come to his hands, by the payment of dobts in due ordtT, lie be afterwards sued by a creditor rcmaininj; unpaid, he is entitled to protect him- self by au allegation that he has fnlly adminis- tered, or, technically, by a plea of plcnf adminis- travit ; and upon this plea the creditor is enti- tled to judgment that he shall be paid out of any other assets that shall come to the defendants, which is called a judgment of assets in futuro. Assets is not a technical term in Scotland, but it is nevertheless nnieh used in the legal business of that country. Consult the authoritries referred to under Auministkation; Bankruptcy; Distbi- ni'TiON : I^.soI.VE.•cy.
AS'SIDE'ANS. See Chasidim.
ASSIENTO, a-syan't6 (Sp. asiento, seat, con-
tract, treaty). A word specially applied to a
compact between S])ain and some foreign nation,
according to which the Spanish Government con-
ferred upon the latter, under certain conditions,
the monopol.v of the supply of negroes for its
American colonies. It was Charles I. of Spain
who first concluded an assiento with the Flem-
ings, in 1517. ICext, a similar compact was en-
tered into with the Genoese (1580), the Por-
tuguese ( IG'JG) , and on the accession of Pliilip V.
to the Spanish throne, in 1702, with the French
Guinea Company, which from that time took
the name of the Assiento Company, upon the
understanding that for ten years it should have
the exclusive right of annually importing 4800
negroes into the continent and islands of Spanish
America. The assiento was next transferred to
England at the peace of Utrecht, in 1713, and
made over by Government to the South Sea Com-
pany for thirty years, permission being also
granted to the company to send yearly, during
the term of contract, a ship, carrying 500 tons
of goods, to these Spanish colonies. The mis-
understanding that grew out of this last clause,
of which England took advantage to carry on
an extensive contraband trade, contributed not
a little to the war that broke out between the
two nations in 17.39. By the treaty of Aix-la-
Chapelle the South Sea Company was confirmed
in its title to the assiento for a period of four
years, but this right was surrendered in the
treaty of Madrid, October 5, 1750.
ASSIER, a'.sya', Adolphe d' (1828—). A
French traveler and philologist, born at Labaa-
tide de Seron. He became professor of mathe-
matics and member of the Academy of Sciences
at Bordeaux, and made numerous voyages
abroad, results of which are embodied in the
works; Le Bresil conteinporain, races, mcrnrs,
institutions, paysages (1867) ; and Houvenirs des
Piinhircs (1872: 3d ed.. 1885). He has also pub-
lished various other important works, of which
the following are devoted to philology: Essai do
grammnirc qencrale, d'aprrs l<t compnrniKon dcs
principalis lanfiiwsiindo-europ<^en.nes (1857) ; Jlistoire niiturcllf dii lanf/nge ; physiologic du hingnge
phonHiijue (1807) ; Ic langage grnphiqiie (1868).
AS'SIGNA'TION. A legal term in Scotch
conveyancing, analogous in meaning to the English word 'assignment' and 'conveyance,' signifying the process by which the holder of any right, 01' the creditor in any obligation, or the proprietor of any property not strictly feudal, transfers his right or estate to a third party. See Assignment.
ASSIGNATIONS (Lat. nd, to + signare, to
sign: cf. assignatsj . The paper currency of
Russia, issued by Catherine II., about 1770, to
assist in carrying on the war against Turkey.
Like similar experiments in other countries, be-
fore and afterwards, the assignations started at
par, but rapidly declined to less than 25 per cent.
About twenty years later, the assignations were
the general currency ; but traders began to refuse
them, and the most stringent edicts of Paul
failed to force them into good standing. In the
war with Napoleon, heavy issues were made, the
value keeping steadily at about 4 rubles of
paper to 1 of silver. The rate rose somewhat
after the peace, and fluctuation became so trou-
blesome that the Government fixed the value by
special law. In 1839, the silver ruble was made
the unit, and the value of assignations fixed at
'i<2 for 1 of silver. At the same time bills of
credit were issued which took the place of the
assignations.
ASSIGNATS, a'se'nya' or as'ig-nats (Fr. as-
sigiiat, from Lat. pp. assignatus, assigned, from
ad, to + signare, to sign). Paper money issued
during the French Revolution, w^hich derived its
name from the public domain assigned for its
ultimate redemption. One of the earliest acts
of the Revolutionary authorities was the confis-
cation of lands belonging to the Crown and the
Church, to which later the estates of the (Emi-
gres were added. These lands were to be used
as a source of income for the State, but the proc-
ess of selling was too slow to meet the pressing
needs of the treasury. The Government there-
fore issued what were practically treasury notes
(q.v.), bearing interest at 5 per cent., for the
total amount of 400,000,000 livres (francs).
They were to be retired within five years from
the ])roceeds of the sales of the national lands
which were assigned to this purpose.
When first issued, the notes were sold in the
market in the same way as treasury notes in our
own history. They were in fact securities, the
lowest denomination being of 200 livres ($40),
and on the first issue, in December, 1789, were
well received and suffered no depreciation. By a
decree of April, 1790, these notes acquired a legal
tender character, and the interest upon them was
reduced to 3 per cent. The payment of interest,
however, is not compatible with the legal tender
quality of notes, and in October, 1790, it was
sujipressed, after the maximum issue had been
increased in the preceding month to 1,200,000,000
francs.
After this date, the successive issues of this
paper money became more and more rapid. As
early as 1791 notes of 5 francs appeared: and
later, notes of 10 sous (one-half franc) were is-
sued. So rapid was the issue of notes that the
record of their amount is lost; the formality
of passing laws was omitted, and the executive
authorities increased the issues by simple de-
crees. By the year 1793 the circulation had
reached nearly 4,000.000,000 francs, but the
actual value of the notes had sunk to one-
fifth their nominal value. Futile efl'orts were
made to .sustain the value of the notes. An ef-
fort, late in 1793, to fund them, and thus restrict
their quantity, proved ineffective, while penal
provisions, culminating in a decree of Septem-
ber 23, 1793, punishing the refusal to take them
in payment, or taking them at a discount, with
death and confiscation of property, were equally
