Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

932

PRESUMPTION

PRESIDE

though the medium of printing; as In the phrase "liberty of the press." PRESSING SEAMEN. See IMPRESS MENT. PRESSING TO DEATH. FORTE ET DURE. See PEZNX PREST. In old English law. A duty in money to be paid by the sheriff upon his ac count in the exchequer, or for money left or remaining in his hands. Cowell. PREST-MONEY. A payment which binds those who receive it to be ready at all times appointed, being meant especially of soldiers. Cowell. PRESTATION. In old English law. A payment or performance; the rendering of a service. PRESTATION-MONEY. A sum of money paid by archdeacons yearly to their bishop; also purveyance. Cowell. PRESTIMONY, or PR.ESTIMONIA. In canon law. A fund or revenue appropn ated by the founder for the subsistence of a priest, without being erected into any title or benefice, chapel, prebend, or priory. It is not subject to the ordinary; but of it the pa tron, and those who have a right from him, are the collators. Wharton. P R E S U M P T I O . See PKJBSUMPTIO; PRESUMPTION. PRESUMPTION. An inference affirm ative or disaifirmative of the truth or false hood of any proposition or fact drawn by a process of probable reasoning in the absence of actual certainty of its truth or falsehood, or until such certainty can be ascertained. Best, Pres. § 3. A rule of law that courts and judges shall draw a particular inference from a particular fact, or from particular evidence, unless and until the truth of such inference is disproved. Steph. Ev. 4. A presumption is a deduction which the law ex pressly directs to be made from particular facts. Code Civil Proc. Cal. $ 1959. Presumptions are consequences which the law or the judge draws from a known fact to a fact unknown. Civil Code .La. art. 2284. An inference affirmative or disafflrmative of the existence of a disputed fact, drawn by a judicial tribunal, by a process of probable reasoning, from some one or more matters of fact, either admitted in the cause or otherwise satisfactorily established. Best, Pres. $ 12. A presumption is an inference as to the exist ence of a fact not known, arising from its connec tion with the facts that are known, and founded

PRESIDE. To preside over a court is to "hold" it,—to direct, control, and govern it as the chief officer. A judge may "preside" whether sitting as a sole judge or as one of several judges. 47 N. Y. 334. PRESIDENT. One placed in authority over others; a chief officer; a presiding or managing officer; a governor, ruler, or di rector. The chairman, moderator, or presiding of ficer of a legislative or deliberative body, ap pointed to keep order, manage the proceed ings, and govern the administrative details of their business. The chief officer of a corporation, company, board, committee, etc., generally having the main direction and administration of their concerns. The chief executive magistrate of a state or nation, particularly under a democratic form of government; or of a province, colony, or dependency. In English law. A title formerly given to the king's lieutenant in a province; as the president of Wales. Cowell. This word is also an old though corrupted form of "precedent," (q. v.,) used both as a French and English word. Le president est rare. Dyer, 136. PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL. In English law. A great officer of state; a member of the cabinet. He attends on the sovereign, proposes business at the council table, and reports to the sovereign the trans actions there. 1 Bl. Comm. 230. PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES. The official title of the chief ex ecutive officer of the federal government in the United States. PRESIDENTIAL ELECTORS. Abody of electors chosen in the different states, whose sole duty it is to elect a piesident and vice-president of the United States. Each state appoints, in such manner as the legis lature thereof may direct, a number of elect ors equal to the whole number of senators and representatives to which the state is entitled in congress. Const. U. S. art. 2, § 1. PRESS. In old practice. A piece or skin of parchment, several of which used to be sewed together in making up a roll or rec ord of proceedings. See 1 Bl. Comm. 183; Townsh. PI. 486. Metaphorically, the aggregate of publica tions issuing from the press, or the giving publicity to one's sentiments and opinions

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