H AB 
leaf of some water plant, and after casting 
its skin it becomes a chrysalis. These ani- 
mals, in large numbers, give out a dis- 
agreeable smell, and like other water bee- 
tles, they fly only by night. Their eggs are 
H A B 
white, and are laid on the stems of water- 
plants, where they are hatched m the course 
of a week, and instantly begin to swim about 
very swiftly in quest of prey. 
H. 
H Or ft, the eighth letter, and sixth con- 
> sonant in our alphabet ; though some 
grammarians will have it to be only an as- 
piration or breathing. 
It is pronounced by a strong expiration 
of the breath between the lips, closing, as 
it were, by a gentle motion of the lower 
jaw to the upper, and the tongue nearly ap- 
proaching the palate. 
There seems to be no doubt, but that our 
ft, which is the same with that of the Ro- 
mans, derived its figure from that of the 
Hebrew n. And, indeed, the Phoenicians, 
most ancient Greeks and Romans, used the 
same figure with our H, which in the series 
of all these alphabets keeps its primitive 
place, being the eighth letter. 
H, used as a numeral, denotes 200 ; and 
with a dash over it, H, 200,000. 
HABEAS corpus, a writ, of various uses, 
and of different importance. It was original- 
ly a writ, which a man indicted of a tres- 
pass before justices of the peace, or in a 
court of franchise, and being apprehended 
for it, may have out of the King’s Bench, 
to remove himself thither at his own costs, 
and to answer the cause there. In its more 
usual sense it is the most celebrated writ in 
the English law. The most efficacious kind, 
in all manner of illegal confinement* is that 
of habeas corpus ad subjiciendum, which is the 
subject’s writ of right, in cases where he is 
aggrieved by illegal imprisonment, or any 
unwarrantable exercise of power. 
This writ is founded upon common law, 
and has been secured by various statutes, 
of which the last and most efficacious, was 
the 31 Charles II. c. 2, which is emphati- 
cally termed the habeas act, and may justly 
be deemed a second magna charta, and as 
relates to modern times is far more effica- 
cious, for it is the grand protection of the 
subject against unlawful imprisonment. 
By this important statute it is enacted, 
that on complaint, in writing, by or on be- 
half of any person committed and charged 
with any crime (unless committed for 
felony or treason expressed in the warrant, 
or as accessary, or on suspicion of being 
accessary before the fact to any petit 
treason or felony plainly expressed in the 
warrant, or unless he be convicted or 
charged in execution by legal process), 
the Lord Chancellor, or any other of the 
twelve judges in vacation, upon viewing 
a copy of the warrant, or affidavit that the 
copy is denied, shall (unless the party have 
neglected for two terms to apply, to any 
court for his enlargement) award an habeas 
corpus for such prisoner, returnable im- 
mediately before himself or any other of 
the judges, and upon return made, shall dis- 
charge the party, if bailable, upon giving 
security to appear, and answer to th« ac- 
cusation in the proper court of judicature. 
That such writs shall be indorsed, as 
granted in pursuance of the act, and signed 
by the person awarding them. That the 
writ shall be returned, and the prisoner 
brought up within a limited time, accord- 
ing to the distance, not exceeding in any 
case twenty days. That the officers and 
keepers neglecting to make due returns, or 
not delivering to the prisoner or his agent, 
within six hours after demand, a copy of 
the warrant of commitment, or shifting the 
custody of a prisoner, from one to another, 
without sufficient reason or authority (spe- 
cified in the act), shall, for the first offence, 
forfeit one hundred pounds, and for the 
second offence two hundred pounds to the 
party grieved, and be disabled to hold his 
office. That no person, once delivered by 
habeas corpus, shall be recommitted for the. 
same offence, on penalty of five hundred 
pounds. 
