Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 24.djvu/329

Rh W A F W A G 305 Conccptionis Bcatx Marias Virginia (Louvain, 1624, fol.). He contributed, many years later, a work to this question himself, Immaculatsei Conccptionis Bcatss Marias, Opusculum (Rome, 1655, 8vo), now of extreme rarity. He was also author of a treatise on the Hebrew language and other occasional writings, but his literary reputation rests chiefly upon the important works he published in connexion with the Franciscan order. The principal of these are Annalcs Ordinis Minorum, 8 vols. folio (Lyons and Rome, 1628- 1654), a book of high repute, recast and enlarged by Fonseca, 19 vols. folio (Rome, 1731-1745), and since continued by Michelesi, 1794, and Melchiori de Ceretto, 1844 ; Scriptorcs Ordinis Minorum (Rome, 1650), to which is subjoined a reprint of a Syllabus FF. Minor iini, a list of the English Franciscans who were put to death in Tudor days, which had become extremely rare, because most of the original impression was sent to England during the legateship of Cardinal Pole, and was seized and destroyed by order of Queen Elizabeth, because of its reflexions upon the character of Henry VIII. ; an edition of the Concordantize Bibliorum Hcbraicie of Calasio, 4 vols. folio (Rome, 1621); Opera Omnia Joannis Duns Scoti, 12 vols. in 11, folio (Lyons, 1639); Sti Framisci Assisiatis Opuscula (Antwerp, 1623); and Sti Antonii Paduani Concordantiee Morales (Rome, 1624). WAFERS, as articles of stationery, consist of thin, brittle, adhesive disks, used for securing papers together, and for forming a basis for impressed official seals. Wafers are made of a thin paste of very fine flour, baked between &quot; wafer irons &quot; over a charcoal fire till the thin stratum of paste becomes dry and brittle, and the flour starch is partly transformed into glutinous adhesive dextrin. The cake is cut into round disks with suitable steel punches. Bright non-poisonous colouring matter is added to the paste for making coloured wafers. Wafers of gelatin are also made. WAGER. The law of wagers may be divided for purposes of convenience into two great classes, dealing respectively with procedure and with substantive law. In both classes the legal importance of the wager has tended to diminish. Procedure, Determination of cases, civil and criminal, by means of wager or analogous forms of procedure is a characteristic feature of archaic law. The leyis actio sacramenti at Rome at first a real, then a fictitious wager the wager of battle and of law in England, of the highest antiquity in their origin, survived up to a com paratively late period in the history of both legal systems. The form of the wager survived long after its reason had been forgotten. The general prevalence of the wager form of proceeding is perhaps to be attributed to the early conception of a judge as a mere referee who decided the dispute submitted to him, not as an executive officer of the state, but as an arbitrator casually called in (see Maine, Ancient Law, c. x.). Wager of battle in England was a mode of trial which was allowed in certain cases, viz., on a writ of right (see WKIT), and on appeals of treason and felony (see APPEAL). A full account of the judicial combat will be found under DUEL and ORDEAL. Wager of law (vadiatio leyis) was a right of a defendant in actions of simple contract debt and of detinue. It super seded the ordeal (itself called lex in the Assize of Clarendon and other ancient constitutional records). The mode of proceeding in a wager of law was an interesting relic of that system of compurgation traced by Blackstone to the Mosaic law, Ex. xxii. 10 which was employed in many legal systems, especially the Scandinavian, and had probably an appreciable effect on the development of the English JURY (q.v.). It also has some points of re semblance, perhaps some historical connexion, with the sponsio and the decisory oath of Roman law, and the reference to oath of Scots law (see OATH). The use of the oath instead of the real or feigned combat real in English law, feigned in Roman law no doubt represents an advance in legal development. The technical term sacra- mentuni is the bond of union between the two stages of law. In the wager of law the defendant, with eleven compurgators, appeared in court, and he swore that he did not owe the debt or (in detinue) that he did not de tain the plaintiff s chattel ; while the compurgators swore that they believed that he spoke the truth. It was an eminently unsatisfactory way of arriving at the merits of a claim, and it is therefore not surprising to find that the policy of the law was in favour of its restriction rather than of its extension. Thus it was not permitted where the defendant was not a person of good character, where the king sued, where the defendant was the executor or administrator of the person alleged to have owed the debt, or in any actions other than those named, even though the cause of action were the same. No wager of law was allowed in assumpsit, even though the cause of action were a simple debt. This led to the general adoption of as- sumpsit proceeding originally upon a fictitious averment of a promise by the defendant as a means of recover ing debts. Where a penalty was created by statute, it became a common form to insert a proviso that no wager of law was to be allowed in an action for the penalty. Wager of law was finally abolished by 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 42. Another form of the judicial wager in use up to 1845 was the feigned issue by which questions arising in the course of Chancery proceedings were sent for trial by jury in a common law court. The plaintiff averred the laying of a wager of .5 with the defendant that a certain event was as he alleged ; the defendant admitted the wager, but disputed the allegation ; on this issue was joined. 8 and 9 Viet. c. 109 enabled such questions to be referred by the Chancery to the common law courts in a direct manner. Substantive Laiv. A wager may be defined as &quot; a promise to pay money or transfer property upon the determination or ascertainment of an uncertain event &quot; (Anson, Law of Contract, p. 171). At common law wagers were legally enforceable, subject to certain rules dictated by considera tions of public policy, e.g., that they did not lead to immorality or breach of the peace, or expose a third person to ridicule. Actions or wagers were not favoured by the judges; and, though a judge could not refuse to try such an action, he could, and often did, postpone it until after the decision of more important cases. Parliament gradu ally intervened to confine the common law within narrower limits, both in commercial and non-commercial wagers, and both by general and temporary enactments. An example of the latter was 7 Anne c. 16, avoiding all wagers and securities relating to the then war with France. The earliest general enactment was 16 Car. II. c. 7, pro hibiting the recovery of a sum exceeding .100 lost in games or pastimes, or betting on the sides or hands of the players, and avoiding securities for money so lost. 9 Anne c. 19 avoided securities for such wagers for any amount, even in the hands of bona fide holders for value without notice, and enabled the loser .of 10 or upwards to sue for the money he had lost within three months. The hardship of the Act, as it affects securities in the hands of bona fide holders, was remedied by f&amp;gt; and 6 Will. IV. c. 41, which enacted that such securities should be taken to be held for illegal consideration. Finally, 8 and 9 Viet, c. 109, 18, enacted &quot;that all contracts or agreements, whether by parole or in Avriting, by way of -gaming or wagering shall be null and void ; and that no suit shall be brought or maintained in any court of law or equity for recovering any sum of money or valuable thing alleged to be won upon any wager, or which shall have been deposited in the hands of any person to abide the event on which any wager shall have been made ; provided always that this enactment shall not be deemed to apply to any sub scription, or contribution, or agreement to subscribe or contribute, for or towards any plate, prize, or sum of XXIV. 39