49* ATT 
declaration of parliament, made in favour of Henry VII. 
See i Comm. 248. 
The flat. 8 Will. III. 0.5, requires Sir George Barclay, 
major-general Holmes, and other perfons, to furrender 
themfelves to the lord chief juflice, or fecretaries of Hate ; 
or to be attainted. By the 13 Will. III. c. 3, the pre¬ 
tended prince of Wales is under attainder of treafon, &c. 
And, by 1 Geo. I. c. 16, the duke of Ormond and others 
are attainted. And, befides thefe adds of attainder, bills 
for inftidting pains and penalties are fometimes palled; as 
that againft the bilhop of Rochefter; (fat. 9 Geo. I. c. 17. 
ATT A IN' M PINT, f. That which is attained; acqui- 
fition. — Our attainments are mean, compared with the per¬ 
fection of the univerfe. Grew. —The adt or power of at¬ 
taining.—The Scripture muff be fufficiect to imprint in 11s 
the charadter of all things neceifary for the attainment of 
eternal life. Hooker. 
To ATTAINT', v. a. [attenter , Fr.] To difgrace; to 
cloud with ignominy. To taint; to corrupt: 
My tender youth was never yet attaint 
With any paflion of inflaming love. Shakefpeare. 
Attaint, /. Any thing injurious; as illnefs, vveari- 
nefs. This fenfe is now objolete : 
Nty doth he dedicate one jot of colour 
Unto the weary and ail-watched night; 
But frefhly looks, and overbears attaint 
With cheerful femblance. Shakefpeare. 
Stain; fpot; taint.—No man hath a virtue that he has not 
a glimpfe of; nor any man an attaint , but he carries fome 
(lain of it. Shakefpeare. 
Attaint, inlaw, a writ that lieth to enquire whether 
a jury of twelve men gave a falfe verdidt {Finch, 484); 
that fo the judgment following thereupon may be rever- 
fed : and this mult be brought in the life-time of him for 
whom the verdict was given, and of two at lead of the 
jurors who gave it. This lay at the common law', only 
upon writs of aflife; and feems to have been coeval with 
that inflitution by king Henry II. at the inflance of his 
chief juflice Glanvil: being probably meant as a check 
upon the valt power then repofed in the recognitors of af¬ 
file, of finding a verdidt according to their own perfonal 
knowledge, without the examination of witnelfes. And 
even here it extended no farther than to fuch inftances, 
where the illue w'as joined upon the very point of aflife, 
(the heirrtiip, diffeifin, &c.) and not on any collateral mat¬ 
ter ; as villainage, baftardy, or any other difputed fadt. 
In thefe cafes the aflife was faid to be turned into an in- 
queft or jury, or that the aflife (hould be taken in tnodum 
juratce, ct non in modum ajjifee ; that is, that the ilTiie fliould 
be tried by a common jury or inqueft, and not by recogni¬ 
tors of aflife : and then it feems that no attaint lay againft 
the inqueft or jury that determined fuch collateral ifllie. 
Br. 4. 1. 34. 2. Flct. 1 . v. c. 22. Neither is mention made 
by our ancient writers, of fuch a procefs obtaining after 
the trial by inquefl or jury, in the old Norman or feodal 
actions profecuted by writ of entry. Nor did any attaint 
lie in trefpafs, debt, or other action perfonal, by the old 
common law: becattfe tliofe were always determined by 
common inquefts or juries. At length the flatute of Weft- 
minfter 1. (3 Eliz. 1.) c. 38. allowed an attaint to be fued 
upon inquefts as well as aflifes, which were taken upon any 
plea of land or of freehold. But this was at the king’s 
■difcretion, and is fo underftood by the author of Fieta, 
(1. v. c. 22. $8, and 16,) a writer cotemporary with the 
flatute; though Sir F.dw. Coke {2 Inf. 130,237) feems 
to hold a different opinion. Other fubfequent ftatutes 
(1 Eliz. 3. ft. 1. c.6. 5 Eliz. 3. c. 7. 28 Edw. III. c. 8) 
introduced the fame remedy in all pleas of trefpafs, arid 
the flat. 34 Eliz. 3. c. 7. extended to all pleas whatfoever, 
perfonal as well as real; except only the writ of right, in 
fuch cafes where the mife or iffue is joined on the mere 
Tight, and not on any collateral queftion. For, though the 
attaint feems to have been generally allowed in the reign 
of Henry II. at the firff introdudtion of the grand aflife, 
ATT 
(which at that time might confift of only twelve recogni¬ 
tors, in cafe they were all unanimous,) yet fubfequent au¬ 
thorities have holden, that no attaint lies on a falfe verdidt 
given upon the mere right, either at common law or by 
flatute; becaufe that is determined by the grand aflife, ap¬ 
pealed to by the party himfelf, and now conftfting of fix- 
teen jurors. BraEl. 290. Flet. 5,227. Britt. 243 A 12 Hen¬ 
ry VI. 6 Bro. Abr. tit. Atteint42. 1 Boll. Abr.2%0. 
The jury, w ho are to try this falfe verdidt, muff; be twen¬ 
ty-four, and are called the grand jury; for the law wills 
not that the oath of one jury of twelve men (hould be at¬ 
tainted or let afide by an equal number, nor by lefs indeed 
than double the former. BraEl. I.4. tr. 5. c.4. § 1. Flet. 1 . 
5. c.22. $7. If the matter in difpute be of 40I. value in 
perlonals, or of 40s. a-year in lands and tenements, then, 
by flat. 13 Hen. VI. c. 5, each grand juror muff; have a 
freehold to the annual value of 20I. And he that brings 
the attaint can give no other evidence to the grand jury 
than what was originally given to the petit: for, as their 
verdidt is now trying, and the queftion is, whether or no 
they did right upon the evidence that appeared to them, 
the law adjudged it the higheft abfurdity to produce any 
fubfequent proof upcm fuch trial, and to condemn the prior 
juriididtion for not believing evidence which they never 
knew. But thole againft whom it is brought are allowed, 
in affirmance of the firft verdidt, to produce new matter 
{Finch L. 486); becaufe the petit jury may have formed 
their verdidt upon evidence of their own knowledge, which 
never appeared in court. If the grand jury found the 
verdidt a falfe one, the judgment by the common law was, 
that the jurors fhould lofe their liberam legem and become 
for ever infamous; fliould forfeit their goods and the pro¬ 
fits of their lands; fliould themfelves be imprifoned, and 
their wives and children thrown out of doors; fliould have 
their houfes rafed, their trees extirpated, and their mea¬ 
dows ploughed; and that the plaintiff fliould be reftored 
to all that he loft by reafon of the unjuft verdidt. But, as 
the feverity of this punifliment had its ufual effedtin pre¬ 
venting the law from being executed, therefore by the flat. 
11 Hen. VII. c. 24, (revived by 23 Hen. VIII. c. 3, and 
made perpetual by 13 Eliz. c. 25,) an attaint is allowed to 
be brought after the death of the party, and a more mo¬ 
derate punifliment was inflidted upon attainted jurors, viz. 
perpetual infamy, and, if the caufe of adtion were above 
40I. value, a forfeiture of 20I. a-piece by the jurors; or, 
if under 40I. then 5I. a-piece, to be divided between the 
king and the party injured. So that a man may now bring 
an attaint either upon the ftatuteorat common law, at his 
eledtion (3 Inf. 164); and in both of them may reverfe 
the former judgment. But the pradtice of fetting afide 
verdidts upon motion, and granting new trials, has fo fu- 
perfeded the life of both forts of attaints, that very few 
inftances of an attaint appear in our books later than the 
fixteenth century. Cro. Eliz. 309. Cro. Jac. 90. 
Attaint, among farriers, a knock or hurt in a horfe’s 
leg, proceeding either from a blow with another horfe’s 
foot, or from an over-reach in frofty w'eather, when a horfe, 
being rough fliod, or having flioes with long caulkers, 
(trikes his hinder feet againft his fore leg. 
ATTAIN'TURE,/! Legal cenfure ; reproach; impu¬ 
tation : 
Hume’s knavery will be the duchefs’s wreck, 
And her attainture will be Humphry’s fall. Shakefpeare, 
ATTA'LICAs VES'TES, f. in antiquity, garments 
made of a kind of cloth of gold. They took the deno¬ 
mination from Attalus, furnamed Philomater, a wealthy 
king of Pergamus, who was the firft, according to Pliny, 
who procured gold to be wove into cloth. 
ATTA'LICUS,/! [froma-flaA©-,tender.] A medicine 
which nourilhes tenderly. 
AT'TAL S AR'SIN,/'. The term by which the inhabi¬ 
tants and miners of Cornwall call an old deferted mine, 
that is given over; i, e. the leavings of the Sarafns , Saf- 
fns t or Saxons, 
To 
