HOMEROMASTIX HOMICIDE. 



783 



mineralogy, and the general stock of knowledge 

 contained in Homer, works are not wanting. We 

 may mention also, for the general reader, Flaxman's 

 Illustrations of Homer (designs from Homer's des- 

 criptions), and Tischbein's Homer, after Antiques, 

 with Explanations by Heyne. 



HOMEROMASTIX (from 'O^o; and ,**?<, 

 to flagellate), the Scourge of Homer ; a surname of 

 Zoilus. 



HOME-SICKNESS, in medicine Nostalgia. The 

 natural feeling of grief at a separation from the pater- 

 nal home and native soil, becomes, in men of great 

 sensibility., who go to a different climate (especially 

 from a mountainous to a champaign country), and 

 are surrounded by different scenery, without active 

 occupation, a real disease. It shows itself by a deep 

 melancholy, under which the whole nervous system 

 in a short time suffers. The mind of the patient is 

 filled with thoughts of his country, and with associa- 

 tions which serve to recall it. The desire of seeing 

 it, and despair of gratifying the desire, engross him. 

 As the disease of the nerves increases, spasms come 

 on. The respiration of the individual becomes diffi- 

 cult, interrupted, and consists almost wholly of sighs. 

 His appetite is lost. A deadly paleness extends 

 over all his countenance, and his sight grows dim 

 and weak. His heart beats immoderately, and throbs 

 with the slightest motion. His secretions become 

 irregular ; congestions afterwards originate in the 

 noblest organs ; sleep flies from him, or consists 

 principally of dreams, which are filled with the scenes 

 he has left. Sudden death sometimes puts an end to 

 this situation ; but more commonly a slow, nervous 

 and hectic fever ensues, which carries off the indivi- 

 dual, if it is impossible to overcome the disease. A 

 return to his home is the most effectual remedy. 

 The confidence that this will happen has cured many. 

 But when this is impossible, agreeable occupation is 

 a better remedy than medicine. 



HOMICIDE is either justifiable, excusable, or fel- 

 onious. Of the first sort is the killing of public 

 enemies in battle, in the prosecution of a declared 

 war, in pursuance of the orders given by commanders 

 duly commissioned. So where a crime is punishable 

 capitally according to the laws, the judge is bound 

 to condemn the criminal to death, and the sheriff or 

 other executive officer to carry the sentence into 

 effect in the manner prescribed by the sentence of 

 condemnation. But the judge must have jurisdiction 

 of the offence, and be duly commissioned, and the 

 executive officer must be empowered to carry the 

 sentence into effect, and must perform the execution 

 in the manner prescribed by law, otherwise the exe- 

 cution of the criminal will make the judge or the 

 officer, as the case may be, guilty of criminal homi- 

 cide. Sir Matthew Hale, being doubtful of the 

 validity of his commission under Cromwell declined 

 sitting as judge in a capital case. So, too, where an 

 officer of justice is resisted in the execution of his 

 office, in his attempt to arrest a person in a criminal, 

 or, as is maintained, even in a civil case, he is not 

 obliged to give back, but may repel force with force, 

 and if the person resisting is unavoidably killed, the 

 homicide is justifiable, for few men would quietly 

 submit to arrest, if, in case of resistance, the officer 

 was obliged to give back. But if the party, in- 

 stead of resisting, attempts to avoid an arrest by 

 flight, the officer is not, in ordinary cases, justified 

 in killing him to prevent his escape. It is, however, 

 laid down as law, that if a felony be committed, and 

 the felon attempts to fly from justice, it is the duty of 

 every man to use his best endeavours to prevent an 

 escape ; and if, in the fresh pursuit, the party be kil- 

 led, where he cannot be taken alive, it will be deem- 

 ed a justifiable homicide. And this justification is 



not limited to those who may witness the act of fel. 

 ony, but extends to all who join in the fresh pursuit. 

 The same rule applies to cases of an attempt, on the 

 part of a felon, to break away and escape, after he 

 has been arrested, and is on the way to jail. So if 

 a party has been indicted for felony, and will not per- 

 mit himself to be arrested, the officer, having a war- 

 rant for his arrest, may lawfully kill him, if he cannot 

 be taken alive. But this is to be understood only of 

 officers, and not of private persons. Magistrates 

 and officers authorized to suppress and disperse mobs, 

 are justified, by the common law, in taking the re- 

 quisite measures and using the requisite force for this 

 purpose, though it extend to the killing of some of 

 the rioters. An English statute of 21 Edward I. pro- 

 vides for a case of forcible resistance of trespassers. 

 It relates to trespasses in parks, and provides that it 

 a parker, forester, or warrener finds a trespasser in 

 his grounds, intending to do damage therein, who will 

 not yield after hue and cry made to stand, but flees or 

 defends himself, if he is killed in the attempt to take 

 him, the homicide shall be no crime. And a strik- 

 ing application of this law is mentioned in Hale's 

 Pleas of the Crown, in the case of- Sir William 

 Hawkesworth, who, being weary of life, after blaming 

 his parker for his negligence, and ordering him to 

 execute the law rigorously against any one who 

 should enter the park for the purpose of stealing 

 deer, went himself into the park, by night, when he 

 could not be distinguished by the keeper, and, on 

 being questioned and refusing to stand, was shot, and 

 the homicide was considered justifiable. The law 

 arms every member of the community with the power 

 of life and death for the prevention of atrocious felo- 

 nies accompanied with violence and personal danger 

 to others ; as, in case of an attempt to murder or 

 rob, or commit burglary or arson, the- person making 

 the attempt may, by the common law, if he cannot 

 be otherwise prevented, be killed on the spot, and 

 the law will not recognise the act as a crime. In 

 cases of this sort, in order to justify the homicide, it 

 must appear that there were good grounds for a 

 suspicion that the person killed had a felonious in- 

 tent. Thus in Level's case, reported by Croke, 

 Levet being awaked by one of his servants, and told 

 that there were thieves in the house, got up, and with 

 a drawn sword in his hand searched the different rooms 

 to find the thieves. A servant had concealed Frances 

 Freeman, a visitor of hers, in the buttery, not wish- 

 ing her to be seen, and Level's wife discovering 

 Frances, it being too dark, however, to distinguish 

 her clearly, called out to her husband that she had 

 found the thieves, and he thereupon went into the 

 buttery, and, thrusting with his sword in the dark, 

 killed Frances. The homicide was held to be justi- 

 fiable, though Sir Michael Foster expresses a doubt 

 whether sufficient caution had been used. But lord 

 Hale considers it to be one of the cases in which the 

 ignorance of the fact, and the strong grounds of the 

 suspicion, afford a sufficient excuse. 



The cases already mentioned of justifiable homi- 

 cide, are those in which the public authority and 

 laws are directly concerned. The laws of soci- 

 ety, however, leave every individual a portion of 

 that right of personal defence with which he is inves- 

 ted by those of nature. If one may interpose to pre- 

 vent an atrocious crime against society, where he is 

 not himself in any personal danger, the laws will, a 

 fortiori, permit him to defend himself against attacks 

 upon his own person. This right may be more clear- 

 ly explained in connexion with the subject of feloni- 

 ous homicide, usually classed under the titles of 

 murder and manslaughter; for this latter term, 

 though etymologically coinciding with the term 

 homicide, is usually applied to cases of blamabla 



