51�Թ�

Se defendendo, sē dē-fen-den′dō, n. the plea of a person charged with slaying another, that it was in his own defence.

If the former British Ministry had stood, we might have secured it from England, and, in that case, France would have been obliged to admit us to their islands, se defendendo.

Both the life and limbs of a man are of such high value, in the estimation of the law of England, that it pardons even homicide if committed se defendendo, or in order to preserve them.

For this decision Wither afterwards attacked Sir Richard Onslow as a traitor, in two tremendous effusions entitled Se Defendendo and Justitiarius Justificatus, of which the latter landed him in prison and was burnt by the common hangman.

When I wrote to you last year on reptiles, I wish I had not forgot to mention the faculty that snakes have of stinking se defendendo.