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 ABIAD ABINGTON be in abeyance until condemnation to the cap- tor by the prize court. So an estate of inher- itance or the fee was said to be in abeyance when there was no one in being in whom it could vest, as in the case of a grant to A for life, remainder in fee to the heirs of B, who was then living : as there can be no heir of a Jiving man, the fee was said to be in abeyance until B's death. Mr. Fearne, an acute writer upon the law of real property, denounced the theory of an abeyance as an absurd fiction; and he contended with great ability that in the <;ase just supposed the estate of inheritance was not in abeyance during B's life, but re- mained in the grantor of the life estate until the happening of the condition on which it might pass to B's heirs devested him of it. The principle of abeyance, however, has always stood fast in the law, and has carried with it very practical results. The plan of the feudal system, which required that there should al- ways be some one ready to render the military and other feudal services to the lord, fixed the rule of the feudal, and later of the common law, that there must always be a tenant of the freehold, and that that must never be in abeyance. It was difficult for a long time, however, to get rid of the abeyance of the fee, that is, of the absolute ownership of the estate, -distinguished from mere portions of it like a freehold life estate. But the recognition of the rule caused great embarrassments ; for dur- ing the suspension of the fee there was no one to defend the title, or take any of those remedies in respect to the property which depended on the absolute ownership. The doctrine, there- fore, came to be regarded with more and more disfavor, and its inconveniences inspired from time to time some of the most important re- forms of the law. Blackstone says in one of his arguments, that the famous rule in Shel- ley's case owed its origin and adoption to the aversion of the common law to the suspension of estates through the operation of abeyance ; and the same spirit of the law helped to break <lown the limitation or creation of remote and contingent remainders. ABIAD, Bah r el. See NILE. ABIATHAR, a Hebrew high priest, the son of Ahimelech, who was slain by Saul for receiving David when a fugitive. He was for a long time faithful to David, especially during Absalom's rebellion, when he accompanied the king. He afterward, however, took part in the rebellion of Adonijah, and was in consequence deprived of the priesthood and banished from the capi- tal by Solomon. ABIB (properly, Hodesh haabib, the month of the ears of corn), the first month of the Mosaic Hebrew year, corresponding nearly to our April. After the Babylonish captivity this month was called Nisan, month of blos- soms or flowers. (See NISAN.) ABICH, illit'lm Hermann, a German-Russian naturalist, born in Berlin, Dec. 11, 1806. He graduated in 1831 at the university of Berlin, visited Italy and Sicily, and published Erlau- ternde Abbildungen ton geologwchen Ernchei- nungen, beobachtet am Vesuv und Aetna 1833 und 1834 (Berlin, 1837), and Ueber die Natur und den Zusammenhang der vulkanischen Bildungen (Brunswick, 1841). In 1842 he became professor of mineralogy in the univer- sity of Dorpat, and in 1853 a member of the St. Petersburg academy of sciences. He has explored the mountain ranges of the Caucasus, Kussian Armenia, northern Persia, and Daghes- tan, and published in the German and French languages many works relating to the palaeon- tology, geology, &c., of those regions, besides his contributions to the bulletins and memoirs of the St. Petersburg academy since 1843. ABUIELECH. I. A Philistine king of Gerar, into whose dominions Abraham removed after the destruction of Sodom. The latter, from motives of prudence, pretended that Sarah, his wife, was his sister, whereupon Abimelech took her from him, intending to make her his concubine. By divine command, however, he restored her, rebuking Abraham for his fraud. Another Philistine king of Gerar of the same name was similarly deceived by Isaac in regard to Rebekah, and also rebuked him. II. A son of Gideon by a Shechemite concubine, who made himself king after murdering all his 70 brethren except Jotham, and was killed after a reign of three years while besieging the tower of Thebez. (See HEBREWS.) ABINGER, James, Lord, an English lawyer, born in Jamaica about 1769, died in London, April 7, 1844. He is better known and re- membered as Sir James Scarlett. He was a member of parliament for Peterborough from 1818 to 1830, afterward for Maldon, Cocker- mouth, and Norwich. He was at first a mod- erate whig, but gradually became a stanch tory. As an advocate he was one of the most popular men of his day, and his practice was immensely lucrative. His oratorical powers were of the most persuasive character; his speech usually assumed almost a conversa- tional tone with th'e jury, and he had the art of appearing to address himself to each of his auditors individually. He was attorney-gen- eral from April, 1827, to January, 1828, and again from May, 1829, to November, 1830. In December, 1834, he was appointed lord chief baron of the exchequer, and on Jan. 12, 1835, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Abinger. ABINGTON, Frances, an English actress, born about 1731, died in London, March 4, 1815. Her father was a common soldier named Bar- ton. She was employed as a child in running errands, and afterward as a flower girl. Her first appearance as an actress was on the boards of the Haymarket in the character of Miranda in " The Busybody," 1755. She had previously married Mr. Abington, her music master, from whom she separated in a few months. At Dublin she was a great favorite, and when Garrick in 1765 invited her to London, she soon became the first comic