found in a very ancient practice called Apprising, by which the debtor who refused to satisfy his creditor, either with money or land, might be compelled to part with so much of the land as the award of a jury found commensurate with the debt. This form was the object of legislation so early as the year 1469, when provision was made for compelling feudal superiors to give the proper investiture to those who acquired lands by such a title. The debtor who is compelled to part with his lands under the old apprising might redeem them within seven years, but it is said that this privilege was often defeated by dexterous expedients, and that the system was a means of judicial oppression, the genuine creditor being often defeated by the collusive proceedings of the debtor's friends; and on the other hand a creditor to a mere nominal amount was often enabled to carry off a large estate. The system was amended by the Act 1672, c. 19. According to modern practice, there are two alternatives laid before the debtor in the process-that the debtor is to make over to the creditor land to the value of his debt and one-fifth more, redeemable within five years; or that the property in general against which the process is directed shall be adjudged to the creditor, liable to be redeemed within ten years, on payment of the debt, interest, &c. The latter is the alternative universally adopted. The lands do not pass into the absolute property of the adjudger at the end of the ten years without judicial intervention, in "an action of declarator of expiry of the legal," in which the debtor may call on the creditor to account for his transactions, and may redeem the property on paying any balance that may be still due. There are arrangements for preserving equality among adjudgers, and preventing the more active creditors from carrying off all the available estate. Taking the point of time when the first process has been made effectual by certain proceedings for the completion of the adjudger's title, all others in which the decree is either prior to that event or within a year and a day after it, rank with it and with each other, and they are all | preferable to posterior adjudications. (Acts 1661, c. 62; 1672, c. 19; 54 Geo. III. c. 137, §§ 9-11.) When there are so many adjudications in process against an estate that it may be considered as bank. rupt, while the debtor does not come within the class of persons liable to mercantile bankruptcy, it is usual to sweep all the operations into one process called a" Judicial Sale and Ranking." A fator or assignee is appointed, under judicial inspection, and, to a certain extent, but very imperfectly, the property is realized and distributed among the creditors after the manner of a bankrupt estate. (Acts 1681, c. 17; 1695, c. 24; 54 Geo. III. c. 137, §§ 6, 7; Act. Sed. 22nd Nov. 1711; 17th Jan. 1756; 11th July, 1794.) Where sequestration has been awarded against a person liable to mercantile bankruptcy, the award involves an adjudication of the bankrupt's adjudge able property from the date of the first deliverance. (2 & 3 Vict. c. 41. § 82.) The form of an adjudication has long been in use for the completion of defective titles to landed property, and when so employed it is called “Adjud:cation in implement." ADJUSTMENT, in marine insurance, is the settling and ascertaining the exact amount of indemnity which the party insured is entitled to receive under the policy, after all proper allowances and deductions have been made; and fixing the proportion of that indemnity which each underwriter is liable to bear. The contract of insurance is an agreement to indemnify the insured against such losses as he may sustain by the occurrence of any of the events which are expressly, cr by implication of law, contained in the policy. Thus, when a ship is lost, or any of those contingencies arise against which the insurance provides, the owner of the ship or of the goods insured, as the cas may be, or an authorized agent, reports the circumstance to the insurers or underwriters. In London, this notice is giver by an insertion in a book kept at Lloyd's Coffee-House in the subscription-rooms, where the greater part of marine insurances are effected. Before any adjustment is made, the underwriters require to be informed of all particulars, that they may be satisfied the loss has occurred through circumstances against which the insurance was effected. In ordinary cases the task of ascertaining these facts, and of examining the correctness of the demand made by the assured, rests with the underwriter who has first subscribed the policy. In complicated cases of partial or average losses, the papers are usually referred to some disinterested party, whose business it is to undertake such references, to calculate and adjust the per centage rate of loss. Where the ship is wholly lost, of course little difficulty occurs in this part of the inquiry; but in cases of partial losses, where the insured has not exercised his right of abandonment [ABANDONMENT], very minute and careful examination often becomes necessary. The quantity of damage being ascertained, the amount which each underwriter has made himself liable to by subscribing the policy is settled; and this being done, it is usual for one of the underwriters, or their agent, to indorse on the policy, "adjusted a partial loss on this policy of so much per cent." To this indorsement the signature of each underwriter must be affixed, and this process is called the adjustment of the loss. After an adjustment has been made, it is not usual in mercantile practice for the underwriter to require any further proof, but at once to pay the loss; and it has been said that the reason for which adjustments have been introduced into the business of maritime insurance is, that upon the underwriter signing an adjustment, and thereby declaring his liability, and admitting that the whole transaction is adjusted, time should be given him to pay the money. As a question of law, however, it is undecided how far the adjustment is conclusive and binding upon the underwriters; the better opinion appears to be that the adjustment is merely presumptive evidence against an insurer, and has only the effect of transferring the burden of proof from the assured to the underwriters; that is, where an adjustment has taken place, and the liability to pay the loss is disputed, the adjustment alone, without further proof, will be sufficient to entitle the insured to recover in an action on the policy, unless the under writer shows facts which may have the effect of relieving him from liability. (Selwyn's Nisi Prius, title " Insurance;" Park, on the Law of Marine Insurance, and a note to Campbell's Nisi Prius Reports, vol. i. p. 276.) ADJUTANT (from the Latin adjutor, an assistant) is a military officer, attached to every battalion of a regiment. The office does not confer a separate rank, but is usually given to one of the subaltern officers. The duties of an adjutant are to superintend (under the major of the regiment, and the adjutant-general of the army) all matters relating to the ordinary routine of discipline in the regiment; to receive and promulgate to the battalion all general, garrison, and regimental orders, signing them in the orderly-book on the part of the commanding-officer; to select detachments from the different companies when ordered; to regulate the placing of guards, distribution of ammunition, &c. ADJUTANT-GENERAL, a staff-officer, one of those next in rank to the commander-in-chief. He is to the army what the adjutant is to a regiment; he superintends the details of all the dispositions ordered by the commander-in-chief, communicates general orders to the different brigades, and receives and registers the reports of the state of each, as to numbers, discipline, equipments, &c. Though in a large army the adjutant-general is usually a general officer, yet this rank is not necessary; and in smaller detachments acting independently the duties are frequently intrusted to an officer of lower rank. ADMINISTRATION and ADMINISTRATOR. An administrator is a person appointed by the ordinary or bishop of the diocese to make administration of or to distribute the goods of a person who dies without having made a will. It is said that, in very early times, the king was entitled in such a case to seize upon the goods, in order that they might be applied to the burial of the deceased, the payment of his debts, and to making a provision for his family. It would appear that this power of the crown over the effects of intestates was greatly abused, for, by Magna Charta, King John granted that "if a freeman should die intestate, or to both of them; and, where several persons are equally near of kin, empowers him to select one of them at his discretion. his chattels should be distributed by the hands of his near relations and friends, under the inspection of the church." This, probably, formed the foundation upon which the bishops after- If none of the kindred are willing to wards founded their right to administer take out administration, a creditor is perby their own hands the goods of an in- mitted to do so; and in the absence of testate. There is, at least, no doubt that any person entitled to demand letters of the power of seizing the goods of an administration, the ordinary may appoint intestate was, at a later period, trans- whomsoever he may think proper to colferred from the crown to the bishops. lect the goods of the deceased, for the The whole property was, in the first in- benefit of such as may be entitled to stance, placed in the custody of the ordi- them. Administrators are appointed even nary, or bishop of the diocese in which when a will has been made, if by the will the intestate died; and after the deduc- no executors are appointed, or if the tion of what were technically called persons named in it refuse, or are not "partes rationabiles," that is, two-thirds legally qualified to act; and in any of of the whole, which the law gave to the these cases the administrator only differs widow and children, the remaining third from an executor in the name of his office part vested in the bishop upon trust to and mode of his appointment. In prac distribute that proportion in charity to tice, when the executor refuses to act, it the poor, or in "pious uses," for the bene- is usual to grant administration to the fit of the soul of the deceased. This trust residuary legatee, that is, to the person to being greatly abused by the bishops, the whom, by the will, the remainder of the statute called the "Statute of Westmin-personal property, after payment of debts ster the Second," was passed in the reign of and legacies, given. Edward I., which provided that the debts of the deceased should be paid by the ordinary in the same manner as if he had been an executor appointed by a will. The remainder, after payment of debts, still continued applicable to the same uses as before. To prevent the abuses of the power thus retained by the ordinary, and to take the administration out of his hands, the statute of 31 Edward III. cap. 2, directed the ordinary, in case of intestacy, to depute "the nearest and most lawful friends" of the deceased to administer his goods; and these administrators are put upon the same footing with regard to suits and to accounting, as executors appointed by will. This is the origin of administrators; they are merely the officers of the ordinary, appointed by him in pursuance of the statute, which selects the nearest and most lawful friend of the deceased; these words being interpreted to denote the nearest relation by blood who is not under any legal disability. The subsequent statute of 21 Henry VIII. c. 5, enlarges a little more the power of the ordinary, and permits him to grant administration either to the widow or the next of kin, In the case of a complete intestacy, it was formerly doubted whether an administrator, when appointed by virtue of 31 Edward III., could be compelled to make any distribution of the effects of the intestate which remained in his hands after payment of debts; for though the administration had been transferred from the ordinary to the next of kin of the deceased, the new administrator stood in much the same position as the ordinary had. The spiritual courts endeavoured to enforce distribution by taking bonds from the administrator for that purpose, but these bonds were declared void by the common law courts. The "Statute of Distributions," 22 & 23 Charles II. c. 10, which is amended by 29 Car. II. c. 3, enacted that the surplus effects, after payment of debts, shall, after the expiration of one year from the death of intestate, be distributed in the following manner :-one-third shall go to the widow, and the remainder in equal proportions to the children of the intestate, or, if dead, to their legal representatives, that is, their lineal descendants: or, if there be no children, or children's legal representatives, then one moiety shall go I to the widow, and the other moiety to the next of kin in equal degree, or to their representatives: if no widow, the whole shall go to the children or their repretatives in equal portions: if neither widow nor children, the whole shall be distributed amongst the next of kin or their representatives. The statute of 29 Charles II. c. 3, confirms the old right of the husband to be the administrator of his wife who dies intestate, and to recover and enjoy her personal property. By the same statute it is directed that no child of the intestate (except it be his heir at law) on whom he settled in his lifetime any estate in lands, or to whom he gave a pecuniary portion equal to the distributive share of the other children, shali have any share of the surplus to be administered; but if the estate or portion thus given him by way of advancement is not equivalent to the other shares, the child so advanced shall have so much of the intestate's personal estate as will put him on an equality with his brothers and sisters. The Statute of Distributions expressly excepts and reserves the customs of the city of London, of the province of York, and of all other places which have peculiar customs of distributing intestates' effects. These customs resemble, in some degree, the provisions of the statute, though they differ from them in some respects. Milton, holding to this principle of orthography, wrote in Latin Ammiralatûs Curia (the Court of Admiralty). The French say Amiral, and the Italians Ammiraglio. The d seems to have got into the English word from a notion that Admiral was an abridgment of Admirable. The Latin writers of the middle ages sometimes, apparently from this conceit, style the commander of a fleet Admirabilis, and also Admiratus. The Spaniards say Admirante or Almirante. Under the Greek empire, the term Emir or Amir (Aunp) was used most commonly to designate the governor of a province or district, which was itself called Aunpadias. Gibbon states that the emir of the fleet was the third in rank of the officers of state presiding over the navy; the first being entitled the Great Duke, and the second the Great Drungaire. (Decline and Fall, ch. liii.) The holy wars of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries seem to have introduced the term Admiral into Europe. Admiral of Sicily is reckoned among the great officers of state in that kingdom in the twelfth century; and the Genoese had also their admiral very soon after this For further information upon the sub-time. In France and England the title ject of Administrator and Administration, see EXECUTORS. The degrees of kindred are reckoned according to the Roman law in the application of the Statute of Distributions [CONSANGUINITY]; and many of the provisions of the statute as to the mode of distribution resemble those of the Roman law of Justinian's period. (Novel. 118; and Gaius, iii. On the Succession to Intestates' Estates.) ADMIRAL, the title of the highest class of naval officers. Various fanciful etymologies of the word have been given; but the word is said to be merely a corruption of the Arabic Amir or Emir, a lord or chieftain. The al is the Arabic definite article al (the), without the noun to which it belongs. Eutychius, Patri The appears to have been unknown till the latter part of the thirteenth century: the year 1284 is commonly assigned as the date of the appointment of the first French admiral; and the Amiral de la Mer du Roy d'Angleterre is first mentioned in records of the year 1297. The person to whom the title is given in this instance is named William de Leybourne. Yet at this time England, although she had an admiral, had, properly speaking, no fleet; the custom being for the king, when he engaged in a naval expedition, to press into his service the merchant-vessels from all ports of the kingdom, just as it is still the prerogative of the crown to seize the men serving on board such vessels. This circumstance is especially deserving of notice, as illustrating what an admiral originally was. The King of England's admiral of the sea was not necessarily the actual commander of the fleet; he was rather the great officer of state, who presided generally over maritime affairs. Sometimes he was not a professional person at all; at other times he was one of the king's sons, or other near kinsman yet in his nonage, on whom the office was bestowed, as being one of great dignity and emolument: the duties were performed by persons who acted in his name. But these duties were usually not to command ships in battle, but merely to superintend and direct the naval strength of the kingdom, and to administer justice in all causes arising on the seas. The former of these duties is now executed by the department of government called the Admiralty, and the latter by the legal tribunal called the High Court of Admiralty. Anciently, two or more admirals used often to be appointed to exercise their powers along different parts of the coast. Thus in 1326 mention is made of the Admiral of the King's Fleet, from the mouth of the Thames northward, and of another officer with the same title, commanding from the mouth of the Thames westward. Besides these, there were also Admirals of the Cinque Ports. There are still a vice-admiral and a rearadmiral of the United Kingdom, which places are now sinecures, and are usually bestowed upon naval officers of high standing and eminent services. They are appointed by royal patent, and it is said would exercise the authority of the Lord High Admiral in case of his death, until a successor was appointed. There is also a vice-admiral of the coast of Yorkshire, a nominal office, usually given to a nobleman. It is the opinion of some writers that the first admiral of all England was appointed in the | year 1387. Even the officer bearing this title, however, was not then the person possessing the highest maritime jurisdiction. Above him there was the King's Lieutenant on the Sea (Locum tenens super Mare). Also, before the term Admiral was used at all, there was an officer designated the Custos Maris, or Guardian of the Sea. From the year 1405 (the sixth of Henry IV.) there is an uninterrupted series of Lord High Admirals of England, the office being always held by an individual. till the 20th of November, 1632, when it was for the first time put in commission: all the great officers of state were the commissioners. During the Commonwealth, the affairs of the navy were managed by a Committee of Parliament, till Cromwell took the direction of them himself. On the Restoration, the king's brother, the Duke of York, was appointed Lord High Admiral; and he retained the place till the 22nd of May, 1684, when Charles took it into his own hands. On the duke's accession to the throne, in the beginning of the following year, he declared_himself Lord High Admiral. On the Revolution the office was again put in commission; and it continued to be held in this form till 1707, when Prince George of Denmark was appointed Lord High Admiral, with a council of four persons to assist him. On his death, in November, 1708, the Earl of Pembroke was appointed his successor, with a similar council. The earl resigned the office in 1709, since which time, till now, it has always been in commission, with the exception of the period of about sixteen months (from May, 1827, till September, 1828), during which it was held by King William IV., then Duke of Clarence. The commissioners, styled the Lords Commissioners of the Admiralty, were formerly seven, and are now six in number; and the first Lord is always a member of the cabinet. It is the First Lord, indeed, who principally exercises the powers of the office. The patent constituting the commission is issued by writ of privy seal, in the king's name, and, after mentioning the names of the commissioners, it appoints them to be "our commissioners for executing the office of |