NEC 
having broken through the mod facred tie of focial com¬ 
munity by rebellion againft the Hate, has no right to 
that obedience from a wife, which he himfelf as alubjeft 
has forgotten to pay. In inferior mifdemeanors alfo, we 
may remark another exception ; that a wife may be in- 
diftcd and fet in the pillory with her hufband, for keep¬ 
ing a brothel: for this is an offence touching the domedic 
economy or government of the houfe, in which the wife 
lias a principal lhare ; and is alfo fucli an offence as the 
law prefumes to be generally conducted by the intrigues 
of the female fex. And in all cafes where the wife 
offends alone, without the company or coercion of her 
hufband, (lie is refponfible for her offence as much as any 
femme-lole. 
2. Another fpecies of compulfton or neceflity is what 
our law calls durefs per minas ; or threats and menaces, 
which induce a fear of death or other bodily harm, and 
which take away for that reafon the guilt of many crimes 
and mifdemeanors, at lead before the human tribunal. 
But then that f^ar which compels a man to do an unwar¬ 
rantable aftion ought to bejud and well-grounded ; fuch 
fjui cadere poffit in virum confantem, non timidum et meticu- 
loftm, as Brafton expreffes it in the words of the civil 
law. Therefore, in time of war or rebellion, a man may 
be judiffed in doing many adds, by compulfion of the 
enemy or rebels, which would admit of no excufe in the 
time of peace. This, however, feems only, or at lead 
principally, to hold aS to pofitive crimes, fo created by 
the laws of fociety, and which therefore fociety may ex¬ 
cufe ; but not as to natural offences, fo declared by the 
law of God, wherein human magidrates are only the exe¬ 
cutioners of divine punifliment. And, therefore, though 
a man be violently affaulted, and hath no other pofiible 
means of efcaping death but by killing an innocent 
perfon, this fear and force lliall not acquit him of mur¬ 
der; for he ought rather to die himfelf than efcape by 
the murder of an innocqnt. But in fuch a cafe he is per¬ 
mitted to kill the affailant; for there the law of nature, 
and felf-defence its primary canon, have made him his 
own proteftor. 
3. There is a third fpecies of neceflity, which may be 
didinguifhed from the aftual compulfion of external force 
or fear; being the refult of reafon and reflection, which 
aft upon and condrain a man’s will, and oblige him to do 
an aftion which without fuch obligation would be crimi¬ 
nal. And that is, when a man has his choice of two evils 
fet before him, and, being under a neceflity of choofing 
one, he choofes the lead pernicious of the two. Here the 
will cannot be faid freely to exert itfelf, being rather 
paflive than aftive; or, if aftive, it is rather in rejecting 
the greater evil than in choofing the lefs. Of this fort is 
that neceflity, where a man by the commandment of the 
law is bound to arred another for any capital offence, or 
to difperfe a riot, and refidance is made to his authority ; 
it is here judifiable, and even neceflary, to beat, to wound, 
or perhaps to kill, the offenders, rather than permit the 
murderer to efcape, or the riot to continue. For the pre- 
fervation of the peace of the kingdom, and the apprehend¬ 
ing of notorious malefaftors, are of the utmoli confe- 
quence to the public; and therefore excufe the felony, 
which the killing would otherwife amount to. 
4. There is yet another cafe of neceflity, which has 
occaiioned great fpeculation among the writers upon ge¬ 
neral law; viz. whether a man in extreme want of food 
or clothing may juflify dealing either to relieve his pre- 
fent neceflities. And this both Grotius and Puffendorff, 
together with many other of the foreign jurids, hold in 
the affirmative; maintaining, by many ingenious, hu¬ 
mane, and plaufible, reafons, that in fuch cafes the com¬ 
munity cf goods, by a kind of tacit conceflion of fociety, 
is revived. And fome even of our lawyers have held the 
fame; though it feems to be an unwarranted doftrine, 
borrowed from the notions of fome civilians ; at lead [t is 
now antiquated, the law of England admitting no fuch 
Vol. XVI. No. 1144. 
NEC GGJL 
excufe at prefent. And this its doftrine is agreeable not 
only to the fentiments of many of the wiled an i nts, 
particularly Cicero, who holds, That fuum cuique incom- 
modtim ferendum eft, poiius quam de altering commydis detra- 
hendum; but alfo to the Jewifli law, as certified by king 
Solomon himfelf : If a thieffical tofnti.fi/ his J'oul when he 
is hungry, he /hall rtf ore ft enfold, and Jhall give all the 
fulftance of his houfe; which was the ordinary punifliment 
’for theft in that kingdom. And this is founded upon the 
liighed reafon : for men’s properties would be under a 
drange infecurity, if liable to be invaded according to 
the wants of others ; of which wants no man'can poflibly 
bean adequate judge but the party himfelf who pleads 
them. In England efpecially, there would be a peculiar 
impropriety in admitting fo dubious an abufe : for by 
the laws fuch fufncient provifion is made for the poor by 
the power of the civil magidrate, that it is impoflible that 
the mod needy dranger fliould ever be reduced to the ne¬ 
ceflity of thieving to fupport nature. The cafe of ^dranger 
is, by the way, the dronged indance put by Puffendorff, 
and whereon he builds liis principal arguments; which, 
however they may hold upon the continent, where the 
parfimonious indudry of the natives orders every one to 
work or darve, yet mud lofe all their weight and efficacy 
in England, where charity is reduced to a fydem, and in¬ 
terwoven in our very condilution. Therefore our laws 
ought by no means to be taxed with being unmerciful, 
for denying-this privilege to the neceflitous; efpecially 
when we confider, that the king, on the reprefentation of 
his miniders of judice, hath a power to foften the law, 
and to extend mercy in cafes of peculiar hardfhip. An 
advantage which is wanting in many dates, particularly 
thofe which are democratical: and thefe have in its dead 
introduced and adopted, in the body of the law itfelf, a 
multitude of circumdances tending to alleviate its rigour. 
But the founders of our conditution thought it better to 
ved in the crown the power of pardoning particular ob- 
jefts of compaffion, than to countenanceand eltabliih theft 
by one general undiffinguiihing law. 
NECESSITY FO'RT, an American fort fituated in 
the Great Meadow, Virginia, within four miles of the 
■wed branch of Maryland, and on the north fide of the 
head-water of Reddone-creek, which difcharges itfelf 
from the ead into the Monongahela, in lat. 39. 43. N. 
above fixteen miles from the fpot where this fort was' 
erefted : 238 miles wed by north from Alexandria, and 
258 north-wed of Frederickfburg. This fpot deferves 
notice, as it was the nrd fcene on which general Waffiing- 
ton difplayed his abilities as a commander. In 1753 this 
gallant officer, in the twenty-fecond year of his age, being 
then a colonel, having the command of 300 men, defeated 
the French; and, when M. de Villiere lent a force, 
amounting to 900 men befides Indians, Waffiington, in 
this unfinilhed fort, with his fmall body of troops, de¬ 
fended himfelf fo well, as to condrain the French officer to 
grant him honourable terms of capitulation. 
NECH'ANETZ, a town of Bohemia, in the circle of 
Konigingratz: eight miles wed of Konigingratz. 
NECH'ELS, a village in Staffordihire, near Wolver¬ 
hampton.—A village in Warwickfhire, near Al'don. 
NECH'ERS, a town of France, in the department 
of the-Puy de Dome : fix miles north-wed of Iffoire. 
NECK'IN, a village of France, in the department of 
the Lys: feven miles ead-north-ead.of Courtray. 
NE'CHUS, or Pharaoh Necho. See the article 
Egypt, vol. vi. p.295. and p. 613 of this volume. 
NECK, f [from hnec'ca, necca, Sax. hniga, Icel. to 
bow, to bend. Serenius.j The part between the head and 
body.—The length of the face twice-exceedeth that of the 
neck. Brown's Vu/g. Err .—The necks of quadrupeds. Dr. 
Derham obferves, are always equal to the. length of their 
legs : this is contrived by nature, to enable them to reach 
the ground for their food without Hooping,the body. 
Indeed the elephant is an exception from the rule; its 
8 F neck 
