OFF 
enly give a probable reafon for, a common or intermediate 
office 
Orrice, in a civil fenfe, denotes the mutual aid and affit- 
.ance which men owe to one another. 
Benevolence infpires a man with an endeavour to do good 
offices to all mankind. 
Orrice is alfo a particular charge, or truit, whereby a 
man 18 authorized to do fomething. 
Loyfeau defines office. a dignity attended with a public 
funétion. The word is primarily ufed in {peaking of the 
offices of judicature and policy: as, the office of a fecretary 
of ftate, that of a juftice of peace, of a fheriff, &c ; 
ces are either venal, or not venal. Vezal offices are 
thofe bought with money; and they are fubdivided into two 
kinds; viz. dominial and cafual. Dominial, or offices in fee, 
are thofe abfolutely torn off, and feparated from the king’s 
prerogative, fo as not ta acant by death, but 
paffing in the nature of a fee or inheritance. 
Of thefe we have but few inftances among us, which 
go beyond a firft reverfion. Among the French they are 
more frequent. 
Cafual offices are thofe given for life, by patent, com- 
miffion, &c., and which become vacant by the officer’s 
death, to the king’s benefit ; unlefs the officer have before 
refigned, or difpofed of it. 
FFICE, Alienation, Alternate, Crown, Jewel, Poft. See 
the refpedtive articles. 
Orrice, Vidualling. See VicTuALLInG. 
Orrice is alfo ufed for a place, apartment, or board 
-appointed for the officers to attend in, for the difcharge o 
their re{pective duties or employments. 
Such are the fecretary’s office, firft fruits office, the fix 
clerks office, the paper office, fignet office, the prothono- 
tary’s office, pipe office, king’s filver office, excife office, 
office of ordnance, &c. See Secretary, First-fruits, 
Stx CxierKs, Paper, Pipe, Signet, Excisz, Orp- 
NANCE, &c. 
Of fuch offices, fome are diftinguifhed by the name 
of board, and other of chambers, as the board of green 
cloth, &c. 
Where the inquifition obtained, the tribunal of it was 
called the Aoly office. : 
Orrick, in the Canon Law, is ufed for a benefice, which 
has no jurifdiGtion annexed to it. See BENEFICE. 
Orrice is alfo ufed, in Common Law, for an inquifition or 
inqueft of office, which is an inquiry made by the king’s 
officer, his fheriff, coroner, or efcheator, virtute officit, or b 
writ fent to them for that purpofe, or by commiffioners 
{pecially appointed, concerning any matter that intitles the 
u&s$s W 
king’s tenants, an inqueft of office was held, 
called an “ Inquifitio poft mortem,’’ to inquire of what 
lands he died feifed, who was his heir, and of what age, in 
order to entitle the king to his marriage, wardfhip, relief, 
primer-feifin, or cther advantages, as the circumftances of 
the cafe might turn out. T'o fuperintend and regulate 
thefe inquiries the court of wards and liveries was inftituted 
by 32 Hen. VIII. c. 46; which was abolithed at the reftora- 
tion of king Charles II., together with the oppreffive tenures 
upon which it was founded. With regard to other matters, 
the inquefts of office ftill remain in force, and are taken 
upon proper occafions; being extended not only to lands, 
. VoL. XXV. 
me 
e death of every | 
OFF 
but alfo to goods and chattels perfonal, as in the cafe of 
wreck, treafure-trove, and ike; and efpecially as to 
ch tries a man 
take nor part from any thing. For it is a : 
ties of England, and greatly for the fafety of the fubje@, 
that the king may not enter or feize any man’s poffeflions 
upon bare furmifes, without the intervention of a 
(Finch. L. 82. Gilb. Hift. Exch. 132. ob. 3 
is, however, particularly enacted by 33 Hen. VII 
that, in cafe of attainder for-high treafon, the king 
have the forfeiture inftantly, without any inquifition of 
office. And as the king hath (in general) no title at all to 
any property of this fort before office ound, therefore 
Hen. VI. c. 6. that all letters patent 
returned into the exchequer, fhall be void. 
1 . ft. 2. ¢. 2. it is declared, that all grants 
emifes of fines and forfeitures of particular_perfons 
efore conviGtion (which is here the inqueft of office) are 
illegal and’ void ; which indeed was the law of the land in 
the reign of Edward III. (2Inft. 48.) With regard to 
(Finch. L. 325, 6 
culi fuper cartas,”? 28 Edw. I. it. I 
efcheator or theriff feize lands into the king’s hand without 
ch office, t 
is the ‘¢‘ monftrans de aroite? wee greatly enlarged 
and regulated for the benefit of the fubject, by the ftatutes 
already mentioned and others. (34 Edw. II. c. 13. 
36 Edw. ILI. c.13. 2 & 3 Edw. Vi. c.8.) And in the 
traverfes thus given by ftatute, which came in the place of 
the old petition of right, the -party traverfing is confidered 
as the plaintiff; and muft therefore make out his own title, 
as well as impeach that of the crown, and then fhall have 
judgment * quod manus domini regis amoveantur,”” &c. 
Blackit. Com. b. iii. 
From what we kave delivered it appears that to traverfe 
an office, is to traverfe an inquifition taken of office before 
an efcheator. T'o return an office, is to return that which 
is found by virtue of the office. 
There are two forts of offices iffuing out of the aca 
Xx y 
os 
