PET 
PET 
from the king, which exiled him to Beaune in Burgundy. 
Afterwards lie withdrew from Beaune to a place of fecret 
retirement, whence he wrote a letter to his brother, M. 
de Vaubreuil, explaining the reafons for his conduct in 
the affair of the Cafe of Confcience, which was printed, 
and is inferred in the hiftory pbove mentioned. Tired, 
at length, of the confinement to which he was obliged to 
fubmir, in 1705 he retired from France and joined his 
friend Quefnel in Holland. Here he remained till the 
year 1718, when he obtained permifiion at firft to come 
to Troyes, and afterwards to Paris. During the follow¬ 
ing year, the Faculty of Theology, by unanimous con- 
fent, re-eftablifhed M. Petit-Pied in his place as doftor, 
and in all the rights and privileges attached to it; upon 
which he took his feat among them according to his rank 
of feniority. This proceeding, however, gave difpleafure 
at court; and, within a month, the king gave orders for 
reverfing all the meafures which had been taken in fa¬ 
vour of our divine. Thus circumftanced, he was taken 
tinder the proteftion of the bifliop of Bayeux, who made 
him his chaplain. In this afylum M. Petit-Pied conti¬ 
nued till the death of the bifliop in 172.8 ; when, finding 
that he was in danger of being arrefted, lie once more 
withdrew privately into Holland. Having been recalled 
to his native country in 1734, lie fpent the remainder of 
his life in tranquillity at Paris, where he died in 1747, 
at the age of 82. He was the author of a great number 
of well-w r riften pieces in French and Latin, againft the 
conftitution Unigenitus, and in defence of the principles 
of the bifliop of Ypres; of which 110 fewer than eighty-one 
are particularized by Moreri, 
PETIT PO'RT, a harbour on the weft coaft of New¬ 
foundland. Lat. 47. 52. N. Ion. 59. 15. W. 
PETIT PO'RT, a harbour on the coaft of Peru, near 
the Equator. 
PETIT SER'JEANTY. See Serjeanty, and the ar¬ 
ticle Tenure. 
PETIT SES'SION. See Session. 
PETIT TRE'ASON. See Treason. 
PETITES CHIEL'LES, a town of France, in the de¬ 
partment of the Jura, and chief place of a canton, in the 
diftrift of Saint Claude. The place contains 578, and the 
canton 11,923, inhabitants. 
PETITE GUER'RE, [French.] The minor operations 
of W'ar; the operations of detached parties, and the war 
of polls. See the article War. 
PETITE PIER'RE. See Lutzelstein. 
PETITE RIVIE'RE, a town of Hifpaniola: fifteen 
miles eaft-north-eaft of St. Marco. 
PETITE RIVIE'RE, a town of Canada, on the St. 
Laurence : fixty-five miles north-eaft of Quebec. 
PETITE TER'RE, a fmall ifland in the Weft Indies, 
near Defeada. 
PETITE TROU', a town of the ifland of Hifpaniola: 
nineteen miles eaft of Jeremie. 
PETIT'IA, f. [fo named by Jacquin, in memory of 
Francis Petit ; fee p. 797.] In botany, a genus of the 
clafs tetrandia, order monogyna, natural order of viti- 
ces, duff. Generic charafters—Calyx: perianthium one- 
leafed, fmall, upright, four-toothed, inferior, permanent. 
Corolla: one-petalled; tube cylindrical, upright, long; 
border four-cleft; fegments ovate, acute, flat, reflex, 
half the length of the tube. Stamina : filaments ; four, 
awl-fhaped, very Ihort, in the upper part of the tube ; 
anthers upright. Piftillum: germ roundifh, fuperior; 
ftyle awl-fhaped, upright, the length of the ftamens; 
ftigma fimple. Pericarpium : drupe roundifh. Seed : 
nut ovate, blunt, two-celled ; kernels folitary, oblong. 
The flowers are often three-ftamened, with the calyx and 
corolla trifid.— EJfential Charader. Calyx four-toothed, 
inferior; corolla four-parted 5 drupe with a two-celled 
nut. 
1. Petitia Domingenfis, a folitary fpecies. This is a fmall 
tree, with four-cornered ftriated branches. Leaves ovate- 
oblong, acuminate, quite entire, oppofite, finooth, veiny 
Vo l. XIX. No. 1344. 
?99 
underneath, fix inches long, on flender footftalks. Flow¬ 
ers numerous, white. Dr. Mseter, whofe difcoveries, 
though not acknowledged, have greatly enriched the 
Vienna gardens, has obferved, that this plant is truly a 
fpecies of Citharexyi.um. It was found in the ifland 
of St. Domingo, in woods, by Jacquin. 
PETI'TIO PRIMCIP'II, in logic, the taking a thing 
for true, or for granted, and drawing conclufions from it 
as fuch, when it is really dubious, perhaps falfe, or at 
leaft wants to be proved before any inferences ought to 
be drawn from it. 
PETI'FION, /’. [petitio, Latin.] Requeft; intreaty; 
fupplication ; prayer.—We mull not only fend up petiti¬ 
ons and thoughts now and then to heaven, but muff go 
through all our worldly bufinefs with a heavenly fpirit. 
Law. —Thou d id ft choofe this houfe to be called by thy 
name, and to be a houfe of prayer and petition for thy 
people. 1 Mac. vii.—Let my life be given at my petition, 
and my people at my requeft. Ejlher vii. 3. 
— My next poor petition 
Is, that his noble grace would have fome pity 
Upon my wretched women. Shaliefpeare. 
Single branch or article of a prayer : 
Then pray’d that fhe might ftill poflefs his heart, 
And no pretending rival fhare a part; 
This laft petition heard of all her pray’r. Dryden. 
Petition of Right, was a parliamentary declaration 
of the liberties of the people, affented to by king Charles 
I. in the beginning of his reign : in which it is enafted, 
that nonefhould be compelled to make or yield any gift, 
loan, benevolence, tax, and fuch-like charge, without 
confent by aft of parliament; nor, upon refufal fo to do, 
be called to make anfwer, take.any oath not warranted 
by law, give attendance, or be confined or otherwife mo- 
lefted, concerning the fame, &c. And that the fubjeft 
fliould not be burthened by the quartering of foldiers or 
mariners; and all commiffions for proceeding by martial 
law to be annulled, and none of like nature blued there¬ 
after, left the fubjeft (by colour thereof) be deftroyed or 
put to death, contrary to the laws of the land, &c. See 
if at. 3 Car. I. cap. 1. 
To PETI'TION, v. a. To folicit; to fupplicate.—The 
mother petitioned her goddefs to beftow upon them the 
greateft gift that could be given. AddiJ'on. 
You have petition'd all the gods 
For my profperity. Shaliepeare’s Coriol. 
PETI'TIONARILY, adv. By way of begging the 
queftion.—This doth but petitionarily infer a dextrality 
in the heavens, and we may as reasonably conclude a 
right and left laterality in the ark of Noah. Brown. 
PETITIONARY, a( jj < Supplicatory; coming with 
petitions.—Pardon thy petitionary countrymen. Shake- 
Jpeare. 
It is our bafe petitionary breath 
That blows ’em to this greatnefs. B. Jonfun. 
Containing petitions or requefts. — Petitionary prayer be- 
longeth only to fuch as are in themfelves impotent, and 
ftand in need of relief from others. Hooker. —I return 
only yes or no to queftionary and petitionary epiftles of 
half a yard long. Swift. 
PETI'TIONER, f. One wdio offers a petition.—When 
you have received the petitions, (and it will pleafe the 
petitioners w'ell to deliver them into your own hand,) let 
your fecretary firft read them, and draw lines under the 
material parts. Bacon. —What pleafure can it be to be 
encumbered with dependences, thronged and furrounded 
with petitioners ? South. 
His woes broke out, and begg’d relief 
With tears, the dumb petitioners of grief. Bri/den. 
PET'ITORY, adj. [petitorius, Lat. petitoire, Fr.] Pe¬ 
titioning; claiming the property of any thing: 
9 S Oft 
