L A W 
r’.ns to bear two years and a half, or at most 
three years, alter being planted; and like 
most ot the trees in warm climates, bears 
twice a year. 
LaVv . Laws of England are divided into 
lex non scripta, or the common law; and lex 
script a, or statute law. 
'1 lie lex non scripta is not so called from 
Us being conveyed down from former ages 
by word ot mouth, but because the original 
authority ot these laws is not set down in writ- 
ing, and they receive their force by long 
usage, and by their universal reception 
throughout the kingdom; and it is curious to 
observe, that these rude maxims of our an- 
cestors, oi which no person knows clearly the 
origin, exceed in clearness, brevity, and au- 
thority, all that the united wisdom of the 
most enlightened men have produced in later 
ages. 
The common law is divided into: 
1st. General custom, which is the universal 
rule of the whole kingdom, and is the law by 
which proceedings and determinations in the 
courts ot justice are ordinarily directed. 
This tor the most part settles the course of in- 
heritance, the manner and form of acquiring 
and transferring property, the solemnities and 
obligations ot contracts, the rules of expound- 
ing wills, deeds, and acts of parliament ; the 
remedies of civil injuries, the different kinds 
of ©lienees with the punishments allotted to 
each ; the institution of four superior courts 
ot record ; and many other particulars which 
dill use themselves as extensively as the dis- 
tribution of common justice requires, all of 
which are not enacted by any particular sta- 
tutes (though they are acknowledged by all) 
but depend entirely upon the common law. 
2dly. Particular customs which concern 
the inhabitants of some particular district. 
3dly. The third branch are those laws 
which are adopted by certain courts and ju- 
risdictions, as the civil and canon laws. 
The civil law is understood to signify the 
civil law ol the Roman empire. The canon 
law is a body of Roman ecclesiastical law re- 
lating to matters over which the church ex- 
ercises a jurisdiction. The civil law is used 
in four courts under certain restrictions, viz. 
the archbishops’ and bishops’ courts, usually 
styled curiae christianitatis ; the courts mar- 
tial, the courts of admiralty, and the courts 
of the two universities. 
The second division of the laws of England 
are the statutes made by the king, lords, and 
commons, assembled in parliament. The 
oldest statute extant is the celebrated Magna 
Charta, 9 lien. 3 ; though, doubtless, the re- 
cords of many antecedent to that have been 
lost, and the maxims received as common 
law. 
Statutes are general or special, public or 
private: general or public acts are those 
which concern the whole nation ; of these the 
judges are obliged to take notice, though 
they should not be formally pleaded by the 
party who claims an advantage under them. 
Special or private acts are such as operate on 
private persons and concerns, which must be 
formally set forth by the party, or the judges 
are not obliged to notice them. 
Statutes are either declaratory of the com- 
mon law, where it is become disreputable, or 
fallen into disuse ; or remedial, when made to 
supply the defects, or abridge the superilui- 
L 'A Y 
lies of the common law. These latter are 
subdivided into en!?>%ing and restraining star 
tutes, by enlarging the common law where it 
was too circumscribed, and restraining it 
where it was too luxuriant, 
There is besides those grounds of the laws 
of England, a court of equity to moderate and 
explain them. (See Equity.) The courts of 
equity are, however, only had recourse to in 
matters of property ; for our constitution 
will not permit, that in criminal cases anv 
judge should have the power of construing 
the law otherwise than according to the let- 
ter. r l his caution, while it protects the public 
liberty, can never oppress the individual. 
A man cannot suffer more punishment than 
the law directs, but he may sutler less. The 
laws cannot be strained to inflict a penalty 
beyond what the letter warrants, but in cases 
where the letter induces any apparent hard- 
ship, the crown has power to pardon. 
In treating of the laws, the best mode, and 
which has been adopted by sir William Black- 
stone in his excellent Commentaries, after 
the example of Wood in his Institutes, is to 
divide them, 1st, into the rights of persons, 
or the rights as to personal security, personal 
liberty, and private property. 2nd, The 
rights ot things, or the rights which a man 
may acquire in and to such external things 
as are unconnected with his person. 3rd. 
Private wrongs, or such as are the infringe- 
ment of the private rights of individuals: and 
4th. public wrongs, or such as are a violation 
the public rights, and affect the whole com- 
munity. 
It is of course unnecessary, and perhaps in 
a work of this nature irrelevant, to recommend 
the study ot the law; it is sufficient to add 
the words of the great judge Blackstoue on 
this subject. “ It is incumbent (savs he) 
upon every man to be acquainted with the 
laws, lest he incur the censure as well as the 
inconvenience of living in society without 
knowing the obligations it lays him under.’’ 
LAVENI A, a genus of the class and order 
syngenesia polygamia aequalis. The calyx is 
nearly regular; style bifid; dowp three-awn- 
ed ; recept. naked. There are two species, 
herbs of the East and West Indies. 
LA WSON I A, Egyptian privet, a genus of 
the monogynia order, in the octandria class 
of plants, and in the natural method ranking 
with those of which the order is doubtful. 
The calyx is quadriiid ; the petals four; the 
stamina four, in pairs ; the capsule isquadiilo- 
cular and polyspermous. There are four 
species, all natives of India. Some authors 
take the inennis to be the plant termed by 
the Arabians henna or alhenna, the pulveris- 
ed leaves of which are much used by the 
Eastern nations for dyeing their nails yellow ; 
but others, Dr. Hasselquist in particular, at- 
tribute that effect to the leaves of the other 
species of Egyptian privet which bears prickly 
branches, ft is probable that neither set of 
writers are mistaken, and that the shrub in 
question is a variety only of the thorny law- 
soma, rendered mild by culture. 
LAY-BROTHERS, among the Roman- 
ists, those pious, but illiterate persons, who 
devote themselves, in some convent, to the 
service of the religious. They wear a dif- 
ferent habit from that of the religious, but 
never enter into the choir, nor are present at 
the chapters; nor do they make any other 
L A Z 
vow, except of constancy and obedience. Is* 
nunneries there are also lay-sisters. 
Lay-man, among painters, a small statue 
either ot wax or wood, whose joints are so 
formed, that it may be put into any attitude 
or posture. Its principal use is for ’adjusting 
the drapery in clothing of figures. 
LAY ERS, in gardening, are tender shoots 
or twigs of trees, laid or buried in the ground, 
till, having struck root, they are separated 
from the parent tr< o, and become distinct 
plants. The propagating trees by layers is 
done in the following manner : the branches 
of the trees are to be slit a little way, and laid 
under the mould for about half a foot: the 
ground should be first made very light, and 
after -they are laid they should be’ gently wa- 
tered. It they will not remain easily in the 
position they are put in, they must bepegged 
down with wooden hooks: the best season for 
doing this is, for evergreens, toward the end 
of August, and for other trees in the begin- 
ning of Feb. If they are found to have taken 
root, they are to be cut off from the main 
plant the succeeding winter, and planted out. 
If the branch is too high from the ground, a 
tub of earth is to be raised to a proper height 
for it. Some pare off the rind, and others 
twist the branch before they lay it: but this is 
not necessary. The end of the layer should 
be about a foot out of the ground ; and the 
branch may be either tied tight round with a 
wire, or cut upwards from a joint, or cut 
round for an inch or two at the place, and it 
is a good method to pierce several holes 
through it with an awl above the part tied 
with the wire. 
LAZAR-HOUSE, or Lazaretto, a 
public building, in the nature of an hospital, 
to receive the poor and those afflicted with 
contagious distempers : in some places laza- 
rettos are appointed for the performance of 
quarantine ; in which case, those are obliged 
to he confined in them who are suspected to 
have come from places infected with the 
plague. This is usually a large building, at 
some distance from a city, whose apartments 
stand detached from each other, where ves- 
sels are unladen, and the crew shut up for 
about 40 days, more or less, according to the 
time and place of their departure. The laza- 
retto of Milan is esteemed one of the finest 
hospitals in Italy. 
LAZULI! E. This stone, which is found 
chiefly in the northern parts of Asia, was long 
known to mineralogists by the name of lapis 
lazuli. 
Lazulite is always amorphous. Its texture 
is earthy. Its fracture uneven. Lustre 0. 
Opaque, or nearly so. Hardness 8 to 9. Spe- 
cific gravity 2.76 to 2.945. Colour blue ; of- 
ten spotted white from specks of quartz, and 
yellow from particles of pyrites. 
It retains its colour at 100° Wedgewood; 
in a higher heat it inlumesces, and melts into 
a yellowish-black mass. With acids it effer- 
vesces a little, and if previously calcined, 
forms witli them a jelly. 
Margraff published an analysis of lazulite 
m the Berlin Memoirs for 1758. His ana- 
lysis has since been confirmed by Klaproth, 
who found a specimen of it to contain 
46.0 silica 
14.5 alumina 
28.0 carbonat of lime 
6.5 sulphat of lime 
