INTERPLEADER. 



[NTKRPOLATIOK. 



HI 



law, our enlightened principle on the subject of slavery have here 

 been the cause of perplexing difficult!**. \V ith slave-holding countries 

 slavery come* to bo quertion of property, but with u< it call only 

 be a question of government ; and we cannot view any rules regarding 

 property in slave* a* law* relating to private rights, an infringement 

 of which, when held to be criminal in the slave-holding country, must 

 be so alo here. Accordingly in the celebrated caw of the Creole, in 

 1841, when certain American slave* eecaped and found protection in a 

 Britiih settlement, it wa* found that we could not lend them back to 

 their owners a> robber* who had with violence stolen their own 

 penon* from the custody of their proprietor*. 



A* on the one hand the criminal law is that to which this depart- 

 ment of international Uw moot broadly and distinctly applies, on the 

 other hand the position of real or landed property U that to which it 

 ha* generally the least reference. The reason* of this distinct ion 

 are obvious : hi* own personal conduct is that object of the law 

 which a man most completely came* about from one country to 

 another ; hi* connection with landed property is the relation in which 

 a tribunal out of the country in which the property is, can have the 

 least chance of adjudicating. Between these extreme* there are many 

 question* regarding persona in their relation* to each other, and regard- 

 ing contract* as to moreable or personal property. It came thus to be 

 a general principle, that right* connected with landed property must 

 always be settled by the law of the place where the land lies, while 

 questions regarding other property might be subjected to other 

 criterion* of jurisdiction. Perhaps historical circumstance* in the 

 early history of the European nations favoured this division. The 

 Tariou* tribes which occupied the territory of the Roman empire 

 appear to have carried with them their own peculiar laws and customs. 

 (Savigny quotes a letter from Bishop Agobordus, in which he says it 

 often happens that five men, each under a different law, may be found 

 walking or sitting together a state of society at this day exemplified 

 in some oriental nations.) Among all these distinct tribes the feudal 

 system arose a* the general and uniform territorial law ; while by* 

 reason of circumstances which need not be here narrated, the civil 

 law became the ruling principle as to person* in their relation to each 

 other when that relation was not of a feudal character, and as to claims 

 regarding moveable good*. The common law of England has, from 

 other circumstance*, the least affinity with the other European codes 

 in respect to personal relation*. But it has fortunately happened that 

 those department* of the law with which international questions are 

 chiefly concerned, the consUtorial and the admiralty law, have been 

 considered as the legitimate offspring of the civil law, and have adopted 

 in a great measure it* principle* as they have been in practice through- 

 out Europe. The mercantile law of England again has accommodated 

 itself to the custom of merchants; this custom arising, in a great 

 degree, out of the adaptation to modern commerce of the principles 

 of the civil law (the portion of it least in harmony with that of other 

 countries being the bankruptcy law, which is entirely statutory), 

 ha* consequently adapted itself to the exigencies of foreign commerce. 



The conflicts of laws between England and Scotland are to us of 

 oonne the mo*t important and interesting. The consuetudinary law of 

 England has perhaps fewer principles in common with that of Scotland 

 than the Utter ha* with the law of any other country in Europe ; and 

 this divergence ha* been the cause of many difficult questions. In 

 these the law of marriage and that of succession have been particularly 

 fertile. In the former the difference between the institutions of the 

 two countries, when subjected to the principles of international law, 

 ha* been productive of very remarkable effects. On the subject of 

 unce**ion fortunately a aeries of decisions in both countries has 

 settled two very important principles that in the case of landed 

 property it follows the Ux rei tilae, or the law of the place where 

 the property is ; while in moveable or personal property it follows 

 the Irx domicUti, or law of the domicile in which the person leaving 

 it died. 



INTERPLEADER, the name of an action at law, and of a pro- 

 ceeding in equity. When a fieraon holding goods, or owing a debt or 

 duty, is sued by two or more claimants, the court will order them to 

 interplead upon the application of the party sued, and upon his 

 delivering up or offering to deliver up the matter in dispute, and 

 .li^-l.ifning all interest therein. The Sheriff when goods seized by 

 him are claimed by some other penon than the execution, debtor, may 

 also interplead, to have the right ascertained. A similar process is in 

 use in the County Court*. 



INTEKPOLA TION. Every mathematical table consist* of a scries 

 of value* of some algebraical expression corresponding to equidistant 

 values of the letter on which it depend*. Thus, the mo*t extensive 

 table of logarithm* in common use i* a auocewion of value* of log. x, 



.,:.- DB ., . , \,f 10 "i. . 1.""J. ..li'l - "II '.|. ! I 



99.999. The process of interpolation i* that of inserting in a table value* 

 of the tabulated function intermediate to those given in the table. For 

 example, suppose that p, q, r, i, Ac., are written in a table opposite to 

 a, a + 6, a + 26, a + 84, Ac., and it U demanded what i* the value of 

 the function corresponding to a + 24 6 : this i* a question of inter- 

 po'ition. 



Such a question can only be solved approximately, but, generally 

 (peaking, the value* in the table are themselve* but approximations, 

 and the interpolated value* are a* correct a* the tabular one*. Strictly 



speaking, the question itself is indet.-riuiii.ue. for no function can be 

 determined by mean* of any finite number of values, however great. 

 The question is precisely analogous to that of drawing a curve through 

 a given number of points, which may be done in an infinite number of 

 ways, how many point* soever there may be. But if the point* be 

 gradually increasing in distance from a given line, and if it be a 

 condition that the intermediate point* must do the same, then if the 

 point* be near together, any two curve* which satisfy the conditions 

 must very nearly coincide. If equidistant abscissae of such a curve be 

 tabulated with their ordinates, then the ordinates corresponding to 

 intermediate abscissa: will be very nearly the Borne for any curve which 

 can pass through the point* which belong to the tabulated ordinates. 



The method of interpolation consists entirely in the application of 

 the following theorem. [DIFFERENCE.] Letp, g, r, t, I, Ac., be term* 

 of a series corresponding to a, a + b, a + 24, 4c., and let the 

 successive differences be formed, as in the following table : 



o + 26 

 + 3 6 

 o + 4J 



A r 



A 5 ? 

 A'r 



A'.p 



where A/> is q p, &c., A-p is Ag &p, ic. Then the nth term 

 reckoned from p exclusive is 



(A). 



Thus q isp + &p, r lap + 2A/J + A 5 /), and BO on. This series, which 

 gives the rest of the table accurately, will give the intermediate 

 approximately, if p, &p, A-';, Ac., diminish rapidly. Thus, by making 

 n = 4, we find the term which should stand opposite to a + 4 o, if the 

 table were made twice as minute as it now is, or, as we may say, 

 Itiicctcd : if n = '2J, we find the term answering to o + 'l\l, and so on. 

 The following is an instance : 



Given the present value of 1,000,000*. 20 years hence, at 2, 4, 6, 8, 

 and 10 per cent. : to deduce from thence an approximation at the rate 

 of 4 4 per cent. Let it be observed, that from 2 to 44 is one interval 

 and a quarter of the tables, or n= 1J. 



2 

 4 

 6 

 8 

 10 



672971 



216584 



456387 + 72002 



144582 24677 

 811805 +' 47325 + 8705 



97257 16972 

 214548' + 81353 



65904 

 148844 



We have taken this example to show, when the intervals of the 

 tables are considerable, how slowly the differences may diminish. The 

 consequence is that only four places of the result will be correct. \\ . 

 have now 



p = 672971 A'p = 241177 



Ap = 216684 A'p = + 8705 



\ip = + 72002 



6 ft 1 _ 1 n 2_ 1 n 8_ _7 



16' 



x 216584 = 270730 



2048 



Answer 414604 

 Correct Answer 414643 



The smaller the tabular interval, the more correctly will a given 

 number of differences serve to make the interpolation. Let us take 



