Henry IV. began his reign with showing some fa- Priories vour to the alien priories, restoring all the conventual ones, only reserving to himself in time of war what they paid in time of peace to the foreign abbeys.

Prior, into close custody. In 1717, he was excepted out of Priories. the act of grace; however, at the close of that year, he was set at liberty. The remainder of his days he spent in tranquillity and retirement, and died in 1721. His poems are well known, and justly admired. He is said to have written the following epitaph for himself:

"Nobles and heralds, by your leave,
Here lie the bones of Matthew Prior,
The son of Adam and of Eve:

Let Bourbon or Nassau go higher.”
PRIORIES, ALIEN, were cells of the religious houses
in England which belonged to foreign monasteries: for
when manors or tithes were given to foreign convents,
the monks, either to increase their own rule, or rather
to have faithful stewards of their revenues, built a small
convent here for the reception of such a number as they
thought proper, and constituted priors over them.-
Within these cells there was the same distinction as in
those priories which were cells subordinate to some
great abbey; some of these were conventual, and, ha-
ving priors of their own choosing, thereby became entire
societies within themselves, and received the revenues
belonging to their several houses for their own use and
benefit, paying only the ancient apport (A), acknow-
ledgement, or obvention, at first the surplusage, to the
foreign house; but others depended entirely on the fo-
reign houses, who appointed and removed their priors
at pleasure. These transmitted all their revenues to
the foreign head houses; for which reason their estates
were generally seized to carry on the wars between
England and France, and restored to them again
turn of peace. These alien priories were most of them
founded by such as had foreign abbeys founded by them-
selves or by some of their family.

The whole number is not exactly ascertained; the Monasticon hath given a list of 100: Weever, p. 338.

says 110.

Some of these cells were made indigenous or denizon, or endenized. The alien priories were first seized by Edward I. 1285, on the breaking out of the war between France and England; and it appears from a roll, that Edward II. also seized them, though this, is not mentioned by our historians; and to these the act of restitution, Edw. III. seems to refer.

In 1237, Edward III. confiscated their estates, and let out the priories themselves with all their lands and tenements, at his pleasure, for 23 years; at the end of which term, peace being concluded between the two nations, he restored their estates 1361, as appears by his latters patent to that of Montacute, county of Somerset, printed at large in Rymer, vol. vi. p. 311. and translated in Weever's Funeral Monuments, p. 339. At other times he granted their lands, or lay persions out of them, to divers noblemen. They were also sequestered during Richard II.'s reign, and the head monasteries abroad had the king's licence to sell their lands to other religious houses here, or to any particular persons who wanted to endow others.

They were all dissolved by act of parliament 2 Henry V. and all their estates vested in the crown, except some lands granted to the college of Fotheringhay. The act of dissolution is not printed in the statute book, but it is to be found entire in Rymer's Federa, ix. 283. and in the Parliament Rolls, vol. iv. p. 22. In general, these lands were appropriated to religious uses. Henry VI. endowed his foundations at Eton and Cambridge with the lands of the alien priories in pursuance of his father's design to appropriate them all to a noble college at Oxford. Others were granted in fee to the prelates, nobility, or private persons. Such as remained in the crown were granted by Henry VI. 1440, to Archbishop Chichley, &c. and they became part of his and the royal foundations. See Some Account of Alien-Priories, &c. in two vo

lumes octavo.

PRIORITY, the relation of something considered as prior to another.

PRIORITY, in Law, denotes an antiquity of tenure, in comparison of another less ancient.

PRISCIANUS, an eminent grammarian, born at Cæsarea, taught at Constantinople with great reputation about the year 525. Laurentius Valla calls Priscian, Donatus, and Servius, triumviri in re grammatica; and thinks none of the ancients who wrote after them fit to be mentioned with them. He composed a work De arte grammatica, which was first printed by Aldus at Venice in 1476; and another, De naturalibus questionibus, which he dedicated to Chosroes king of Persia beside which, he translated Dionysius's description of the world into Latin verse. A person who writes false Latin, is proverbially said "to break Priscian's head."

PRISCILLIANISTS, in church history, Christian heretics, so called from their leader Priscillian, a Spaniard by birth, and bishop of Avila. He is said to have practised magic, aud to have maintained the principal errors of the Manichees; but his peculiar tenet was, That it is lawful to make false oaths in order to support one's cause and interests.

PRISM, in Geometry, is a solid body, whose two ends are any plane figures which are parallel, equal, and similar; and its sides, connecting those ends, are parallelograms.

PRISMOID, is a solid body, somewhat resembling a prism, but its ends are any dissimilar parallel plane figures of the same number of sides, the upright sides being trapezoids. If the ends of the prismoid be bounded by dissimilar curves, it is sometimes called a cylindroid.

PRISON, a gaol, or place of confinement.

Lord Coke observes, that a prison is only a place of safe custody, salva custodia, not a place of punishment. If this be the case, prisons ought not to be, what they have been in most, and still are in some places of Europe,

Prison.

them. They are about nine feet square on the floor, Prisen. arched at the top, and between six and seven feet high in the highest part. There is to each cell a round hole of eight inches diameter, through which the prisoner's daily allowance of twelve ounces of bread and a pot of water is delivered. There is a small iron door to the cell. The furniture of the cell is a little straw and a small tub; nothing else. The straw is renewed and the tub emptied through the iron door occasionally.

Prison. rope, loathsome dungeons. Any place where a person is confined may be said to be a prison; and when a process is issued against one, he must, when arrested thereon, either be committed to prison, or be bound in a recognizance with sureties, or else give bail, according to the nature of the case, to appear at a certain day in court, there to make answer to what is alleged against him. Where a person is taken and sent to prison, in a civil case, he may be released by the plaintiff in the suit; but if it be for treason or felony, he may not regularly be discharged, until he is indicted of the fact and acquitted. See INDICTMENT.

But a prison is not only to be considered as a place of safe custody, according to its original design, but also as a place of temporary punishment for certain crimes, and perhaps this punishment might be substituted more frequently than it is, for transportation and death. Probably this is done in no country to better purpose than in Pennsylvania; and no where has imprisonment been more abused than in Venice under the old govern

ment.

By the laws of Pennsylvania, imprisonment is imposed, not merely as an expiation for past offences, but also for the reformation of the criminal's morals. The regulations of the gaol are calculated to produce this effect in the speediest manner possible, so that such a building may rather be denominated a penitentiary house than a gaol. When a criminal is committed to prison, he is made to wash; his hair is shorn, and he is furnished with clean apparel, if he has no decent clothes of his own. He is then put into a solitary cell, where he is excluded from the sight of every living being except the gaoler, whose duty is to attend to his mere necessities, but not to converse with him upon any account. If committed for an atrocious crime, he is even debarred from the light of heaven. The treatment of each prisoner varies in proportion to the nature of his crime, and his symptoms of repentance. The longest period of confinement is for a rape, which is not to be less than ten years, nor to exceed 21; and for high treason it is not to be under 6, nor above 12.

The prisoners must bathe twice in the week, having proper conveniences within the prison, and they are regularly supplied with a change of linen. Prisoners in solitary confinement subsist upon bread and water; and such as labour are allowed broth, puddings, &c. They are allowed meat in small quantities twice a week, and no beverage except water is brought into the prison. One room is set apart for shoe-makers, another for taylors, and so of every other trade. There are stone-cutters, smiths, nailers, &c. in the yards. Such a prison has all the advantages of the rasping house of Amsterdam, without any of its enormous defects.

The following account of the common prison at Venice, is given by Dr Mosely who visited this horrible place in September 1787.

"I was conducted (says he) through the prison by one of its inferior dependants. We had a torch with us. We crept along narrow passages as dark as pitch. In some of them two people could scarcely pass each other. The cells are made of massy marble ; the architecture of the celebrated Sansovini.

"The cells are not only dark, and black as ink, but being surrounded and confined with huge walls, the smallest breath of air can scarcely find circulation in

The diet is ingeniously contrived for the perdura tion of punishment. Animal food, or a cordial nutri tious regimen, in such a situation, would bring on disease, and defeat the end of this Venetian justice. Neither can the soul, if so inclined, steal away, wrapt up in slumbering delusion, or sink to rest; from the admonition of her sad existence, by the gaoler's daily re

turn.

"I saw one man who had been in a cell thirty years; two who had been twelve years; and several who had been eight and nine years in their respective cells.

"By my taper's light I could discover the prisoners horrid countenances. They were all naked. The man who had been there thirty years, in face and body was covered with long hair. He had lost the arrangement of words and order of language. When I spoke to him, he made an unintelligible noise, and expressed fear and surprise; and, like some wild animals in deserts, which have suffered by the treachery of the human race, or have an instinctive abhorrence of it, he would have fled like lightning from me if he could.

"One whose faculties were not so obliterated; who still recollected the difference between day and night; whose eyes and ears, though long closed with a silent blank, still languished to perform their natural functiions-implored, in the most piercing manner, that I would prevail on the gaoler to murder him, or to give him some instrument to destroy himself. I told him I had no power to serve him in this request. He then entreated I would use my endeavours with the inquisitors to get him hanged, or drowned in the Canal' Orfano. But even in this I could not serve him: death was a favour I had not interest enough to procure for him.

"This kindness of death, however, was, during my stay in Venice, granted to one man, who had been from the cheerful ways of man cut off' thirteen years.

"Before he left his dungeon I had some conversation with him; this was six days previous to his execution. His transport at the prospect of death was surprising. He longed for the happy moment. No saint ever exhibited more fervour in anticipating the joys of a future state, than this man did at the thoughts of being released from life, during the four days mockery of

his trial.

"It is the Canal' Orfano where vessels from Turkey and the Levant perform quarantine. This place is the watery grave of many who have committed political or personal offences against the state or senate, and of many who have committed no offences at all. They are carried out of the city in the middle of the night, tied up in a sack with a large stone fastened to it, and thrown into the water. Fishermen are prohibited, on forfeiture

Prison of their lives, against fishing in this district. The pre။ tence is the plague. This is the secret history of people Privateers being lost in Venice.

'acob's

"The government, with age, grew feeble; was afraid of the discussion of legal process and of public executions; and navigated this rotten Bucentaur of the Adriatic by spies, prisons, assassination, and the Canal' Orfano."

PRISONER, a person restrained or kept in prison upon an action civil or criminal, or upon commendment and one may be a prisoner on matter of record or matter of fact. A prisoner upon matter of record, is he who, being present in court, is by the court committed to prison; and the other is one carried to prison upon an arrest, whether it be by the sheriff, constable, or other officer.

PRISTIS, the SAWFISH, is generally considered as a species of the squalus or shark genus, comprehending under it several varieties. See SQUALUS, ICHTHYOLOGY Index. But Mr Latham is of opinion that it ought to be considered as a distinct genus, and that the characteristics of the several varieties are sufficient to constitute distinct species.

PRIVATEERS, are a kind of private men of war, the persons concerned wherein administer at their own costs a part of a war, by fitting out these ships of force, and providing them with all military stores; and they have, instead of pay, leave to keep what they take from the enemy, allowing the admiral his share, &c.

Privateers may not attempt any thing against the laws of nations; as to assault an enemy in a port or haven, under the protection of any prince or republic, whether he be friend, ally, or neuter; for the peace of such places must be inviolably kept; therefore, by a treaty made by King William and the States of Holland, before a commission shall be granted to any privateer, the commander is to give security, if the ship be not above 150 tons, in 1500l. and if the ship exceeds that burden, in 3000l. that they will make satisfaction for all damages which they shall commit in their courses at sea, contrary to the treaties with that state, on pain of forfeiting their commissions; and the ship is made liable.

Besides these private commissions, there are special av Diet. Commissions for privateers, granted to commanders of ships, &c. who take pay; who are under a marine discipline; and if they do not obey their orders, may be punished with death: and the wars in later ages have given occasion to princes to issue these commissions, to annoy the enemies in their commerce, and hinder such supplies as might strengthen them or lengthen out the war; and likewise to prevent the separation of ships of greater force from their fleets or squadrons.

Ships taken by privateers were to be divided into five parts; four parts whereof to go to the persons interested in the privateer, and the fifth to his majesty: and as a farther encouragement, privateers, &c. destroying any French man of war or privateer, shall receive, for every piece of ordnance in the ship so taken, 10l. reward, &c.

By a particular statute lately made, the lord admiral, or commissioners of the admiralty, may grant commissions to commanders of privateers, for taking ships, &c.

which being adjudged prize, and the tenth part paid to Privateers the admiral, &c. wholly belong to the owners of the 0 privateers and the captors, in proportions agreed on be- Privytween themselves.

PRIVATION, in a general sense, denotes the absence or want of something; in which sense darkness is only the privation of light.

PRIVATIVE, in Grammar, a particle, which, prefixed to a word, changes it into a contrary sense. Thus, among the Greeks, the a is used as a privative; as in a-Osos, atheist, acephalus, &c.—The Latins have their privative in; as, incorrigibilis, indeclinabilis, &c.. The English, French, &c. on occasion borrow both the Latin and Greek privatives.

PRIVERNUM, (Livy, Virgil); a town of the Volsci, in Latium, to the east of Setia. Privernates, the people. Whose ambassadors being asked, What punishment they deserved for their revolt? answered, What those deserve who deem themselves worthy of liberty. And again, being asked by the Roman consul, should the punishment be remitted, What peace was to be expected with them? If you granted a good peace, you may hope to have it sincere and lasting; but if a bad one, you may well expect it of short continuAt which answer, the Romans were so far from being displeased, that by a vote of the people they had the freedom of the city granted them. Privernas, -atis, the epithet. The town is now called Piperno Vecchio, situated in the Campania of Rome. E. Long. 10. o. N. Lat. 41. 30.

ance.

PRIVET. See LIGUSTRUM, BOTANY Index. PRIVILEGE, in Law, some peculiar benefit granted to certain persons or places, contrary to the usual course of the law.

Privileges are said to be personal or real.

Personal privileges are such as are extended to peers, ambassadors, members of parliament, and of the convocation, &c. See LORDS, AMBASSADOR, PARLIAment, Arrest, &c.

A real privilege is that granted to some particular place; as the king's palace, the courts at Westminster, the universities, &c.

PRIVILEGES of the Clergy. See CLERGY.

PRIVY, in Law, is a partaker, or person having an interest, in any action or thing. In this sense they say, privies in blood: every heir in tail is privy to recover the land entailed. In old law-books, merchants privy are opposed to merchants strangers. Coke mentions four kinds of privies. Privies in blood, as the heir to his father; privies in representation, as executors and administrators to the deceased; privies in estate, as he in reversion and he in remainder, donor and donee, lessor and lessee: lastly, privy in tenure, as the lord by escheat; i. e. when land escheats to the lord for want of heirs.

PRIVY-Council. See COUNCIL. The king's will is the sole constituent of a privy-counsellor; and it also regulates their number, which in ancient times was about twelve. Afterwards it increased to so large a number, that it was found inconvenient for secrecy and dispatch; and therefore Charles II. in 1679, limited it to 30; whereof 15 were principal officers of state, and to be counsellors ex officio; and the other 15 were composed of 10 lords and five commoners of the king's choosing. Since that time, however, the number

has

Council

vested in this tribunal; which usually exercises its judi- Privycial authority in a committee of the whole privy-council, Council who hear the allegations and proofs, and make their report to his majesty in council, by whom the judgment is finally given.

Privy has been much augmented, and now continues indefiCouncil. nite. At the same time also the ancient office of lord president of the council was revived, in the person of Anthony earl of Shaftesbury. Privy-counsellors are made by the king's nomination, without either patent or grant; and, on taking the necessary oaths, they become immediately privy-counsellors during the life of the king that chooses them, but subject to removal at his discretion.

Any natural born subject of England is capable of being a member of the privy-council; taking the proper oaths for security of the government, and the test for security of the church. By the act of settlement, 12 and 13 W. III. cap. 2. it is enacted, that no person born out of the dominions of the crown of England, unless born of English parents, even though naturalized by parliament, shall be capable of being of the privy-council. The duty of a privy-counsellor appears from the oath of office, which consists of seven articles. 1. To advise the king according to the best of his cunning and discretion. 2. To advise for the king's honour and good of the public, without partiality, through affection, love, meed, doubt, or dread. To keep the king's counsel secret. 4. To avoid corruption. 5. To help and strengthen the execution of what shall be there resolved. 6. To withstand all persons who would attempt the contrary. And, lastly, in general, 7. To observe, keep, and do all that a good and true counsellor ought to do to his sovereign lord.

3.

The privy-council is the primum mobile of the state, and that which gives the motion and direction to all the inferior parts. It is likewise a court of justice of great antiquity; the primitive and ordinary way of government in England being by the king and privycouncil. It has been frequently used by all our kings for determining controversies of great importance: the ordinary judges have sometimes declined giving judgment till they had consulted the king and privy council; and the parliament have frequently referred matters of high moment to the same, as being by long experience better able to judge of, and, by their secrecy and expedition, to transact some state affairs, than the lords and commons. At present, the privy-council takes cognizance of few or no matters except such as cannot well be determined by the known laws and ordinary courts; such as matters of complaint and sudden emergencies: their constant business being to consult for the public good in affairs of state. This power of the privy-council is to inquire into all offences against the government, and to commit the offenders to safe custody, in order to take their trial in some of the courts of law. But their jurisdiction herein is only to inquire, and not to punish; and the persons committed by them are intitled to their habeas corpus by statute 16 Car. I. cap. 10. as much as if committed by an ordinary justice of the peace.

In plantation or admiralty causes, which arise out of the jurisdiction of this kingdom, and in matters of lunacy and idiocy, the privy-council has cognizance, even in questions of extensive property, being the court of appeal in such causes; or, rather, the appeal lies to the king's majesty himself in council. From all the dominions of the crown, excepting Great Britain and Ireland, an appellate jurisdiction (in the last resort) is 3

Anciently, to strike in the house of a privy-counsellor, or elsewhere in his presence, was grievously punished: by 3 Hen. VII. cap. 14. if any of the king's servants of his household conspire or imagine to take away the life of a privy-counsellor, it is felony, though nothing shall be done upon it; and by 9 Ann. cap. 16. it is enacted, that any persons who shall unlawfully attempt to kill, or shall unlawfully assault, and strike, or wound, any privy counsellor in the execution of his of fice, shall be felons, and suffer death as such. advice of this council, the king issues proclamations that bind the subject, provided they be not contrary to law. In debates, the lowest delivers his opiniou first, the king last; and thereby determines the matter. A council is never held without the presence of a secretary of state.

With

The dissolution of the privy-council depends upon the king's pleasure; and he may, whenever he thinks proper, discharge any particular member, or the whole of it, and appoint another. By the common law also it was dissolved ipso facto by the king's demise, as deriving all its authority from him. But now, to prevent the inconveniencies of having no council in being at the accession of a new prince, it is enacted, by 6 Ann. cap. 7. that the privy-council shall continue for six months after the demise of the crown, unless sooner determined by the successor. Blackst.Com. book 1. p. 229, &c.

The officers of the privy-council are four clerks of the council in ordinary, three clerks extraordinary, a keeper of the records, and two keepers of the councilchamber. See PRESIDENT.

PRIVY Seal, a seal which the king uses previously to such grants, &c. as are afterwards to pass the great seal.

The privy seal is also sometimes used in matters of less consequence, which do not require the great seal. Lord PRIVY Seal. See KEEPER of the Privy Scal. Clerks of the PRIVY Seal. See CLERK. PRIVY Chamber. See CHAMBER.

PRIZE, or PRISE, in maritime affairs, a vessel taken at sea from the enemies of a state, or from pirates; and that either by a man of war, a privateer, &c. having a commission for that purpose.

Vessels are looked on as prize, if they fight under any other standard than that of the state from which they have their commission; if they have no charterparty, invoice, or bill of lading abroad; if loaded with effects belonging to the king's enemies, or with contraband goods.

In ships of war, the prizes are to be divided among the officers, seamen, &c. as his majesty shall appoint by proclamation; but among privateers, the division is according to the agreement between the owners.

By stat. 13 Geo. II. c. 4. judges and officers, failing of their duty in respect to the condemnation of prizes, forfeit 500l. with full costs of suit; one moiety to the king, and the other to the informer.

PROA, FLYING, in navigation, is a name given to a vessel used in the South seas, because with a brisk trade-wind

Froe

trade-wind it sails near 20 miles an hour. In the conProa, Probability, struction of the proa, the head and stern are exactly alike, but the sides are very different; the side intended to be always the lee-side being flat; and the windward side made rounding, in the manner of other vessels; and, to prevent her over-setting, which, from her small breadth, and the straight run of her leeward side, would, without this precaution, infallibly happen, there is a frame laid out from her to windward, to the end of which is fastened a log, fashioned into the shape of a small boat, and made hollow. The weight of the frame is intended to balance the proa, and the small boat is by its buoyancy (as it is always in the water) to prevent her oversetting to windward; and this frame is usually called an outrigger. The body of the vessel is made of two pieces joined endwise, and sewed together with bark, for there is no iron used about her; she is about two inches thick at the bottom, which, at the gunwale, is reduced to less than one. The sail

is made of matting, and the mast, yard, boom, and outriggers, are all made of bamboo. See Anson's Voyage, quarto, p. 341.

PROBABILITY, is a word of nearly the same import with likelihood. It denotes the appearance of truth, or that evidence arising from the preponderation of argument which produces opinion. (See OPINION). Locke classes all arguments under the heads of demonstrative and probable: Hume with greater accuracy divides them into demonstrations, proofs, and probabilities. Demonstration produces science; proof, belief; and probability, opinion.

Hardly any thing is susceptible of strict demonstration besides the mathematical sciences, and a few propositions in metaphysical theology. Physics rest upon principles, capable, some of them, of complete proof by experience, and others of nothing more than probability by analogical reasoning. What has uniformly happened, we expect with the fullest confidence to happen again in similar circumstances; what has frequently happened, we likewise expect to happen again; but our expectation is not confident. Uniform experience is proof; frequent experience is probability. The strongest man has always been able to lift the greatest weight; and, therefore, knowing that one man is stronger than another, we expect, with confidence, that the former will lift more than the lat

The best disciplined army has generally proved victorious, when all other circumstances were equal. We therefore expect that an army of veterans will, upon fair ground, defeat an equal number of new levied troops : but as sudden panics have sometimes seized the oldest soldiers, this expectation is accompanied with doubt, and the utmost that we can say of the expected event is, that it is probable; whereas in the competition between the two men, we look upon it as morally certain. (See METAPHYSICS, Part I. chap. vii. sec. 3.). When two or three persons of known veracity attest the same thing as consistent with their knowledge, their testimony amounts to proof, if not contradicted by the testimony of others; if contradicted, it can, at the utmost, amount only to probability. In common language we talk of circumstantial proofs and presumptive proofs; but the expressions are improper, for such evidence amounts to nothing more than probability. Of probability there are indeed various degrees, from the confines of certainty down to the confines of impossibility; and a variety VOL. XVII. Part I.

။

of circumstances tending to the same point, though they Probability amount not to what, in strictness of language, should be called proof, afford to the mind a very high degree of Probity. evidence, upon which, with the addition of one direct testimony, the laws of many countries take away the life of a man.

PROBABILITY of an Event, in the Doctrine of Chances, is greater or less according to the number of chances by which it may happen or fail. (See EXPECTATION). The probability of life is liable to rules of computation. In the Encyclopedie Methodique, we find a table of the probabilities of the duration of life, constructed from that which is to be found in the seventh volume of the Supplemens à l'Histoire de M. de Buffon; of which the following is an abridgement.

PROBATE of a will or testament, in Law, is the exhibiting and proving of last wills and testaments before the ecclesiastical judge delegated by the bishop, who is ordinary of the place where the party died.

PROBATION, in the universities, is the examination and trial of a student who is about to take his degrees.

PROBATION, in a monastic sense, signifies the year of a novitiate, which a religious must pass in a convent, to prove his virtue and vocation, and whether he can bear the severities of the rule.

PROBATION, in Scots Law. See LAW Index.

PROBATIONER, in the church of Scotland, a student in divinity, who bringing a certificate from a professor in an university of his good morals, and his having performed his exercises to approbation, is admitted to undergo several trials; and, upon his acquitting himself properly in these, receives a licence to preach.

PROBATUM EST (It is proved), a term frequently subjoined to a receipt for the cure of some disease. PROBE, a surgeon's instrument for examining the circumstances of wounds, ulcers, and other cavities, searching for stones in the bladder, &c.

PROBITY means honesty, sincerity, or veracity; and consists in the habit of actions useful to society, and in the constant observance of the laws which justice 3 C and