FBECEDENCE. 355 PKECESSION. and District Judges of the United States; the Justices and Associates of Territories and Dis- trict of Columbia ; the Lieutenant-General and the Vice-Admiral; diplomatic representa- tives of the United States; major-generals, rear- admirals, and staff officers of equal rank; briga- dier-generals and commodores; chiefs of quasi- independent civil bureaus; chiefs of departmental bureaus in the order of their chief officers. Colonels, captains of the navy, staff officers of equal rank, the Colonel of the Marine Corps; Consuls-General and consuls of foreign govern- ments, according to date of exequatur, and the same of the United States, according to seniority of service; lieutenant-colonels and majors of the army, commanders and lieutenant-commanders of the navy, and staff-officers of equal rank: the Commissioners of the District of Coliunbia, Gov- ernors of Territories. Lieutenant-Governors, and other elective State officers in their accepted order at home; captains, first lieutenants and second lieutenants of the army, lieutenants, masters, and ensigns of the navy, and staff officers of equal rank; assistant secretaries of executive depart- ments, secretaries of legations, secretaries of the Senate and House of Representatives; and the clerk of the Supreme Court. For the full table of precedence in England, consult any peerage; for that of C4ermany, Still- fried, Ceremoniaibuch des preiissischtn Hofs (Berlin, 1878) ; for the older Continental usage, Hellbacli, Enndhuch des Rangrechts (Ansbach, 1804). PRECEDENT (from Lat. prwccdcns. pres. part, of prwcedere, to go before). In a general sense, any act or determination which is taken as a guide to action under similar circumstances thereafter, as personal habits are precedents automatically followed, and social and legal cus- toms are precedents which have, by long observ- ance, acquired the sanction of moral or civil law. In its technical legal sense the tei-m precedent has come to be employed to designate («) the settled practice of the bar and (5) the judicial determination of questions of law by the courts. The popular expression 'forms and precedents' points to the former use of the word, as in the forms of pleading and the forms employed in conveyancing, which have acquired commanding authority in the legal profession, and are implic- itly followed by successive generations of lawj'ers, until changed by statutory authority, only be- cause of a long continued exact observance. Of a different character is the judicial prece- dent. This has intrinsic authority and exerts a more or less binding force from the hour of its promulgation. It is not, as is generally be- lieved, peculiar to the common-law system of England and the United States, but is essential to the administration of every legal system. Indeed, it is involved in the very conception of law as a rule of conduct that the same acts shall produce the same legal consequences, that the same combination of circumstances, however often it may arise, shall invariably be dealt with in the same way. In this respect, however, the difference between our system and that which obtains under the civil-law system is that we have given a narrower range and at the same time a more conclusive authority to precedent. The common law denies the effect of precedent to legal writ- ings, with the exception of a few texts of great antiquity (as Littleton and Coke), as well as to the unofficial expressions of legal opinion by emi- nent lawyers and judges, restricting it to judicial opinions officially delivered; while, on the other hand, it regards such decisions as of binding force, and not, as under the civil law, of merely persuasive authority. See Dictum; Law; Cini. L.AW; CoxSTiTUTioxAL Law ; etc. Consult: Wambaugh, The Study of Cases (Boston, 1894) ; Blackstone, Commentaries. PRECEN'TOR (Lat. prwcentor, leader in music, from prtEcincre, to sing before, from prw, before -{- caiiere, to sing). The official in a chap- ter, whether cathedral or collegiate, whose duty it was to lead the singing. He commenced the psalm or hymn which was taken up and re- peated either by the celebrant or another of the body, or by the rest of the choir. In modem chapters, the precentor ranks next in dignity to the provost or dean. He generally has charge of training the choir, and of the selection of the music. Among the non-episcopal bodies the precentor is the person who starts and conducts the singing, and who generally stands in front of the pulpit, sometimes at one side of it. PRECEPT (Lat. prosceptum, rule, doctrine, maxim, precept, neu. sg. of prwceplus, p.p. of prwcipcre, to instruct, admonish, take beforehand, from prw, before + capere, to take). In law, a command or mandate in writing, directed to a sheriff or other ministerial officer, and constitut- ing his authority to do the act named therein. It is generally considered as synonymous with the word process. In Scotch law, a 'precept of sasine' is an order of a superior to an agent or public officer, as a notarv' public, to give possession of lands to an under-tenant or vassal. A 'precept of dare con- stat' (literally, 'it is clearly established'), in Scotland, was a deed by which a superior acknowledged the right of an heir of a deceased vassal to succeed to the lands of his father. By statute this is no longer necessary. PRECEP'TORY (ilL. prceceptorius, relating to instruction, from Lat. prwccptor. instructor, from prwcipere, to instruct, admonish, take be- forehand). The name given to certain houses of the Knights Templars, the superiors of which were called knights preceptors. All the precep- tories of a province were subject to a provincial superior, called grand preceptor ; and there were three of these who held rank above all the rest, the Cirand Preceptors of .Jerusalem, Tripolis, and Antioch. Other houses of the Order were called 'comma nderies.' See Teiiplabs. PRECESSION (:ML. prmcessio, advance, pre- cedence, from Lat. prwcedere, to go before). The points in which the equator intersects the ecliptic, called the equinoctial points, do not remain sta- tionary, but retrograde slowly, i. e. move from east to west. This motion is called the precession of the equinoxes (q.v.). The word 'precession' is used because if on one day one of the equi- noctial points arrive at the meridian of a place simultaneously with a fixed star, it will next day arrive at the meridian sooner than the star, or will precede it in transit. The amount of this movement is about 50" each year, and the equinoctial points will therefore require 25,800 years to make a complete circuit
