ACC 
does accede unto fome principal fadt or thing in law; and, 
as fuch, generally fpeaking, follows the reafon and nature 
of its principal. Aylijfe. 
Accessory, in law, is of four kinds, r. AccdTory 
(quad accidens ad culpam) is he that is not the chief adtor, 
but one that is concerned in the felony by commandment, 
aid, or receipt. In the higheft capital otfence, namely, 
high-treafon, there are no accefl'ories, neither before nor 
after; for the confenters, aiders, abettors, and knowing 
receivers and comforters, of traitors, are all principals, 
i Hole’s Hijl. 613. 
Alfo in cafes that are criminal, but not capital, as in 
petit larceny and trefpafs, there are no accelfories; for the 
accelforics before are in the fame degree a'S principals; 
and accefl’ories after, by receiving the offenders, cannot 
be in law under any penalties as accefl'ories, unlefs the adts 
of parliament that induce thofe penalties' dp exprefsly ex¬ 
tend to receivers or comforters, as fome do. Accelfories 
therefore relate only to capital felonies; in which cafes 
there may be accelfories, either by common law, or by ait 
of parliament. 
2. Acceflbry before the fadt committed, is he that, being 
abfent at the time of the felony committed, doth yet pro¬ 
cure, counfel, command, or abet, another to commit a fe¬ 
lony. For if he is prefent, although another actually com¬ 
mits the felony, he is a principal offender; as if one pre- 
fent moves another to (h ike, or if one prefent did nothing, 
but yet came to aflift the party if needful; or if one hold 
the party while the felon ftrikes him; or if one prefent 
delivers his weapon to the other that lfrikes. Hale’s 
Picas, 2x6. 
So if feveral perfons fet out together, or in fmall parties, 
upon one common delign, be it murder or other felony, or 
for any other purpofe unlawful in itfelf, and each takes 
the part afligned him, fome to commit the faff, others to 
w atch at proper diftances and llations to prevent a furprife, 
or to favour (if need be) the efcape of thofe who are more 
immediately engaged : they are all, provided the fail be 
committed, in the eye of the law prefent at it. For it was 
made a common caufe with them ; each man operated in 
his llation at one and the fame inftant towards the fame 
common end ; and the part each man took tended to give 
countenance, encouragement, and protedtion, to the whole 
gang, and to infure the fuccefs of their common enter- 
prife. Fqft. Cr. Law, 350. 
3. Acceflbry after the fadt, is, where a perfon knowing 
the felony to be committed, relieves, comforts, or ailifts, 
the felon. Generally, any alfiflance whatever given to a 
felon, to hinder his being apprehended or puniflted, makes 
the aflifter an acceflbry : as furniflxing him with a horfe to 
efcape his purfuers, money or victuals to fupport him, a 
houfe or other Ihelter to conceal him, or open force and 
violence to refeue or protect him. Solikewife to convey 
inftruments to a felon to enable him to break gaol, or to 
bribe the gaoler to let him efcape, makes a man acceflbry 
to the felony. 4 Black/}. 37. 
To buy or receive ftolen goods, knowing them to be 
flolen, Jails under none of thele deferiptions: it was there¬ 
fore at common law a mere mifdemeaiior, and made not the 
receiver acceflbry to the theft, becaufe he received the 
goods only, and not the felon. But now, by the ftatutesj 
An. c. 31. and 4 Geo. c. 11. all fuch receivers are made 
accefl’ories, and may be tranfported for fourteen years; and, 
in the cafe of receiving linen goods ftolen from the bleach¬ 
ing grounds, are, by the ftatute 18 Geo. II. c. 27. declared 
felons without benefit of clergy. Id. 38. 
4. If the principal and accelfory appear together, and 
the principal pleads the general iffue, the accelfory fhall be 
put to plead alfo; and, if lie likewife plead the general ifl'ue, 
both may be tried by one inqueft : but the principal muft be 
hr ft convidted, and the jury fhall be charged, that, if they 
find the principal not guilty, they fhall find the acceflbry 
not guilty. But if the principal plead a plea in bar, or 
abatement, or a former acquittal, the acceflbry (hall not be 
forced to anfwer till that plea be determined ; for, if it be 
.ACC 5J 
found for the principal, the acceflbry is difeharged; if 
againlt the principal, yet he fhall after plead over to the fe¬ 
lony, and may be acquitted. 2 Haw. 323. 1 Hale’s Hijl. 624. 
In the cafe of ftolen goods, if the principal cannot be 
taken, the buyer or receiver may be profecuted as for a 
mifdemeanor, to be puniflted by fine and impriforlment, or 
other fuch corporal punifhment as the court fhall think fit# 
although the principal be not convidted ; which fhall ex¬ 
empt the offender from being puniflted as acceflbry, if the 
principal be afterwards taken and convicted. 1 An. ft. 2. 
c. 9. 5 An. c. 31. 
Accessory, among painters, an epithet given to fuch 
parts bf an hiftory-piece as ferve chiefly for ornament, 
and might have been wholly left out: fuch as vafes, ar¬ 
mour, &c. 
Accessory Nerves, in anatomy, a pair of nerves, 
which, ariling from the medulla in the vertebrae of the 
neck, afCend, and enter the fkull, and pafs out of it again 
with the par vagum, wrapped up in the fame common in¬ 
tegument, and, after quitting them, are dillributed into 
the mufcles of the neck and fhoulders. See Anatomy. 
ACCI, a town of Tarraconenlis, formerly called Adti; 
fuppofed to be Guadix, to the eaft of the city of Grana¬ 
da, at the foot of a mountain, near the Iburce of the ri¬ 
vulet at Guadalantin ; now greatly decayed. 
ACCIAIOLI (Donata), a man famous for his learning 
and the honourable employments he polfelfed in Florence, 
his native country, in the 15th century. He wrote a La¬ 
tin tranllation of fome of Plutarch’s Lives ; Commenta¬ 
ries on Ariftotle’s Ethics and Politics ; and the Life of 
Charlemagne, lie was fent to France by the Florentines, 
to file for fuccour from Louis XI. againftPope Sextus IV. 
but on his journey died at Milan ; his body was carried to 
Florence, and buried in the church of the Carthufians. 
The fmall fortune he left his children is a proof of his 
probity and dilintereftednefs. His daughters, like thofe 
of Ariftides, were married at the public expence, as arv 
acknowledgment of his fervices. His funeral eulogtum. 
was fpoken by Chriftopher Landini; and an elegant epi¬ 
taph, by Polition, was inferibed on his tomb. 
ACCIDENCE,/’, [a corruption oLaccrdents, from acci¬ 
dentia, Lat.] The little book containing the firft rudiments, 
of grammar, and explaining the properties of the eight 
parts of fpeeeh. 
ACCIDENT, f. [accidens , Lat.] The property or qua¬ 
lity of any being, which may be feparated from it, at lead 
in thought. That which happens unforefeen ; cafualty, 
chance.—The reformation owed nothing to the good in¬ 
tentions of king Henry. He was only an inftrument of it 
(as logicians fpeak) by accident. Swift. 
Accident, among logicians, is ufed in a threefold, 
fenfe. 1. Whatever does not eflentia'lly belong to a thing ; 
as the clothes a man wears, or the money in his pocket. 
2. Such properties in any fubjedt as are not elfential to it 3 
thus whitenefs. in paper is an accidental quality. 3. In 
oppolition to fubftance, all qualities whatever are called 
accidents; as fw'eetnefs, foftnefs, &c. 
Accident, in grammar, implies a property attached 
to a word, without entering into its elfential definition; 
for every word, notwithftanding its lignification, will he 
either primitive, derivative, iintple, or compound, which 
are the accidents of words. A word is laid to be primi¬ 
tive, when it is taken from no other word in the language 
in which it is ufed : thus heaven, king, good, are primitive 
w'ords. It is Laid to be derivative, when it is taken from 
fome other word : thus, heavenly, kingdom, goodnefs, &c. are 
derivatives. A fimple word is ealily diftinguilhed from a 
compound : thus, juft, jujlice, are limple words ; unjujl, it :- 
jujlice, are compound : res is a fimple v. ord, as wellas/tztd- 
lica ; but refpublica is a compound. Befides thele acci¬ 
dents, which are common to all forts of words, eacli par¬ 
ticular fpecies has its accidents : thus the accidents of the 
noun fubftantive are the gender, declenfion, and number ; 
and the adjedtive has another accident, namely, the conu 
parifon. Seethe articles Grammar and Language. 
Accident, 
