Page:United States Reports, Volume 2.djvu/224

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_ '·:t8_ CASE: ruled and adjudged in tht: _ 1 794. a promillirry note) was commenced. The llatute of lintitationl Y/V`·* being pleaded, judgment was conl`ell`ed for the plainttll, [ub- . jc€t to the opinion of the Court, whether, under the circum- llanccs of the cafe, the plea in bar wasifullicient? - ‘ The point was argued on the oth of April, rypg, by Ra·u.·lr, ' . furthe plaintill, and Dalhu for the defendant. ‘ · In-fuppolt of the plea, it was contended, that thc cxcrgiou • in favor of abfcntces, contained in thc lalt feflion of the aft of Pziuy}.v.:1:ih (1 Vc!. p. 97. DalL Enh'; obvioully extended - _ only to the cafe of treditors beyarrdjéa; for, it is to their cafe _ _.· expréljsly, that the words “ returning into this Prorince," are _ .' applied. So, in the eonltrnélion of the liatute of 2l _‘}`ar. r. r. 16. refpeeling abfent creditors, and the a& of 4 and 3. Amr. t-. 16. refpeéking abfent debtors, the exception has al- ways been confined to perfone afkat fqiand _/Sar;_ and, Scotland ` has been adjudged not to be within the ltatute. Efpiuajé 153. · ' t Bl. Rap. 285. The [everal .·!.·z::rir·an Provinces, before the revolution, were as nearly connemed, under the fame fovereign, as England and Scatland; lince the Revolution, they form one nation; it would be a geographical abfurdity to conlider an in- habitant of Scu!b·(Inr.:li:1a to br l·ry:ml the _/Bw, in relation to _ ‘ Pemyj-l»é.-uzia; and it would be a political abfurdity to oonlider ' him, m the phrafeology of fome Engl;} books, to be in jareign part:. If an inhahitant of Sautb-Caradna is to be regarded in _either light, fo mull: an inhabitant of Delaware, or 1'¢w]egky. It was anfwered, for the plaintil}, that, in the general opi- nion, the aét of limitations had never been fuppofed to operate ‘ - againlt perfons who were out of the State, whether they re- ‘ · lided in any other part of Qlmericé, or were aflually beyond - {ea. Theaét of Pmq/jI·t·ania is fubfcquent in date to the Em · · g.Vb_itatutes on the fame fubjeét; and conforms to the 2l far. _;—» r. except that the 2l ja:. 1. fpeaks`of returning from beyond far, while the af} fpcaks of returnin`g_ird0 tlzir Prwinrr. The words “ b¢·yaml_/Z·a:," howcver,_ will be found to have been a- _ dopted as a general fubllitute for the xx ords “’ out of the realm," - . from, thc time that the two Kingdam: of England and Scarlaml, ` became united under one King. To conlider thofe words in our code, in a llrid geographical {`cnfe, would render them ex- tr.w.igant, and in many cafes ufelefsg for a man might relide ‘ - at Lima, or ([a[·e-Horn, and yct be within the operation of the aft. - Belidcs, the Lcgillature of 1’emw`·I·uania has no political, or moral, right, to make lawsto hind pctfons who are out of hcr juriilliéiitm. After the argument, 'I'llE Couirr declared a delirc to obtain fume inl`orm.1tion_, as to the pratlitc of other Status on the fub- ‘ .. _ , jeéta