PRESENCE. The existence of a person in a particular place.

2. In many contracts and judicial¹ proceedings² it is necessary that the parties should be present in order to reader them valid³; for example, a party to a deed when it is executed by himself, must personally acknowledge it, when such acknowledgment is required by law, to give it its full force aud effect, and his presence is indispensable, unless, indeed, another person represent him as his attoruey, having authority from him for that purpose.

3. In the criminal law, presence is actual or constructive⁴. When a larceny⁵ is committed in a house by two men, united in the same design, and one of them goes into the house, arid⁶ commits the crime, while the other is on the outside watching to prevent a surprise, the former is actually, an the latter constructively⁷, present.

4. It is a rule in the civil law, that he who is incapable⁸ of giving his consent to an act, is not to be considered present, although he be actually in the place; a lunatic, or a man sleeping, would not therefore be considered present. Dig. 41, 2, 1, 3. And so, if insensible; 1 Dougl. 241; 4 Bro. P. R. 71; 3 Russ. 441; or if the act were done secretly so that he knew nothing of it. 1 P. Wms. 740.

5. The English statute⁹ of fraud, 5, directs that all devises and bequests¹⁰ of any lands or tenements¹¹ shall be attested¹³ or subscribed¹⁴ in the presence of said devisor. Under this statute it has been decided¹⁵ that an actual presence is not indispensable, but that where there was a constructive presence it was sufficient; as, where the testatrix executed the will in her carriage stand- ing in the street before the office of her solicitor¹⁶, the witness retired¹⁷ into the office to attest¹² it, and it being proved that the carriage was accidentally put back, so that she was in a situation to see the witness sign the will through the window of the office. Bro. Ch. C. 98; see 2 Curt¹⁸. R. 320; 2 Salk. 688; 3 Russ. R. 441; 1 Maule & Selw. 294; 2 Car.& P. 491 2 Curt. R. 331. Vide Constructive.

PRESENT. A gift, or wore properly the thing given. It is provided by the constitution of the United States, art. 1, s. 9, n, 7, that "no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, [the United States] shall, without the consent of congress, accept of any present, emolument¹⁹, or office, or title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state."

PRESENTS. This word signifies the writing then actually made and spoken of; as, these presents; know all men by these presents, to all to whom these presents shall come.

PRESENTATION, eccl. law. The act of a patron offering his clerk to the bishop²⁰ of the diocese to be instituted in a church or benefice.