5SS 
D I S 
make a fresh distress. 
D I V 
'trainer, he may 
Salk. 348. 
2 YV . and M, it is provided, that where 
any goods or chattels shall be distrained for 
rent due on any demise, lease, or contract 
whatsoever, and the owner shall not, within 
hve days next after such distress taken, and 
notice thereof, and ot the cause of the taking 
le.t at the dwelling-house, or other most no- 
tonous place on the premises charged with 
the rent, replevy the same, that then, at the 
expiration of the said five days, the distrainer 
may, with the assistance of the sheriff, 
under-sheriff, or constable, cause the goods 
and chattels so distrained to be appraised by 
two sworn appraisers, and sold for the best 
price that can be got tor the same, towards 
satisfaction of the rent for which the said goods 
and chattels have been distrained, and the 
costs and charges of such distress, appraise- 
ment, and sale ; leaving the overplus (if any) 
in the hands ot the said sheriff, or constable 
for the use of the owner. 
By stat. 2 \V. c. 5, on any pound-breach 
or rescous of goods distrained for rent the 
persons grieved thereby shall, in a special 
action on the case, recover treble damages 
and costs against the offender, or against die 
owner of the goods, if they are afterwards 
louiicl to have come to his use or posses- 
sion. r 
Distress for penalties. By 27 G. II. 
c. 20. s. !, in all cases where any justice of 
the peace shall be required or empowered 
by any act ot parliament to issue a warrant 
ot distress for the levying any pehaltyinflicted, 
or any sum of money directed to be paid by 
such act, it shall be lawful for the justice 
granting such warrant, therein to order and 
direct the goods and chattels so to be dis- 
trained, to be sold and disposed of within a 
certain time to be limited in such warrant • 
so as such time be not less than four days* 
noi more than eight days; unless the penalty 
or sum of money for which the distress shall 
be made, together with the reasonable charges 
of taking and keeping such distress, shall be 
sooner paid. 
Distress of the king. By the com- 
mon law no subject can distrain out of his 
fee or seigniory, unless cattle are driven to 
a place out of the fee, to hinder the lord’s dis- 
tress, &c. But the king may distrain for rent- 
service, or fee-farm in all the lands of the ten- 
ant wheresoever they be; not only on lands 
held of himself, but others, where his tenant is 
in actual possession, and the land manured 
with his own beasts. 2 Inst. 132. 
DISTRIBUTION of intestate’s ef- 
fects, after payment of the debts of the 
deceased, is to he made according to the 
stat. 22 and 23 G. II. c. 10, in manner fol- 
lowing, One-third shall go to the widow of 
the intestate, and the residue in equal pro- 
portions to his children ; or if dead to their 
representatives, that is, their lineal descend- 
ants . it tiieie are no children or legal repre- 
sentatives, then a moiety shall go to the wi- 
dow, and a moiety to the next kindred in 
equal degree, or their representatives ; if no 
widow, tiie whole shall go to the children ; if 
neither widow nor child, the whole shall ’be 
distributed amongst the next kindred in equal 
degree, and their representatives : but no re- 
presentatives are admitted among collaterals, 
farther than the children of the intestate’s 
brothers and sisters. The father succeeds to 
the whole personal effects of his children, if 
they die intestate, and without issue ; but if 
the father be dead, and the mother survive, 
she shall only come in for a share equally 
with each of the remaining children. 
. Distribution, in logic, is a kind of di- 
vision which distinguishes an universal whole 
into its several kinds or species ; as division 
is to distinguish an integral whole into its se- 
veral parts. 
Distribution, in printing, the taking a 
form asunder, separating the letters, and dis- 
posing them in the cases again, each in its 
proper box. 
DIST RICT, in geography, a part of a 
province, distinguished by peculiar magis- 
trates, or certain privileges : in which sense 
it is synonymous with hundred. 
DISTRINGAS, in. law, a writ command- 
ing the sheriff; or other officer, that he dis- 
train a person for debt to the king, &c or for 
his appearance at a certain dav. There is a 
great diversity of this writ. " 
Distringas juratores, a writ directed 
to the sheriff, whereby he is commanded to 
distrain upon a jury to appear, and to return 
issues on their lands, &c. for non-appearance, 
ilns wntof distringas juratores issues for the 
sheriff to have their bodies in court, &c at 
the return of the writ. 
DITCH, in fortification, the same with 
moat. See Fortification. 
DIT ITT RAMBUS, in antient poetry a 
hymn in honour of Bacchus, full of transport 
and poetical rage. This poetry owes its 
birth to Greece, and to the transports of 
wine ; and yet art is not quite exploded, but 
delicately applied to guide and restrain the 
dithyrambic impetuosity, which is indulged 
only in pleasing flights. Horace and Arjs- 
totle teH us, that the antients gave the name 
of dithyrambus to those verses in which none 
ot the common rules or measures were ob- 
served. As we have now no remains of the 
dithyrambus of the antients, we cannot say 
exactly what their measure was. 
DITONE, in music, an interval compre- 
hending two tones. The proportion of the 
sounds that form the ditone is 4 : 5 and that 
of the semiditone is 5 : 6. F. Parran makes 
the ditone the fourth kind of simple concord 
as compiehending two tones, according to 
Ans! otle, a greater and a less. Others make 
it the iirst discord, dividing the ditone into 
eighteen equal parts, or commas ; the nine 
on the acute side making the greater tone, as 
asserted by Salmon de Caux. 
. DIV AN, a council-chamber, or court of 
justice, amoiiff the eastern nations, particu- 
larly the T uiks. The word is Arabic, and 
signifies the same with sopha in the Turkish 
dialect. There are two sorts of divans- 
that of the grand-signior, called the council 
ot state, which consists of seven of the prin- 
cipal officers of the empire ; and that of the 
gi and-vizii , composed of six other vizirs and 
counsellors of state, the chancellors, and se- 
cretaries of state, for the distribution of jus- 
tice. The word is also used for a hall in the 
private houses of the orientals. The custom 
ot China does not allow the receiving of vi- 
sits in the inner parts of the house, but only 
at the entry, in a divan contrived. on purpose 
for ceremonies. Travellers relate wonders 
DIV 
anJ ene, ' Sy ° f tiie cIivans 
Divan-beghi, the superintendant of jus- 
tice m Persia, whose place is the last of the 
six ministers of the second rank, who are all 
under the athemadauler, or first minister 
/o thls tribunal of the divan-beghi he appeals 
1 °m sentences passed by the governors : he 
has a fixed stipend of 50,000 crowns for ad- 
ministering justice : all the serjeants, ushers, 
cnc. ot the court are in his service : betakes 
cognizance of the criminal causes of the 
chains, governors, and other great lords of 
i ersia, when accused of any fault. There 
are divan-beghis not only at court, and in 
the capital, hut also in the provinces, and 
other cities of the empire. The alcoran is 
the sole rule ot his administration of justice 
which also he interprets at pleasure. Ije 
takes no cognizance of civil causes ; but all 
(inferences arising between the officers of the 
king s household, and between foreign mi- 
nisters, are determined by him. 
DIY ER, in ornithology. .See Colymbus. 
DIVERGENT or diverging lines, in 
geometry, are those which constantly recede 
from each other. 
Divergent rays, in optics, are those 
winch going from a point of the visible off. 
ject, are dispersed, and continually depart 
one from another, in proportion as they are 
removed from the object : in which sense it 
is opposed to convergent. See Optics. 
DIVERSION, in military affairs, is when 
an enemy is attacked in one place where they 
ai1 ^ unprovided, in order to draw 
ott their forces from another place, where 
the) have made, or intend to make, an irrup- 
tion. 1 bus the Romans had no other wav in 
their power of driving Hannibal out of Italy, 
than by making a diversion in attacking Car- 
thage. ° 
. ERSITY, in logic, stands in opposi- 
tion to identity. See Identity. 
Diversity, in painting, consists in giving 
eveiy part or figure m a piece its proper air 
and attitude. See Painting. 
DIVESTING, or divestiture y in law, is 
used for the act ot surrendering one’s effects. 
■t>y a contract ot donation, or sale, the do- 
nor » is said to be disseised and di- 
vested of his property in such a commodity. 
In this sense it stands contradistinguished 
from investiture, where the donee or pur- 
chaser becomes invested with the property 
of tiie donor or seller. r J 
DI\ II) END, in arithmetic, the number 
proposed to be divided into equal parts It 
must always be greater than the divisor See 
Arithmetic. 
Dividend, in the Exchequer, is one part 
of an indenture. 1 
Dividend of stocks, is a share or propor- 
tion of the interest of stocks erected on puff 
lie funds, as the South Sea, &c. divided 
among, and paid to, the proprietors half- 
yearly. See Stocks. 
,, Dividend, in the university, signifies 
that part or share which the fellows equally 
divide among themselves of their v early sti- 
pend. * J 
DIVING, the art or act of descending 
under water to considerable depths, and abid- 
ing there a competent time. The uses cf 
dmng are vgry considerable, particularly in. 
