HAB 



HJEM 



Justly deemed a palladium of British li- 

 berty. Its efficacy consists in the right 

 thai every man has to have his cause of 

 commitment publicly stated and inquired 

 into by the lawful judges of the land, ac- 

 cording to the ordinary rules of law, and 

 it provides not only against the oppres- 

 sion and cruelt)-, but also against the 

 indolence and ignorance, of a govern- 

 ment ; for it it is well observed by Black- 

 stone, that under a despotic authority, and 

 when the habeas corpus act has been sus- 

 pended, the unfortunate persons who 

 have been confined have been too often 

 suffered to linger, because they were for- 

 gotten. One important use of the habeas 

 corpus, to which it is now daily applied, 

 is in bringing up seamen who have been 

 impressed, to ascertain whether they are 

 subject to (hat rigorous authority. In times 

 of particular alarm, it has been the prac- 

 tice to suspend the operation of the habe- 

 as corpus act, and it is to be feared that 

 ministers have rather sought and made, 

 than properly found, a just occasion for 

 this measure. It is easy to cry that the 

 church and state are in danger, and there 

 are enough ready to take or to feign an 

 alarm ; the habeas corpus act is suspend- 

 ed, and men are taken up by warrants 

 from the Secretary of State, upon mere 

 charges of libel, or what is indefinitely 

 called sedition, to give a colour to the 

 harsh usurpation of power. Instances 

 have been known where men so confined 

 have been afterwards released without 

 trial ; because, in reality, no charge could 

 be supported against them. In the ordi- 

 nary course of law, these men would be 

 entitled to indemnity ; but the minister, 

 who has the address to procure an indem- 

 nity bill, avoids the just compensation 

 due to injured innocence, and the man 

 who has been ruined by an unjust charge 

 is without redress. Surely, when these 

 are the possible consequences of a sus- 

 pension of the habeas corpus act, every 

 Briton ought to resist it. If crimes are 

 committed, the law has vigour to punish. 

 The habeas corpus is the protection only 

 of the innocent, and they should never be 

 deprived of it. 



With respect to removing civil causes 

 out of inferior courts by habeas corpus, 

 there are some useful restrictions, such 

 as that they shall not be removed, if the 

 debt or damages be less than 51. &c. 



HABENDUM, in a deed, that formal 

 part of it, which is to determine what 

 estate or interest is granted by it, the cer- 

 tainty thereof for what time, and to what 

 tise. It is expressed by the words " to 

 have and to hold for sush a term," &c. 



It sometimes qualifies the estate, so that 

 the general extent, which, by construc- 

 tion of law, passes by the words used in 

 the premises, may by the habendum be 

 controlled. The habendum may, there- 

 fore, lessen or enlarge the estate pre- 

 viously granted, but it cannot totally con- 

 tradict or be repugnant to it. As if a 

 grant be to one, and the heirs of his bo- 

 dy, habendum, to have to him and his 

 heirs for ever, here he has an estate tail 

 by the grant; and by the habendum a 

 fee-simple expectant thereon. But if it 

 had been in the premises to him and his 

 heirs to have for life, the habendum would 

 be utterly void: for an estate of >.. ie- 

 ritance is vested in him before the haben- 

 dum comes, and shall not afterwards be 

 taken away, or divested by it. The ha- 

 bendum cannot pass any thing that is not 

 expressly mentioned, or contained by im- 

 plication, in the premises of the deed ; 

 because the premises being part of the 

 deed by which the thing is granted, and 

 consequently that makes the gift, it fok 

 lows, that the habendum, which only li- 

 mits the certainty and extent of the estate 

 in the thing given, cannot increase or 

 multiply the gift, because it were absurd 

 to say, that the grantee shall hold a thing 

 which was never given him. See DEED. 



HABIT, in philosophy, an aptitude or 

 disposition, either of mind or body, ac- 

 quired by a frequent repetition of the 

 same act. 



HACKLE, an implement used in dress- 

 ing flax. 



HJEMANTHUS, in botany, a genus of 

 the Hexandria Monogynia class and or- 

 der. Natural order of Spathacese. Nar- 

 cissi, Jussieu. Essential character : invo- 

 lucre six-leaved, many flowered ; corolla 

 six-parted, superior ; berry three-celled. 

 There are eight species. 



H^MATOPUS, the Oyster-catcter, in 

 natural history, a genus of birds of the or- 

 der Grallse. Generic character : bill con- 

 pressed, the tip an equal wedge ; nostrils 

 linear ; tongue about a third part of the 

 length of the bill ; toes three ; all placed 

 forwards, the outer one joined to the mid- 

 dle by a strong membrane. This jbird is 

 sixteen inches in length, and about the 

 size of a crow ; it is to be met with on al- 

 most every sea-shore, and is rather com- 

 mon in the United States on the sea 

 coast. In the winter season, these birds 

 are seen in considerable flocks, but in 

 summer only in pairs. The female pre- 

 pares no nest, but deposits her eggs on 

 the naked shore, a little above high-water 

 mark. If the oyster-catcher be tajten 



