ASSETS, a technical English law word, derived through the old Norman phraseology from the same source as the French assez, enough, and signifying the property of a debtor available for the satisfaction of his creditors. Thus the property of a bankrupt is termed his assets, and is the fund out of which his liabilities must be paid. When a person dies, the goods which come to executors or administrators are called assets personal; the lands descending to the heir, are assets real. The former are the primary and natural fund out of which the debts of the testator or intestate of every description must be paid. The latter, by 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 104, are also available, after the personal estate is exhausted, and preference is given to creditors by specialty over creditors by simple contract. When one of two claimants may go to either fund, and the other is restricted to one fund only, if the first claimant has recourse to the fund open to both, equity will permit the other claimant to stand in the place of the first against the other fund. This is called marshalling the assets. If, for example, before the statute 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 104, a special creditor, who might claim against either the real or the personal assets, satisfied his debt out of the latter, a creditor by simple contract, having the latter only to claim against, would be permitted to stand in place of the specialty creditor against the real estate.
ASSIDEANS, in Greek [ Greek ], is a transcription of the Hebrew chasîdîm, pious ones, a word frequent in the Psalms (xxxvii, 28, Ixxix. 2, &c.,—E.V. generally saints}. In the first book of Maccabees the name of Assideans appears as tho designation of a society of men zealous for the law (1 Mac. ii. 42, according to the correct text as given by Fritzsche), and closely connected with the scribes (1 Mac. vii. 12, 13). It is plain from these passages that this society of "pious ones," who held fast to the law under the guidance of the scribes in opposition to tho "godless" Hellenising party, was properly a religious, not a political organisation. For a time they joined the revolt against the Seleucids. But the direct identification of the Assideans with the Maccabee party in 2 Mac. xiv. 6 is one of the many false statements of that book, and directly contradic tory to the trustworthy narrative of 1 Mac. vii., which shows that they were strictly a religious party, who scrupled to oppose the legitimate high priest even when he was on the Greek side, and who withdrew from the war of freedom as soon as the attempt to interfere with the exercise of the Jewish religion was given up. Under the Asmonean rule the Assideans developed into the better known party of the Pharisees, and assumed new relations to the ruling dynasty. It appears, however, from the Psalter of Solomon that the party continued to affect the title of "pious ones." Most recent inquirers hold that the Essenes as well as the Pharisees sprung from the Assideans (Ewald's Geschichte, vol. iv.; Wellhausen, Die Pharisäer und die Sadducäer, 1874).
ASSIGNMENT, Assignation, Assignee, are terms which, as derivatives of the verb assign, are of frequent technical use in the law of the different parts of the United Kingdom. To assign is to make over, and the term is generally used to express a transference by writing, in con tradistinction to a transference by actual delivery. In England the usual expression is assignment, in Scotland it is assignation. The person making over is called the assignor or cedent; the recipient, the assign or assignee.
ASSISI (ancient Asisium), a city of Italy in the province of Perugia. It contains about 6000 inhabitants, depending chiefly for subsistence on the devotees, who, to the number of many thousands, make annual pilgrimages to the church vhich contains the tomb and bears the name of St Francis, the founder of the Franciscan order, who was born at Assisiin 1182. (See Francis, St.) This building is in the Pointed style, and was erected between the years 1228–30 It is attributed by Vasari to a German architect, and by its historian, Pietro Ridolfi, it is called Opus Teutonicum (Hope, On Architecture, vol. i.) The remains of an ancient temple of Minerva stand in the market-place, composed of six Corinthian pillars of fine proportions, and now forming the portico of Santa Maria de Minerva; and there are several churches of considerable artistic importance. The poet Metastasio was born here in 1698. Long. 12° 24′ 50″ E., lat. 43° 4′ 22″ N.
ASSIZE or Assise (from assideo, to sit together; Old French, assire, to set, assis, seated), literally signifies a "session," but is, in fact, as Littleton has styled it, a nomen æquivocum, meaning sometimes a jury, sometimes the sittings of a court, and sometimes the ordinances of a court or assembly.
1. It signified the form of trial by a jury of sixteen persons, which eventually superseded the barbarous judicial combat ; this jury was named the Grand Assize. The Grand Assize was abolished by 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 27; but the term assize is still applicable to the jury in criminal causes in Scotland.
2. In the only sense in which the word is not now almost obsolete, assize means the periodical session of the judges of the superior courts of Common Law, held in the various counties of England, chiefly for the purposes of gaol delivery and trying causes at Nisi Prius. Previous to Magna Charta (1215) writs of assize had all to be tried at Westminster, or to await trial in the locality in which they had originated at the septennial circuit of the justices in eyre ; but, by way of remedy for the great consequent delay and inconvenience, it was provided by this celebrated Act that the assizes of mort d'ancestor and novel disseisin should be tried annually by the judges in every county. By successive enactments, the civil jurisdiction of the justices of assize was extended, and the number of their sittings increased, till at last the necessity of repairing to Westminster for judgment in civil actions was almost obviated to county litigants by an Act, passed in the reign of Edward I., which provided that the writ summoning the jury to Westminster should also appoint a time and place for hearing such causes within the county of their origin. The date of the alternative summons to West minster was always subsequent to the former date, and so timed as to fall in the vacation preceding the Westminster term; and thus "Unless before," or Nisi Prius, issues came to be dealt with by the judges of assize before the summons to Westminster could take effect. The Nisi Prius clause, however, was not then introduced for the first time. It occurs occasionally in writs of the reign of Henry III. The Royal Commissions to hold the assizes are (1.) General, (2.) Special The General Commission is issued twice a year to the superior courts of Common Law at Westminster, and two judges are generally sent on each circuit. It covers commissions (1.) of oyer and tenniner; (2.) of Nisi Prius; (3.) of gaol delivery ; (4.) of the peace. Special commis sions are granted for inquest in certain causes and crimes.
3. Assizes, in the sense of ordinances or enactments of a court or council of state, are of considerable interest in our earlier economic history. As early as the reign of John the observance of the assisce vcnalium was enforced, and for a period of five hundred years thereafter it was considered no unimportant part of the duties of the legislature to regulate by fixed prices, for the protection of the lieges, the sale of bread, ale, fuel, itc. Sometimes in city charters the right to assize such articles is specially conceded. Regula tions of this description, though hostile to free trade, were beneficial in the repression of fraud and adulteration.
