445 



DEAN OF GUILD. 



DECEMVIRI. 



446 



ment, and functions, personal and capitular, of Rural Deans,' by Wil- 

 liam Dansey, 1 835. 



The office existed in other parts of Christendom. 



2. Dean in a Cathedral Church. The canons who formed the bishop's 

 council were presided over by a dean ; this has been the case from the 

 remotest times. [CANOU.] Decanus et Capitv.lu.rn, is the form in which 

 all the acts of such communities run. 



Anciently the deans were elected by the chapters; but here, as in 

 other points, the royal power has encroached on the privileges of the 

 Church. Now the form is for the crown to issue a cmigf d'dire, 

 naming the person whom the chapter is to choose, in the bishoprics of 

 ancient foundation ; but in the bishoprics founded by Henry VIII., the 

 king names the dean by his letters patent merely. In the former case 

 the bishop is called in to confirm the election, and he issues his 

 mandate for the installation of the person elected. In the bishoprics 

 of St. David's and Llandaff the office of the bishop and dean is united 

 in the same person. 



3. Deam in Peculiarg. There are in England certain ecclesiastical 

 promotions, in which the person holding them is called by the name of 

 dean, and they seem to have all had anciently, as some of them have 

 now, capitular bodies connected with them, and in all there is some- 

 thing peculiar in reference to their spiritual superiors, and in the juris- 

 diction exercised by them. The principal of them are the dean of 

 Westminster; the dean of the chapel of St. George, of Windsor; the 

 dean of Christ Church, Oxford ; the dean of the Arches ; the dean of 

 the King's Chapel ; the dean of Battel ; the dean of Booking ; the 

 dean of Middleham, &c. If the history of these foundations were 

 traced to their origin, it would be seen that they were ecclesiastical 

 establishments, mostly of royal foundation, possessing peculiar pri- 

 vileges and a peculiar jurisdiction, which escaped dissolution when the 

 framework of the ecclesiastical institutions of England underwent 

 some alteration at the time of the Reformation. There are also Hono- 

 rary Deam, as the dean of the Chapel Royal of St. James's Palace. 

 The Bishop of London is dean of the province of Canterbury, and the 

 Archbishop of Canterbury sends to him his mandate for summoning 

 the bishops of his province in Convocation. 



DEAN OF GUILD, in the municipal system of Scotland, is, as the 

 title will naturally suggest, an officer of the merchant guilds, or 

 societies of trading persons. An officer with this title used generally 

 to be a member of the town council of every burgh, large or small ; 

 but by a clause in the Burgh Reform Act of Scotland (3 & 4 Win. IV. 

 c. 76, sec. 24), the functions of the dean of guild are appointed to be 

 performed in each of the smaller burghs by some member of the 

 council, chosen by the majority ; and an officer chosen by the guildry, 

 and entitled to sit as a member of the council, became peculiar to 

 Edinburgh, Glasgow, Dundee, and Perth. By the Act 1593, c. 184, 

 the dean of guild was invested with extensive judicial powers in com- 

 mercial questions, but this jurisdiction has long been in desuetude. 

 His principal powers are now of an nxlile character. They are consue- 

 tudinary not fixed by any general law, but dependent on the local 

 customs of the Tarious towns, so far as these have not been checked in 

 their divergence from a general principle by the decisions of the 

 courts. His authority is thus defined: "It belongs to the dean of 

 guild to take tare that buildings within burgh be agreeable to Liw, 

 neither encroaching on private property, nor on the public streets or 

 passages, and that bouses in danger of falling be thrown down." The 

 dean's authority is generally exercised in a court, of which he is the 

 sole or the principal judge, according to local usage. His proceedings 

 are sometimes conducted with the advice of a professional assessor. 



The want of such an officer has been much felt in England ; where 

 somewhat analogous powers have latterly been conferred on Town 

 Councils and Local Boards. 



DEBENTURE (Latin, ilcbcntur, from debeo, to owe), formerly 

 written debentur, is a kind of certificate used at the Custom House, 

 which entitles a merchant exporting goods, upon which a drawback or 

 bounty is allowed, to receive payment. The word has been used in 

 some acts of parliament to denote a bond or bill, by which the govern- 

 ment, railway, and other companies, are charged to pay a creditor or 

 bis assigns the money due on auditing his account. Debentures were 

 used to secure the arrears of pay to the soldiery during the Common- 

 wealth, and are mentioned in the Act of Oblivion, 12 Car. II., cap. 8. 

 They are in use now in the receipt of Exchequer.) 



DEBT, ACTION OF, lies for the recovery of a sum certain, or 

 capable of being ascertained, due upon bond, deed under seal, or 

 simple contract, or upon the judgment of a foreign or colonial court. 

 It may also be maintained against a gaoler for the escape of a prisoner 

 in execution, or upon a statute by the party grieved, or by common in- 

 former. Previous to 3 & 4 Will. IV. c. 42, the defendant in an action 

 f ']"l>t on simple contract (except for rent) was allowed to wage his 

 law, for which reason the action of atmmpeit was frequently preferred; 

 but the action of dtltt has ever since been the better remedy in sucli 



s, the judgment being final in the first instance ; and the distinction 

 between the actions of debt and amumpsil has now been abolished for 

 all practical purposes by the Common Law Procedure Act of 1852. 

 The action nf debt will not lie for money due by instalments till all the 

 days are past, unless the payment be secured by a penalty, or the 

 amount to be paid on each day be specified. 

 HKBT, NATIONAL. [NATIONAL DEBT.] 



DECAGON, a figure of ten sides ; but the term is most commonly 

 applied to an equilateral and equiangular decagon, or a regular decagon. 

 [REGULAR FIGURES.] 



DECANTATION, an operation often resorted to both in common 

 life and in chemical operations ; it is the process of pouring off tlie 

 clear portion of a fluid from that which contains suspended impuri- 

 ties, or from the impurities themselves when they have perfectly 

 subsided. Sometimes this method is employed in order to avoid the 

 use of niters ; and there are cases in which it is preferable, as when 

 the solution is so acid or alkaline that it would destroy paper oi- 

 lmen. 



DECAPITATION, beheading ; a punishment, in all probability, of 

 very ancient date, and certainly known among the Greeks and Romans. 

 Xenophon, at the close of the second book of the ' Cyropsedia,' says, 

 that losing the head was looked upon as the most honourable death. 

 The decollation, as it is called, of St. John Baptist shows the existence 

 of this punishment among the Jews under the Roman government of 

 Judaxi. Suetonius (' Calig.' c. 32) tells-us that Caligula kept a soldier, 

 an artist in beheading, who decapitated prisoners in his presence, 

 fetched indiscriminately for that purpose from the gaols. Hoveden 

 and Florence of Worcester agree that Earl Waltheof , who was beheaded 

 by William the Conqueror in 1075, was the first Englishman who 

 suffered that punishment. 



In a manuscript quoted by Lysons, relating to the earls of Chester, 

 it is stated that the Serjeants or bailiffs of the earls had power to 

 behead any malefactor or thief who was apprehended in the fact, or 

 against whom guilt was proved by sufficient witness, or confession 

 before four inhabitants of the four neighbouring towns ; and it appears 

 that the beheading of malefactors was the usual mode of execution in 

 this county ; for in a roll of 3 Edward II. it is called the custom of 

 Cheshire. (Lysons' ' Magna Britannia, Cheshire,' p. 299, from the 

 Hail, manuscript 2009, fol. 34, b.) 



From another part of this work it appears that criminals convicted 

 of felony were punished in the same manner in the barony of Malpas ; 

 and that this power was even exercised by the several possessors of the 

 moiety and fourth parts of that barony. In the 6 Edward II., David 

 Bulkeley, Serjeant of the peace to Richard Sutton, presented the heads 

 of two felons executed for burglary ; and Hugh Cholmondeley, serjeant 

 of the peace to John de St. Pierre, presented the head of Thomas 

 Burness, executed for theft, and had his fee called the radyng fee. 

 (Ibid., pp. 677, 678, from the Harleian manuscript 2079, fol. 124 and 

 131.) The foresters of Hardwicke, in Yorkshire, had this punishment 

 allotted to them for theft. 



At a somewhat later period decapitation became a punishment more 

 especially appropriated to the higher orders of society. Henry VIII. 

 beheaded two of his queens. Elizabeth beheaded a sister sovereign. 

 The High Court of Justice beheaded Charles I. In 1644, Archbishop 

 Laud %s condemned by the two houses of parliament to suffer death 

 by hanging ; and the only favour granted to him upon supplication, 

 after delay and with reluctance, was, that his sentence should be changed 

 to beheading. Losing the head still continues to be considered the 

 most honourable mode of receiving capital punishment in England ; 

 but there has been no recent instance of its being inflicted. The last 

 was in the case of the rebel lords of 1745. 



In Fiance, criminals capitally convicted are beheaded. [GUILLOTINE.] 



DECAY. [EHEMACAUSIS.] 



DECEMBER. This month still retains the original name assigned 

 to it in the Alban, and first Roman calendar adopted according to tra- 

 dition by Romulus, iu both of which it was the tenth, as the name 

 signifies, or last of the year. Our Saxon ancestors called it Mifc pincen- 

 monalS, mid-irinter-nvmth, and jehul or ynle-montli, from j^ehf eol, a wheel, 

 emblematical of the sun's revolution or return in his annual course. 



December was anciently consecrated to Saturn, and in it the satur- 

 nalia were held ; Alexander ab Alexandro, in his Genialium Dierum 

 Libri sex,' says to Vesta, the daughter of Saturn. In the Alban calen- 

 dar this month consisted of thirty-five days. Romulus reduced it to 

 thirty ; and Numa to twenty-nine days. Julius Caesar restored the 

 day of which Numa had deprived it ; and Augustus added another day, 

 which it still retains. Commodus, who attempted to change the mines 

 of several of the months, with the assistance of his flatterers, gave that 

 of Amazonius to this, iu honour of his mistress, Martia, whom he de- 

 lighted to see clothed iu the Amazonian habit. 



DECE'MVIRI, or ten men, the title of various magistrates or 

 functionaries in ancient Rome. 



1. Decemriri leyibus sa-i/tendis, that is, ten men for the purpose of 

 making a new code of laws, were certain extraordinary magistrates, or 

 rather a commission of ten men, invested with the power both of 

 framing a new code and administering the republic. In the early times 

 of ancient Rome the judicial power belonged to the kings, and, after 

 their expulsion, to the consuls, who did not decide according to written 

 laws, but only according to usages and customs. As such usages and 

 customs were necessarily subject to doubt, and as the consuls were 

 chosen only from the patrician order, the disputes between patricians 

 and plebeians were probably often decided partially in favour of the 

 former ; and this would happen more especially in criminal cases, for 

 which no certain law was provided. These circumstances led to the 

 institution of the decemvirs. 



After many violent struggles, the senate and the plebeians, B.C. 453, 



