F EL
408
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tear the mother in pieces for endeavouring to defend them. He liesin wait on the banks of rivers, &c. where the heat of the climateobliges other animals to repair for drink. Here he seizes his prey,or rather multiplies his massacres; for he no sooner kills one ani-mal than he Hies with equal fury upon the next, plunges his headinto their bodies, and drinks their blood. How ever, when he killsa large animal, as a horse or buffalo, he sometimes does not tearout the entrails on the spot, but,' to prevent any interruption, dragsoil the whole carcass to the wood, with incredible swiftness. Thisis a suflicient specimen of the strength of this rapacious animal.Neither force, restraint, nor violence, can tame the tiger. He isequally irritated with good as with bad treatment: lie tears thehand which nourishes him with equal fury, as. that which admini-sters blows: be roars ami is enraged at the sight of every livingcreature. Almost every natural historian agrees in this horriblecharacter of him. There is a sort of cruelty in his devastations,unknown to the generous lion; as well as a cowardliness in hissudden retreat on any disappointment. “ l was informed (saysMr. Pennant) by very good authority, that in the beginning ofthis century, some gentlemen and ladies, being on a party of idea-sure, under a shade of trees, on the hanks of a river in Bengal, ob-served a tiger preparing for its fatal spring: one ot the ladies, withamazing presence of mind, laid hold ot an umbrella, and furled ilfull in the animal’s face, which instantly retired, and gave thecompany an opportunity of removing from so terrible a neig.ihour.
XV If. F. Uncia, the Ounce, is less than the panther; thetail is longer; the hair is likewise longer, and of a whitsh grey co-lour, marked with irregular idaek spots. The ounce is eaTytamed; and is employed in hunting in several parts ot Asia , wheredogs are very scarce. He has not the delicate scent of a dog;does not trace oilier animals by the smell: neither can he runthem down in a faig chace; hut lies in wait for their approach, andthen darts upon them unawares. He leaps so nimbly, that lieeasily clears a ditch or a wall several feet high; besides, he oftenclimbs trees, wails till some animal passes, and instantly leaps uponthem. This method of catching their prey, is practised by thepanther and leopard, as well as by the ounce. The ounce inhabitsBarbary, Persia, Hyrcania, and China . It is under as much com-mand as a setting-clog; returns at the least call, and jumps up be-hind its master. This animal is supposed to be theQj.f/annu, or lesser panther of Oppian, and the panther of Pliny .
FELIU DE QUIXOLO, a port of Spain in Catalonia , on thesea-coast, 21 miles S. of Gerona.
FELi-X, St. an island in the Pacific Ocean , N. X. W. of JuanFernandez.
I 1 ELL, Dr. John, a very learned English divine who entereda student at Christ church at Oxford in 163(3. In 1(348, he wasejected by the parliamentary visitors, being then in orders: andH orn that time to the restoration lived at Oxford a retired and stu-dious life. He was installed canon of Christ church , in July1660 ; and dean in 1661; in which places he did great services tothe college, and reformed several abuses. He was consecratedbishop of Oxford in 1675; and had leave to hold his deanry incommendam, that he might continue his services to the collegeand university. lie published several works, and died in 1686.
FELLA, Cape, a cape of Naples, on the W. coast of CalabriaCitra.
EELLEN, a town of Livonia, S. E. of Revel. Lon. 24. 5. E.Lat. 58. 22. N.
FELLETIN, a town of France, in the department of Creuse ,and late province of Marche, 21 miles S. S. E. of Gueret .
FELLOWSHIP, or COMPANY, in arithmetic, is when twoor more join their stocks, and trade together, dividing their gain,or loss, proportionalsv. See Arithmetic.
FELO DE SE, in law, one who is felon of himself; i. c. beingof sound memory, and of the age of discretion, or 14 years, killshimself. A felo de se forfeits all chattels real and personal, whichha has in his own rgiit; and also all such chattels real whereof lieis possessed, either jointly with his wife, "or in her right; and alsoall bonds and oilier personal things in action, belonging solely tohimself; and also all personal things in action, and entire chattelsin possession, to which he w as entitled jointly with another, on anyaccount, except that of merchandize; but it is said that he shallforfeit a moiety only of such joint chattels as may be severed, andnothing at all of what he was possessed of as executor or admini-strator. .Stamdf. P. C. 188, 189. Plow. 243, 26?. 3 lust. 55.
, FELONY, a crime denounced capital by the law. Felony(says Judge Blackstone,) in the general acceptation of the law,comprises every species of crime, which occasions at common lawthe forfeiture of lands or goods. This most frequently happens inthose crimes for which a capital punishment cither is or was to heinflicted: for those felonies that are called clergyable, or to whichthe beneiit of clergy extends, were anciently punished with deathin all lay, or unlearned, otl'enders ; though now, by the statutelaw, that punishment is for the first offence universally remitted.Treason itself, says Sir Edward Coke , was anciently comprisedunder the name of felony ; and in conlirmation of this we may ob-serve, that the statute of treasons, 25 Edw. 111. c. 2, speaking ofsome dubious crimes, directs a reference to parliament; that itmay there he judged, “ whether they he treason or other felony.”All treasons, therefore, strictly speaking, are felonies; though all;elonies are not treason. And all offences, now capital, are inSome degree or other felony : but this is likewise the case withsome other offences which are not punished with death ; as sui-cide, where the party is already dead ; homicide by chance-med-ley, or in self-defence; and petit larceny, or pilfering; all whichare (strictly speaking) felonies, as they subject the committers ofthem to forfeitures, ho that, upon the whole, the only adequatedefinition of lelonv seems to he, an offence which occasions a totalforfeiture of either lands or goods, or both, at the common law;and to which capital or other punishment may be superadded, ac-cording to die degree of guilt. To explain tlii.-. farther: the wordSelonv, or fclonia, is of undoubted feudal orginal, be ng frequentlyto ne met with in the hook offends, Stc. hut the derivation oi itlias much puzzled the juridical lexicographers, Bralawis, Cal vi-nes, and the rest : some deriving it frmn Hie Greek, t’lXo;, an im-postoi or deceiver; Olliers from the Latin , J'utto, JcJeltt, to coun-tenance whence they would have it called fclonia. Sir EdwardCoke lias given us a still stranger etymology ; that it is Crimea an.mo telleo perpetration, “ witli a hitter or a galhsli inclination.”But all of them agree in the description, that it is such a crime asworks a foneilure of all the offender's land- or goods. And thisgives a great probability to Sir Henry Spelman’s Teutonic orGerman derivation of it: in which language indeed, as the word isclearly oi feudal original, we ought rather to look for ils significa-tion, than among the Greeks and Romans. Fe-lon then, accord-ing to him, is derived from two northern words ; Jee, whichsignifies the lief, feud, or beneficiary estate ; and Inn, which sig-nifies price or value. Felony is therefore the same as preliumfeudi, the consideration for which a man gives up his fief; as wesay in common speech, such an act is as much as your life, orestate, is worth. In this sense it will clearly signify the feodal for-feiture, or act by which an estate is forfeited, or escheats, to thelord. To confirm this, we may observe, that it is in this sense, offorfeiture to the lord, that the feodal writers constantly use it.Felony may he without inflicting capital punishment as in thecases instanced of self-murder, excusable homicide, petit larceny:and it is possible that capital punishments may he inflicted, andyet (lie offence he no felony ; as in case of heresy by (lie com-mon law, which, though capital, never worked any forfeiture oflands or goods, an inseparable incident to felony. And of thesame nature was the punishment of standing mute, w ithout plead-ing to an indictment; which at the common law was capital, hutwithout any forfeiture, therefore such standing mute was no felony.In short, the true criterion of felony is forfeiture: for, as Sir Ed-ward Coke justly observes, in all felonies which are punishablewith death, the offender loses all his lands in fee simple, ami alsohis goods and chattels; in such as are not punishable, his goodsand chattels only. The idea of felony is indeed so generally con-nected with that of capital punishment, that we tind it hard to se-parate them ; and to this usage the interpretations of the law donow conform. And therefore, if a statute makes any new offencefelony, the law implies that it shall be punished with death, viz.bv hanging as well as with forfeiture : unless the offender prays thebenefit of clergy ; which all felons are entitled once to have, un-less the sit me is expressly taken away hv statute. Felonies bystatute are very numerous; they are set forth in alphabetical orderin the Table of the 4to. edition of the Statutes.
FELT, a kind of stuff, which derives its consistence merelyfrom being fulled or wrought with lees and size, without beingeither spun or woven. The mechanism of felting is equally sim-ple and curious; though its theory is little understood, even by
professional