HOSTAGE

ILat hospes, /rucst.) A person left as surety for the performance Of ttte articles of a treaty. The practice of taking hostages is now almost unknown in the mutual it was formerly so contuse to many questions in the law of e divided into principal and ry, tile litter being where it is expre ly stipulated by treaty 111! t the hostage shall be answerable for the event. One of ivilians on this subject was. whether such a hostage could lawfully stake his life, and nig so, it was law fill to take it. The affirmative was argued from the most ancient example of hottagesbip on record— Reuben'i word9 to Jacob, "slay ona if 1 bring not Benjamin back." According to Philip de Comities, the I.ieL'ois having given bo Charles Duke of Burgundy, with expre power to put them to de, uii iii the event of an infraction of the treaty, and that event having taken place, it was much debated in the council Whether the power should not be carried into execution; ami aftei much discu ion their lives were spared. It has questioned whether a hostage can tie delivered; his will: Grotius decides in the affirmative. The but of c (u.-rors over hostages, the events which may di olve their obligation, the effect of their escape upon the convention between the principals, and oilier points of the subject, are treated at length by writers on national law. HOTCHPOT, in Law, is a blending or mixing together of en in marriage with lands in lee falling by descent. As If A. had two daughters, and gives a third part of his marriage with one of them to her husband, and l two thirds: in order to acquire any farther share of these lands, the married daughter must being the lands first given into hotcli|K>t; that is, she must renounce the gill, and allow the land to be confounded w ith in order that she may inherit her whole share; otherwise her,-ister will have the remaining two thirds of the lands. There is also a rule of hotchpot w ith the distribution of personal property within the rtat SB &. 2.1 C. 2, c. 10; as. where a certain sum is to be raised and paid to a daughter for her jiortion by a marriage settlement, if tin daughter would have any farther share of her father's personal estate 'he must bring this money into hotchpot, and allow it to form part of the distributable residue. HOTEL (I'r), signifies, in n general sense, a large inn for the reception of strangers; but in a particular M chilly in France, it is applied to the residences of the king, nobility, or other persons of rank: or it is used syn on with hospital, as the Hotel Dieu, Hotel des Inoatldet, kc. [s. 583]