8 ACC 
voice is to be raised in pronouncing the sylla- 
ble over which it is placed. The grave ac- 
cent is marked thus ('), and points out when 
the voice ought to be lowered. The circum- 
flex is compounded of the other two, and 
marked thus ( or a): it denotes a quavering 
of the voice, between high and low. 
. Some call the long and short quantities of 
syllables accents, but erroneously. See Quan- 
tity. 
Accents not only give a pleasing variety 
and beauty to the modulation of the voice, 
but serve to ascertain the true meaning of the 
word, as in prevent and to present. The 
Chinese are remarkable for the use they make 
ot accents • thus the word pa, according to 
the way in which they place the accent, sig- 
nifies God, a wall, an elephant, stupidity, and 
a goose. The Hebrew likewise abounds with 
them ; there being no less than twenty-five 
tonic accents, shewing the proper tone of the 
syllables over or under which they are placed ; 
besides four euphonic ones, serving to render 
the pronunciation more sweet and agreeable. 
It is generally allowed, however, that the ac- 
cents now in use were unknown to the undent 
Hebrews. 
Concerning the antiquity of the Greek ac- 
cents authors are not agreed ; some making 
them of modern date, and others contending 
for their having been known to the undent 
Greeks. 
Accent* in music, a certain modulation or 
warbling of the sounds, to express passion; 
cither naturally by the voice, or artificially by 
instruments. Every bar or measure is divid- 
ed into the accented and unaccented parts ; 
the former being the emphatical, on which 
the spirit of the music depends. The har- 
mony ought always to be full, and void of dis- 
cords, in the accented part of the measure. 
ACCENTOR, in the old music, denotes 
one of the three singers in parts, or the per- 
son who sung the predominant pardin a trio. 
ACCEP1 ANCE, in common law, the ta- 
citly agreeing to some act before done by an- 
other, which' might have been defeated With- 
out such acceptance. Thus if.a husband and 
wife, seized of land in right of the wife, make 
a joint lease of feoffment, reserving rent, and 
the husband dies ; after which the widow re- 
ceives or accepts the rent ; such receipt is 
deemed an acceptance, confirms the lease or 
feoffment, and bars her from bringing the writ 
cui in vita. 
Acceptance, among merchants, is the 
act by which the party on whom a bill of ex- 
change is drawn, makes himself liable to the 
amount. An acceptance may be absolute to 
the bill itself at all events ; or it may be par- 
tial, that is, to pay a certain part of it ; or it 
may.be conditional, that is, upon the per- 
formance of a certain condition; in which last 
case, when the condition is performed, the 
acceptance becomes absolute. An accept- 
ance may also be collateral, as an acceptance 
Upon protest. 
An acceptance may be given either ver- 
bally or in writing ; the latter, however, is the 
most regular and customary. But any thing 
tending to shew that the party means to be 
bound by his undertaking ; such as the sig- 
nature of the initials, or the day of the month, 
keeping tiie bill longer than usual, or any ver- 
bal promise or agreement ; will be an accept- 
ance. 
Bills payable at sight, are not accepted, be- 
A C C 
cause they must either be paid on being pre- 
sented, or else protested lor want of payment. 
The acceptance of bills payable at a fixed 
day, at usance, &c. needs not be dated ; be- 
cause the time is reckoned from the date of 
the bill ; but it is necessary to date the accept- 
ance of bills payable at a certain number of 
days after sight, because the time does not 
begin to run till the next day after that ac- 
ceptance.. This kind of acceptance is made 
thus : Accepted such a day and year, and 
signed. 
In general, he to whom a bill of exchange 
is made payable ought to demand the ac- 
ceptance of the person on whom it is drawn, 
and that in the full extent of the terms of the 
bill, and on refusal of acceptance to return it 
with protest. This lie ought to do for his 
own security, as well as for that of the drawer. 
Thus, if the bearer of a bill consents to an ac- 
ceptance at twenty days sight, instead of eight 
days expressed in the bill, he runs the riskof 
the twelve days prolongation ; so that lie can 
have no remedy against the drawer, should 
the acceptor break in that time. Again, if a 
bill is drawn for three thousand pounds, and 
the bearer agrees to take an acceptance for 
two only, and should receive no more than 
that sum, the remaining thousand would be 
at the hazard of the bearer, as well as in the 
former case. 
If, therefore, a bill is only accepted in part, 
or for a longer time than that expressed in it, 
the bearer ought to protest it, at least for the 
sum not accepted. Again, if the acceptor 
breaks, or refuses to make payment when the' 
bill becomes due, it is necessary to get the bill 
immediately protested by a public notary, to 
be sent along with the protest to the remitter, 
to procure satisfaction from the drawer. 
By statute, inland-bills of exchange must be 
accepted by signing or endorsing in writing, 
and protested for refusal of such acceptance, 
otherwise the drawer is not liable to costs ; it 
must likewise be returned to the drawer with- 
in fourteen days. Such protest, however, is 
not necessary, unless the value is acknow- 
ledged in the bill to be received, and unless 
the bill is drawn for 201. or upwards. 
A bill drawn on two jointly must have a 
joint acceptance, otherwise be protested ; but 
it on two or either of them, the acceptance of 
one is sufficient. 
Acceptance, among civilians, denotes the 
consenting to receive something offered to us, 
which by our refusal could not have taken ef- 
fect ; or acceptance is the actual concurrence 
of the will of the donee, without which the 
donor is at liberty to revoke his gift at plea- 
sure. 
Acceptance, in the church of Rome, is 
particularly used for the receiving the pope’s 
constitutions. 
The acceptance of the constitution unige- 
nitus has occasioned, and still continues to 
excite, a world ot confusion in the popish 
countries, but more especially in France, 
where many of the clergy refuse to accept it. 
ACCESSARY, or Accessory, in law, a 
person who is in anywise aiding in the com- 
mission of some felonious action. 
By statute, lie who counsels, abets, or con- 
ceals, the committing of such an action, or the 
person who has committed it, is deemed an 
accessary. 
There are two kinds of accessaries, viz. be- 
fore the fact, and after it. The first is he who 
ACC 
commands or procures another to commit fe- 
lony, but is absent when it is done ; for if he is 
present, he is a principal. The accessary af- 
ter the fact is one who receives, comforts, or 
assists, the felon ; knowing him to be such. 
In the highest crimes, as high treason, Sic, 
and tlie lowest, as riots, forcible entries. Sic. 
there are no accessaries, but all concerned are 
principals. 
It is a maxim among lawyers, that where 
there is no principal, there can be no acces- 
sary ; so that it is necessary 7 the principal be 
first convicted, before the accessaries can be 
arraigned. If, however, the principal cannot 
be taken, the accessary may be prosecuted for 
a misdemeanor, and punished by line, impri- 
sonment, &c. Accessaries in petty treason, 
murder, and folonv, are not allowed their 
clergy. 
A wife may assist her husband, without 
being deemed accessary to his crime ; but not 
e contra. A servant assisting his master to 
escape, is reckoned an accessary ; also fur- 
nishing others with weapons, or lending, them 
money, &c. will make persons accessaries. 
Persons buying or receiving stolen goods, 
knowing them to be such, are deemed acces- 
saries to the felony. Also if the owner of 
stolen goods, after complaint made to a jus- 
tice, takes back his goods, and consents to 
the escape of the felon, he becomes accessary 
after the fact. 
ACCESSION, a term of various import ; 
thus, among civilians, it is used for the pro- 
perty acquired in such things as are connected 
with or appendages of other things; among 
physicians, it signifies the same with what is 
more usually called paroxysm ; among politi- 
cians, it is used for a prince’s agreeing to and 
becoming a party in a treaty before concluded 
between other potentates, or it more particu- 
larly denotes a prince’s coming to the throne 
by the death of the preceding king; and 
■lastly, it is used by Romanists lor a peculiar 
way of electing a pope, which is, when one 
candidate has got two thirds of the s oles, the 
rest are enrolled by accession. 
ACCESSORY nerves, or par Accesso- 
rium, a pair of nerves of the neck: which 
arising from the spinal marrow in the vertebra 
of the neck, enters the cranium by the great 
foramen in the os occipitis. Here it is joined 
By 1 he par vagum, and coming out of the 
cranium again by the same aperture, it re- 
cedes from the par vagum, and is bent back 
to the trapezius, a muscle of the shoulder. 
See Anatomy. 
ACCIACATU R A, is a term in music*, 
which denotes the putting down with any in- 
terval the half note below it, and instantly 
taking oil the finger which has struck the 
lowest of the two notes, continuing the sound 
of the other note till the harmony is changed. 
ACC IRENS, per, is used to denote whats 
does not follow from the nature of a thing, but 
from some accidental qualities of it, in which 
sense it stands opposed toper se, which de- 
notes the nature and essence of a thing ; thus 
fire is said to bumper se’, but a piece of iron 
made hot, only bums per accidens, by a qua- 
lity accidental' to it. 
ACCIDENT ’, among logicians, is used in 
a threefold sense. i. Whatever does not 
essentially belong to a thing, as' the clothes a 
man wears, or the money in his pocket. 
2. Such properties in any subject as are not 
essential to it ; thus whiteness in paper is an, 
