in Arithmetic. See there, No 16, &c.

Gun-PRACTICE, in military education. In the spring, as soon as the weather permits, the exercise of the great guns begins, with an intention to show the gentlemen cadets at the royal military academy at Woolwich, and private men, the manner of laying, loading, pointing, and firing the guns. Sometimes instruments are used to find the centre line, or two points, one at the breech, the other at the muzzle, which are marked with chalk, and whereby the piece is directed to the target: then a quadrant is put into the mouth to give the gun the required elevation, which at first is guessed at, according to the distance the target is from the piece. When the piece has been fired, it is sponged to clear it from any dust or sparks of fire that might remain in the bore, and loaded: then the centre line is found as before; and if the shot went too high or too low, to the right or to the left, the elevation and trail are altered accordingly. This practice continues morning and evening for about six weeks, more or less according as there are a greater or lesser number of recruits. In the mean time others are shown the motions of quick-firing with field-pieces.

Mortar-PRACTICE, generally thus. A line of 1500 or 2000 yards is measured in an open spot of ground from the place where the mortars stand, and a flag fixed at about 300 or 500 yards: this being done, the ground where the mortars are to be placed is prepared and levelled with sand, so that they may lie at an elevation of 45 degrees; then they are loaded with a small quantity of powder at first, which is increased afterwards by an ounce every time, till they are loaded with a full charge; the times of the flights of the shells are observed, to determine the length of the fuzes. The intention of this practice is, when a mortar battery is raised in a siege, to know what quantity of powder is required to throw the shells into the works at a given distance, and to cut the fuzes of a just length, that the shell may burst as soon as it touches the ground.

PRÆMUNIRE, in Law, is taken either for a writ so called, or for the offence whereon the writ is granted; the one may be understood by the other.—The church of Rome, under pretence of her supremacy and the dignity of St Peter's chair, took on her to bestow most of the ecclesiastical livings of any worth in England, by mandates, before they were void; pretending therein great care to see the church provided of a successor before it needed. Whence these mandates or bulls were called gratiae expectatives, or provisiones; whereof see a learned discourse in Duarenus de beneficis, lib. iii. cap. 1. These provisions were so common, that at last Edward I. not digesting so intolerable an encroachment, in the 37th year of his reign made a statute against papal provisions, which, according to Sir Edward Coke, is the foundation of all the subsequent statutes of præmunire: which is ranked as an offence immediately against the king, because every encouragement of the papal power is a diminution of the authority of the crown.

In the weak reign of Edward II. the pope again endeavoured to encroach, but the parliament manfully withstood him; and it was one of the articles charged against that unhappy prince, that he had given allowance to the bulls of the see of Rome. But Edw. III. was of a temper extremely different; and, to remedy these inconveniences, first, by gentle means, he and his nobility wrote an expostulation to the pope; but receiving a menacing and contemptuous answer, withal acquainting him, that the emperor (who a few years before at the diet of Nuremberg, A.D. 1323, had established a law against provisions), and also the king of France, had lately submitted to the holy see; the king replied, that if both the emperor and the French king should take the pope's part, he was ready to give battle to them both, in defence of the liberties of the crown. Hereupon more sharp and penal laws were devised against provisors, which enact severally, that the court of Rome shall present or collate to no bishopric or living in England; and that whoever disturbs any patron in the presentation to a living by virtue of a papal provision, such provisor shall pay fine and ransom to the king at his will, and be imprisoned till he renounces such provision; and the same punishment is inflicted on such as cite the king, or any of his subjects, to answer in the court of Rome. And when the holy see resented these proceedings, and Pope Urban V. attempted to revive the vassalage and annual rent to which King John had subjected his kingdom, it was unanimously agreed by all the estates of the realm in parliament assembled, 40 Edw. III. that King John's donation was null and void, being without the concurrence of parliament, and contrary to his coronation-oath;

and all the temporal nobility and commons engaged, Premunire, that if the pope should endeavour by process or otherwise to maintain these usurpations, they would resist and withstand him with all their power.

In the reign of Richard II., it was found necessary to sharpen and strengthen these laws, and therefore it was enacted by statutes 3 Ric. II. c. 3. and 7 Ric. II. c. 12. first, that no alien shall be capable of letting his benefice to farm; in order to compel such as had crept in, at least to reside on their preferments: and afterwards, that no alien should be capable to be presented to any ecclesiastical preferment, under the penalty of the statutes of provisors. By the statute 12 Ric. II. c. 15. all liegemen of the king accepting of a living by any foreign provision, are put out of the king's protection, and the benefice made void. To which the statute 13 Ric. II. st. 2. c. 2. adds banishment and forfeiture of lands and goods: and by c. 3. of the same statute, any person bringing over any citation or excommunication from beyond sea, on account of the execution of the foregoing statutes of provisors, shall be imprisoned; forfeit his goods and lands, and moreover suffer pain of life and member.

In the writ for the execution of all these statutes, the words præmunire facias being used to command a citation of the party, have denominated in common speech, not only the writ, but the offence itself of maintaining the papal power, by the name of præmunire. And, accordingly, the next statute we shall mention, which is generally referred to by all subsequent statutes, is usually called the statute of præmunire. It is the statute 16 Richard II. c. 5. which enacts, that whoever procures at Rome, or elsewhere, any translations, processes, excommunications, bulls, instruments, or other things which touch the king, against him, his crown, and realm, and all persons aiding and assisting therein, shall be put out of the king's protection, their lands and goods forfeited to the king's use, and they shall be attached by their bodies to answer to the king and his council; or process of præmunire facias shall be made out against them as in other cases of provisors.

By the statute 2 Henry IV. c. 3. all persons who accept any provision from the pope, to be exempt from canonical obedience to their proper ordinary, are also subjected to the penalties of præmunire. And this is the last of our ancient statutes touching this offence; the usurped civil power of the bishop of Rome being pretty well broken down by these statutes, as his usurped religious power was in about a century afterwards: the spirit of the nation being so much raised against foreigners, that about this time, in the reign of Hen. V. the alien priorities, or abbeys for foreign monks, were suppressed, and their lands given to the crown. And no farther attempts were afterwards made in support of these foreign jurisdictions.

This, then, is the original meaning of the offence which we call præmunire; viz. introducing a foreign power into this land, and creating imperium in imperio, by paying that obedience to papal process which constitutionally belonged to the king alone, long before the Reformation in the reign of Henry VIII. at which time the penalties of præmunire were indeed extended to more papal abuses than before; as the kingdom then entirely renounced the authority of the see of Rome, though not at all the corrupted doctrines of the Roman church. And therefore, by the several statutes of 24 Hen. VIII. c. 12, and 25 Hen. VIII. c. 19 & 21, to appeal to Rome from any of the king's courts, which (though illegal before) had at times been connived at; to sue to Rome for any licence or dispensation, or to obey any process from thence, are made liable to the pains of praemunire. And, in order to restore to the king in effect the nomination of vacant bishoprics, and yet keep up the established forms, it is enacted by statute 25 Hen. VIII. c. 20, that if the dean and chapter refuse to elect the person named by the king, or any archbishop or bishop to confirm or consecrate him, they shall fall within the penalties of the statutes of praemunire. Also by statute 5 Eliz. c. 1, to refuse the oath of supremacy will incur the pains of praemunire; and to defend the pope's jurisdiction in this realm, is a praemunire for the first offence, and high treason for the second. So, too, by statute 13 Eliz. c. 2, to import any agnus Dei, crosses, beads, or other superstitious things pretended to be hallowed by the bishop of Rome, and tender the same to be used; or to receive the same with such intent, and not discover the offender; or if a justice of the peace, knowing thereof, shall not within 14 days declare it to a privy-councillor, they all incur a praemunire. But importing or selling mass-books, or other Popish books, is by stat. 3 Jac. I. c. 5, § 25, only liable to a penalty of 40s. Lastly, to contribute to the maintenance of a Jesuit's college, or any Popish seminary whatever beyond sea, or any person in the same, or to contribute to the maintenance of any Jesuit or Popish priest in England, is by statute 37 Eliz. c. 2, made liable to the penalties of praemunire.

Thus far the penalties of praemunire seem to have kept within the proper bounds of their original institution, the depriving the power of the pope; but they being pains of no considerable consequence, it has been thought fit to apply the same to other heinous offences; some of which bear more, and some less, relation to this original offence, and some no relation at all.

Thus, 1. By the statute 1 and 2 Ph. and Mar. c. 8, to molest the possessors of abbey-lands granted by parliament to Henry VIII. and Edward VI., is a praemunire. 2. So likewise is the offence of acting as a broker or agent in any usurious contract where above 10 per cent. interest is taken, by statute 13 Eliz. c. 10. 3. To obtain any stay of proceedings, other than by arrest of judgment or writ of error, in any suit for a monopoly, is likewise a praemunire, by stat. 21 Jac. I. c. 3. 4. To obtain an exclusive patent for the sole making or importation of gunpowder or arms, or to hinder others from importing them, is also a praemunire by two statutes; the one 16 Car. I. c. 21, the other 1 Jac. II. c. 8. 5. On the abolition, by stat. 12 Car. II. c. 24, of purveyance, and the prerogative of pre-emption, or taking any victual, beasts, or goods for the king's use, at a stated price, without consent of the proprietor, the exercise of any such power for the future was declared to incur the penalties of praemunire. 6. To assert, maliciously and advisedly, by speaking or writing, that both or either house of parliament have a legislative authority without the king, is declared a praemunire by statute 13 Car. II. c. 1. 7. By the habeas corpus act also, 31 Car. II. c. 2, it is a praemunire, and incapable of the king's pardon, besides other heavy penalties, to send any subject of this realm a prisoner into parts beyond the seas. 8. By the statute 1 W. & M. st. 1 c. 8, persons praemunire of 18 years of age refusing to take the new oaths of allegiance as well as supremacy, upon tender by the proper magistrate, are subject to the penalties of a praemunire; and by statutes 7 & 8 W. III. c. 24, ferrets, counsellors, proctors, attorneys, and all officers of courts, practising without having taken the oaths of allegiance and supremacy, and subscribed the declaration against popery, are guilty of a praemunire whether the oaths be tendered or not. 9. By the statute 6 Ann. c. 7, to affirm maliciously and directly, by preaching, teaching, or advised speaking, that the then pretended prince of Wales, or any person other than according to the acts of settlement and union, hath any right to the throne of these kingdoms, or that the king and parliament cannot make laws to limit the descent of the crown; such preaching, teaching, or advised speaking, is a praemunire: as writing, printing, or publishing the same doctrines amounted, we may remember, to high treason. 10. By statute 6 Ann. c. 23, if the assembly of peers of Scotland, convened to elect their representatives in the British parliament, shall presume to treat of any other matter fave only the election, they incur the penalties of a praemunire. 11. The stat. 6 Geo. I. c. 18, (enacted in the year after the infamous South Sea project had beggared half the nation) makes all unwarrantable undertakings by unlawful subscriptions, then commonly known by the name of bubbles, subject to the penalties of a praemunire. 12. The stat. 12 Geo. III. c. 11, subjects to the penalties of the statute of praemunire all such as knowingly and wilfully solemnize, assist, or are present at, any forbidden marriage of such of the descendants of the body of King Geo. II., as are by that act prohibited to contract matrimony without the consent of the crown.

Having thus inquired into the nature and several species of praemunire, its punishment may be gathered from the foregoing statutes, which are thus shortly summed up by Sir Edward Coke: "That, from the conviction, the defendant shall be out of the king's protection, and his lands and tenements, goods and chattels, forfeited to the king; and that his body shall remain in prison at the king's pleasure, or (as other authorities have it) during life; both which amount to the same thing, as the king by his prerogative may at any time remit the whole, or any part of the punishment, except in the case of transgressing the statute of habeas corpus." These forfeitures here inflicted do not (by the way) bring this offence within our former definition of Felony; being inflicted by particular statutes, and not by the common law." But so odious, Sir Edward Coke adds, was this offence of praemunire, that a man that was attainted of the same, might have been slain by any other man without danger of law; because it was provided by law, that any man might do to him as to the king's enemy; and any man may lawfully kill an enemy. However, the position itself, that it is at any time lawful to kill an enemy, is by no means tenable: it is only lawful, by the law of nature and nations, to kill him in the heat of battle, or for necessary self-defence. And to obviate such savage and mistaken notions, the statute 5 Eliz. c. 1, provides, that it shall not be lawful to kill any person attainted in a praemunire, any law, statute, opinion, or exposition of law to the contrary notwithstanding. But still such delinquent, though protected as a PRÆNESTE, in Ancient Geography, a town of Latium, to the south-east of Rome, towards the territory of the Æqui; a place of great strength. Famous for the temple and oracle of Fortune, called Sortes Prænestinae (Strabo); which Tiberius wanted to destroy, but was deterred by the awful majesty of the place. From a colony it was raised to a municipium by Tiberius (Inscriptions, Florus, A. Gellius), on the consideration of his recovery from a dangerous illness near this place. Thither the Roman emperors usually retired, on account of the agreeableness of the situation (Suetonius). It was a very ancient city, with a territory of large extent (Livy). The temple of Fortune was built in the most sumptuous manner by Sylla, and the pavement was mosaic work (Pliny). Concerning the Sortes, there is a remarkable passage in Cicero; who says, that it was all a mere contrivance, in order to deceive, either for the purposes of gain or superstition. The town that has succeeded it stands low in a valley, and is called Palestrina, in the Campania of Rome. E. Long. 13° 30' N. Lat. 42°.

PRÆSIDIUM (Notitia), a town of the Cornovii in Britain. Now thought to be Warwick (Camden).—Another of Corsica (Antonine), 30 miles to the south of Aleria.—A third PRÆSIDIUM furnamed Julium, in Bætica (Pliny).

PRÆTORIA AUGUSTA (Ptolemy), a town of Dacia. Now called Brașov by the natives, and Cronstadt by the Germans (Baudrand): a town in Transylvania. E. Long. 25° N. Lat. 47°.—Another of the Salassi, near the two gates are defiles of the Alps, the Grajë and Penninæ (Pliny); a Roman colony settled by Augustus after the defeat of the Salassi by Terentius Varro, on the spot where he encamped (Strabo, Dio Cassius, Ptolemy), situated on the river Duria Major. The town is now called Aosta or Aouë, in Piedmont. E. Long. 7° 14' N. Lat. 45° 19'.

PRÆTORIUM (Antonine, Notitia Imperii), a town of the Brigantes. Now Peterborough (Camden), near the mouth of the Humber in Yorkshire. Coventry (Talbot).