willow now under notice. Many ornamental articles are made from . 

 strips or shavings of the wood of the white willow. Such shavings are 

 first obtained in thin layers by a cutting instrument, and then sepa- 

 rated into strips by a kind of steel comb having sharp teeth. The 

 strips or ribbons are woven into a framework for bonnets and for light 

 eilk hats, and into a substitute for straw hats. 



The downy substance which encloses the seed is in some countries 

 used for wadding, and as a stuffing for cushions, beds, pillows, &c. 



Some varieties of the tree are valuable when planted on the banks 

 of rivers and canals, to retain the soil against the encroaching action of 

 the water. Some kinds furnish good coppice, to be cut down every 

 six or eight years for hoops, poles, and faggot-wood. The shrubby 

 species make good hedges. The loppings, branches, and old trunks, 

 when used as fuel, produce when dry a clear fire with little smoke. 

 The wood produces excellent charcoal, especially for gunpowder. 



Especially useful is one large group of willows, in furnishing the 

 oiien for basket-making. The Dutch were the first to use osiers 

 extensively for this purpose; the English imported the twigs from 

 that country ; but early in the present century, chiefly through the 

 encouragement afforded by the Society of Arts, osier culture became 

 extensive at home, and has ever since been continued. The osiers are 

 cut in the form of rods. For coarse work they are used with the bark 

 on ; but for finer work the rods are peeled before being made up 

 into bundles. For some work, again, the rods are used whole ; while 

 for others they are split or bisected. Some particular kinds only .ire 

 known in the market as oners ; all the rest receive the general 

 name of willows. For the mode of use, see BASKETS. 



WINCH AND AXLE is a machine constituting a small windlass, 

 and consisting of a cylinder of wood which in capable of turning on 

 its axis between two upright posts of the same material, or between 

 the ends of a cast-iron frame : a lever at one or at each extremity 

 of the cylinder, is attached to an iron axle passing through the latter 

 at right angles to ita direction, and is furnished with a handle, which 

 is parallel to that axle. The name winch is given to a lever or handle 

 of this kind, and the word is supposed to be derived from the verb 

 yuincher, signifying, in old French, to turn or bend in a curvilinear 



