SIDE BAR RULES, Eng practice. Rules which were formerly¹ moved for by attorneys on the side bar of the court; but now may be had of the clerk of the rules, upon a praecipe. These rules are, that the sheriff return his writ²; that he bring in the body; for special imparlance; to be present at the taxing of costs, and the like.

SIENS. An obsolete³ word, formerly used for scion⁴, which figuratively signified a person who descended⁵ from another. "The sien," says Lord Coke, "takes all his nourishment⁶ from the stocke, and yet it produceth his own fruit." Co. Lit. 123 a. Vide Branch.

SIGILLUM. A seal. (q. v.) Vide Scroll⁷.

SIGHT, contracts. Bills of exchange are frequently made payable⁸ at sight, that is, on presentment, which might be taken naturally to mean that the bill should then be paid without further delay; but although the point be not clearly settled, it seems the drawee is entitled to the days of grace. Beaw. Lex Mer. pl. 256; Kyd on Bills, 10; Chit. on Bills, 343-4; Bayley on Bills, 42, 109, 110; Selw. N. P. 339.

2. - The holder⁹ of a bill payable at sight, is required to use due diligence to put it into circulation, or have it presented for acceptance within a reasonable time. 20 John. 146; 7 Cowen, 705; 12 Pick. 399 13 Mass. 137; 4 Mason, 336; 5 Mason's 118; 1 McCord, 322; 1 Hawks¹⁰, 195.

3. When the bill is payable any number of days after sight, the time begins to run from the period of presentment and acceptance, and not from the time of mere¹¹ presentment. 1 Mason, 176; 20 John. 176.

SIGN, contracts, evidence. A token of anything; a note or token given without words.

2. Contracts are express or implied. The express are manifested viva voce, or by writing; the implied are shown by silence, by acts, or by signs.

3. Among all nations find and at all times, certain signs have been considered as proof of assent¹² or dissent¹³; for example, the nodding of the head, and the shaking of hands; 2 Bl. Com. 448; 6 Toull. D. 33; Heinnec., Antiq. lib. 3, t. 23, n. 19; silence and inaction, facts and signs are sometimes very strong evidence of cool reflection, when following a question. I ask you to lend me one hundred dollars, without saying a word you put your hand in your pocket, and deliver me the money. I go into a hotel and I ask the landlord if he can accommodate me and take care of my trunk; without speaking he takes it out of my hands and sends it into his chamber¹⁴. By this act he doubtless becomes responsible to me as a bailee. At the expiration¹⁵ of a lease, the tenant¹⁶ remains¹⁷ in possession, without any objection from the landlord; this may be fairly interpreted as a sign of a consent that the lease shall be renewed. 13 Serg. & Rawle, 60.

4, The learned author of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, in his 44th chapter, remarks, "Among savage¹⁸ nations, the want of letters is imperfectly supplied by the use of visible signs, which awaken¹⁹ attention, and perpetuate²⁰ the remembrance of any public or private transaction. The jurisprudence of the first Romans exhibited the scenes of a pantomime; the words were adapted to the gestures, and the slightest error or neglect in the forms of proceeding²¹ was sufficient to annul²² the substance of the fairest claim. The communion of the marriage-life was denoted by the necessary elements of fire and water: and the divorced wife resigned, the bunch of keys, by the delivery of which she had been invested with the government of the family. The manumission of a son, or a slave, was performed by turning him round with a gentle blow on the cheek: a work was prohibited by the casting of a stone; prescription²³ was interrupted by the breaking of a branch; the clenched²⁴ fist was the symbol of a pledge or deposits; the right hand was the gift of faith and confidence. The indenture²⁵ of covenants²⁶ was a broken straw; weights and, scales were introduced into every payment, and the heir who accepted a testament²⁷, was sometimes obliged to snap his fingers, to cast away his garments, and to leap and dance with real or affected²⁸ transport. If a citizen pursued any stolen goods into a neighbor's house, he concealed²⁹ his nakedness with a linen³⁰ towel, and hid his. face with a mask or basin, lest he should encounter the eyes of a virgin³¹ or a matron. In a civil action, the plaintiff touched the ear of his witness seized his reluctant adversary³² by the neck and implored³³, in solemn lamentation³⁴, the aid of his fellow-citizens. The two competitors grasped each other's hand, as if they stood prepared for combat before the tribunal of the praetor: he commanded them to produce the object of the dispute; they went, they returned with measured steps, and a clod of earth was cast at his feet to represent the field for which they contended. This occult science of the words and actions of law, was the inheritance of the pontiffs and patricians³⁵. Like the Chaldean astrologers, they announced to their clients the days of business and repose³⁶; these important trifles wore interwoven with the religion of Numa; and, after the publication of the Twelve Tables, the Roman people were still enslaved by the ignorance of judicial³⁷ proceedings³⁸. The treachery of some plebeian³⁹ officers at length revealed the profitable mystery: in a more enlightened age, the legal actions were derided⁴⁰ and observed; and the same antiquity⁴¹ which sanctified the practice, obliterated⁴² the use and meaning, of this primitive⁴³ language."