ISRAELITE CHRISTIANS ISTHMIAN GAMES. 



159 



ISRAELITE CHRISTIANS ; the Jews converted 

 to Christianity in Russia. An imperial decree of 

 March 25, 1817, imparted to them perfect freedom 

 in the choice of their Christian confession, portions 

 of the public lands for the establishment of colonies, 

 freedom to exercise mechanical arts without restraint, 

 full civil rights, independence of the local authorities, 

 government by magistrates chosen by themselves, 

 who were immediately subordinate to an imperial 

 board of control, exemption from military and civil 

 service, from furnishing quarters to soldiers, from 

 supporting the posts, and from all taxes for twenty 

 years, when they are to be placed on an equality with 

 other subjects. According to the denomination of 

 the Christian confessions selected by them, they 

 must form distinct parishes, in which no foreign 

 Christian or Jew may settle, though every foreign 

 proselyte may be admitted after the payment of his 

 debts. 



ISSUE. The plaintiff and defendant, in a suit at 

 law, are said to be at issue, when something is affirm- 

 ed by one of them, which is denied by the other. 

 The subject of this affirmation and denial may be 

 either matter of fact or matter of law. If the de- 

 fendant intends to dispute the truth of the statement 

 whereon the plaintiff grounds his complaint, he denies 

 either the whole of the statement, or some one ma- 

 terial fact contained in it, which, in technical langu- 

 age, is called traversing. He then appeals to the 

 decision of a jury, which is called putting himself 

 upon the country. Although the plaintiff's statement 

 be true, it does not necessarily follow that it discloses 

 sufficient grounds for complaint against the defendant. 

 If it does not so, the defendant admits the truth of 

 the facts, but denies their sufficiency in law to sup- 

 port the action. In this case, he appeals to the de- 

 cision of the judges ; for the jury merely decides 

 questions which involve matters of fact. Questions 

 of mere law fall beneath the cognizance of the judges. 

 When either the plaintiff or the defendant admits the 

 facts, but denies the law of the other, he is said to 

 demur. Although the plaintiff's statement, so far as 

 it goes, be both true in point of fact, and sufficient 

 in point of law, the defendant may still have a good 

 defence ; for the plaintiff may have stated the truth, 

 but not the whole truth. Some facts may be sup- 

 pressed, which, when explained by the defendant, 

 may turn the scale in his favour. If this counter- 

 statement of the defendant is sufficient in point of 

 law as a defence, the plaintiff demurs ; but if it is 

 sufficient in point of law, he must either deny the 

 facts, or allege some other facts to counterbalance 

 them. By these means, the parties in the cause 

 must ultimately arrive at some point, either of law 

 or fact, at which they are at issue, and judgment 

 will be given for that party in whose favour the issue 

 is decided. The statements and counter-statements 

 of the parties are called the pleadings, and each par- 

 ticular stage in the pleadings has a name appropriated 

 to itself. These names are, 1 . the declaration ; 2. 

 the plea ; 3. the replication ; 4. the rejoinder ; 5. the 

 surrejoinder; 6. the rebutter; 7. the surrebutter. 

 The first, third, fifth, and seventh names belong to 

 the pleadings of the plaintiff; the second, fourth, and 

 sixth to the defendant. Issue is generally taken 

 before the parties arrive at a surrebutter. In 

 former times, the pleadings were conducted, viva 

 voce, in open court, and the judges resided, like 

 moderators, during the dispute, until the par- 

 ties arrived at an issue ; but they are now drawn 

 up in writing out of court, and are then filed by 

 the attorneys in the proper offices attached to the 

 court. The judges now hear nothing of them until 

 the issue of fact comes on for trial, or the issue at law 

 for argument. If the existence of a particular record 



is put in issue, it must be produced by the party who 

 affirms its existence ; and the court, at the time 

 appointed for its production, decides the issue with- 

 out the intervention of a jury. This is one of the 

 very rare cases where the jury are not the sole judges 

 on questions of fact. There is a rule of pleading, 

 that only one material fact shall be put in issue in 

 one plea. To this rule the general issue forms a 

 wide exception. When a special plea is pleaded, 

 evidence is only admissible as to the truth or false- 

 hood of the particular fact which is the> subject of 

 that plea; but the general issue is a species of plea 

 which usually compels the plaintiff to prove his whole 

 case to the satisfaction of a jury, and, at the same 

 time, enables the defendant to prove any circum- 

 stances whatever which discharge his liability. 

 Thus, if an action be brought against a man for the 

 price of goods which the plaintiff alleges that the 

 defendant bought, if the defendant has become a 

 bankrupt since the purchase, he may plead that fact 

 specially, and then the evidence is confined to the sin- 

 gle question Has he or has he not become bankrupt? 

 But if he pleads the general issue, then he may prove 

 either that he never bought the goods, or that he paid 

 for them, or that he returned them to the plaintiff on 

 finding them to be of an inferior quality, or, in short, 

 any thing else which is a bar to the action. The form 

 of the general issue, in this case, is simply " that the 

 defendant did not promise or undertake in manner 

 and form as the plaintiff has complained against 

 him." Owing to this latitude allowed to the general 

 issue, it sometimes happens that plaintiffs are taken 

 by surprise at the trial, by the defendant setting up 

 an unexpected defence, which the plaintiff, on the spur 

 of the moment, is unable to disprove. When this is 

 proved to the satisfaction of the judges, they will, if 

 the justice of the case require it, grant a new trial. 



ISTAKHAR. See Persepolis. 



ISTAMBOL. See Constantinople. 



ISTHMIAN GAMES; so called because they 

 were celebrated on the isthmus of Corinth, which 

 joins the Peloponnesus to the continent. On it was a 

 famous temple consecrated to Neptune, near which 

 the Isthmian games were celebrated. On one side 

 of the temple were the statues of the victors in these 

 games, and on the other was a grove of pines. In 

 the temple stood four horses, gilded all over, with 

 the exception of their ivory hoofs : by the side of the 

 horses were two Tritons, the upper parts of which 

 were gilt, and the rest of ivory. Behind the horses 

 was a car, with the statues of Neptune and Amphi- 

 trite, of gold and ivory. Not far from the temple 

 were a considerable theatre, and the stadium, of 

 white stone, in which the games were celebrated. 

 The whole isthmus was sacred to Neptune, who was 

 thence called Isthmius. According to the common 

 opinion, the Isthmian games were founded in honour 

 of Pakemon or Melicerta. (See /wo.) Others relate 

 that Theseus established them in honour of Neptune. 

 They were originally held in the night, and had per- 

 haps fallen into disuse, when Theseus restored them, 

 and ordered them to be celebrated in the day. As 

 Theseus was either the founder or the restorer of 

 these games, the Athenians had the precedence in 

 them. All Greece took part in them, excepting the 

 Eleans, whose absence was thus explained: As 

 the sons of Actor were riding to these games, they 

 were killed, near Elea, by Hercules. Their mother, 

 Melione, discovered the murderer, who then resided 

 in the territory of Argos. She, therefore, demanded 

 satisfaction of the Argives, and, on their refusal to 

 grant it, requested the Corinthians not to admit them 

 to the games, as disturbers of the public tranquillity. 

 As they would not yield to her solicitations, Melione 

 pronounced direful curses on all the Eleans, if they 



