PRITTLEWELU 



PRIVY COUNCIL 



anonymous letter to the authori- 

 ties turned their attention to the 

 case, and the poisoner was arrested 

 on his return from his wife's 

 funeral. At his house quantities of 

 tartar emetic were found, and the 

 exhumed bodies on analysis showed 

 traces of antimonial poisoning. 

 Pritchard confessed to his crimes, 

 the motives being the small for- 

 tune which would come to him as a 

 result, and an intrigue with his 

 servant. He was hanged outside 

 Glasgow prison, July 28, 1865, 

 this being the last public execution 

 in Glasgow. See Trial of Dr. Prit- 

 chard, William Roughead, 1906. 



Prittlewell. Dist. of Southend- 

 on-Sea, Essex. It lies to the N. of 

 the borough proper, and has a 

 station on the G.E. Rly. It has a 

 fine church, S. Mary the Virgin, 

 mainly Perpendicular in style, but 

 retaining a little Norman work. 

 There was a priory here until the 

 Reformation. See Southend. 



Privas. Town of France. The 

 capital of the dept. of Ardeche, it 

 stands on the N.E. slope of Mont 

 Toulon between three valleys, 95 

 m. S.W. of Lyons. There are iron 

 mines, distilleries, and silk factories, 

 and a trade is carried on in truffles, 

 butter, cheese, and game. The 

 town grew up round a castle, 

 built in the 12th century, and was 

 the ancient capital of Boutieres. 

 It became a stronghold of the 

 Huguenots, and in 1629 Louis XIII 

 decided to reduce it. After a 

 stubborn defence the place sur- 

 rendered to him, the castle and 

 other buildings being razed. 



Private Bill. In British parlia- 

 mentary procedure, a bill promoted 

 by private individuals to enable 

 them jointly to construct and work 

 a railway or other scheme of public 

 utility at their own risk. Other 

 private bills are concerned with 

 naturalization, divorce, etc. The 

 fees paid by the promoters of all 

 private bills are fixed by the 

 standing orders. See Bill ; Parlia- 

 ment ; Standing Order. 



Privateer. Armed vessel priv- 

 ately owned and furnished with 

 letters of marque. These em- 

 powered it to attack the ships of 

 any power with which its country 

 was at war. Privateers are things 

 of the past. See International 

 Law ; Letter of Marque. 



Private Secretary, THE. Farci- 

 cal comedy in four acts. Adapted 

 by Charles Hawtrey from Von 

 Moser's Der Bibliothekar, it was 

 produced at the Prince's now 

 Prince of Wales' s Theatre, Lon- 

 don, March 29, 1884, with Beer- 

 bohm Tree as the Rev. Robert 

 Spalding and W. J. Hill as the 

 irascible Cattermole. It was after- 

 wards transferred to the (old) 



Globe, where W. S. Penley took up 

 the part of Spalding, and ran for 

 785 continuous performances. 



Privet CLiguatrum vulgare). 

 Shrub of the natural order Olea- 

 ceae, native of Europe and N. 

 Africa. It has opposite, oblong- 

 lance-shaped leaves and small, 

 funnel-shaped white flowers in 

 abundant clusters. The fruit is a 

 small, round, purple-black berry, 

 which yields oil and a rose- 

 coloured dye. 



Privet. Leaves and berries of the 

 European shrub 



Privilege (Lat. privilegium). 

 Word used in two related senses : 

 (1) exemption of an individual or 

 class from ordinary law ; (2) pecu- 

 liar right or advantage enjoyed by 

 a person or body of persons in the 

 community. 



In England parliamentary privi- 

 lege is of three kinds : (a) privilege 

 enjoyed by individual members of 

 either house, e.g. freedom of speech 

 in parliament, freedom from legal 

 arrest and imprisonment except 

 for indictable offences, contempt 

 of court, etc., exemption from jury 

 service, and from obeying sub- 

 poenas : a member who is declared 

 bankrupt vacates his seat thereby ; 

 (b) privilege enjoyed by either 

 House as a whole, including the 

 power of ordering the publication 

 of any document, however libel- 

 lous, of committing individuals to 

 prison, of instituting prosecutions 



through the attorney-general, and, 

 in the case of the House of Lords, 

 the right of members to be tried by 

 their peers ; (c) privilege belonging 

 to both Houses jointly, e.g. the 

 right to assume supreme power 

 when the throne is vacant, or the 

 sovereign incapacitated from carry- 

 ing out his constitutional functions. 

 Many of these privileges are of a 

 vague nature, and, being based on 

 precedent or tradition, are rarely 

 exercised ; but questions of privi- 

 lege raised in parliament take pre- 

 cedence of all other business, for 

 hard-won privileges are jealously 

 guarded against all encroachment. 



Clergymen are privileged from 

 arrest while going to service, hold- 

 ing service, and returning from 

 service, and barristers while going 

 to, performing, and coming back 

 from their professional duties in 

 court. By charter corporations of 

 various kinds enjoy definite privi- 

 leges, many of which are of long 

 standing. Statements made to a 

 priest in confession are also privi- 

 leged. See Libel ; Parliament. 



Privity. Term used in English 

 and American law to denote a 

 direct legal relation. Privity in 

 blood indicates a blood relation- 

 ship, e.g. heir and ancestor. Privity 

 of estate indicates that the persons 

 of whom it is predicated have a 

 relationship with regard to the 

 title to property. For example, 

 tihere is privity of estate between 

 a lessor and lessee and their assig- 

 nees, between joint tenants ; and 

 the privity lasts so long as the 

 estate lasts, so that an assignee of 

 a lease ceases to have privity with 

 the lessor if he assigns the lease 

 again. Between a lessor and a sub- 

 lessee there is no privity. Privity 

 of contract is the term used to 

 describe the relation between par- 

 ties who have entered into con- 

 tractual relations with each other, 

 or between the assignees of the 

 contracting parties who, by law, 

 are put in the place of the persons 

 who originally contracted. 



THE PRIVY COUNCIL 



A. F. Pollard. M.A., Professor of English History. London TTniv 



Other articles on constitutional questions include Commons, House 

 of ; Lords, House of ; Parliament. See also England : History ; 

 Cabinet ; King ; Prerogative, and the articles on the departments of 

 state, e.g. Trade, Board of, that are offshoots of the Privy Council 



In the Middle Ages in England 

 there was but one king's council, 

 though that council might at times 

 be great and at others small, and 

 there was a prolonged struggle 

 between the barons and the crown 

 over the form the council was 

 eventually to take. 



The baronial ambition was to 

 make the king's council a magnum 

 concilium consisting mainly of 



barons, and ensuring a baronial 

 government. The crown naturally 

 sought to keep it a royal council, 

 small in numbers, continuous in its 

 sessions, appointed by the crown, 

 and subject to its will. The form 

 of the council, therefore, fluctuated 

 with the strength or weakness of 

 the crown. Under Henry III it 

 was a magnum concilium ; under 

 Edward I purely royal. Under 



