Impressment

A power possessed by the English crown of taking persons or property to aid in the defense of the country, with or without the consent of the persons concerned. It is usually exercised to obtain hands for the queen's ships in time of war, by taking seamen engaged in merchant vessel,^ (1 Bl. Comm. 420; Maude & P. Shipp. 123), but in former times impressment of merchant ships was also practiced. The admiralty issues protections against impressment in certain cases, either under statutes passed in favor of certain callings (e. g., persons employed in the Greenland fisheries), or voluntarily. Rapalje & L. IMPRIMATUR (Lat.) A license or allowance to one to print. At one time, before a book could be printed in England, it was requisite that a permission should be obtained. That permission was called an imprimatur. In some countries where the press is liable to censure, an imprimatur is required.