DEP 
DER 
of chaiicei'y is by the depositions of wit- 
nesses; and the copies of such, regularly 
taken and published, are read as evidence 
at the hearing. For the purpose of examin- 
ing witnesses in or near London, there is an 
examiner’s office appointed : but for such 
as live in the country, a c.oramission to ex- 
amine witnesses is usually granted to four 
commissioners, two named on each side, or 
any three or two of them to take the depo- 
sitions there. And if the witnesses reside 
beyond sea, a commission may be had to 
examine them there upon their own oaths ; 
and, if foreigners, upon the oaths of two 
skilful interpreters. The commissioners are 
sworn to take tlie examinations truly and 
without partiality, and not to divulge them 
till published in the court of chancery, and 
their clerks are also sworn to secrecy. The 
witnesses are compellable by process of 
subpoena, as in the courts of common law, 
to appear and submit to examination. And 
when their depositions are taken, they are 
transmitted to the court with the same 
care, that the answer of a defendant is 
sent. 
DEPOT, in military affairs, any particu- 
lar place in which militai’y stores are depo- 
sited for the use of the aimy. In a more 
extensive sense, it means several magazines 
collected together for that purpose. It al- 
so signifies an appropriated fbrt, or place, 
for the reception of recruits, or detached 
parties, belonging to different regiments. 
DEPRESSION of the pole. Wlien a 
person sails or travels towards the equator, 
he is said to depress the pole, because as 
many degrees as he approaches nearer tlie 
equator, so many degrees will the pole be 
nearer the horizon. This phaenomenon arises 
from the spherical figure of the earth. Wlien 
j star is under tlie horizon, it is termed the 
depression of that star under the horizon. 
The altitude or depression of any star is an 
arch of the vertical intercepted between 
the horizon and that star. See Horizon 
and Vertical. 
DEPRIVATION, is an ecclesiastical 
censure, whereby a clergyman is deprived 
of his pai-sonage, vicarage, or otlier spiritual 
promotion of dignity. 
Causes of deprivation : if a clerk obtain 
preferment in the church by simonical con- 
tract, if he be an excommunicate, a drunk- 
ard, fornicator, adulterer, infidel, or heretic ; 
or guilty of murder, manslaughter, perjury, 
forgery, &c. if a clerk be illiterate and not 
able to perform the duty of his church ; if 
he be a scandalous person in life and con- 
versation; or bastardy is objected against 
him ; if he be under age, r.iz. the age of 
twenty-three years ; be disobedient and in- 
corrigible to his ordinary ; or a nonconfor- 
mist to the canons ; if he refuse to use the 
common prayer ; or preach in derogation of 
it ; do not administer the sacrament, or read 
the articles of religion, &c.; if any parson, 
vicar, &c. have one benefice with cure of 
souls, and take plurality, without a faculty 
or dispensation ; or if he commit waste in 
the houses and lands of the church called 
dilapidations : all these have been held good 
causes for deprivations of priests. 
DEPTH, in geometry, the same with 
altitude ; though, strictly speaking, we only 
use the term depth to denote how much 
one body, or part of a body, is below an- 
other. 
Depth of a battalion, squadron, S^c. the 
number of men in a file, who stand before 
each other in a straight line. In the ancient 
armies this was very great. 
DEPUTATION, a mission of select 
persons out of a company, or body, to a 
prince or assembly, to treat of matters in 
their name. They are more or less solemn, 
according to the quality of those who 
send them, and the business they are sent 
upon. 
DEPUTY, one who performs an office 
or duty in another’s right ; where an office 
is granted to a man and his heirs, he may 
make an assignee of tliat office, and conse- 
quently a deputy. 
There is great difference between a de- 
puty and assignee of an office ; for an as- 
signee hath an interest in the office itself, 
and does all things in his own name; for 
which his grantor shall not answer unless in 
special cases; but a deputy hath not any 
interest in the office, bnt is only the shadow 
of an officer, in whose name he does all 
things. A superior officer must answer for 
his deputy in civil actions, if he be not suffi- 
cient ; but in criminal cases it is otherwise, 
where deputies are to answer for them- 
selves. 
DERIVATIVE, in grammar, a word 
which is derived from another called its pri- 
mitive. Thus, manhood is derived from 
mail, deity from deus, and lawyer from 
law. 
DERMESTES, leather-eater, in natural 
histoi-y, a genus of insects of the order 
Coleoptera. Generic character : antenn® 
clavate, the club perfoliate, . three of the 
joints thicker ; thorax convex, slightly mar- 
