In each department there is a council general with as many members as the department contains cantons, but the number must not exceed thirty. Each canton elects a member whose qualification consists in the payment of 200fr. canton, in the proportion of 1 to 100. | cil acts as chairman, and in case of an This council, like that of the department, equal division has a casting vote. meets at a time fixed by the government. It holds two ordinary sittings annually, one before and the other after the sitting of the Council general of the department. In the first of these sittings the Council deliberates on the allocation of the contingent of direct taxes for the arrondisse-a-year direct taxes. He is elected for ment and listens to the claims of communes who ask for a reduction of their proportion. In the second part of its sittings the Council apportions the amount of direct taxes amongst the different communes. Should it fail to do this, the prefect is authorized to supply the omission on the basis of the preceding repartition. The sub-prefect has the right of speaking at the sittings of the council. Councils of arrondissement are authorized to make a report to the prefect of the wants and condition of the arrondissement, similar to that which the departmental council addresses to the minister of the interior. As the capital of the department is also the chief place of an arrondissement, the prefect and the prefectorial (not the departmental) council discharge in that arrondissement the duties which in the other arrondissements are assigned to their respective sub-prefects and councils. At the head of each department is an officer entitled préfet (prefect), who has alone the administration of the local government. His usual residence is at the departmental capital; but he makes every year a circuit of inspection through his department, and gives an account of the result of his circuit to the minister of the interior. The prefect is assisted by a conseil de préfecture (prefectorial council), consisting of three, four, or five members, which decides upon individual appeals for an entire exemption or a reduction of the direct taxes; and upon questions arising from the execution of public works, whether between the government and the contractors as to the particulars of the contract, or between the contractors and parties who complain of injuries sustained at their hands, and upon the indemnity due to individuals whose possessions have been required for carrying on public works. The prefect when present at the sittings of this coun nine years, but a third of the council is renewed every three years. The electors are the highest taxed inhabitants, in the proportion of 1 to 1000. The council assembles annually by virtue of a royal ordonnance which fixes the time and duration of its sittings, which are private; and on the demand of four members the votes may be taken by ballot. The council cannot deliberate except in the place assigned for its sittings, and on matters within its jurisdiction as determined by the law of 23rd June, 1833; nor can it put itself in correspondence with the council of another department or of an arrondissement. On an infraction of these articles the council is suspended by the prefect; and printers or others who publish the proceedings of a council which commits either of these infringements is liable to imprisonment for a period of from two to six months, to the loss of civil rights and of all public employment for ten years. The powers and functions of both the councils of a department and of an arrondissement are regulated by a law of 10th May, 1838. Their powers are not near so extensive as those of county magistrates in England assembled at quarter-sessions. The central authority of the government pervades every part of the local administration from the commune to the department. The chief business of the council is to apportion between the arrondissements the direct taxes which are required by the general government; to hear and determine upon appeals made by the councils of arrondissements against this assessment; to levy, within certain limits fixed by law, an additional tax, destined, like our county rates, to meet the expenses of the local administration; to audit the account yearly rendered by the prefect of the expenditure of this local revenue; and to express, in a report addressed to the minister of the interior, an opinion upon the condition and wants of the depart ment. The number of members of councilsgeneral is 2300, and of councils of arrondissements 3200. The departments and arrondissements are electoral divisions. The members of the Chamber of Deputies are chosen for the departments, not for single towns, however important or populous; so that the deputies are all, according to our phrase, county members. [CHARTE.] Each arrondissement has a court of justice, entitled tribunal de première instance, which, except in a very few cases, has its sittings at the capital of the arrondissement. These courts commonly consist of three or four ordinary and two or three supplementary judges: a few arrondissements which include large towns, such as Marseille or Bordeaux, have a considerably greater number of judges, who are divided into two or more sections. To each court there is a procureur du roi, or attorney-general; and where the court consists of two or more sections there are deputy attorneys. Each department has a tribunal criminel (criminal court), or cour d'assize (assize court), consisting of a president, who is a counsellor of the cour royale, to the jurisdiction of which the department is subject, two ordinary and two supplementary judges to each court is attached a procureur du roi, or attorney-general, and a greffier, or registrar. These courts, except in a few instances, have their seat at the capital of the department. Besides these courts, there are in different parts of France twenty-seven higher tribunals, called cours royales, consisting of from twelve to thirty-three salaried judges. Each of these courts has under its jurisdiction several departments. There is an appeal from these courts on questions of law, not of fact, to the supreme court, cour de cassation, at Paris. The departments are also formed into twenty divisions militaires, or military districts: the head-quarters of these districts are fixed at some important town, usually at the capital of one of the included departments. The departments are also grouped into divisions for other objects of central, government: 1, as to bridges and highways; 2, forests; 3, mines. A department usually constitutes an ecclesiastical diocese. In a few instances two departments are comprehended in one diocese; and in one or two cases a department is divided between two dioceses. The dioceses of France amount to eighty, of which fourteen are archbishoprics and sixty-six bishoprics. The instruction of youth in France being under the surveillance of government, has occasioned an arrangement of territory with a view to this object. DEPORTATION. [BANISHMENT.] DEPOSIT. The term is applied to the sum of money which under 43 Geo. III. c. 46 a man might deposit with the sheriff after he was arrested, instead of putting in special bail. The amount of the deposit was the sum sworn to on the back of the writ. (Blackstone's Comm. iii. 290.) Deposit is also used for any sum of money which a man puts in the hands of another as a kind of security for the fulfilment of some agreement, or as a part payment in advance. The Roman word depositum signified anything which a man put in the hands of another to keep till it was asked back, without anything being given to the depositarius for his trouble. The depositor was called deponens or depositor. The depositary was bound to take care of the thing, and to make good any damage that happened to it through fraudulent design (dolus) or gross neglect (lata culpa). The depositor could recover the thing by action; but the depositary was entitled to satisfaction for any loss that he sustained in the matter of the deposit by any default (culpa) on the part of the depositor. The depositary could make no use of the deposit, except with the permission of the depositor, either given in express words or arising from implication. If a man refused to return a deposit, and was condemned in an action of deposit (actio depositi), infamy (infamia) was a conse quence of the condemnation. (Dig. 16, tit. 3; Juvenal, Sat. xiii. 60.) DEPOSITION, in its extended sense, means the act of giving public testimony, but as applicable to English law the word of the 13 Geo. III. c. 63, to all colonies and places under the king's dominion, and to all the judges of the same, and to all actions depending in the courts of law of Westminster. The fourth section of this act empowers the courts at Westminster, and also the Court of Common Pleas of the County Palatine of Lancaster and of Durham, and the several judges thereof, in every action depending in such courts, upon the application of any of the parties to such action, to order the examination upon oath, upon interrogatories or otherwise, before the master or prothonotary of such court, or person or persons named in such order, of any witnesses within the jurisdiction of the court where the action shall be depending, or to order a commission to issue for the examination of witnesses on oath in places out of such jurisdiction by interrogatories or other position to be taken under this act shall be used as evidence at any trial without the consent of the party against whom the same may be offered, unless it shall appear to the satisfaction of the jury that the examinant or deponent is beyond the jurisdiction of the court, or dead, or unable, from permanent sickness or other permanent disability, to attend the trial. is used to signify the testimony of a witness in a judicial proceeding reduced to writing. Informations upon oath and the evidence of witnesses before magistrates and coroners are reduced into writing in the very words used by the witnesses, or as near as possible thereto. Evidence in the Court of Chancery is taken in written answers to interrogatories, which are also in writing, either by commissioners appointed for that purpose in the particular cause, if the witness resides at a greater distance from London than twenty miles, or if he resides nearer or is otherwise willing to appear, before the examiners of the Court of Chancery. These depositions are the evidence which is read at the hearing of the cause. The course of the Ecclesiastical Court is also by written interrogatories and answers. The Court of Chancery has power to grant a commission for the examination of wit-wise. But (§ 10) no examination or denesses residing abroad; and by the 1 Wm. IV. c. 22, which extends the provisions of the 13 Geo. III. c. 64, the courts of law at Westminster, in actions pending before them, have power to order the examination of witnesses residing in any of his Majesty's foreign dominions. By the 13 Geo. III. c. 63, § 40, in cases of indictments in the King's Bench for misdemeanors or offences committed in India, that court may award writs of mandamus to the judges of the courts in India to examine witnesses concerning the matters charged in such indictments and offences, and the depositions so taken may be read at any trial for such misdemeanors or offences. Sections 41 and 42 provide for taking the depositions of witnesses on any information or indictment in the King's Bench against the judges of the Supreme Courts in India, and in proceedings in parliament for offences committed in that country. By section 44, when an action or suit in law or equity, the cause whereof shall arise in India, is commenced in any of the courts of Westminster, such court on motion may award a writ in the nature of a mandamus to the judges of the courts in India for the examination of witnesses, and such examination may be read at any trial or hearing between the parties in such action or suit. The 1 Wm. IV. c. 22, § 1, extends the power and provisions When a witness is above the age of 70, or very infirm, or about to go abroad, so that his testimony may be lost before the regular period for his examination arrives, the Court of Chancery will order him to be examined de bene esse, as it is termed ; that is, his examination is received for the present, and will be accepted as evidence when the proper time for taking the other evidence in the cause arrives, if the witness cannot be then produced. Courts of law do not possess similar power without the consent of both parties, but in order to enforce consent they will put off the trial at the instance of a defendant, if the plaintiff will not consent; and if the defendant refuse, will not give him judgment in case of nonsuit. The Court of Chancery will also, upon bill filed by a person in the actual and undisturbed possession of property, and who has therefore no means of making his title the subject of judicial investigation, but which nevertheless may be ma terially affected by the evidence of living witnesses, allow the witnesses to be examined in perpetuam rei memoriam, that is, to perpetuate testimony. This is done in order that if any of the witnesses should die before the title to the property is disputed, their evidence may be preserved; otherwise a claimant might lie by until all the evidence against him was lost. Depositions are not admitted as evidence in courts of law, unless the witness is either dead, or from some cause beyond the control of the party seeking to read the deposition, cannot be produced, or against any other persons than the parties to the proceeding in which they were taken, or claimants under them, and who had the opportunity of cross-examining the witness. In cases, however, relating to a custom, prescription, or pedigree, where mere reputation would be good evidence, a deposition may be received as against a stranger. Depositions taken in Chancery de bene esse before answer put in, unless the defendant is in contempt for refusing to answer, are not admissible as evidence in a court of law, because until the defendant has answered he could not have an opportunity of cross-examining the witness; but the Court of Chancery will sometimes direct such depositions to be read. Such order, however, while it concludes the parties, is not binding upon the court of law; of course, however, if the depositions be not read and the decision should be contrary to justice, the Court of Chancery would interfere as between the parties. DEPRIVATION. [BENEFICE, p. 351.] shall take place after the 1st of January, 1834, is now regulated by the Act 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 106. The object here is merely to explain the general notion of descent. All modes of acquiring property in land by the English law are either Descent or Purchase. Descent, or hereditary succession, signifies the title by which a man acquires an estate in land as the heir-atlaw of a person deceased. The death of the owner of the estate of inheritance is the occasion of the descent of it. In his lifetime there can be no descent, and therefore no heir, though there may be an "heir apparent,” or “heir presumptive." An heir apparent is he who must be the heir, if he lives till the inheritance descends; an heir presumptive is he who may be forestalled by the birth of a nearer heir. The person who dies must be at his death owner of the estate of inheritance, or no descent of it will then take place. Inheritances, otherwise called hereditaments, things which may be inherited or taken by descent, are various. The principal of these is the Crown, or royal title, dignity, and power of the king of the British Empire, the descent of which differs in one material respect from that of a private inheritance, inasmuch as where there are no sons of the king, an elder daughter takes the whole of the inheritance, in exclusion of the younger sisters. In the case of the descent of private land, when there are several daughters, they all take alike in equal shares, and are called parceners, or coparceners. Dignities and honours, as baronies and other peerages, are descendible, according to the limita tions contained in the patents by which they were created. If created by summons in the first instance, they are called dignities in fee, and are descendible to females. [BARONY.] Finally, all the sub DESCENT, in English law (from discent, Norman French, and so written in our older law books), may be defined to be the rule of law pursuant to which, on the death of the owner of an estate of inherit-jects of real property, and all annuities, ance, without making any disposition thereof, it descends to another as heir. Inheritance is sometimes used in the same sense as descent, though it rather signifies that which is, or may be, inherited, or taken by descent. (Littleton, sect. 9.) The law of inheritance with respect to descents which have taken place since or offices, and whatever other things may be "held in fee," are " 'descendible," and this whether they are in possession, reversion, remainder, or expectancy. So are all rights and titles to things that may be held in fee, and the expectancy of an heir apparent or presumptive. There are also "descendible freeholds," that is, estates created by leases for lives, which, though | be understood without krowing who the not estates in fee, may during their con- person is who in any case is designated by tinuance be inherited as if they were. It the law as the "heir" to another. has been already noticed [CHATTEL] that the large class of things called chattels are not generally the subject of descent, but that some of them are. : As to descents in fee simple, the fundamental rule is, that any person of kin to another, that is, descended from the same ancestor, however distant, may be his heir, but that no person connected with him by marriage or affinity only, can inherit to him. [CONSANGUINITY; AFFINITY.] If the son inherits to the father, his mother cannot succeed to him, for though she may be heir to the son, she cannot be heir to the father, from whom, and not from the son, "the descent is to be traced." On the other hand, if the father inherits to the son, the mother may succeed to him, for though she cannot be the heir of the father, she may be the heir of the son. The fee, fief, or feud, which may thus now descend to the kindred of the purchaser in infinitum, was once nothing more than a life-interest given to the tenant or holder of it in consideration of the military services to be rendered by the tenant to the donor. The fee was afterwards permitted to descend to the issue of the original grantee, and in process of time to his collateral heirs. This was only effected by means of a Upon the death of the owner, the inheritance devolves upon the heir, without any act done by him, or price paid for his acquisition in both these respects, the present law of descent differs from the old feudal customs from which it is derived. According to the old feudal customs, upon the death of the tenant of a fee, the lord of whom it was held was entitled to take and retain it till the heir, for whom proclamation was made, appeared, and paid a sum of money called a relief [RELIEF] as the consideration for his admission into the tenancy; whereupon "seisin" or possession was given him, and he took the "oath of fealty" [FEALTY], and if the tenancy was by "knight's service," "did homage" [HOMAGE] also to the lord. All this was more like a new donation, than the present quiet succession of an heir. The descent of copyholds, however, is still regulated much in the manner described. The heir was not, however, formerly, to the same extent as now, sub-fiction; for so firmly settled was the ject to the charges and debts of the deceased tenant, in respect of the property that descended to him. [ASSETS]. The present law of descents qualifies materially in one respect the title of the heir to the inheritance descended. Though it makes him as completely the owner of it as if he had purchased it, that is, acquired it otherwise than by descent, as to right of enjoyment and power of alienation, it does not allow it at his death to descend as if he had purchased it, but, on the contrary, declares that it shall descend as if he had never had it. Such at least is the new law. (§ 1, 2, of the Act.) The heir of an inheritance must be always the heir of the last "purchaser" of it, that is, of the last person who acquired the property "otherwise than by descent, or than by an escheat partition or inclosure, by the effect of which the land shall have become part of, or descendible, in the same manner as other land acquired by descent." The practical importance of this rule cannot notion that "the blood" (descending) alone of the purchaser or original grantee could be allowed to inherit, that the feudal law was never brought to allow collateral heirs, as such, to be heirs. But when a feud was granted ut antiquum, that is, to be held by the donee as if it had descended to him from some remote unknown ancestor, then the law permitted collateral relations however distant, that is, relations descended from any common ancestor, however remote, to inherit. For it was not known how far distant the ancestor was who was supposed to have been the purchaser, nor who he was, and it was sufficient that the heir might be a descendant of his. (See for the early history of inheritable fiefs, Robertson's Charles V., Sullivan's Lectures, Wright's Tenures, Gilbert on Tenures by Watkins, Butler's Coke upon Littleton, 191, a. v. 4, where there is a comparison of the Roman and feudal laws of inheritance.) While the law, however, went thus far, |