Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 18.djvu/737

P E T P E T 705 known to the petitioner, and that those facts which he states as knowing from others he believes to be true" (Bouvier, Law Diet.]. Election Petition. The article ELECTIONS must now be read subject to the Parliamentary Elections Act 1879 and the Judicature Act 1881. By the Act of 1879 the trial of an election petition is conducted before two judges instead of one, as before. If the judges differ in opinion as to whether the member petitioned against is duly elected or not, he is deemed to be duly elected. The Act of 1881 provides for the annual appointment of three judges of the Queen s Bench Division for the trial of election petitions, and makes the judgment of the High Court of Justice in election cases final unless leave be given to appeal to the Court of Appeal. No appeal lies to t Ja House of Lords, nor can any judge who is a peer sit on the trial of an elec tion petition. Petition of Right is a term confined to English law. It is used in two senses. (1) It denotes the statute 3 Car. I. <;. 1, a parliamentary declaration of the liberties of the people. (See ENGLAND, vol. viii. p. 345.) (2) It denotes a mode of prosecuting a claim against the crown by a sub ject. This remedy is said to owe its origin to Edward I. It lies as a rule for obtaining possession of real or personal property, or for breach of contract, not for breach of public duty, as failure to perform treaty obligations, or for tres pass, or for negligence of crown servants. The remedy where the crown is in possession of property of the sup pliant, and the title of the crown appears by record, as by inquest of office, is a somewhat different one, called mon- strans de droit. The procedure on a petition of right is either at common law or by statute. At common law the petition suggests such a right as controverts the title of the crown, and the crown indorses upon the petition Soit droit fait al partie. Thereupon a commission is issued to inquire into the truth of the suggestion. After the return to the commission, the attorney-general pleads or demurs, and the merits are then determined as in actions between subject and subject. If the right be determined against the crown, judgment of ousterlemain or amoveas manus is given in favour of the suppliant. The Petitions of Right Act 1860 (23 and 24 Viet. c. 34, extended to Ireland by 36 and 37 Viet. c. 69) preserves to the suppliant his right to proceed at common law, but gives an alternative remedy. In proceedings under the statute the petition is left with the secretary of state for the home department for her majesty s consideration. She, if she think fit, grants her fiat that right be done, whereupon the fiat is served upon the solicitor to the treasury, and a statement of defence is put in on behalf of the crown. The proceed ings are thenceforth assimilated as far as possible to those in an ordinary action. A judgment in favour of the sup pliant is equivalent to a judgment of amoveas manus. Costs are payable to and by the crown. A petition of right is tried in the Chancery or Queen s Bench Division, unless the subject-matter of the petition arises out of the exercise of belligerent right on behalf of the crown, or would be cognizable in a prize court if the matter were in dispute between private persons. In either of these cases the suppliant may at his option intitule his petition in the Admiralty Division (27 and 28 Viet. c. 25, s. 52). (j. wf.) PETRA (rj Her/act, in ecclesiastical writers also at ilerpat), the capital city of the NABAT^EANS (<?.#.), and the great centre of their caravan trade, is described by Strabo (xvi. p. 779) as lying in a level place, well supplied with water for horticulture and other uses, but encircled by a girdle of rocks, abrupt towards the outer side. The surrounding country was barren, especially towards Judiea ; the distance from Jericho was three to four days journey, and from Phcenicum on the Red Sea coast five (see plate VI., vol. vii.). Accord ing to Pliny (N. II., vi. 144) the little valley of Petra is not quite 2 miles across, and lies at the junction of two roads, from Palmyra and Gaza respectively, 600 miles from the latter. These and other ancient notices leave no doubt as to the identity of the site with the modern Wady Mus4 in the mountains which form the eastern wall of the great valley between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Akaba. Wady Musd lies just north of the watershed between the two seas, in 30 19 N. lat. and 35 31 E. long. 1 Travellers coming up the Arabah usually approach the ruins of Petra from the south-west by a rough path, partly of artificial construc tion 2 ; but the natural entrance is from the east down a narrow defile more than a mile long, called the Sik ("shaft"). The Sik is a contraction in the valley of a stream which comes down from the east, rising in a spring now known as the Fountain of Moses ( Ain Miisd), 3 and passing between the villages of Eljf and Aireh (Palmer). Both these places are ancient ; the latter is the fortress Wo aira of Yakut, 4 while Elji, mentioned by Edrisi, is the " Gaia urbs juxta civitatem Petram " of the Onomasticon. 5 Below these and above the ravine the characteristic rock- cut tombs and dwellings of the Nabataeans begin to appear. But to reach the city proper from these upper settlements one must traverse the whole length of the defile, which is simply a narrow waterway, in some places not more than 10 or 12 feet broad, and walled in by rich brown or red precipices rising from 60 to 120 feet (De Luynes ; Stanley doubles this height) above the stream. In ancient times there was a paved path beside the channel, and remains of an arch spanning it are seen high in the air near the en trance. Towards the lower end of the gorge, a turn in the dark path and the descent of a side valley admit a sudden flood of light, and here stands the most famous ruin of Petra, the so-called Khazna, or " treasury of Pharaoh," with a rich facade of late Roman style, not built but hewn out of the rose-coloured limestone. The next turn gives room for a rock-cut theatre, and from this point the gorge begins to open out into the little plain described by Strabo, and gives perhaps the most striking view of the multi plicity of grottoes with elaborate classical fagades which line the enclosing mountain -wall. The plain itself is strewn with ruins of temples and other buildings, and stairs once led up the rocky walls to higher structures, of which the most notable is now called the " convent " (Al-Deir). The grottoes are inhabited in cold weather by the Liya- thina Fellahin, who also hold the upper part of the valley, and are so troublesome and extortionate that no thorough exploration of the district has yet been carried out. It is not even known where the torrent -bed leads on leaving the plain of Petra. De Luynes describes the water as wholly absorbed by the sands near the theatre, but there is an unexplored gorge to the south-west which is the con tinuation of the valley. The Nabataeans, as we see from Diodorus, used Petra as a place of refuge and a safe storehouse for their treasures of frankincense, myrrh, and silver before they gave up their nomadic habits. But Petra was not only safe and well 1 The latitude and longitude are taken from De Luynes s map. Ptolemy, who, according to Olympiodorus, spent some time in Petra, and doubtless owes to this fact his excellent information about the caravan-routes in Arabia, gives the latitude, with surprising accuracy, as 30 20 . 2 Compare Diod. , xix. 97, who describes the Nabatfean fortress it was not a town at the time in question (312 B.C.), for the Nabataeans were still nomads when they were attacked by Antigonus as ascended to by a single artificial path. 3 This seems to be the fountain mentioned by Nowairi, ap. Quatre- mere s Melanges, p. 84, which flowed with blood and was changed to water by Moses. The name Od-dema, which gave rise to this legend, may possibly be a relic of the old name of Edom. 4 Perhaps also the Iram, DTy, of Gen. xxxvi. 43. 6 See Tuch s Genesis, 2d ed., p. 271, note. XVIII. 89