PRESCOTT experienced a slight shock of paralysis, from the effects of which he soon recovered and resumed his literary pursuits. Eleven months afterward, while at work with his secretary in his study, he was struck speechless by a second attack, and died about an hour afterward. Be- sides his histories, Mr. Prescott wrote brief memoirs of his friends John Pickering and Abbott Lawrence, and supplied to a Boston edition of Robertson's "History of Charles V." a sequel relating the true circumstances of the emperor's retirement and death. Mr. Prescott was tall and slender, with a fresh and florid complexion, and lively, graceful man- ners. In his habits he was singularly method- ical, and regulated his daily life by an exact division of time. He rose early, and clothed himself according to the weather as indicated by the thermometer, putting on so many pounds of clothing more or less, his garments being all marked with their weight in pounds and ounces. He walked five miles each day in the open air, or, if the weather was stormy, in the house, in the latter case putting on his hat, boots, and gloves, and taking his cane as if out of doors. He always walked alone, if he could without discourtesy avoid having a com- panion^ because while walking he occupied his thoughts in composition. To his literary labors he gave five hours daily, divided into three nearly equal portions of time, and for two hours a day listened to novel reading, which he thought stimulated his imagination and enhanced the animation of his style. His accounts of daily expenditures were kept with the greatest exactness, and one tenth of his income was always devoted to charity. From the middle of November to the middle of June he resided in Boston, at No. 55 Beacon street, where he had accumulated one of the finest private libraries in America, especially rich in Italian and Spanish books. The summer was passed at Nahant, where he had a cottage, and the autumn at Pepperell. In the last years of his life he abandoned Nahant and established his summer residence in the neighboring town of Swampscott. He carried .his books with him to his seaside and rural residences, and wrote there with his usual diligence. He used a writing instrument made for the blind, con- sisting of a frame of the size of a sheet of quarto letter paper traversed by as many wires as there were to be lines on the page, and with a sheet of carbonated paper, such as is used for getting duplicates, fastened to the reverse side. With an ivory or agate stylus he traced his characters between the wires on the car- bonated sheet, making indelible marks on the white page below. He wrote with great ra- pidity, in a hand so illegible that none could read it but himself and his secretary. The lat- ter copied the manuscript as fast as written in a large and legible hand, on paper so ruled that there was twice the usual space between the lines to afford room for interlineation. When the chapter was finished, it was read to PRESCRIPTION 821 him several times, carefully revised, and again copied before being sent to the printer. He took comparatively little pains with his style, but was unwearied in his efforts to ascertain the truth of history. See " Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society in Memory of W. H. Prescott" (Boston, 1859), and "Life of W. H. Prescott," by George Ticknor (Bos- ton, 1864). A new and revised edition of his works, edited by his last secretary, John Fos- ter Kirk, has been published (15 vols. Phila- delphia, 1874-'5). PRESCRIPTION (in the Roman law, prcescrip- tio), a title acquired by possession during the time and in the manner fixed by law. It is a natural and immutable principle, says Domat, that the owner of a thing shall remain so, and enjoy therefore all the rights of ownership, until his property is divested either by his vol- untary act of alienation, or in some other legal mode. And it is another natural rule of the law, that he who has been for a long time in possession of a thing shall be regarded as the owner of it ; because, in the first place, men are naturally careful not to give up what be- longs to them, and in the second place, because it would be unreasonable to presume without proof that a possessor is a usurper. Yet, if the former of these rules, he continues, be car- ried to its furthest extent, it will follow that he who can show that either he or they through whom he claims have been owners of an es- tate will recover it from the possessor, no mat- ter how long the latter or his ancestors may have been in possession, unless he (the posses- sor) can show a particular divestiture of the claimant's title. If, on the other hand, it is to be imperatively presumed that possessors are in all cases owners, injustice will sometimes be done by depriving of their property those who chance to be out of possession. Some arbitrary rule must therefore be contrived to reconcile these conflicting natural rights of owners and possessors. This end would obviously be at- tained by prescribing a time within which those who claim to be owners, but are not in posses- sion, shall prove their rights, and after the lapse of which possessors who have not been evicted shall be maintained in their possession. That this obvious rule is also a reasonable one will appear, when it is remembered that occu- pancy and continued use make the very foun- dation of title to things, and that the require- ment of uninterrupted possession for a given period is only an application of the universal rule of acquisition. As a rule of this nature is then essential, it will be found to exist in all systems of law. Here we have to do only with the prescription of our law. The cognate sub- ject of limitation is treated elsewhere. (See LIMITATION, STATUTES OF.) In strictness the common law allowed only incorporeal rights, such as easements, rights of way, and water- courses, to be prescribed for. Lands and cor- poreal rights were provided for by the statutes of limitation. Bracton, however, who was one
