Prerogative

English law. rrr term in the civil law, see 1 Bro. Civ. The royal prerogative is an arbitrary Law, 246. Vide Limitations. power vested in the executive to do PRESENCE. The existence of a good and not evil. Rutherf. Inst. @ person in a particular place. In 279; Co. Litt. 90; Chit. on Prerog. many contracts and judicial proceedwit PREROGATIVE COURT, in ings it is necessary that the parties eccles. law. The name of a court should be present in order to render in England in which all testaments them valid: for example, a party to ahi are proved and administrations a deed must personally acknowledge ranted, when the deceased has left it, when such acknowledgment is ona notabilia in the province in required by law, to give it its full Bee some other diocese than that in force and effect, and his presence is which he died. 4 Inst. 835. een indispensable. In the criminal law, wie PRESCRIPTION, is the manner tenga presence is actual or constructive. of acquiring property by use during er When a larceny is committed ina bon the time required by law. The law rr house by two men, united in the same wa presumes a grant before the time of design, and one of them goes into oo legal memory when the party claim- re the house, and commits the crime, — ing by prescription, or those from while the other is on the outside 4 ™ whom he holds, have had adverse or re watching to prevent a surprise, the wa uninterrupted possession of the pro- former 1s actually, and the latter w- perty or rights claimed by prescrip- constructively present. It is a rule *. a tion. This presumption may be a in the civil law, that he who is ina mere fiction, the commencement of capable of giving his consent to an TN OES!.UC the user being tortious; no prescrip- act, is not to be considered present, TCU UC tion can, however, be sustained, although he be actually in the place; Tl ClCTEClC which is not consistent with such a a lunatic, or a man sleeping, would presumption. Twenty years unin- not therefore be considered present. Oe terrupted user of a way is prima a Dig. 41, 2, 1, 3 facie evidence of a prescriptive right. PRESENTMENT, crim. law, ——

— ESES— 1 Saund. 323, a; 10 East, 476; 2 Br. practice, properly speaking, is the ————E——_—T—_ & Bing. 403; Cowp. 215; 2 Wils. notice taken by a grand jury of any 53. The subjects of prescription offence, from their own knowledge are the several kinds of incorporeal or observation, without any bill of rights. Vide, generally, 2 Chit. Bl. indictment laid before them at the 35, n. 24; Amer. Jurist, No. 37, p. suit of the government, 4 Bl. Com. 96; 17 Vin. Ab. 256; 7 Com. Dig. 301; upon such presentment, when 93; Rutherf. Inst. 63; Co. Litt. proper, the officer employed to pro- 113; 2 Conn. R. 584; 9 Conn. R. secute, afterwards frames a bill of 162. indictment, which is then sent to the The Civil Code of Louisiana, art. grand jury, and they find it to bea 3420, defines a prescription to be a true bill. In an extended sense premanner of acquiring property, or of sentments include not only what is tions of office, and indictments found by a grand jury. 2 Hawk. c. 25, s. 1. The difference between a presentment and an inquisition, (q. v.) is this, that the former is found by a grand jury authorised to inquire of offences generally, whereas the latter igs an accusation found by a jury specially returned to inquire concerning the particular offence. 2 Hawk. c. 25, s. 6. Vide, gencrally, Com. Dig. Indictment, (3B); Bac. Ab. Indictment, (A); 1 Chit. Cr. Law, 163; 7 East, R. 387. The writing which contains the accusation so presented to a grand jury, is also called a presentment. Vide Grand Jury.