Test

Something by which to ascertain the truth respecting another thing. 7 Pa. St. 428; 6 Whart. (Pa.) 284. See Test Act.

Something by which to ascertain the truth respecting another thing. Depue v. Place, 7 Pa. 428. The requirement that an officer be a resident of the municipality in which he is to be elected for three years in order to be eligible to an office is not a test within the meaning of a constitutional provision that no other oath, declaration or test than a prescribed oath shall be required as a qualification for an office; Attorney General v. Mac- Donald, 164 Mich. 590, 129 N. W. 1050, 32 L. R. A. (N. S.) 835. Such a statute is not invalid as imposing disqualifications not imposed by the constitution; State v. Covington, 29 Ohio St. 102. That a state constitution designates the qualifications of certain officers named therein will not render invalid provisions in a city charter requiring a tax collector to have been an elector of the city and county for five years next preceding his election; Sheehan v. Scott, 145 Cal. G84, 79 Pac. 350.

To bring one to a trial and examination or to ascertain the truth or the quality or fitness of a thing. Something by which to ascertain the truth respecting another thing; a criterion, gauge, standard, or norm. In public law, an inquiry or examination addressed to a person appointed or elected to a public office, to ascertain his qualifications therefor, but particularly a scrutiny of his political, religious, or social views, or his attitude of past and present loyalty or disloyalty to the government under which he is to act. See Attorney General v. Detroit Common Council, 58 Mich. 213, 24 N. W. 887, 55 Am. Rep. 675; People v. Hoffman, 116 III. 587, 5 N. E. 596, 56 Am. Rep. 793; Rogers v. Buffalo, 51 Hun, 637, 3 N. Y. Supp. 674.

— Test act. The sta]ute 25 Car. II. c. 2, which directed all civil and military officers to take the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and make the declaration against transubstan-tiation, within six months after their admission, and also within the same time receive the sacrament according to the usage of the Church of England, under penalty of £500 and disability to hold the office. 4 Bl. Comm. 58, 59. This was abolished by St. 9 Geo. IV. c. 17, so far as concerns receiving the sacrament, and a new form of declaration was substituted.

— Test action. An action selected out of a considerable number of suits, concurrently depending in the same court, brought by several plaintiffs against the same defendant, or by one plaintiff against different defendants, all similar in their circumstances, and embracing the same questions, and to be supported by the same evidence, the selected action to go first to trial, (under an older of court equivalent to consolidation,) and its decision to serve as a itest of the right of recovery in the others, all parties agreeing to be bound by the result of the test action.

— Test oath. An oath required to be taken as a criterion of the fitness of the person to fill a public or political office; but particularly an oath of fidelity and allegiance (past or present) to the established government. -Test-paper. In practice. A paper or instrument shown to a jury as evidence. A term used in the Pennsylvania courts. Depue v. Clare, 7 Pa. 428.

When the identity of anything is once established, other things, as to which there is doubt, may be compared with it as the test or standard, to ascertain whether they belong to the same class or n€«t. Thus, to permit a signature to be shown to the jury as a test-paper its genuineness must first be directly proved.^ See Hamdwritikg. Test Act. Statute of 25 Geo. II (1752), c. 2, enacting that all persons holding office, receiving pay from or holding a place of trust under the crown, should take the oath ■of allegiance and supremacy, subscribe a declaration against transubstantiation, and •receive the sacrament, according to the ■nsage of the Chmxh of England, within six months after appointment. * Repealed by 9 Geo. IT (1829), c. 17, as to receiving I the.sacrament, and a new declaration substituted.'' The English Test Acts related to matters of opinion, most of them to religious opinions. The meaning atitached to the word "test " in our constitutions was derived from these acts.' See Ballot; Belioion. Test joath. An oath of loyalty toward tthe existing government. In England and France, test oaths have been lim- '■ited to an afftrmation of present belief or disinterestedness toward the government, with no reference to past conduct... The clauses in the constitution ■of Missouri which require clergymen, before they may exercise their profession, to take an oath that 'they Jiave not committed designated acts, some of which at the time were innocent in themselves, con- ■etitute a bill of attainder, and an ex post facto law, forbidden by the Federal Constitution.-' TEST". See Testis, Test'.

is the acceptance of the bill, after protest for non acceptance by the drawee, for the honour of the drawer, or of a particular endorser. When a bill has been accepted supra protest for the honour of one party to the bill, it may be accepted supra protest by another individual, for the honour of another. Beawes, tit. Bills of Exchange, pl. 42; 5 Campb. R. 447. by a creditor to his debtor of his debt, without receiving any consideration. Ayl. Pand. tit. 26, p. 570; it 1s a species of donation, but not subject to the forms of the latter, and is valid, unless in fraud of creditors. Merlin, Répert de Jurisp. h. t.