Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 17.djvu/845

* SELF-DEFENSE. 767 SELIM. the lircumstaiues will not permit Iiim to retreat from his assailant with apparently rea- sonable safety, he may kill his assailant if such action be necessary to protect his own life or to protect his person from severe bodily injury, and his act will be deemed jus- tiliable homicide (q.v.). Under any other cir- cumstances the killing of an assailant under guise of self-defense is manslauf;htcr (q.v.), and may be murder (q.v.) if the killing is premedi- tated. Upon the principle of self-defense one may forcibly resist an illegal arrest. The resist- ance, however, must fall short of taking life un- less the consequence of the arrest would be to take the prisoner to an uncivilized country, where he would be beyond the reach of legal pro- cess. In that case he may kill if necessary to prevent the arrest. One may also forcibly resist an unlawful attack upon another, particularly if tliat other is one who has a natural claim tohis protection, as a wife, child, or even a servant who is a member of his family. The law of de- fense of property is precisely like that relating to the defense of the person, e.xcept that under no circumstance is the taking of life as a means of protecting property justifiable. One who kills to protect property is guilty of manslaughter, and if the killing is premeditated or done under circumstances of aggravation, it may be nuirder. The law also recognizes a distinct right to pro- tect the dwelling house, as it is called, which combines the characteristics of both defense of the person and defense of the property. At com- mon law, one's dwelling house was said to be his castle. The true meaning of the phrase is that one has the right to make his dwelling a means of defense. Once inside his dwelling, or 'at the threshold' as it was said, he might forcibly re- sist attacks upon himself and the other inmates of the dwelling and, without retreating, kill his assailant if necessary to repel the attack. See Remedy: JIurder: Manslaughter; Homicide. SELF DENYING ORDINANCE. A meas- ure carried through the English Parliament in lt)45 by the intlnence of Cromwell and the Inde- pendents, with the view of removing inetficient or lukewarm commanders from the army. The ordinance proposed that no member of either House should, during the war, enjoy or execute any office or command, civil or military, and that those holding such offices should vacate them in forty days. It was intended to take the execu- tive power out of the hands of the more moder- ate politicians, and form an army independent of Parliament: and was the subject of violent and protracted debate, but eventually passed in both Houses, and became law. Essex, Warwick, Manchester, and others resigned, and the conduct of the war was intrusted to Fairfax. Cromwell, to whom, as a member of the Lower House, the Self-Denying Ordinance extended as much as to Essex and the rest, had the duration of his com- mission prolonged by the Conunons on account of his invaluable services as a leader of cavalry, and by his lirilliant achievements soon surpassed his commander in reputation. SELF-HELP. A legal phrase signifying that form of remedy by which one may prevent or redress a wrong without resorting to a legal pro- ceeding, as. for example, the right of self-de- fense; the right to abate a nuisance; the right of the owner to retake property of which he has been wrongfully deprived. Sec Remedy; Selt- 1)eee.n.se; Distress; Nuisance, etc. SELF INDUCTION. Sec Electbicitv, para- gra|ili liidiind EU'cliic Vurrcnis. SELF'RIDGE, Tiioma,s Ouver, .)r. ( I83U-). . -Vnierican naval ollicer. born in Huston, .Mass., and educated at Annapolis. In the Civil War ho commanded the Omii/c in the Hcd Hiver exjiedition. iluring which he iiilliclcd a heavy loss on the Confederates at IJIair's plantation, and later led a division of the landing sailors who bombarded Fort Fisher. After the war he di- rected the surveys for the canal across the Isth- mus of P:inama, in lSGll-73; was a member of the International Congress held at Paris to consider the question of that canal in ISTIi; and, while in charge of the Xewport tor|K'do station ( I.S81- S.")|, invented a means of protecting ships from torpedoes. In 189(i he became rear-admiral, and lie retired in 1808. SELIGMAN, Enwiir Rorert Anderson (ISOl — ). A political eccmomist, born in XeW Vink City, lie graduati'd at Uolumliia College, ISTil, and received the degrees of Doctor of Philos- ophy and Pachelor of Laws from the same insti- tution in 1884, after having studied at Herlin, Heidelberg, Cieneva, and Paris. In 188.5 he be- came prize lecturer, in 1888 adjunct jirofessor. in 1801 professor of political economy and rui:inec at Columbia University. In inOl he became jiresi- dent of the American Kconomic .-Vssoeiation. His princiiial works are: UaUmni Tariff a and I he In- terstate Commerce Law (1887); Tiro Cha/itrrs on the Mediaral Guilds of Emilaml ( 1887) ; 7'/ie Shiftiiifj atnl Incidence of Taxation ( 1892; 2d ed., enlarged, 18!)!») ; Essays in Tai-ulion ( 189.5 ; 3d ed. 1900) ; The Economic Interpretation of Ilis- torij (1002). SE'LIM, Turk. pron. s4-lem'. The name of three sult;ins of the Ottoman Empire. Selim I., son of Bajazet II., was born about 14(i7. He became Sultan in 1512, after dethroning his fa- ther with the aid of the .Janizaries. To secure himself, he caused his father, brothers, and neph- ews to be put to death, thus beginning :i policy which won for him the surname of the liillexi- ble. In 1:514 he invaded Persia and massiicred 40.000 Shiites. He defeated the army of Shah Ismail near Khoi, in Azerbaijan, conquered Mes- opotamia and Kurdistan, overran Armenia, and, leaving his lieutenants to complete this conciuest, inarched against Kansuh El-Ghuri, Mameluke Sultan of Egpt, whom he had previously endeav- ored to detach from alliance with the Persian monarch. The Mameluke army was totally de- feated (151(!) at M:irj D:ibik. and Syria became the prize of Selim. Kansiib's successor. Tiiman Bey, snecumbed to the Turkish arms and Kg.vpt was incorporated with the Ottoman Empire (1517). The last lineal descendant of the Ab- bassid caliphs, who was then resident in Egypt, transmitted to Selim the title of Imam and the standard of the Prophet. The Ottoman Sultan thus became chief of Islam, as the representative of Atohanimed, and the sacred cities of .Mecca laid the foundation of a regular n;ivy, constructed the arsenal of Pera. disciplined the .lanizaries, died on September 22. 1.520. Selim was an able statesman and a lover of literature and poetry.
 * ind MediiKi ;ieknowledged his supremacy. Selim
 * ind improved the organization of his empire. He