220 E P L E try the particular offence, or that there is a misnomer or j some other technical ground for stay of proceedings. The | power of amendment and the procedure by motion in arrest of judgment have rendered these pleas of little practical importance. The special pleas in bar are autre- fois convict or aiitrefois acquit (alleging a previous convic tion or acquittal for the same crime), autrefois attaint (practically obsolete since the Felony Act, 1870, has abolished attainder for treason or felony), and pardon (see PARDON). There are also special pleas in indictments for libel under the provisions of Lord Campbell s Act, 6 <fc 7 Viet. c. 96 (see LIBEL), and to indictments for non-repair of highways and bridges, where the accused may plead that the liability to repair falls upon another person. These special pleas are usually, and in some cases must be, in writing. Where there is a special plea in writing, the crown puts in a replication in writing. (For the history of criminal pleading see Stephen, History of the Criminal Law, vol. i. ch. ix.) In Scotland an action in the Court of Session begins by a sum mons on the part of the pursuer to which is annexed a condescen- dencc, containing the allegations in fact on which the action is founded. The pleas in law, or statement of the legal rule or rules relied upon (introduced by 6 Geo. IV. c. 120, 9), are subjoined to the condescendence. The term libel is also used (as in Roman law) as a general term to express the claim of the pursuer or the accusation of the prosecutor. The statement of the defender, including his pleas in law, is called his defences. They are either dilatory or peremptory. There is no formal joinder of issue, as in England, but the same end is attained by adjustment of the plead ings and the closing of the record. Large powers of amendment and revisal are given by the Court of Session Act, 1868. In the Sheriff Court pleadings are very similar to those in the Court of Session. They are commenced by a petition, which includes a con descendence and a note of the pursuer s pleas in law. The defender may upon notice lodge defences. The procedure is now governed by 39 & 40 Viet. c. 70. The term " pleas of the crown " is confined in Scotland to four offences murder, rape, robbery, and fire-raising. A prosecution is commenced either by indictment or criminal letters, the former being the privilege of the lord advocate. In the Supreme Court the indictment or criminal letters run in the name of the lord advocate ; in the Sheriff Court the criminal letters (indictments not being used in that court) run in the name of the judge. The Scotch indictment differs from the English, and is in the form of a syllogism, the major proposition stating the nature of the crime, the minor the actual offence committed and that it constitutes the crime named in the major, the conclusion that on conviction of the panel he ought to suffer punishment. The panel usually pleads "Guilty" or "Not Guilty" as in England, but he may plead in bar want of jurisdiction or res judicata, or make special defences (such as alibi or insanity), which must be lodged with the clerk of the court in writing signed by him or his counsel. The special defence is read to the jury immediately after they have been sworn. (See Macdonald, Criminal Law of Scotland.) In the United States two systems of pleading in civil procedure exist side by side. Up to 1848 the pleading did not materially differ from that in use in England at the same date. But in 1848 the New York legislature made a radical change in the system, and the example of New York has been followed by more than twenty States. The New York Civil Code of 1848 established a uniform procedure called the civil action, applicable indifferently to common law and equity. The pleadings are called complaint, answer (which includes counterclaim}, and reply. The demurrer also is still used. In some States which follow the new procedure the complaint bears the name of petition. In the inferior courts, such as courts of justices of the peace, the pleadings are more simple, and in many cases oral. In States which do not adopt the amended procedure, the pleading is much the same as it was in the days of Blackstone, and the old double jurisdiction of com mon law and equity still remains. Criminal pleading differs little from that in use in England. (See Bishop, Law of Criminal Pro cedure.) (J. Wt.) PLEBEIANS. See NOBILITY and ROME. PLEDGE, or PAWN, in law, is " a bailment of personal property as a security for some debt on engagement " (Story on Bailments, 286). The term is also used to denote the property which constitutes the security. Pledge is the pigniu of Roman law, from which most of the modern law on the subject is derived. It differs from hypothec and from the more usual kind of mortgage in that the pledge is in the possession of the pledgee ; it also differs from mortgage in being confined to personal pro perty. A mortgage of personal property in most cases takes the name and form of a bill of sale (see BILL, the giving of bills of sale being now regulated by the Bills of Sale Acts, 1878 and 1882). The chief difference between Roman and English law is that certain things, e.g., wearing apparel, furniture, and instruments of tillage, could not be pledged in Roman law, while there is no such restriction in English law. In the case of a pledge, a special property passes to the pledgee, sufficient to enable him to maintain an action against a wrongdoer, but the general property, that is the property subject to the pledge, remains in the pledgor. As the pledge is for the benefit of both parties, the pledgee is bound to exercise only ordinary care over the pledge. The pledgee has the right of selling the pledge if the pledgor make default in payment at the stipulated time. No right is acquired by the wrongful sale of a pledge except in the case of property passing by delivery, such as money or negotiable securities. In the case of a wrongful sale by a pledgee, the pledgor cannot recover the value of the pledge without a tender of the amount due. For pledges by factors see FACTOR. A pledge by a banker, merchant, broker, attorney, or other agent, in violation of good faith, and contrary to the purpose for which the property pledged was intrusted to him, or a pledge of property with which he was intrusted for safe custody, renders the offender guilty of a mis demeanor, punishable with a maximum term of seven years penal servitude, 24 & 25 Viet. c. 96, 75, 76. Pledges with pawnbrokers are regulated by the Pawn brokers Act, 1872, 35 & 36 Viet. c. 93 (which applies to Great Britain). By the provisions of the Act (which does not affect loans above 1 0), a pledge is redeemable within one year and seven days of grace added to the year. Pledges pawned for 10s. or under not redeemed in time become the property of the pawnbroker, pledges above 10s. are redeemable until sale. The sale must be by public auction. The pawnbroker is entitled to charge as interest one halfpenny per month on every two shillings lent where the loan is under 40s., on every two shillings and sixpence where the loan is above 40s. Special con tracts may be made where the loan is above 40s. Unlaw ful pawning of goods not the property of the pawner, and taking in pawn any article from a person apparently under the age of sixteen or intoxicated, or any linen or apparel or unfinished goods or materials intrusted to wash, make up, &c., are (inter alia) made offences punishable by summary conviction. An annual licence, costing 7, 10s. T must be taken out for every pawnbroker s shop. The law of Scotland as to pledge generally agrees with that cf England, as does also that of the United States. The main differ ence is that in Scotland and Louisiana a pledge cannot be sold unless with judicial authority. In some of the States the common law as it existed apart from the Factors Acts is still followed ; in others the factor has more or less restricted power to give a title by pledge. In some States pawnbroking is regulated by the local authorities, and not, as in most, by the general law of the State. PLESIOSAURIANS. The remarkable extinct marine reptiles included in the group of the Plesiosauria (or Sauropterygia, as they are sometimes called) existed during the whole of the Mesozoic period, that is, from Triassic into Cretaceous times, when they appear to have died out. The best known of these reptiles, and that which gives its name to the group is the Plesiosanrus, a genus established by Conybeare in 1821, and including numerous species, some of which may have attained a length of as much as 20 feet. The nearly allied Elasmosaurus of North America, however, reached a much greater size, its remains indicating an animal about 45 feet in length.
Several almost perfect skeletons of Plesiosawus having at