WRINKLES -WRITERS. 



117 



sirous to-preserve ; for, in the trial of the conspi- 

 rator?, wliich was tlien going on, Wright was the 

 most important witness, as he had brought the chief 

 conspirator, Pichegru, into the country." Napoleon 

 also declared that Wright perished by his own hand, 

 some time before his death was announced in the 

 Moniteur ; and Fouche and Savary agreed in this 

 statement. (See Savary ; Otranto, Duke of; and 

 Pichegru.') The trial, however, took place in 

 March, April and May, 1804, and the death of 

 Wright in October, 1805. Savary, in his Memoirs 

 (2 vols., 8vo., London, 1828), has the following 

 remarks on this subject: " That unfortunate man 

 remained in the Temple till 1805, when he died. 

 So many stories have been told concerning his 

 death, that I, too, was curious to learn the cause of 

 it, when, as minister of police, the sources of in- 

 formation were open to me ; and I ascertained that 

 Wright cut his throat in despair, after reading the 

 account of the capitulation of the Austrian general 

 Mack, at Ulm ; that is, while the emperor was en- 

 gaged in the campaign of Austerlitz. Can one, in 

 fact, without alike insulting common sense and 

 glory, admit that this sovereign had attached so 

 much importance to the destruction of a miserable 

 lieutenant of the English navy, as to send, from 

 one of his most glorious fields of battle, the order 

 for his death? It has been added, that it was I 

 who received from him this commission. Now, I 

 never quitted him, for a single day, during the 

 whole campaign, from his departure from Paris till 

 his return. The civil administration of France is 

 in possession of all the papers of the ministry of the 

 police, which must furnish all the information that 

 can be desired respecting that event." 



WRINKLES ; folds of the skin, occasioned by 

 that organ being too large for the parts it encloses. 

 When, therefore, the parts beneath the skin, in any 

 part of the body, are diminished from any cause, 

 and the skin itself does not shrink in the same 

 proportion, wrinkles are formed. So, when the 

 skin is too much relaxed, or when it is moved very 

 often, the same result is produced. Hence sick- 

 ness, age, and the indulgence of violent passions, 

 produce wrinkles. Warm bathing, by relaxing the 

 skin, has the same tendency. 



WRIST (carpus'). The part of the arm be- 

 tween the fore-arm and hand is admirably calculated 

 to increase the action, and, consequently, the utility 

 of the hand, by giving it various motions, without 

 which, as any one may easily convince himself, it 

 would be a much less efficient instrument of hand- 

 ling, seizing and conveying objects. It is composed 

 of eight small bones in two rows, the motions of 

 which on the fore-arm may be described as those of 

 flexion, extension, abduction and circumduction. 

 Beasts of prey, which use their fore-paws for seiz- 

 ing their food, are provided with similar instru- 

 ments of motion in that part ; but in those animals, 

 like the horse, &c., in which the fore-feet are 

 merely instruments of locomotion, there is no such 

 machinery for free motion in various directions. 



WRIT. A writ is a precept issued by some 

 court or magistrate in the name of the government, 

 the executive branch of the government, or that 

 of the state, or people of the state, intending, in 

 either case, the supreme authority or its representa- 

 tive, addressed to a marshal, sheriff, constable, or 

 other subordinate executive officer, commanding 

 him to do some particular thing. Writs are dis- 

 tinguished into origir.al and judicial, the former be- 

 ing such as a party sues out without any direction 



of the court in the particular case; the latter, such 

 as are issued in pursuance of a decree, judgment or 

 order of a court. The different descriptions of 

 writs are too numerous to be specified and described 

 in this article. The term writ is, however, not 

 confined to the proceedings in a suit ; for ther%are 

 writs of election, ordering certain officers to be 

 chosen ; writs in the nature of a commission, for 

 instance, summoning one to be chief justice (2 

 Coke's Ins. 40), or to take the degree of serjeant 

 at law ; so there are writs of protection, issued, for 

 instance, to secure a person from arrest while he 

 is attending as a party in a suit. In England, 

 writs usually issue in the name of the sovereign. 



Writ of Error is a commission to judges of a 

 superior court, by which they are authorized to 

 examine the record upon which a judgment was 

 given in an inferior court, and, on such examination, 

 to affirm or reverse the same according to law. 



WRITERS, OR CLERKS TO THE SIGNET ; 

 a numerous society of gentlemen of the law in 

 Scotland, who are chiefly employed in civil trials 

 before the court of session. The clerks to the 

 signet were anciently clerks in the office of the 

 secretary of state, by whom writs passing the 

 royal signet were prepared. When the forms of 

 the judicial procedure in this country were changed, 

 in consequence of the introduction of clerical judges 

 into the administration of justice, and the brieves 

 of the old law, with jury trial, fell into disuse, 

 which it appears gradually to have done for about 

 a century before the institution of the college of 

 justice, the royal signet was open to the writs 

 or summonses ordering attendance on the court, 

 or to the diligence necessary for giving effect 

 to its decrees ; and the new writs, which in this 

 manner became requisite, were prepared by the 

 writers to the signet; in consequence of which, 

 their numbers must have considerably increased as 

 the new system of writs extended. At the time of 

 the establishment of the college of justice in 1535, 

 the writers to the signet were in the exercise of 

 the same duties in which they are engaged at the 

 present day ; and they are recognised by the act as 

 a constituent part of that college. The duty of 

 the clerks to the signet, or writers to the signet, 

 as they are often called, is to prepare the war- 

 rants of all charters of lands flowing from the 

 crown ; all summonses for citing parties to appear 

 in the court of session ; all diligences of the law 

 for affecting the person or estate of a debtor, or for 

 compelling implement of the decrees of the supreme 

 court. The writers to the signet have farther the 

 privilege of acting as agents or attornies in conduct- 

 ing causes before the court of session. The so- 

 ciety is now under the keeper of her Majesty's sig- 

 net, who acts by a deputy keeper ; and the affairs 

 of the body are conducted by this deputy and certain 

 commissioners named from the members, with 

 power to them to make bye-laws for the admission 

 of members and the regulation of their conduct. 



By the laws at present in force, it is requisite 

 that a young man, before applying to be taken on 

 indentures by a writer to the signet, should have 

 attended one of the universities two years. Evi- 

 dence of this must be produced with his petition. 

 The indenture continues for five years ; the ap- 

 prentice-fee is 130 sterling, 20 to the widows 

 fund, and 20 to the library. After the expiration 

 of the indenture, one year must intervene before he 

 can be taken on trial ; and he must have attended 

 three classes of law, independently of his previous 



