r r is 
P It E 
49* P 11 E 
5rt.o silica: 
20.4 alumina 
23.3 lime 
4.9 iron 
.9 water 
.5 magnesia 
100 . 0 . 
The mineral known by the name of koii- 
pholite is a variety of the prehnlte. 
i R EM l ''SL.b, is that partot the beginning 
of a deed, the office of which is to express the 
■grantor and grantee, and tiie land or tiling- 
granted. 5 Rep. 5-5. See Deed. 
. PREMNA, a genus ol the didvnamia an- 
giospermia class and order. T he cahx is 
two-Iobed ; corolla four-cleft; berry four- 
celled; seeds solitary. There are two spe- 
cies, small trees of the East Indies. 
PREMUNIRE. See Pr/emunire. 
PREAN 1 HRS, in botany, a genus of the 
polygamia a- jiialis order, in the syngenesia 
class of plants, and in the natural method 
ranking under the 49th order, composite. 
r l lie receptacle is naked ; the calyx calycu- 
lated ; the pappus is simple, and almost ses- 
sile; the florets are placed in a single series, 
i here are 19 species, some of them natives 
©i England. 
PREPENSE, in law, denotes fore-thought: 
thus, when a man is slain upon a sudden 
quarrel, if there was malice prepense former- 
ly between them, it makes it murder. 
PREPUSE. See Anatomy. 
PREROGA1 IVE, is a word of large ex- 
tent, including ail the rights and privileges 
which by law the king lias as chief of the 
commonwealth, and as intrusted with the 
execution of the laws. 4 Rack. Abr. 1 49. 
All jurisdiction exercised in these kingdoms 
that are in obedience to our king, is derived 
from the crown ; and the laws, whether of a 
temporal, ecclesiastical, or military nature, 
are called his laws; and it is his prerogative 
to take care of the due execution of them. 
Hence all judges must derive their authority 
trom the crown, by some commission war- 
ranted by law ; and must exercise it in a 
lawful manner, and without any the least de- 
viation from the known imd stated forms. 
I he king, as the fountain of justice, has an 
undoubted prerogative in erecting officers, 
and ail officers are said to derive their autho- 
rity mediately, or immediately from him ; but 
though all such officers derive their authority 
from the crown , and whence the king is term- 
ed the universal officer or disposer of justice, 
yet it has been held, that he has not the office 
in him to execute it himself, but is only to 
grant or nominate; nor can the king grant 
any new powers or privileges to any such 
officers, but they must execute their offices 
according to the rules established and pre- 
scribed them by law. Co. Lit. 1 14. 
Prerogative court, the court wherein 
all wills are proved, and all administrations 
taken which belong to the archbishop by his 
prerogative; that is in case where the de- 
ceased had goods of any considerable value 
out of the diooese wherein he died ; and that 
value is ordinarily 5/. except it is otherwise 
by composition between the said archbishop 
and some other bishop, as in the diocese of 
London it is \0l. and if any contention grow 
Jse tween two or more, touching any such will 
1 or administration, the cause is properly de- 1 
■ bated and decided in this court. 4 Inst. 335. 
PR ESBYTER1ANS, a sect of protestants, 
so called from their maintaining that the go- 
vernment of the church appointed in the new 
testament was by presbyteries; that is, by 
ministers and ruling elders, associated for its 
government and discipline. 
The presbyterians jaffirm that there is.no 
order in the church as established by Christ 
and his apostles, superior to that of pres- 
byters ; that all ministers being ambassadors 
of Christ, are equal by their commission ; 
and that elder or presbyter, and bishop are 
the same in name and office, for which they 
alledge, Acts xx. 28, &c. The only differ- 
ence between them and the church of Eng- 
land, relates to discipline and church govern- 
ment. Their highest assembly is a synod, 
which may be provincial, national, or "oecu- 
menical ; and they allow of appeals from in- 
ferior to superior assemblies, according to 
Acts xv. 2, 6, 22, 23. The next assembly is 
composed of a number of ministers and elders, 
associated for governing the churches within 
certain bounds. This authority they found 
upon Acts xi. 30, Acts xv. 4, 6, &c. The 
lowest of their assemblies or presbyteries, 
consists of the minister and elders of a con- 
gregation, who have power to cite before 
them any member, and to admonish, instruct, 
rebuke, and suspend him from the eucharist. 
They have also a deacon, whose office is to 
take care of the poor. 
The ordination of their ministers is by 
prayer, fasting, and imposition of the hands of 
the presbytery. This is now the discipline of 
the church of Scotland. 
But the appellation presbyterian, is in Eng- 
land appropriated to a large denomination of 
dissenters, who have no attachment to the 
Scotch mode of church government any more 
than to episcopacy among us ; and, therefore, 
to this body of Christians the term presby- 
terian is improperly applied. English pres- 
byterians adopt the same mode of church 
government with the independents. See 
Independents. 
PRESCRIPTION, in law, is a right or 
title acquired by use and time, introduced for 
assuring the property of effects, in favour of 
persons who have for a certain time had them 
in their possession. Prescription has been 
called a penalty imposed by the laws upon 
negligence ; but the law of prescription does 
not punish the indolence of proprietors, but 
only interprets their silence for their consent, 
presuming that a man who neglects to assert 
his right for a. series of years, gives it up. In 
the common law, prescription is usually un- 
derstood of a possession from time immemo- 
rial, or beyond the memory of man ; but in 
the civil law, and even in our statute law, 
there are prescriptions of a much shorter date. 
The things a person may make title to by 
prescription are, a fair, market, toll, way, 
water, rent, common, park, warren, franchise, 
court-leet, waifs, estrays, &c. There is like- 
wise a prescription against actions and statutes: 
thus, by the 31 Eliz. c. 1. it is ordained that 
all actions, &c. that are brought upon statutes, 
the penalty whereof belongs to the king, 
shall be brought within two years after the 
offence is committed, or shall be void. By 
our statutes also, a judge or clerk convicted 
of false entering of pleas, &c. may be sued 
within two years ; but the crime of main- 
tenance or embracery, whereby perjury is 
committed by a jury, must be" prosecuted 
within six days, or otherwise the parties pre- 
scribe. See the article Limitation. 
PRESENTATION, in lav/, the act of a 
patron oifering his clerk to be instituted in a 
benefice of his gift, the same being void. All 
persons that have ability to make a purchase 
or grant, may also present to vacant benefices 
in their gift; though where a clergyman is 
patron of a church, he cannot -present him- 
self, but may pray to be admitted by the 
bishop, and the admission shah be effectual. 
An infant of any age may also present in his 
own name; but a presentation by a feme 
covert must be in the name of both husband 
and wife. As coparceners make but one 
patron, they are either to present jointly, or 
ti;e eldest may present first, and the rest in 
their turn. Joint-tenants must also join in a 
presentation; and when a corporation pre- 
sents, it must be under their common seal. 
Aliens born and papists cannot present to be- 
nefices, which are presented to by the uni- 
versities ; but a popish recusant may grant 
his patronage to another, who may "present 
where there is no fraud. A patron may re- 
voke his presentation before institution, but 
not afterwards ; and a right of presenting to 
the next avoidance of a church, whether 
granted by will or deed, will pass; but a 
presentation whilst the church is full, is 
judged void. 
PRESENTMENT of offences , is that 
which the grand jury find of their own know- 
ledge, and present to the court, without any 
bill of indictment laid before them at the suit 
of the king, as a presentment ot a nuisance, a 
libel, and the like, upon which the officer of 
the court must afterwards frame an indict- 
ment before the party presented 'can be put 
to answer it. There are also presentments by 
justices of the peace, constables, surveyors 
of the highways, church-wardens, &c. 
PRESIDENT, an officer created or elect- 
ed to preside over a company, in contradis- 
tinction to the other members, who are called 
residents. 
The lord president of the council is the 
fourth great officer of the crown, as antient as 
king John, when he was stiled conciiiarius 
capitalis. Ilis office is to attend on the king, 
propose business at the council table, and re- 
port the transactions there to the king. 
'1 he lord president of the court of session 
in Scotland, is the first of the fifteen lords 
who presides in that august assembly, which 
is the supreme court of justice in that king- 
dom. 
PRESS, in the mechanic arts, a machine- 
made of iron or wood, serving to squeeze or 
compress any body very close. The ordi- 
nary presses consists of six members, or 
pieces, viz. two flat smooth planks, between 
which the things to be pressed are laid ; t\yo 
screws or worms, fastened to the lower plank, 
and passing through two holes in the upper ; 
and two nuts, in form of an S, serving to 
drive the upper plank, which is moveable, 
against the lower, which is stable, and without 
motion. 
Press used by inlayers, resembles the 
joiner’s press, except that the pieces of wood 
are thicker, and that only one of them is 
moveable; the other, which is in form of a 
tressel, being sustained by two legs or pillars, 
jointed into it at each end. This press serves 
