Admitted to the Union Juse 20, 323,

foreground two muskets crossed, with the cap of liberty lying upon them at the point of crossing. In the centre is a shield bearing the inscription June 20, 1863 (the date of the admission of the State). The shield is supported on the right, by a miner with his pick on his shoulder indicative of the mineral wealth of the State, and on the left by an agriculturist, who is a woodsman as well; he has his axe resting on one arm, while the other hand grasps the plow. A stalk of maize, and a grape-vine, indicate the staple productions of the State, and on the right a blacksmith's anvil and hammer, and some hogsheada and bales, show its devotion to the mechanic arts and to commerce. A circlet surrounding the seal bears the legend, "STATE OF WEST VIRGINIA," and between two stars is the motto, Montani semper liberi, Mountaineers are always freemen.

NEW MEXICO.

EXPLANATION OF LAW TERMS:

A.

ABANDONMENT.-The relinquishment of a claim or privilege. The voluntary leaving of a person to whom one is bound by a particular relation, as a wife, husband, or child. In marine insurance, the relinquishment of all the property saved from loss by shipwreck, capture, or other peril stated in the policy. ABATE. To enter or intrude into a freehold after the death of the last possessor, and before the heir or devisee takes possession. To throw down.

ABET.-One who encourages, instigates or counsels another to commit a crime, or assist in a criminal act.

ABDUCTION. The taking away of a child, or wife, by fraud, persuasion or open violence.

ABSCOND.-To go away, or conceal one's self, to avoid the serving of a process or notice.

ACCEPTANCE.-An agreeing to the act or contract of another, by some act which binds the person in law.

ACCESSION.-A mode of acquiring property by which the owner receives addition by growth, or by labor, and has a right to the part added.

ACCESSORY.-One guilty of an offense, not principally, but by participation. An accessory before the fact is one, who though absent, yet procures, counsels or commands another to commit a felony; after the fact, when one knowing of the felony assists, comforts, or conceals the criminal.

ACCRETION. The increase of property by which the owner of one thing becomes possessed of a right of another; generally, gain of land by the washing up of sand or soil from the sea, or a river.

ACCRUE. To increase; to augment; proceed or spring from; as increase profit added to the principal.

ACKNOWLEDGMENT.-A declaration or avowal of one's own act, to give it legal vitality; as, the acknowledgment of a deed before a proper officer. ACTION.-A suit or process, by which a demand is made of a right in a court of law; a claim made before a tribunal, A right of action; as, the law gives an action for every claim. AD INQUIRENDUM.-A judicial writ; commanding inquiry to be made of anything relating to a cause.

ADDITION.—A title annexed to a man's name, to show his rank,

occupation, or place of residence, as John Doe, Esq.; Richard Roe, Gent.

AD LITEM.-For the suit. A court has the power to appoint a guardian for the suit for one who needs assistance.

ADJOURNMENT.—Putting off, or postponing until another day. ADMINISTRATOR.-A man who manages or settles the estate of an intestate, or of a testator where there is no competent executor; one to whom the right of administration has been committed by competent authority.

ADMIRALTY, COURT OF.-A court having cognizance of questions arising out of maritime affairs, and of crimes committed on the high-seas.

ADULTERY.-The voluntary sexual intercourse of a married person with one of the opposite sex.

ADVANCEMENT.-Settlement on a wife or child, or jointure. That which a person has received from a person living in anticipation of what he might receive by inheritance.

ADVERSE POSSESSIONS.—That kind of continued occupation and enjoyment of real estate which indicates an assertion of right on the part of the person maintaining it.

ADVOCATE.-One who pleads the cause of another. Advocates are the same as counsel.

AFFIDAVIT.-A statement in writing, signed and made upon oath before an authorized person. It is always made er parte, and without cross-examination, and in this differs from a Deposition. AFFINITY. In civil law, the relationship in which each of the parties married stands to the kindred of the other, and which is of three kinds: 1. Direct, that subsisting between a husband and his wife's relatives, or between a wife and her husband's relatives. 2. Secondary, between the husband and his wife's relatives by marriage. 3. Collateral, between the husband and the relations of his wife's relatives.

AFFIRM. To make affirmation; to make a solemn promise, before an authorized magistrate or tribunal, by persons who conscientiously decline taking an oath; which declaration is in law equivalent to an oath.

AGENT. One intrusted with the business of another; an attorney. AGENCY.-The office of an agent. Having charge of the business of another.

ALIAS. A second or further writ which is issued after the first writ has expired without effect. Another name; an assumed

name.

ALIBI. In another place; elsewhere. When a person on trial for crime, shows that he was in another place at the time when the act was committed, he is said to prove an Alibi; hence, the plea, or defense under which this proof is made.

ALIEN.-One born out of the jurisdiction of the United States, and not naturalized.

ALIMONY.-An allowance made to a wife out of her husband's estate or income for her support, upon her divorce or separation from him.

ALLEGIANCE. The faithful obedience which every citizen owes his country. Fidelity and attachment to the government. ALLUVION.-The gradual increase of earth on a shore, or a bank of a river, by the force of water, as by a current or by waves. The owner of the land thus augmented has a right to the alluvial earth.

AMBIGUITY.-Doubtfulness or uncertainty; want of particularity of signification of language in a written instrument.

ANCESTOR.-In law, one who preceded another in the possession of property; one from whom an inheritance is derived;-the correlative of heir.

ANNUITY. A sum of money, payable yearly, to continue for a given number of years, for life, or forever; an annual allowance. An annuity upon land is termed a land charge. ANTE-NUPTIAL.-A settlement or agreement made before marriage. APPEAL.-The removal of a cause or suit from an inferior to a superior court or judge for re-examination or review. A sum mons to answer to a charge.

APPRAISEMENT.-To set a value or estimate the worth of a particular article. A valuation.

APPRENTICE.-One who is bound by indentures to serve a mechanic, or other person for a certain period.

APPROPRIATION.-The serving or sequestering of a benefice to the perpetual use of a spiritual corporation, sole or aggregate, being the patron of the living. The application of the payment of a sum of money, by a debtor to his creditor, to one of several debts which are due.

APPROVER.-In English law, one who being indicted of treason or felony, confesses himself guilty, and takes an oath to reveal all he knows respecting the crime charged, and all engaged with him. This is technically called turning State's evidence. APPURTENANCES.-That which belongs to something else; in common and legal acceptation, something belonging to another thing, as principal, and which passes as incident to it, as a right of way; a right of common to pasture, an out-house, barn, garden, or orchard, to a house or messuage.

ARRAIGN. To call a prisoner to the bar of a court to answer to the matter charged in an indictment or complaint.

ARRAY.-To set in order, as a jury, for trial of a cause, calling them one by one.

ARREST. To take, seize or apprehend by authority of law; as, to arrest a person for debt, or for a crime.

ARREST OF JUDGMENT.-The staying or stopping of a judgment after verdict for legal cause. The motion for this purpose is called a motion in arrest of judgment.

ARSON.-The malicious burning of a dwelling-house of another person, which by the common law is felony; the malicious and voluntary firing of buildings and ships.

ARTICLES.-The distinct portions of a document in writing; as Articles of Agreement, an account consisting of many articles. ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION.-The compact which was first mede by the original thirteen States of the United States. ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT.-An instrument, which, in cases of impeachment, performs the same office which an indictment does in a criminal case.

ARTICLES OF WAR.-The code or regulations for the Army and Navy of the United States.

ASSASSINATION.-Killing or murdering by surprise or secret assault, with no personal motive.

ASSAULT.-An attempt or offer to beat another, accompanied by a degree of violence, but without touching his person, as by ifting the fist, or a cane in a violent manner, or by striking at him, and missing him. If the blow aimed takes effect, it is a Battery.

ASSIGN. To transfer, or make over to another. To transfer to, and vest in, certain persons called Assignees for the benefit of creditors.

ASSIZES.-A periodical sitting of the judges by virtue of a commission to hear and determine causes.

ASSURANCE.-Any written or other legal evidence of the conveyance of property. Equivalent to INSURANCE.

ATTACHMENT.-A seizure or taking by virtue of a legal process; a laying on of bands, or taking the person by virtue of a precept; and so far differing from an arrest, inasmuch as it lays hold of the goods as well as the person; and also from a distress, which seizes only on lands, tenements, and goods; whereas an Attachment takes both the goods and body. Attachments are issued at common law against persons for contempt of court. In some States a writ of Attachment is a species of mesne process upon which the property of a defendant may be seized at the commencement of a suit and before summons to him, and may be held to satisfy the judgment the plaintiff may recover. In other States this writ can issue only against absconding debtors and those who conceal themselves. ATTAINDER. The corruption of blood which follows from being convicted of treason or felony. A Bill of Attainder was a bill brought into Parliament for attaining persons condemned for high-treason. By the Constitution of the United States, no Bill of Attainder shall be passed; and no Attainder of Trea