bound to a strict observance of the letter of the Koran. The most effectual class in the order were the fedaveesyouths often purchased or stolen from their parents when children, and brought up under a particular system of education calculated to impress upon their minds the omnipotence of the sheikh, and the criminality as well as utter impossibility of evading his orders, which were like the mandates of Heaven itself. These fedavees were clothed in white, with red bonnets and girdles, and armed with sharp daggers; but they assumed all sorts of disguises when sent on a mission. Marco Polo gives a curious romantic account of the garden at Alamoot, to which the fedavee designed for an important mission was carried in a state of temporary stupor produced by powerful opiates, and where, on awakening, he found everything that could excite and gratify his senses. He was made to believe that this was a foretaste of the paradise of the prophet, reserved for his faithful and devoted servants, and thus became willing to encounter death, even under the most appalling forms, in order to secure a permanent seat in the abode of bliss. Marco Polo's narrative is confirmed by Arabian writers, and Von Hammer inclines to believe it true in the main; others attribute the visions in the garden to the effects of the intoxicating preparation administered to the fedavees. The name of hashish, which is that of an opiate made from hemp-leaves, is supposed to have been the origin of the word "assassins.” The word becoming familiar to the crusaders was by them carried to Europe, where it was used as synonymous with that of sicarius, or hired murderer. Hassan ben Sabah, having extended his order by force, treachery, and especially by assassination, over great part of the Mohammedan world, died at Alamoot in 1124, after thirty-five years' reign. He had several successors, all of whom adopted the practice of secret assassination, and several princes fell under the daggers of their followers; among them was Raymond, count of Tripoli, in 1151. At length the great Mongol conqueror, Mangoo Khan, sent his brother Hulakoo to exterminate the murderous sect, which he effected A.d. 1256. The Syrian branch of the Assassins, however, continued to exist for some years later. Massyad, not far from Beyrout, was their principal stronghold. The history of this branch is the most familiar to Europeans, being much interwoven with that of the crusaders and of the great Sultan Saladin. The latter was several times in danger from the daggers of the Assassins. They murdered the Marquis of Montferrat in 1192, Louis of Bavaria in 1213, and the Khan of Tartary in 1254. The Syrian Assassins were conquered by Bibars, the Mameluke Sultan of Egypt, fourteen years after the destruction of the Persian branch by the Mongols. Many, however, found refuge in the mountains of Syria, and became mixed with the Yezeed Kurds; and some of the tenets of the order are believed to linger still among them. ASSAULT and BATTERY. An assault has been commonly defined an attempt or offer with force and violence to do a corporal hurt to another." Thus presenting a gun at a person within the distance to which it will carry, throwing a stone or other missile at him, drawing a sword and waving it, or even holding up a fist in a threatening manner, are instances of assault. But no words, however insolent and provoking, unaccompanied by an act of violence, amount to an assault. A battery, which is said to imply an assault, consists of any kind of corporal injury, however small, designedly done to another by an actual contact with his person. The injury need not be done by the immediate hand of the party; nor is it material whether the act is wilful or not, provided it proceeds from a mischievous design. In a case where a lighted squib was thrown into a market-place, which was tossed about from hand to hand and at last struck a man in the face and put out his eye, it was held to be an assault and battery by the first thrower. A person who commits an assault and battery is liable to an action of trespass by the party injured, and also to a criminal prosecution for a misdemeanour and breach of the peace; but if a defendant is found guilty upon an indictment, and the court is informed that an action has been brought for the same injury, a nominal sentence is usually passed, unless the prosecutor will consent to discontinue his action. Formerly, although a person were convicted before justices of an assault, or acquitted upon the merits, he was still liable to proceedings by action at law. But now, after a case has been heard before justices, they are required to issue a certificate to the party complained against, which gives release from all further proceedings for the same cause, whether civil or criminal, whether he be acquitted or convicted. The punishment for common assaults is fine and imprisonment at the discretion of the court. By the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, persons convicted of assaulting magistrates, officers, or other persons concerned in preserving wrecks, are liable to be kept in penal servitude for seven years, or to be imprisoned, with or without hard labour, at the discretion of the court. The statute contains other provisions of a like special nature, as to assaults upon a peace or revenue officer in the execution of his duty, and the like. By the same statute a man may be convicted of an assault under an indictment of a greater offence. Though the 33 Henry VIII. c. 12, has been repealed by the 9 Geo. IV. c. 31, and this again repealed by the above statute of Victoria, it seems that the penalty of the loss of the right hand attached by the common law to assaults committed in the actual presence of the queen or in her constructive presence in the superior courts of law, still remains. By the 24 & 25 Vict. c. 100, s. 42, persons guilty of common assaults may be convicted summarily by two magistrates, who are empowered to impose a fine not exceeding £5, with the costs; and in case of non-payment to commit offenders to prison for two months. In cases of "aggravated" assault the criminal may be liable to penal servitude for life; and, as in the case of common assault, regard is paid to the "intention," which constitutes the essence of the crime. Thus attempts to murder or to inflict severe bodily injury, or assault with intent to rob or to commit the crime of rape, are aggravated" assaults, and render the offenders liable to the full penalty. The law also takes cognizance of accessories to an assault; thus, in the case of rape any person aiding, assisting, or encouraging the criminal becomes a principal in the second degree, and liable to punishment accordingly. ASSAULT is in Scotland a punishable offence, usually prosecuted by the public prosecutors attached to the sheriff's' courts, to the police courts established by statute, and to the justice of peace courts. It is seldom brought before the supreme criminal court, unless it be of a highly criminal character; and it is then generally charged as assault with some specific aggravation, as "assault aggravated by being to the effusion of blood," or as “being to the danger of life," or "by being committed against a magistrate," or "by being perpetrated with a lethal weapon," an expression applicable to a sword, hatchet, hammer, or any instrument more formidable than an ordinary walking-stick. Criminal prosecutions for assault, at the instance of private parties, are almost unknown. The party injured may pursue for civil damages before a jury; but such prosecutions are not frequent. There is no division, as in England, into "assault" and "assault and battery." Many of the statutory regulations, as to assaults by manufacturers, &c., extended to Scotland. The later statute law on this subject, having been passed to alter laws peculiar to England, does not in general apply to Scotland. The respective punishments of the various kinds of assault have thus, in Scotland, been in a great measure fixed by the practice of the several criminal courts. Very delicate balances indicating at least roth of a grain are made for assaying purposes. The most generally approved form is shown in fig. 4. The beam in this balance is 10 inches long, and usually weighs 125 grains. The scale pans rest in stirrups of palladium, and can be removed by means of forceps. Each stirrup hangs from two steel points resting in agate caps (fig. 6), and the agate knife-edge at the centre (fig. 5) does not come in contact with the agate palates until the supports have been removed from below the scale pans by the handle in front of the balance. The assaying of gold is performed, to a certain extent, exactly in the same way as that of silver; and if the gold were alloyed only with copper, the process would be as simple as that of silver assaying. Usually, however, gold contains silver, and this cannot be got rid of by cupellation. The parting process is therefore had recourse to; this consists in dissolving the silver by dilute nitric acid, which leaves the gold pure. See HALL MARK. Iron ores are chiefly of three kinds, the impure carbonate, commonly called the argillaceous iron ore; the peroxide, including the specular and hematite iron ores; and the black or magnetic ore, which is a compound of the protoxide and peroxide. The wet way is generally pre ASSAULT, MILITARY, is a sudden and vigorous attack upon a fortress or fortified post. It is sometimes made in force against regular fortifications before siege operations have been commenced, but more generally when what is termed a practicable breach has been effected by mining or the use of artillery. The troops chosen for this desperate work are divided as a rule into the "storming parties," "support parties," and "firing or covering parties." The duty of the storming party is to effect a forcible entry into the place attacked, and they are assisted in this by the firing parties, who, extended in open order, keep firing at the defenders who appear above the parapet or into the embrasures. Where there is a ditch and wall to be surmounted, "ladder parties" are appointed to assist the storming parties by carrying and placing in position the necessary scaling ladders. The supports are the troops who keep a little in the rear until the first operations are attempted. ASSAYE, a small town in India, 260 miles N.W. of Hydrabad. This place is principally known as having been the scene of a battle fought on the 23rd of September, 1803, between the English army, under the Duke of Wel-ferred by metallurgists for the determination of the amount lington, then Major-general Wellesley, and the confederate armies of Dowlut Rao Scindia and the Rajah of Berar. The British army amounted to 4500, of whom 2000 were European soldiers and 2500 Sepoys. The combined forces of the enemy amounted to 50,000, and were commanded by the French general Péron. After a very severe struggle against these tremendous odds, the English gained the most complete victory that ever crowned British valour in India; and their opponents fled, leaving 1200 men dead, 98 pieces of cannon, and a large quantity of ammunition and stores. ASSAY'ING, a chemical operation, which differs from analysis only in degree. When an analysis is performed the nature and proportions of all the ingredients of a substance are determined; but in assaying, the quantity of any particular metal only which the ore or mixture under examination may contain is ascertained, without reference to the substances with which it is mixed or alloyed. Assaying is sometimes conducted entirely in what is called the dry way, or by heat; at other times in the wet way, or by acids and other reagents; and in some cases both methods are necessarily resorted to. The assaying of silver and gold is effected by a process called cupellation. Cupels are small flat crucibles, shown (single and quadruple) in figs. 1 and 2 of Plate, made by pressing bone ash, moistened with water, into circular steel moulds, A B C, and they are dried by exposure to the air. The principle upon which the operation depends is, that all metals with which gold and silver are usually alloyed are convertible into oxides by exposure to atmospheric air at a high temperature, whereas the precious metals remain unacted upon. To assay silver by cupellation, the silver is flattened and wrapped up in an envelope of lead. A muffle or oven is heated in an assay furnace, and the two metals put into it. The metals melt, and the lead becomes converted into an oxide, which, as well as any baser metals before combined with the silver, is absorbed by the substance of the cupel, until at length the silver is left absolutely pure. An assay furnace, as used in the Royal Mint, is shown in fig. 3 of Plate in elevation and vertical section. It is made of wrought iron about inch thick, and lined with firebrick. It rests on a plate of fire-clay, beneath which is an iron girder-plate, c, placed on the fire-bars, B. There are five openings in the furnace, that marked A to clear the ashpit, DD to remove two fire-bars and permit the fuel to drop into the ashpit, and E and F to charge the muffle and furnace respectively. The muffle is shown at M. of iron, zinc, copper, and antimony in the ores of these metals. The estimation of iron in an ore is performed by the aid of a standardized solution of permanganate of potash, which loses its violet colour when added to a solution of protoxide of iron. The dry method is still used by ironmasters in proportioning ingredients for the blast furnace. The process used is based upon the same principle as the reducing action in the furnace, and consists in separating the oxygen from the iron, by the greater affinity of charcoal for that element at high temperatures. The ore, some charcoal, and an alkaline flux are heated in a crucible, and the result is that all the impurities in the ore are made to leave the iron, so that the latter is presented in a purely metallic form. Copper. The wet assay is effected by dissolving the ore in nitric acid, and removing the sulphur, if any is present, by chlorate of potash. The nitrate of copper is then converted into chloride by addition of hydrochloric acid, and subsequent evaporation. The residue is dissolved in weak hydrochloric acid, filtered, and the copper precipitated by pure zine or iron; this is washed quickly, dried, and weighed as pure copper. The dry assay is still in use in Cornwall, at Swansea, and some other places. A flux is prepared of fluor spar, borax, slaked lime, argol, and nitre. The ore is pounded, calcined in a crucible at a red heat, then cooled, then heated again with some of the flux until it is brought to a liquid state. The liquid metal is poured into a mould, and quenched when solid but yet hot. There is then found a portion of metal underneath a layer of coarse slag. The metal is separated from the slag, reduced to powder, and again heated until the sulphur is driven off from it. The copper is brought to a certain state of purity by this operation; and the process is repeated a second and a third time, until the copper is perfectly free from foreign ingredients. This complicated routine is followed when the ore contains many foreign bodies besides sulphur. If sulphur be the only one, the operation is much simpler; and if sulphur even be not present, the assaying is still easier. Lead. The principal ore of lead is the sulphide, commonly called galena; but the carbonate, or white lead ore, is sometimes found in considerable quantity. The former of these is assayed by being put into a crucible with iron and black flux and cream of tartar, all in small grains; and after being covered with a layer of salt they are heated until the lead becomes separated from all impurities. The second kind of ore is assayed in the same way, but with a different flux. Tin.-The ores of tin are principally of two kinds-the oxide and the sulphide. The oxide is assayed by simple fusion with a flux, which removes the oxygen. The sulphide is assayed by being first pounded and calcined, to drive off any sulphur or arsenic, and then melted again with a flux of alkalies, fluor spar, and lime, by which the tin becomes separated from all the other impurities. Zinc.-The ores of zinc are of two kinds-the carbonate or calamine, and the sulphide or blende. The carbonate is assayed by being broken into small pieces, brought to a red heat, cooled, reduced to a fine powder, mixed with powdered charcoal, and melted in a crucible, under such conditions that the zinc may leave the ore and combine with a thin layer of granulated copper so as to produce brass; and the quantity of the brass so produced tests the richness of the ore in zinc. The sulphide or blende is assayed nearly in the same way. ASSEMA'NI, GIUSEPPE SIMO'NE, a learned Maronite, a native of Syria, born in 1687. He came to Rome towards the beginning of the eighteenth century, and was made archbishop in partibus of Tyre, and librarian of the Vatican, by Clement XI. He died at Rome in 1768. ASSEMBLY, GENERAL, OF SCOTLAND. See GENERAL ASSEMBLY. ASSENT, ROYAL. When a bill has passed through all its stages in both Houses of Parliament, if it is a money bill, it is sent back to the House of Commons, in which it had of course originated; but if not a bill of supply, it remains in the custody of the clerk of the enrolments in the House of Lords. The royal assent is always given in the House of Lords, but the Commons are also present at the bar, to which they are summoned by the Black Rod. The queen may either be present in person, or may signify her assent by letters patent under the great seal, signed with her hand, and communicated to the two houses by commissioners. Power to do this is given by 33 Henry VIII. c. 21. The commissioners are usually three or four of the great officers of state. The royal assent is rarely given in person, except at the end of a session; but bills for making provision for the honour and dignity of the crown, such as settling the civil list, have generally been assented to by the queen in person immediately after they have passed both houses. The bills that have been left in the House of Lords lie on the table; the bills of supply are brought up from the Commons by the Speaker. The royal assent to each bill, when given in person, is announced by the clerk of the parliament. After the title of the bills is read by the clerk of the crown, the clerk of the parliament says, if it is a bill of supply, which receives the royal assent before all other bills, "Le roi (or la reyne) remercie ses bons sujets, accepte leur benevolence, et ainsi le veult;" if any other public bill, "Le roi (or la reyne) le veult;" if a private bill, Soit fait comme il est desiré." When the royal assent is refused to a bill, the form of announcement is "Le roi s'avisera." There has been no instance of the rejection by the crown of any bill, certainly not of any public bill, which had passed through parliament, for many years. It is commonly stated that the last instance was the rejection of the bill for triennial parliaments by William III. in 1693. But another instance of the rejection of a bill occurred towards the end of the same year, the rejection of the bill commonly called the Place Bill, the object of which was to exclude holders of offices of trust and profit under the crown from the House of Commons. It was presented to the king with the Landtax Bill, and he assented to the one and rejected the other. Mr. Hatsell, in the second volume of his "Precedents," states that the latest instance which he discovered was the rejection of a Scotch militia bill by Queen Anne in 1707; and this is also the latest mentioned by Sir Erskine May. In former times the refusal of the royal assent was a common occurrence. Queen Elizabeth once rejected forty-eight out of ninety-one bills which were presented to her. The royal assent makes a bill an act of parliament, or a law. As by a legal fiction the laws passed during a session of parliament are considered only one statute (of which what are popularly called the separate acts are only so many chapters), it used to be a matter of doubt whether the royal assent, at whatever time in the session it might be given, did not make the act operative from the beginning of the session, when no day was mentioned in the body of it as that on which it should come into effect. To settle this point, it was ordered by 33 Geo. III. c. 13, that the clerk of parliament should for the future endorse on every bill the day on which it received the royal assent, and that from that day, if there was nothing in it to the contrary, its operation should commence. During the Commonwealth an English form was substituted for those in Norman-French which had been previously and are now in use. On the 1st of October, 1656, the House of Commons resolved that when the Lord Protector shall pass a bill, the form of words to be used shall be these, The Lord Protector doth consent."" In 1706 also a bill passed the House of Lords, and was read a second time in the House of Commons (but was finally rejected there), for abolishing the use of the French tongue in all proceedings in parliament and courts of justice, including the royal assent. (Hatsell's "Precedents," especially vol. ii. pp. 338-351; May's "Treatise upon the Law, Privileges, Proceedings, and Usage of Parliament.") ASSES'SOR. The word assessor is Latin (adsessor), and signifies one who sits by the side of another. An assessor under the Romans was one who was learned in the law, and sat by a magistrate or other functionary, such as the governor of a province (Præses), to aid him in the discharge of the judicial duties of his office. The assessor did not pronounce a sentence; this was done by the magistrate or person who presided. Two assessors are elected by the burgesses in all municipal boroughs, annually. The qualifications are the same as those of a councillor; but actual members of the council, the town-clerk, and treasurer are ineligible. In corporate towns divided into wards two assessors are elected for each ward. The duty of the assessors is to revise the burgess lists in conjunction with the mayor, to be present at the election of councillors, and to ascertain the result of elections. The word assessor is not usually applied in this country to those whose duty it is to assess the value of property for local or public taxation. This is usually done by a "surveyor." There are also assessors under the County Court Acts. Under the Judicature Act of 1875 provision is made for trial of matters of fact by the judge, with assessors, instead of by jury, when parties so desire. ASSESSOR. In Scotland the magistrates of corporate burghs who exercise judicial powers generally employ some professional lawyer to act as their assessor. It is his duty to see that the proper judicial control is exercised over the preparation of the pleadings, and to make out drafts of the judgments. AS'SETS (from the Norman-French assetz, sufficient) is the real and personal property composing an estate. Assets of a deceased person are either personal or real. Personal assets comprehend goods, chattels, debts, and devolve on the executor or administrator; and assets (including all real estate) descend to the heir-at-law, or are devised to the devisee of the testator. The term is also largely used in mercantile affairs in contradistinction to debts and liabilities. In the balance sheets issued by banks, insurance companies, financial associations, &c., the liabilities are placed on one side and the assets on the other. In cases of bankruptcy and insol ASSIDIANS. ASSID'IANS or CHASIDIM was a name given to the zealous defenders of the unity of the Deity and the Antiochus belief of their ancestors, against the attempts Epiphanes and his successors to force the Jews into idolatry. Mattathias headed the Chasidim during four years against the Græco-maniacs of those days. These four years are not included by Josephus in the 126 years of the ASMONEAN dynasty, which he commences from the time at which Judas Maccabæus assumed the chief command. Later Jews called those persons Chasidim (Pietists) who These secluded themselves from worldly occupations. Chasidim studied the Kabbala, and endeavoured by their mortification of the flesh to abstract the spirit from the body, and thus have liberty to enter into communion with God and angels. They fasted frequently, and asserted The Pharisees were an outcome of that they had visions. the Chasidim. 9 Under these cirIt is ferable and be made a legal tender. vency it is used to designate the whole of the property the securities it was proposed that they should be transcumstances it was determined to issue a paper-money, available for the payment of the creditors, as assets. not a technical term in Scotch law, but it is freely used in state. The notes thus issued (each of which was for 100 Scotland, both in legal, business and in mercantile affairs, based on the security of the unsold lands belonging to the in the same sense as in England. francs, equal to £4) were called assignats, as representing land which might be transferred or assigned to the holder; and all notes which came back in this manner to the government in payment for national lands were to be cancelled. They bore an interest by the day, like English exchequer bills. The object of this measure was to obtain the full value of the confiscated lands (which in the actual state of coin in the circulation (arising from a feeling of insecurity) France was impossible), and to supply the deficiency of by a forced issue of inconvertible paper-money. The first issue of assignats was to the number of 400,000,000, bearwere issued, but without the liability to pay interest, and ing interest; shortly afterwards 800,000,000 in addition containing also assignats of very small amounts. of these two issues was made in September, 1790. In the beginning of the following year the Legislative Assembly sequestered for the benefit of the state the property of all the emigrants; and in September, 1792, although Towards 2,500,000,000 had been already issued, a fresh issue of 200,000,000 was ordered by the Convention. the end of this year the double effects of the general insecurity of property and person, and of the depreciation of price of corn and the unwillingness of the farmers to supassignats caused by their over-issue, was felt in the high ply the markets with provisions. Prices still continued to rise; and although corn and other necessaries of life were paper currency, had been nearly doubled, but the wages of to be had, their value, as represented in the depreciated labour had not risen in a corresponding degree. Great distress, clamours for a fixed maximum of prices, and pillage of the shops were the consequence. About 1750 a fresh life was breathed into the remnants of this sect by Israel Baal-Shem (Lord of the Name), who pretended to work miracles by the secret name of God; and the Chasidim became very numerous. After his death, in 1760, they again died down, and now are only represented by a few isolated bodies of no importance, with a very varying ritual peculiar to themselves. The last ASSIEN TO TREATY, in Spanish, El Asiento de los Negros, that is, the compact for the farming or supply of negroes. Such treaties were made first with Portugal, and afterwards with France, each of which countries, in consideration of enjoying a monopoly of the supply of negroes to the South American dominions of Spain, agreed to pay This method of providing for the wants of the governto that crown a certain sum for each negro imported. In both cases the Assiento was taken by a commercial assoto repeatedly during the next few years, until ultimately ciation, and both the Portuguese company and the French ment, however, appeared so easy that it was had recourse At the peace of Utrecht, over 45,000,000,000 francs had been put into circulation. were ruined by their contract. in 1713, the Assiento, which the French had held since 1702, was transferred to the English for a period of thirty Every effort was made to enforce the general acceptance of were passed for that purpose; but all proved vain, and the years, and taken up by our notorious South Sea Company. these notes, and the most stringent and iniquitous laws The war which broke out in 1739 stopped the further performance of this contract; and at the peace of Aix-la- assignats continued rapidly to decline in value. In June, Chapelle, in 1748, the claim of England to the remainder 1793, one franc in silver was worth three francs in paper; of the privilege was allowed. Eventually, however, England in August it was worth six. Towards the end of that year and the assignats sunk lower and lower, until in March, accepted £100,000 for the unexpired four years. Spain a recovery in value took place, but it was of short duration, indeed complained that the greatest frauds had been committed under that provision of the treaty, which allowed 1796, the gold piece of twenty-four francs was worth 7200 dent that some new financial expedient was necessary. the contractors to send a shipload of goods every year to francs in paper. Before this, however, it had become eviSouth America. It was alleged that the single ship was made the means of introducing into the American markets a quantity of goods amounting to several times her own cargo. AS'SIGNAT. One of the earliest financial measures of It was therefore determined to make a new issue of paper, ! was soon forced to abandon the mandats, as they had aban- | doned the assignats, and to declare that they should be received in payment of taxes and national lands only at their real value. Having fallen to nearly a seventieth of their ostensible value, they were, in the course of 1796, returned to the government in payment of taxes and for the purchase of lands; and with them ended the revolutionary system of paper-money, which had been so obstinately persisted in by the government, and which produced more misery than can be calculated. The assignats were indifferently designed, and printed upon a coarse inferior paper, and large quantities of forged notes were manufactured abroad and smuggled into France during the period in which they were in circulation. After the extinction of the mandats the legal currency of France was for a long period exclusively metallic, but notes of different amounts are now allowed to be issued by the Bank of France to a limited extent. (Thiers, vol. viii. pp. 85-89, 103-119, 158-162, 177, 183-191, 334-344, 423, 424; Storch, "Cours d'Econ. Pol." vol. iv. p. 164.) ASSIGNA'TION. See ASSIGNMENT (Scotland). ASSIGNEE' (of a lease) is the party to whom the whole interest of the lessee in lands is transferred by assignment, which assignment may be made without the privity or consent of the lessor, unless the lessee is restrained by the lease from assigning over. The assignee becomes liable to the lessor, from the date of the assignment, for the payment of the rent and performance of the covenants in the lease; but such liability is limited to breaches of covenant during the existence of the assignee's interest, and may be got rid of by assigning over all his interest, even to an insolvent. The assignee may acquire his interest by operation of law, as well as by an actual assignment from the lessee, and therefore a tenant by elegit, who has purchased a lease under an execution, is liable as assignee to the lessor. See LEASE. ASSIGNEE (Scotland). In the long leases peculiar to the agricultural system of Scotland the law affecting the right of transference to assignees has been held to be of peculiar importance. In an agricultural lease of ordinary length assignees are excluded without stipulation; a lease beyond the ordinary length may be assigned where there is no stipulation to the contrary. It is usual to divide such leases into periods of nineteen or twenty-one years, a lease of one such period being considered an ordinary lease, and a lease of two or more such periods being an improving lease, and in its nature assignable. A lease specially excluding assignees cannot be conducted for the benefit of the lessee's creditors if he should become bankrupt, unless under the administration of the lessee himself. In leases of houses, gardens, or other premises not let for agricultural purposes, the right to assign is assumed, if not excepted by stipulation. But where the lease is for a particular purpose, the lessee cannot assign it for a totally different purpose; thus one who became tenant of a shop as a silk-mercer was not allowed to assign his lease to an exhibitor of wax figures. ASSIGNMENT, a deed or instrument of transfer, the operative words of which are to "assign, transfer, and set over," and which transfers both real and personal property. Estates for life and estates for years are the principal interests in land which are passed by an assignment; and by the statute of Frauds and Perjuries (29 Charles II.) the assignment of such estates is required to be in writing. An assignment differs from a lease, in being a transfer of the entire interests of the lessor; whereas a lease is an estate for years taken out of a greater estate, creates the relation of landlord and tenant, and reserves to the lessor a reversion. In all under-leases, therefore, it is necessary that part of the original term should remain in the lessor; a day is sufficient. An assignment of goods, chattels, &c., in possession, is frequently made by bill of sale. [See BILL OF SALE.] With respect to things in action, choses in action (as debts, for instance), they are not, with some exceptions, assignable at common law. Thus, if the obligee in a bond assign over the bond to a third party, the assignee cannot sue on the bond at common law in his own name; but such an assignment generally contains (and ought always to do so) a power of attorney from the obligee to the assignee, to sue in the obligee's name. Courts of equity regard the assignee, for valuable consideration, as the actual owner of the bond; and the courts, of common law so far recognize the right of the assignee, that if the obligor, after notice of the assignment, pay the money on the bond to the obligee, the courts will not permit him to plead such payment to an action brought by the assignee in the obligee's name on the bond. ASSIGNMENT IN SCOTLAND. The term assignment is in colloquial use in Scotland, but the word which supplies its place in legal nomenclature is assignation. In some instances, however, where statutes employing the phraseology of the English law have been extended to Scotland, the word assignment has necessarily obtained a partial technical use, as in the transference of property in copyright, patents, and registered vessels. The definition of an assignation, as distinguished from any other species of conveyance, is, that it conveys not a thing, but a title to a thing. Thus a bill of exchange comes within the character of an assignation, because it is, or professes to be, a conveyance in favour of the payee of a right in the person of the drawer to a sum due to him by the drawee. There is no rule known in the law of Scotland equivalent to that which affects the assignment of a chose in action in England; and, except in certain cases, a right exigible by one person is capable of being made over by assignation to another. Assignations are of great importance in the conveyance of heritable or real property. The old system of subinfeudation being still in operation in Scotland, a proprietor of heritable subjects, whose right is indisputable, is frequently not in the position of having received feudal investiture from his superior. He is said in such a case to have a mere personal right, as holding in his hands the authority for making his title real by investiture. This authority he transfers by assignation, and property is thus frequently passed through several hands by assignation before it is found expedient or necessary to complete the investiture. In conveyances of landed property, such title-deeds as the party conveying has agreed to give to the party receiving are transferred by assignation. For assignations to leases see ASSIGNEE (Scotland). As the transfer of movable property is completed by delivery, the person who has the possession cannot convey (as in the case of land) his right to the thing as separate from the thing itself, and thus an assignation affecting movable property can only take place when it is in the hands of a third party. The simple act of assignation may be effectual in all questions between the cedent and the assignee, but to make the third party who holds the property in his hands responsible, as holding it for the latter and not for the former, the further ceremony of a formal intimation is necessary; and until such intimation be made the cedent's creditors may attach the property in the hands of the holder. Presentment is the proper form of intimation in the case of a bill of exchange. In its most formal shape, an intimation of an assignation is made by the reading of the document to the debtor in presence of a notary and witnesses; and the evidence of the ceremony is the notarial; but, in the general case, other circumstances which put the fact of intimation beyond doubt, such as the debtor's admission of his liability to the assignee, are held as equivalents. ASSIMILA'TION is the term used in physiology to express the incipient vitalization of materials which were previously in the condition of mere chemical compounds, by |