S T A 
Warrant, mandate, or authority, given to 
hn attorney or solicitor, to carry on or defend 
a suit, &c. in any of the courts at West- 
minster, ecclesiastical, admiralty, or cinque 
port courts, or in his majesty’s courts in 
Scotland, the grand session in Wales, or 
courts in the counties palatine, wherein the 
debt shall amount to 40 s. or more, 2s. 6d. 
to be paid by the attorney, and not charged 
to the client. 25 Geo. 3. c. 80. 
Warrant of attorney, to enter up judg- 
ment. See Letter of Attorney. 
Wills. See Copy. 
Will's, probate of. See Probate. 
Writ. See Original Writ. 
Writ of covenant for levying tines, 1/. 10 s. 
-37 Geo. 3. c. 90. 
Writ of entry, 1/. 10.?. 
Writ of error. See Certiorari. 
Writ of habeas corpus, 5.?. 
STANDARD, in commerce, the original 
of a weight, measure, or coin, committed to 
the keeping of a magistrate, or deposited in 
some public place, to regulate, adjust, and 
try, the weights used by particular persons in 
traffic. The standards of weights and mea- 
sures in England are appointed by Magna 
Charta to be kept in the exchequer, by a spe- 
cial officer, called the clerk or comptroller 
of the market. 
The standard of gold coin is twenty-two 
carats of fine gold and two carats of alloy in 
the pound-weight troy ; and the French, 
Spanish, and Flemish gold, is nearly ot the 
same fineness. The pound-weight is cut 
into forty-four parts and a half, each current 
for twenty-one shillings. The standard of 
silver is eleven ounces and two pennyweights 
of silver, and eighteen pennyweights of alloy 
of copper. Whether gold or silver is above 
or below standard, is found by assaying, and 
the hydrostatical balance. 
Standard, in military affairs, a measure 
by which men enlisted into his majesty’s ser- 
vice, have the regulated height ascertained. 
According to the regulations and orders 
published in 1799, the standard for men raised 
for the heavy cavalry shall be five feet seven 
inches, and for the light cavalry and infantry 
five feet five inches; but no recruits are to 
be taken, even of those sizes, who exceed 
thirty-five years of age, or who are not stout 
and well made. Lads between sixteen and 
eighteen years of age, who are well limbed, 
and likely to grow, may be taken as low as 
five feet six inches for the heavy cavalry, 
and as low as five feet four inches for the 
light cavalry and infantry. In those regi- 
ments which are specially authorised to enlist 
boys, healthy lads, under sixteen years of age, 
who are likely to grow, may be taken as low 
as five feet one inch. It will be recollected, 
that this standard is for men enlisted during a 
war ;• when regiments are put upon a peace 
establishment, a higher standard is resorted 
to. Thus by a letter, dated 28th January, 
1802, it is directed, that the standard for the 
infantry of the line shall be five feet seven 
inches ; that no man shall be enlisted who is 
above twenty-five years of age ; but growing 
lads from seventeen to nineteen years of 
age, shall be taken as low as five feet five 
inches. 
Standard, in war, a sort of banner or 
flag, borne as a signal for the joining togetiier 
of the several troops belonging to the same 
body. 
S T A 
The standard is usually a piece of silk one 
and a half feet square, on which are embroider- 
ed the arms, device, or cypher, of the prince 
or colonel. It is fixed on a lance eight or 
nine feet long, and carried in the centre of the 
first rank of a squadron of horse, by the cor- 
net. 
Standards, belonging to the cavalry. 
Standards are posted in the following man- 
ner : 
The king’s, with the right squadron ; the 
second vvitii the left; and the third with the 
centre. 
In advancing to the front on, foot, the ad- 
vanced standards and their serjeants must 
not slacken their pace, or deviate from right 
to left, as the lieutenant-colonel or leading 
officer may happen to do ; but if he is in 
their way, they must call to him, because they 
alone regulate the march. 
The standards must always be brought to 
the parade by a troop, viz. by that which has 
its private parade nearest to head-quarters. 
They must be accompanied by as many trum- 
peters as can conveniently assemble with that 
troop. Swords must be drawn, and the 
march sounded. The cornets parade, of 
course, with that troop to receive the stan- 
dards. The standards are received by the 
regiment or squadron at open ranks, with 
swords drawn, officers saluting, and the 
march sounding by the remaining trumpeters. 
They must march off from head-quarters, 
and be lodged with the same form. 
STANDING, in the sea-language. Stand- 
ing part of the sheet, is that part of it which is 
made fast to a ring at the ship’s quarter. 
Standing part of a tackle, is the end of the 
rope where the block is fastened. Standing 
ropes, are those which do not run in any 
block, but are set tawt or let slack, as oc- 
casion serves ; as the sheet-stays, back-stays, 
&c. 
STANGENSPATH, a sulphat of barytes, 
in bars : colour white ; sometimes grey, red, 
green ; always crystallized. The crystals 
are four-sided prisms, terminated by two- 
sided or four-sided summits, or six-sided 
prisms terminated by two-sided summits. 
Crystals very long and small, united in 
clusters. Longitudinal fracture, radiated 
cross, fracture even ; biittle. 
STANNARIES, the mines and works 
where tin is dug and purified, a - in Co nwall, 
Devonshire, &c. There are four courts of 
the stannaries in Devonshire, and as many 
in Cornwall, and great liberties were granted 
them by several acts oi parliament, in the 
time of Edward I. &c. though somewhat 
abridged under Edward III. and Charles I. 
STANZA. See Poetry. 
STAPELIA, a genus of the pentandria 
digynia class of plants, the corolla whereof 
consists of a large, plane, single petal, quin- 
quefid beyond the middle ; the fruit consists 
of two oblong subulated follicles, made up of 
only one valve, and containing one cell; the 
seeds are numerous, imbricated, compressed, 
and pappose. See Plate Nat. Ilist. fig. 376. 
Of this very curious genus, there are 49 
species; though only two species were known 
to Linnaeus, when he published his Species 
Plantarum, in 1762. They are all succulent 
plants of warm climates, and require either a 
dry store or a very good greenhouse. They 
should not be watered in the winter-season. 
T A 
703 
STAPES. See Anatomy. 
STAPH YLEA, Bladder-nut, a genus 
of plants, belonging to the class of pentan- 
dria, and order of trigynia ; and in the natu- 
ral system "arranged under the 23d order, 
trihilate. The calyx is quinqueparthe. 
There are five petals. The capsules are 
three, inflated, and joined together by a lon- 
gitudinal suture. The seeds are two, and are 
globose with a scar. There are three species. 
The pinnata, or bladder-nut tree, is* a tall 
shrub or tree. The leaves are pinnated ; the 
pinnae are generally five, oblong, pointed, 
and notched round the edges. The flowers 
are white, and grow in whorls on long pendu- 
lous footstalks. This plant flowers in June, 
and is frequent in hedges about Pontefract 
and in Kent. The trifoliata, or three-leaved 
bladder-nut is a native of Virginia. 
STAPH\ LINUS, a genus of insects of 
the order coleoptera : the generic character 
is, antenna: moniliform ; wing-sheaths halved, 
wings, covered ; tail simple, protruding oc- 
casionally two oblong vesicles. In the genus 
staphylinus, which is pretty numerous, the 
wings which are rather large, are curiously 
pleated or convoluted beneath the short ab- 
ruptly terminated wing-sheaths. The larger 
species are of an unpleasing appearance, and 
generally run with considerable swiftness.- 
One of the most remarkable, as well as the 
largest of the British species, is the staphy- 
linus major of Degeer, which is more than an 
inch long, entirely of a deep-black colour, 
and when disturbed, sets up the hinder parts 
ot its body, as if in a posture of defence ; it 
is very frequently seen, during the autumnal 
season, about sunny pathways, fields, and 
gardens, and is furnished with a large head, 
and very strong forcipated jaws. This species 
has often been quoted as the staphylinus 
maxillosus of Linnams, but it appears* from 
late observations to be a larger, and totally 
distinct species from that insect. There are 
nearly 200 species. 
S l'APLE, primarily signifies a public place 
or market, whither merchants, &c. are obli- 
ged to bring their goods to be bought by the 
people. Formerly the merchants of England 
were thus obliged to carry their wool, cloth, 
lead, and other staple-like commodities of 
this realm, in order to utter the same bv 
wholesale: and these staples were appointed 
to be constantly kept at York, Lincoln, New- 
castle upon dyne, Norwich, Westminster; 
Canterbury, Chichester, W inchester, Exeter, 
and Bristol ; in each of which a public mart 
was appointed to he kept, and each of them 
had a court of the mayor of the staple, for 
deciding differences, held according to the 
law-merchant in a summary way. 
The staple-commodities of 'this kingdom 
are said by some to he these, viz. wool, lea- 
ther, wool-fells, lead, tin, butter, cheese; . 
cloth, &c. hut others allow. only the first five 
to be staple-commodities. 
STAR. See Astronomy. 
STARS, falling, in meteorology, . meteors 
which dart through the sky, in form of a star. 
See M etro rs. 
Mr. John Farey (Monthly Mag. xxii, 144) 
has given the name Satellitulje; to the 
numerous masses of solid matter, probably 
composed of iron and nickel principally, which 
are supposed by him to be revolving in all 
directions round this earth in elliptical orbits- 
and which, by passing through the hjg.her = 
4 
