ALL 
more erudition than judgment; he ufed alfo to make fre¬ 
quent-digreflions from one fubjeCt to another. He died at 
Rome in 1669, aged 83. 
To ALLA'Y, v. a. [from a/loyer, Fr. to mix one metal 
with another in order to coinage; it is therefore derived by 
fome from a la loi, “ according to law;” tire quantity of 
metals being mixed according to law; by others, from 
allier, to unite; perhaps (vonvallocare, to put together.] 
To mix one metal with another, to make it fitter for coin¬ 
age. In this fenfe, molt authors preferve the original 
French orthography, and write alloy. See Alloy. —To 
join any thing to another, fo as to abate its predominant 
qualities. It is ufed commonly in a fenfe contrary to its 
original meaning, and is, to make fdmething bad, lefs bad. 
To obtund; to reprefs; to abate. To quiet; to pacify; 
to reprefs. The word, in this fenfe, I think not to be de¬ 
rived from the French alloyer, but to be the Englifh word 
lay , with a before it according to the old form. Johnj'on. 
Allay ,f. [alloy , Fr.] The metal of abaferkind mix¬ 
ed in coins, to harden them, that they may wear lefs': 
For fools are ftubborn in their way, 
As coins are harden’d by th* allay. Butler. 
Gold is allayed with filver and copper, two carats to a 
pound Troy; fdver with copper only, of which eighteen 
pennyweights is mixed with a pound. Cowell thinks the 
allay is added to countervail the cltarge of coining, which 
might as well have been done only by making the coin lefs. 
Any thing which, being added, abates the predominant 
qualities of that with which it is mingled; in the fame 
manner, as the admixture of bafer metals allays the qua¬ 
lities of the firff mafs.—Dark colours eafily fuft'er a fenfi- 
ble allay, by little fcattering light. Newton. —Allay being 
taken from bafer metals, commonly implies fomething 
worfe than that with which it is mixed.—The joy has 110 
allay of jealoufy, hope, and fear. Rofcommon. 
ALLAY'ER,yj The perfon or thing which has the 
power or quality of allaying.—Phlegm and pure blood are 
reputed a/layers of acrimony: and Avicen countermands, 
letting blood in choleric bodies; becaufe he efteems the 
blood a frxnum bills, or a bridle of gall, obtunding its 
acrimony and fiercenefs. Harvey. 
ALLAY'MENT,y". That which has the power of al¬ 
laying or abating the force of another. 
AL'LEGANY, or Appalachian Mountains, a 
chain or range of mountains in North America, which ex¬ 
tend north-eafterly, and fouth-weflerly, nearly parallel 
with the coaft of the fouthern ffates, through which they 
run. They occupy a fpace of about 900 miles in length, 
and from fixty to 200 in breadth, to the eaflward of the 
Miffiffippi and lakes. The different ridges which compofe 
this immenfe range have different names in different ffates, 
as the Kittattiny, the Blue, the North, and the South, 
Mountains. They are not conftifedly fcattered and bro¬ 
ken, rifing here and there into high peaks over-topping 
each other, but ftretch along in uniform ridges, fcarcely 
half a mile high, fpreading towards the fouth. Some of 
them terminate in high perpendicular bluffs; others gra¬ 
dually fubfide into a level country, giving rife to the ri¬ 
vers which run foutherly into the gulph of Mexico. In 
the back parts of Penfylvania, fcarcely one acre in ten of 
this range is capable of culture; in other parts extenfive 
trails of fine arable and pafture land intervene between 
the ridges, having generally a rich black foil, and fome of 
the mountainswill admit of cultivation almpff to their tops. 
Allegany, a river of North America, which riles in 
the Allegany Mountains, in lat. 42. o. N. At Fort Ve¬ 
nango, at the mouth of French Creek, it is 200 yards 
wide, and navigable for light batteaux. At Fort Pitt it 
joins the Monongahela, and then it is called the Ohio. 
See Ohio. 
. ALLEGA'TA, [Lat.] a word anciently fubferibed at 
the bottom of referipts and conlfitutionsof the emperors; 
as Jignata, or tejlata, was under other inftruments, 
ALLEGA'TION, f. -[from allege.] Affirmation; de- 
Vol. I. No. zi. 
ALL 345 
claration. The thing alleged or affirmed. An excufe; 
a plea.—I omitted no means to be informed of my errors; 
and 1 expedt not to be excufed in any negligence on ac¬ 
count of youth, want of leifure, or any other idle allega¬ 
tions. Pope. 
To ALLE'GE, v. a. [allego, Lat.] To affirm; to de¬ 
clare; to maintain. To plead as an excufe, or produce 
as an argument.—If we forfake the ways of grace or good- 
nefs, we cannot allege any colour of ignorance, or want of 
inffruCtion ; we cannot fay we have not learned them, or 
we could not. Sprat. 
ALI.E'GEABLE, adj. That which may be alleged. 
ALLE'GEMENT,y. The fame with Allegation. 
ALLE'GER, f. He that alleges. 
ALLE'GIANCE, J. [ alUgeancc,V r.] In law, is the 
tie, or ligamen, which binds the fubjedt to the king, in re¬ 
turn for that protedtion which the king affords the fubjedt. 
The thing itfelf, or fubflantial part of it, is founded in 
reafon and the nature of government; the name and the 
form are derived to us from our Gothic anceffors. Under 
the foedal fyftem, every owner of lands held them infub- 
jedtion to fome fuperior or lord, from whom or from 
whofe anceffors the tenant or vaffal had received them: 
and there was a mutual trufl or confidence fubfifting be¬ 
tween the lord and vaffal, that the lord fliould protedfthe. 
vaffal in the enjoyment of the territory he had granted, 
him.; and, on the other hand, that the vaffal fliould be 
faithful to the lord, and defend him againft all his enemies. 
This obligation on the part of the vaffal was called his fidc- 
litas, or fealty : and an oath of fealty was required by the 
foedal law to be taken by all tenants to their landlord, 
which is couched in almoft the fame terms as our ancient 
oath of allegiance; except that, in the ufual oath of fealty, 
there w r as frequently a faving or exception of the faith due 
to a fuperior lord by name, under whom the landlord 
himfelf was perhaps only a tenant or vaffal. But when 
the acknowledgement was made to the abfolute fuperior 
himfelf, who was vaffal to no man, it was no longer called 
the oath of fealty, but the oath of allegiance ; and there¬ 
in the tenant fwore to bear faith, to his fovereign lord, in 
oppofition to all men, without any faving or exception. 
Land held by this exalted fpecies of fealty, was called 
feudum ligiuin, a liege fee, the vaffals homines ligii, or liege 
men ; and the fovereign, their dominus ligius , or liege lord. 
And, when fovereign princes did homage to each other for 
lands held under their refpedtive fovereignties, a diffinc- 
tion was alw'ays made between fimple homage, which was 
only an acknowledgement of tenure; and liege homage, 
which included the fealty before mentioned, and the fer- 
vices confequent upon it. In Britain, when it became a 
fettled principle of tenure, that all lands in the kingdom 
were holden of the king as their fovereign and lord para¬ 
mount, no oath but that of fealty could be taken to infe¬ 
rior lords; and the oath of allegiance was’neceffarilycon. 
fined to the perfon of the king alone. By an eafy analo¬ 
gy, the term allegiance was foon brought to fignifv all 
other engagements which are due from iubjects to their 
prince, as well as thofe duties which were limply and 
merely territorial. And the oath of allegiance, as admi- 
niltered in England for upwards of 600 years, contained a 
promife “to be true and faithful to the kingand his heirs, 
and truth and faith to bear of life and limb and terrene 
honour, and not to know or hear of any ill or damage in¬ 
tended him, without defending him therefrom.” But, at 
the revolution, the terms of this oath being thought per¬ 
haps to favour too much the notion of non-reliftance, the 
prefent form was introduced by the convention parliament, 
which is more general and indeterminate than the former; 
thd fubjedt only promifing “ that he will be -faithful and 
bear true allegiance to the king,” without mentioning “ his 
heirs,” or fpecifying in the lqaft wherein that allegiance 
confifts. The oath of fupremacy is principally calculated 
as a renunciation of the pope’s pretended authority : and 
the oath of abjuration, introduced in the reign of king 
William, very amply fuppHcs the loofe and general tex- 
