ACT 
It is to be observed, that the actions of 
bodies on each other, in a space that is car- 
ried uniformly forward, are the same as if 
the space were at rest : and any powers or 
motions that act upon all bodies, so as to pro- 
duce equal velocities in them in the same, 
or in parallel right lines, have no effect on 
their mutual actions, or relative motions. 
Thus the motion of bodies aboard a ship, 
that is carried steadily and uniformly for- 
ward, are performed in the same manner as 
if the ship was at rest. The motion of the 
earth round its axis has no effect on the ac- 
tions of bodies and agents at its surface, but 
so far as it is not uniform and rectilineal. 
In general, the actions of bodies upon each 
other depend not on their absolute, but re- 
lative motion. 
Action, in law, denotes either the 
right of demanding, in a legal manner, what 
is any man’s due, or the process brought 
for the recovering the same. 
Actions are either criminal or civil. 
Criminal actions are to have judgment of 
death, as appeals of death, robbery, &c. 
or only judgment for damage to the in- 
jured party, fine to the king, and imprison- 
ment. 
Under the head of criminal actions may 
likewise be ranked penal actions, which 
lie for some penalty or punishment on the 
party sued, whether it be corporal or pe- 
cuniary. 
Also actions upon the statute, brought on 
breach of any stutute, or act of parlia- 
ment, by which an action is given that did 
not lie before; as where a person commits 
perjury to the prejudice of another, the in- 
jured party shall have an action upon the 
statute. And lastly, popular actions, so 
called, because any person may bring them 
on behalf of himself and the crown, by in- 
formation, &c. for the breach of some penal 
statute. 
Civil actions are divided into real, per- 
sonal, and mixed. 
Real action is that whereby a man claims 
a title, lands, tenements, &c. in fee, or for 
life, and this action is either possessory, or 
ancestral ; possessory, where the lands are 
a person’s own possession or seisin ; ances- 
tral, when they were of the possession or 
seisin of his ancestors. 
Personal action, is one brought by one man 
against another, upon any contract for mo- 
ney or goods, or on account of trespass, or 
other offence committed ; and thereby the 
debt, goods, chattels, &c. claimed. 
Mixt action, one lying as well for the 
ACU 
thing demanded as against the person who 
has it; and on which the thing is reco- 
vered with damages for the wrong sus- 
tained ; such is an action of waste, sued 
against a tenant for life, the place wasted 
being recoverable, with treble damages for 
the wrong done. 
ACTS of parliament, statutes, acts, edicts, 
made by the king, with the advice and 
consent of the lords spiritual and tem- 
poral, and commons; in parliament assem- 
bled. An act of parliament is the highest 
possible authority, and hath power to bind 
not only every subject, but the king himself, 
if particularly named therein, and cannot 
be altered or repealed but by the same au- 
thority. Where the common law and the 
statute law differ; the common law gives 
place to the statute, and an old statute 
gives place to a new one. Penal statutes 
must be construed strictly ; thus a statute 
of Edw. I. having enacted, that those con- 
victed of stealing horses should not have 
the benefit of clergy, the judges conceived 
that this did not extend to him that should 
steal but one horse, and a new act for 
that purpose was passsd in the following 
year. Statutes against frauds are to be li- 
berally and beneficially expounded. One 
part of a stutute must be construed by an- 
other, that the whole may, if possible, stand. 
A saving clause totally repugnant to the body 
of the act. If a statute that repeals an- 
other is itself repealed afterwards, the first 
statute is hereby revived. Acts of parlia- 
ment derogatory from the power of subse- 
quent parliaments bind not. Acts of par- 
liament that are impossible to be performed 
are of no validity. 
ACULEATE, or Aculeated, an appel- 
lation given to any thing that has aculei, 
or prickles: thus fishes are divided into 
those with aculeated and not aculeated 
fins. 
The same term is applied, in botany, to 
the stems and branches of those plants that 
are furnished with prickles, as the rose, the 
raspberry, and barberry trees. The prickle 
differs from the thorn, which is another spe- 
cies of armature, or defence, against ani- 
mals, in being only a prolongation of the 
cortex or outer bark of the plant, and not 
connected with nor protruded from the 
wood. This is apparent from the ease with 
which such prickles are detached from the 
stem with the bark, while the other, and 
more rigid species of weapon, being an ex- 
pansion of the ligneous body, cannot be de- 
tached without rendering and tearing the 
