Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XIII.djvu/205

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PAVIE PAWN 195 Desiderius, the last Lombard king, after a protracted siege, was obliged to submit to Charlemagne. It was now called Papia, after- ward changed to Pavia. In the middle ages, during which a number of councils were held there, it was at one time an independent re- public, at another ruled over by tyrants, and again subject to the authority of the Yiscontis of Milan. It is memorable for the battle fought under its walls Feb. 24, 1525, between the French under Francis I. and the imperialists under Marshal Lannoy, in which the former were defeated and nearly destroyed, and their king was taken prisoner. In 1527 and 1528 Pavia was twice taken by the French and laid waste. In 1796 it was stormed and pillaged by Napoleon, after an insurrection in which his garrison had been expelled. It came by the peace of 1814 into the possession of Austria, and after the war of 1859 the city and province were incorporated with Sardinia. PAVIE, Theodore Marie, a French orientalist, born in Angers, Aug. 16, 1811. He early travelled in the United States, South America, the East Indies, and China, and from 1853 to 1857 he was professor of Sanskrit at the col- lege de France. He has written extensively for the Revue des Deux Mondes, the Bulletin of the geographical society, and the Journal asiatique. His works include Voyage aux Etats- Unis et au Canada (2 vols., 1828-'33) ; Le San- Koue-tchi, a history of the three king- doms into which China was divided in the 13th century (2 vols., l^S-'Sl), and other Chinese and Sanskrit editions and translations ; and many narratives of travel. PAVY, Louis Antoine Augustin, a French theolo- gian, born in Roanne, Loire, March 18, 1805, died in Algiers, Nov. 16, 1866. He was pro- fessor of ecclesiastical history in the faculty of Lyons from 1838 to 1843, and from 1846 till his death he was resident bishop at Algiers. Among his publications are his Lettres sur le celibat ecclesiastique (1851); Du Mahometisme (1853) ; Histoire critique au culte de la Sainte Vlerge en Afrique (1858-'9); and (Enures (4 vols., 1858-'64), consisting of his pastoral let- ters, sermons, &c. PAWN (Lat. pignus), any article of personal property given in pledge, or by way of se- curity for the payment of a debt or the dis- charge of an obligation. The word is also used as a verb, and signifies to give such ar- ticle in pawn or in pledge. It is a bailment, because the essence of the transaction is the delivery of the pawn by the pawner to the pawnee. The first question that arises is, there- fore : In what class of bailments is a pawn to be placed, in reference to the obligations of care on the part of the bailee? The answer is obvious : the bailment of pawn is a bailment for the benefit of both parties. The pawnor obtains credit or delay or other indulgence, and the pawnee obtains security. Therefore the 1 >ailee (or pawnee) is bound only to ordinary care, that is, not to the extreme care to which he would be bound if the benefit were all his own ; but it is not enough if he takes the slight care of which it would discharge his duty and shield him from responsibility if the benefit were all the bailor's, the bailee himself de- riving none from the transaction. Hence a pawnee is answerable for the loss of the pawn or for injury to it only when there has been an absence on his part of ordinary care, which the law defines as that care which a man of ordinary prudence would take of his own prop- erty of like kind and under similar circumstan- ces. If therefore the pledge be lost by some intrinsic defect, the operation of which might possibly have been prevented, or by some casu- alty which might possibly have been avoided, or by a superior force or violence which might have been resisted, the pawnee is nevertheless not responsible, unless he was wanting in the ordinary care above described. A pawnee has a property in the pledge, but it is special, not absolute. It is sufficient to maintain an action against a third party for injury to or abduction of the pledge ; and a judgment in such an ac- tion, when brought either by the pawnor or the pawnee, would be a bar to another action brought by the other. A pawnee has only a right to hold the pledge ; therefore, if he uses it, he does so at his own peril ; and if the thing be lost or injured during such use, the pawnee is responsible, although the loss occurs wholly without neglect on his part. So, too, if he de- rive a profit from this use, he must account for this use of it unless it was equally for the benefit of the pawnor. Thus, if the pawn be a horse, the pawnee may use it enough to pre- serve the health of the horse, and for this use make no compensation ; but if he take a jour- ney with the horse, he must allow the usual price. In all cases the pawnee must account for income or profits derived from the pledge ; and if he is put to extraordinary expense or trouble for the benefit of the pledge, or to pre- serve its value, although this would be for his own benefit also, he may charge the owner and pawnor for all this, unless there be a bargain to the contrary express or implied. From what has been said it will be seen that if the pledge be stolen, the pawnee is not liable unless there was neglect on his part ; but the question is at once important and difficult as to the legal presumption of neglect or care. By the civil law, the presumption was against the pawnee ; that is, if the pledge was stolen from him, he was responsible unless he could prove that there had been no neglect on his part. There are reasons for supposing that the law of Eng- land and of the United States is otherwise ; and that if a pawnee can prove that the pledge was stolen from him, this will make it the loss of the owner, unless the owner can prove neg- lect or default on the part of the pawnee. The distinction between a mortgage and a pledge is of very great importance. Nothing is more common now than the giving of personal property, and especially of choses in action,