

PRESBYTERY PRESIDENT. 



and of the universities. This is the supreme eccle- 

 siastical tribunal, and meets once a year. For a 

 mure detailed account of the constitution of the 

 courts, see Assembly, General. 



The Presbyterian church in the United States of 

 America does not materially differ from that of 

 Scotland. The first presbytery was organized in 

 that country in 1704, by the association of several 

 ministers who had received presbyterian ordination 

 in Europe, and who agreed to govern themselves 

 atrreeably to the Westminster confession of faith (see 

 Creed), form of government, book of discipline, and 

 directory for worship. The presbyteries subse- 

 quently formed have been organized by act of this 

 presbytery, or some superior judicatory, such as a 

 synod or general assembly. In the middle of the 

 last century, the Presbyterian church was divided, 

 by a schism, into the synod of New York, or the 

 New Lights, and the synod of Philadelphia ; but, 

 in 1758, the two bodies met, and reunited themselves 

 into one synod, entitled the Synod of New York 

 and Philadelphia. The first general assembly met 

 in 1789; and, in 1831, it comprehended 2253 

 churches, 1801 ministers, 182,017 communicants, 

 embracing a population of 1,800,000 souls. The 

 number of synods, in 1830, was nineteen ; that of 

 presbyteries, ninety-eight. The theological semi- 

 naries, under the care of the general assembly, are 

 three, at Princeton (New Jersey), Alleghanytown 

 (Pennsylvania), and Prince Edward county (Vir- 

 ginia), besides several synodical seminaries. 



PRESBYTERY; a Scottish ecclesiastical court. 

 See Assembly, General. 



PRESCRIPTION is a right or title acquired by 

 use and time, as when a man can show no other 

 title to what he claims, than that he, and those 

 under whom he claims, have immemorially used to 

 enjoy it. The object of prescription is to secure 

 the title to property to him who has had the pos- 

 session of it for the term fixed by the law, and to 

 prevent any one from disturbing his possession after 

 such term has expired. The law of prescription is 

 not intended to punish the indolence of proprietors ; 

 it only interprets their silence as consent, presum- 

 ing that a man who neglects to assert his right for 

 a long series of years, gives it up. Many cele- 

 brated authors, as Grotius, Puffendorff, and Wol- 

 fius, have maintained that the law of prescription 

 is derived from the law of nature. It forms a part 

 of the law of nations. By the civil law, things 

 movable become subject to prescription, after the 

 expiration of three years, and a possession during 

 ten years, if the parties are present (that is, in the 

 province), and twenty years if they are absent, will 

 also found a prescription to things immovable, if 

 the possession was honestly obtained at first. (Just. 

 Inst. lib. ii. tit. 6.) Where the possession was 

 mala fide, a prescription of thirty years is neces- 

 sary to confer a title. In the code of Napoleon, 

 the provisions in regard to prescription to things 

 immovable are similar. In some Roman Catholic 

 countries, prescription does not avail against the 

 church, if short of a hundred years. In the English 

 law, the term prescription is applied only to incor- 

 poreal hereditaments, as a right of way, a common, 

 &c. A prescription is distinguished from a custom 

 by this, that custom is properly a local usage, and 

 not annexed to a person, such as a custom in a 

 manor, that land shall descend to the youngest son ; 

 but prescription is merely a personal usage ; as 

 that Sempronius and his ancestors, or those whose 

 estate he hath, have used, time out of mind, to have 

 common of pasture in such a close ; for this is a 

 usage annexed to the person of the owner of this 

 estate. By the law of England, a prescription 



must have existed from time whereof the memory 

 of man is not to the contrary, which is to be under- 

 stood, not merely of living memory, but of memory 

 by means of records or other written memorials ; 

 and, therefore, where there is any proof of the 

 original or commencement of any thing, it cannot 

 be claimed by prescription ; unless, indeed, the 

 commencement were before the reign of Richard I., 

 for then it is considered to have existed immemo- 

 rially, on an equitable construction of the statute of 

 Westminster, 1, which limited that time for a writ 

 of right. (Starkie on Evid., 1204 .) In the United 

 States, it has been made a question, whether there. 

 can be a prescription, as the settlement of the 

 country was within the time of memory by the 

 English law ; and it has been held that there could 

 be no prescription in that country, in some of the 

 states. In Massachusetts, it has been held, that 

 the time of prescription does not extend further 

 back than sixty years, and that it is questionable 

 whether it extended back further than forty years. 

 (8 Pick. 504 ) 



PRESIDENT ; the supreme executive officer of 

 the United States of America. The qualifications, 

 powers, and mode of election, of this officer are 

 settled by article II of the Constitution, the first 

 section of which was amended in 1804. (For 

 qualifications and mode of election, see Election ; 

 see also article Constitutions.) By section 1st of 

 that article, it is provided, " that in case of the 

 removal of the president from office, or of his death, 

 resignation, or disability to discharge the powers 

 and duties of his office, the same shall devolve on 

 the vice-president ; and the congress may by law 

 provide for the case of removal, death, resignation, 

 or inability both of the president and vice-presi- 

 dent, by declaring what officer shall ^hen act as 

 president, and such officer shall act, until the disa- 

 bility be removed or a president be elected." In 

 pursuance of this provision, the act of congress of 

 March 1, 1792, sec. 9, declares, that in such case 

 of vacancy, the president of the senate pro tern., 

 and if there be none, the speaker of the house of 

 representatives, shall act until the vacancy is sup- 

 plied. The president holds his office for four years, 

 and it is provided by law (act of congress, March 

 1, 1792), that the term for which the president and 

 vice-president shall be elected, shall begin on the 

 fourth day of March next succeeding the day of 

 election. The first section of Article II. of the 

 constitution also provides, that " the president 

 shall, at stated times, receive for his services a 

 compensation which shall neither be increased nor 

 diminished during the period for which he shall 

 have been elected, and he shall not receive within 

 that period any other emolument from the United 

 States, or any of them." Before entering on the 

 execution of his office, he is required to take the 

 following oath or affirmation : " I do solemnly swear 

 (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office 

 of president of the United States, and will, to the. 

 best of my ability, preserve, protect, and defend 

 the constitution of the United States." The powers 

 of the president are fixed by section 2 of Article 

 III, in the following terms : "The president shall 

 be commander-in-chief of the army and navy of the 

 United States, and of the militia of the several 

 states when called into the actual service of the 

 United States ; he may require the opinion, in 

 writing, of the principal officer in each of the 

 executive departments, upon any subject relating 

 to the duties of their respective offices, and he shall 

 have power to grant reprieves and pardons for 

 offences against the United States, except in cases 

 of impeachment. He shall have power., by and 



