HAB 



HAB 



animals, in large numbers, give out a 

 disagreeable smell, and, like other water 

 beetles, they fly only by night Their 

 eggs are white, and are laid on the stems 



of water-plants, where they are hatched 

 in the course of a week, and instantly 

 begin to swim about very swiftly in quest 

 of prey; inhabits Europe. 



H. 



HOr h, the eighth letter, and sixth 

 5 consonant in our alphabet ; though 

 some grammarians will have it to be only 

 an aspiration or breathing. 



It is pronounced by a strong expiration 

 of the breath between the lips, closing, 

 as it were, by a gentle motion of the low- 

 er jaw to the upper, and the tongue near- 

 ly approaching the palate. 



There seems to be no doubt, but that 

 our h, which is the same with that of the 

 Ilomans, derived its figure from that of 

 the Hebrew n- And, indeed, the Phoeni- 

 cians, most ancient Greeks and Romans, 

 used the same figure with our H, which 

 in the series of all these alphabets keeps 

 its primitive place, being the eighth let- 

 ter. 



H, used as a numeral, denotes 200; 

 and with a dash over it,~H, 200,000. 



HABEAS corpus, a writ of various uses, 

 and of different importance. It was ori- 

 ginally a writ, winch a man indicted of 

 a trespass before justices of the peace, 

 or in a court of franchise, and being ap- 

 prehended for it, may have out of the 

 King's Bench, to remove himself thither 

 at his own costs, and to answer the cause 

 there. In its more usual sense, it is 

 the most celebrated writ in the English 

 law. The most efficacious kind, in all 

 manner of illegal confinement, is that of 

 habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, which is 

 the subject's writ of right, in cases 

 where he is aggrieved b} illegal impri- 

 sonment, or any unwarrantable exercise 

 of power. 



This writ is founded upon common 

 law, and has been secured by various 

 statutes, of which the last, and most ef- 

 ficacious, was the 31 Charles II. c. 2, 

 which is emphatically termed the habeas 

 act, and may justly be deemed a se- 

 cond magna charta, and as relates to 

 modern times is tar more efficacious, 



for It is the grand protection of the sub- 

 ject against unlawful imprisonment. 



By this important statute it is enacted, 

 that on complaint, in writing, by or on 

 behalf of any person committed and 

 charged with any crime (unless commit- 

 ted for felony or treason expressed in the 

 warrant, or as accessary, or on suspicion 

 of being accessary before the fact, to any 

 petit treason or felony plainly expressed 

 in the warrant, or unless he- be convict- 

 ed or charged in execution by legal pro- 

 cess), the Lord Chancellor, or any other 

 of the twelve judges, in vacation, upon 

 viewing a copy of the warrant, or affidavit 

 that the copy is denied, shall (unless the 

 party have neglected for two terms 

 to apply to any court for his enlarge- 

 ment) award an habeas corpus for such 

 prisoner, returnable immediately before 

 himself, or any other of the judges, and, 

 upon return made, shall discharge the 

 party, it bailable, upon giving security to 

 appear, and answer to the accusation in 

 the proper court of judicature. 



That such writs shall be indorsed, as 

 granted in pursuance of the act, and sign- 

 ed by the person awarding them. That 

 the writ shall be returned, and the pri- 

 soner brought up within a limited time 

 according to the distance, not exceeding 

 in any case twenty days. That the offi- 

 cers and keepers neglecting to make due 

 returns, or not delivering to the prisoner, 

 or his agent, within six hours after de- 

 mand, a copy of the warrant of commit- 

 ment, or shifting the custody of a prison- 

 er from one to another, without sufficient 

 reason or authority (specified in the act), 

 shall, for the first offence, forfeit one hun- 

 dred pounds, and for the second offence 

 two hundred pounds, to the party griev- 

 ed, and be disabled to hold his office. 

 That no person, once delivered by ha- 

 'beas corpus, shall be recommitted for the 

 same offence, on penalty of five hundred 

 pounds, 



