of two or more things. The joints of the human body are called by anatomists articulations. The term joint is also applied to the separation between the stones or bricks of a building, usually filled with mortar, plaster, or cement; also by carpenters, to the several manners of assembling or fitting pieces of wood together; as a dove-tail joint, &c. JOINT, universal, an invention adapted to all kinds of motions and flexures. This was probably the origin of the gimbols used in suspending the mariner's compass. By means of the universal joint, the pull of a bell may be carried to any part of a room, and made to act as well in one place as in another. JOINT STOCK COMPANIES. About the time of the famous Mississipi sheme in France, and the South Sea scheme in England, there arose a sort of epidemic fever of speculation, and every one was anxious to join in some partnership, for carrying on speculations in foreign commerce or do mestic trade, by companies of persons uniting several individual stocks of small amount into one common fund. At the best, it has been observed, that trade, so carried on by large companies, is not very beneficial to the individuals who engage in it, or if it were so, would be greatly prejudicial to the public in general, and to other individuals trading on their own capitals. At the pe ́riod above mentioned, about 1718 and 1724, many serious consequences ensued from this spirit of speculation, many frauds were committed by adventurers taking advantage of it, and the whole nation was in a manner convulsed by the injuries which the people at large suffered from it, many families having been reduced to utter ruin by it. To prevent these evils occurring in future, the following enactments were passed: stat. 16 George I. c. 18, s. 18, 19, 20, 21; by which, after reciting, that whereas it is notorious, that several undertakings or projects of different kinds have, at some time or times since the four-and-twentieth day of June, one thousand seven hundred and eighteen, been publicly contrived and practised, or attempted to be practised, within the city of London, and other parts of this kingdom, as also in Ireland, and other his Majesty's dominions, which manifestly tend to the common grievance, prejudice, and inconvenience of great numbers of your Majesty's subjects, in their trade or commerce, and other their affairs; and the persons who contrive or attempt such dan gerous and mischievous undertakings or projects, under false pretences of public good, do presume, according to their own devices and schemes, to open books for public subscriptions, and draw in many unwary persons to subscribe therein, towards raising great sums of money, whereupon the subscribers, or claimants under them, do pay small proportions thereof, and such proportions, in the whole, do amount to very large sums; which dangerous and mischievous undertakings, or projects, do relate to several fisheries, and other affairs, wherein the trade, commerce, and welfare of your Majesty's subjects, or great numbers of them, are concerned or interested: and whereas, in many cases the said undertakers or subscribers have, since the said four-and-twentieth day of June, one thousand seven hundred and eighteen, presumed to act as if they were corporate bodies, and have pretended to make their shares in stocks transferrable or assignable, without any legal authority, either by act of Parliament, or by any charter from the crown, for so doing, &c.: it is enacted, by authority of this present Parliament, that from and after the four-and-twentieth day of June, one thousand seven hundred and twenty, all and every the undertakings and attempts described as aforesaid, and all other public undertakings and attempts, tending to the common grievance, prejadice, and inconvenience of his Majesty's subjects, or great numbers of them, in their trade, commerce, or other lawful affairs, and all public subscriptions, receipts, payments, assignments, transfers, pretended assignments and transfers, and all other matters-and things whatsoever, for furthering, countenancing, or proceeding in any such undertaking or attempt, and more particularly, the acting, or presuming to act, as a córporate body or bodies; the raising, or pretending to raise, transferrable stock or stocks; the transferring, or pretending to transfer or assign any share or shares in such stock or stocks, without legal authority, either by act of Parliament, or by any charter from the crown, to warrant such acting as a body corporate, or to raise such transferable stock or stocks, or to transfer shares therein, and all acting, or pretending to act, under any charter, formerly granted from the crown, for particular or special purposes therein expressed, by persons who do or shall use, or endeavour to use, the same charters, for raising a capital stock, or for making transfers or assignments, or pre tended transfers or assignments of such stock, not intended or designed by such charter to be raised or transferred, and all acting, or pretending to act, under any obsolete charter become or voidable by nonuser or abuser, or for want of making law. ful elections, which were necessary to continue the corporation thereby intended, shall (as to all or any such acts, matters, and things as shall be acted, done, attempted, or endeavoured, or proceeded upon, after the said four-and-twentieth day of June one thousand seven hundred and twenty) for ever, be deemed to be illegal and void, and shall not be practised, or, in anywise, put in execution. And further, the parties offending, by committing any of the acts above enumerated, and more particularly, the presuming or pretending to act as a corporate body, or to raise a transferrable stock or stocks, or to make transfers or assignments of any share or shares therein, without such legal authority as aforesaid, &c. shall be deemed to be a public nuisance and nuisances: and all offenders therein, being thereof lawfully convicted, shall be liable to such fines and penalties as persons convicted for public nuisances are; and moreover shall incur any further pains, penalties, and forfeitures, provided by the statute of provisions and præmunire, made in the sixteenth year of the reign of King Richard the second. If any merchant or trader, at any time after the said four-and-twentieth day of June, one thousand seven hundred and twenty, shall suffer any particular damage in his, her, or their trade, commerce, or other lawful affairs, by occasion or means of any undertaking or attempt, matter, or thing, by this act declared to be unlawful, as aforesaid, and will sue to be relieved therein, then, and in every such case, such merchant or trader shall and may have his and their remedy for the same, by an action or actions to be grounded upon this statute, against the persons, societies, or partnerships, or any of them, who, contrary to this act, shall be engaged or interested in any such unlawful undertaking or attempt; and in every such action, the plaintiff shall or may recover treble damages, with full costs of suit. By s. 21, if any broker, or person acting as a broker, shall bargain, sell, buy, or purchase, or contract, or agree for the bargaining, &c. of any share or interest in any of the undertakings by the act declared illegal, he shall be rendered incapable of act ing as a broker, and forfeit 5007., one moiety to the King, and the other to the informer. S. 25, this act is not to prohibit the carrying on of any home or foreign trade in partnership, in such manner as has been usually, and may be legally done, except in insurances, &c. These enactments have, for many years since the passing of them, in 1721, not been/ enforced, except in the instance of one Cafwood, Michaelmas, 8 George I., Strange Kep. 472, and Lord Raymond, 1561, who was fined 51. and imprisoned during his Majesty's pleasure, for being the projector of an unlawful undertaking to trade to the North Sea. In the interval between that time and the present, (1808) many institutions have been formed and carried on in direct violation of the act, such as fire and life insurance companies, which are all beneficial to the community, as they necessa rily would be, if carried on with regularity and good faith. The success of these institutions has given rise to many speculations in more recent times, which were not of such obvious utility; and a Mr. Dodd, hav. ing projected a distillery, by a joint-stock company, became an object of jealousy to some private distillers, who applied to the court of King's Bench for leave to file a criminal information against him; upon which the court pronounced him within the words of the act, which prohibit the raising of joint-stock shares; but refused to interfere, on account of the length of the time during which the statute had lain dormant. The words of this statute are so clear, that, to the writer of this article, it appears strange that they could ever be misunderstood. They prohibit all combinations in trade, except partnerships and lawful corporations established by act of Parliament, or royal charter; and when the nature of mercantile contracts is considered, the law could not safely do otherwise; for it would leave the unwary open to the grossest frauds, and the most ruinous self-delusion. A corporation is not the mere fanciful essence which it is ignorantly deemed to be: it is a combination formed upon a strict view of legal principles, and the commerce of mankind; upon the only plan on which large bodies of men can be enabled to contract with individuals. In trusting to a corporation, there must be a permanent fund, out of which to answer all obligations, because no individual is answerable personally. Corporations must be confined only, therefore, to those cases in which dealings are simple, and in which a permanent fund can be kept together. Partnerships depend altogether upon individual responsibility, and can therefore not safely be composed of many persons; for in suing and being sued, all the partners must be named. This inconvenience has been attempted to be remedied by making acts of Parliament, to enable certain fire companies, the Albion, Globe, &c. to sue and be sued by their chief clerk, without making them corporations: yet, as they stipulate not to be answerable beyond their individual shares, it will be found difficult, if not impossible, to levy execution upon them, and the party must still sue out one or two thousand writs of fieri facius, for a debt of 201. Such is the consequence of interfering with the established common law. The result will be found to be, that in all such cases, the public deal with a body of people upon honour and good faith only, and each individual embarks all his fortune in such concerns, and being once engaged in them, continues still liable. Whether it would be feasible to give further facility to the erecting of trad. ing corporations, considering the advantages of some such institutions, is therefore a question of great difficulty both in political economy and legislation. JOINT tenants, are those that come to, and hold lands or tenements by one title, pro indiviso, or without partition. These are distinguished from sole or several tenants, from parceners, and from tenants in common; and they must jointly implead, and jointly be impleaded by others, which properly is common between them and coparceners; but joint tenants have a sole quality of survivorship, which co-parceners have not; for if there be two or three joint tenants, and one hath issue and dies, then he or those joint tenants that survive, shall have the whole by survivorship. The creation of an estate in joint tenancy depends on the wording of the deed or devise, by which tenant claims title, and cannot arise by act of law. If any estate be given to a plurality of persons, without adding any restrictive, exclusive or explanatory words, as if an estate be granted to A and B, and their heirs, this makes them immediately joint tenants in fee of the lands. If there be two joint tenants, and one release the other, this passes a fee without the word heirs, because it refers to the whole fee, which they jointly took, and are possessed of by force of the first conveyance; but the tenants in common cannot release each other, for a release supposes the party to have the thing in demand; but tenants in common have several distinct freeholds, which they cannot tranfer otherwise than as persons who are sole seized. Although joint tenants are seized per mie et per tout, yet to divers purposes, each of them bath but a right to a moiety; as, to enfeoff, give or demise, or to forfeit or lose by default in a præcipe; and therefore where there are two or more joint tenants, and they all join in a feoffment, each of them in judgment gives but his part. At common law, joint tenants in common were not compellable to make partition; except by the custom of some cities and boroughs. But now joint tenants may make partition; the one party may compel the other to make partition, which must be by deed : that is to say, all the parties must by deed actually convey and assure to each other the several estates, which they are to take and enjoy severally and separately. Joint tenants being seized per mie et per tout, and deriving by one and the same title, must jointly implead, and be jointly impleaded. with others. If one joint tenant refuse to join in an action, he may be summoned and severed; but if the person severed die, the writ abates in real actions, but not in personal and mixed actions. JOINTURE, a jointure, strickly speaking, signifies a joint estate, limited to both husband and wife; but in common acceptation, it extends also to a sole estate, limited to the wife only, and may be thus defined, viz. a competent livelihood for the wife of freehold of lands and tenements, to take effect, in profit or possession, presently after the death of the husband; for the life of the wife at least. By the statute of 27 Henry VIII. c. 10. if a jointure be made to the wife, it is a bar of her dower, so as she shall not have both jointure and dower. And to the making of a perfect jointure within that statute six things are necessary to be observed. 1. Her jointure is to take effect presently after her husband's decease. 2. It must be for the term of her own life, or greater estate. 3. It should be made to herself. 4. It must be made in satisfaction of her whole dower, and not of part of her dower. 5. It must either be expressed or averred to be in satisfaction of her dower. 6. It should be made during the coverture. The estate should be made to herself; but as the intention of the statute was to secure the wife a competent provision, and also to exclude her from claiming dower, and likewise her settlement, it seems that a provision or settlement on the wife, though by way of trust, if in other respects it answer the intention of the statute, will be enforced in a court of equity. It should be made during the coverture; this the very words of the act of parliament require, and therefore if a jointure be made to a woman during her coverture in satisfaction of dower, she may wave it after her husband's death; but if she enter, and agree thereto, she is concluded; for though a woman is not bound by any act when she is not at her own disposal, yet if she agree to it when she is at liberty, it is her own act, and she cannot avoid it. JOISTS, in architecture, those pieces of timber framed into the girders and summers, on which the boards of the floor are laid. See ARCHITECTURE and BUILDING. IONIC order, the third of the five orders of architecture, being a kind of mean be tween the robust and delicate orders. See ARCHITECTURE. IONIC dialect, in grammar, a manner of speaking peculiar to the people of Ionia. At first it was the same with the antient Attic; but passing into Asia, it did not ar rive at that delicacy and perfection to which the Athenians attained. The Ionians generally changed the winton, as copia into oopin; they put the and, for, and an for n, as ayniov for aylεior: avaynain for avayxn: they also change a and ❝ into ŋ, av into wu, & into ɛ and ɛɛ, ɛv into w and nu, and to into Ev n JONCQUETIA, in botany, so named in memory of Denis Joncquet, a genus of the Decandria Tetragynia class and order. Essential character: calyx five-leaved; petals five, spreading; filaments growing to a glandule; styles none; capsule sub-globular, one-celled, five-valved, five-seeded. There is but one species, viz. J. guianensis, a large tree, forty to fifty feet high, and about three in diameter with a russet bark, and a white uncompact wood; it has a great number of branching boughs at the top, those in the middle erect, the rest horizontal, spreading in all directions. Native of Guiana. JONES (INIGO), an eminent architect, was the son of a clothworker in London, and was born in that city about 1572. Scarcely any thing is known of the manner in which he passed his early years, but it is probable that he enjoyed few advantages of education, and was destined to a mechanical employment. He displayed, however, a talent for the fine arts, which attracted the notice of some lords about the court, among whom were the Earls of Arundel and Pembroke. The latter of these noblemen has generally the credit of becoming his patron, and sending him into Italy for the purpose of perfecting himself in landscape painting, to which his geniusseemed first to point. He took up his residence chiefly at Venice, where the works of Palladio gave him a turn to the study of architecture, which branch of art he made his profession. He acquired a reputation in that city, which procured him an invitation from Christian IV. King of Denmark, to come and occupy the post of his first architect. He was some years in the service of that sovereign, whom he accompanied, in 1606, on a visit to his brother-inlaw, King James, and, expressing a desire of remaining in his native country, he was appointed architect to the Queen. He served Prince Henry in the same capacity, and obtained a grant in reversion of the place of Surveyor General of the Works. After the death of the Prince, Jones again visited Italy, where he pursued further improvement during some years. When the Surveyor's place fell, he returned to occupy the office, and finding the Board of Works much in debt, he relinquished his own dues, and prevailed upon the Comptroller and Paymaster to do the same, till all arrears were cleared. The King, in 1620, set him a task better suited to a man of learning than an artist, which was, to exercise his ingenuity in conjecturing the founders and the purpose of that remarkable remain of antiquity, Stonehenge. Jones, whose ideas were all Roman, convinced himself that it ought to be ascribed to that people, and wrote a treatise to prove his point; but of all the guesses relative to that structure, this has least obtained the concurrence of sound antiquarians. At that time he was building the banquetting-house at Whitehall, which was meant only as a pavilion to a splendid palace intended to be erected, and of which there exists a magnificent design from his ideas. The banquetting house subsists, a model of the pure and elegant taste of the architect. He was in that reign appointed a commissioner for repairing the cathedral of St. Paul's, which office, as well as his other posts, were continued to him under Charles I. The entertain ments, called masques, introduced by James's queen, Anne of Denmark, and in vogue during the gay part of the succeeding reign, gave Jones frequent employment in the invention of the scenery and decorations. The poetical composer of most of these pieces was Ben Jonson, be tween whom and Jones a violent quarrel took place, productive of much virulent abuse, in detestable verse, on the part of the testy bard. It appears that the architect too, was a dabbler in poetry, which, perhaps, might be the occasion of the dif ference between them. The repairs of St. Paul's did not commence till 1633. Of our architect's performance in this business, Mr. Walpole thus speaks: "In the restoration of that cathedral, he made two capital faults. He first renewed the sides with very bad Gothic, and then added a Roman portico, magmificent and beautiful indeed, but which had no affinity with the ancient parts that remained, and made his own Gothic appear ten times heavier. He committed the same error at Winchester, thrusting a screen in the Roman or Grecian taste, into the middle of that cathedral. Jones, indeed, was by no means successful when he attempted Gothic." He had much employment both from the court and among the nobility, and realized a handsome fortune, which was diminished by sufferings during the troubles which succeeded. He was obnoxious, both as a favourite of his royal master, and as a Roman Catholic. The first attack made upon him was in 1640, when he was called before the House of Lords, on a complaint of the parishioners of St. Gregory's, for demolishing part of their church, in order to make room for his additions to St. Paul's. In 1646 he was obliged to pay 5451, by way of composition as a malignant. The King's death greatly affected him; and he died, worn down by grief and misfortune, in July, 1651. He is said to have been a skilful geometrician, and to have been well acquainted with various branches of knowledge. He was certainly the greatest English architect previous to Sir Christopher Wren. His designs with the pen were highly valued by Vandyke. A collection of them was engraved and published by Mr. Kent, in two volumes folio, 1727, and some lesser designs in 1744. Others were published in 1743, 4to., by Mr. Ware. A copy of Palladio's Architecture, with manuscript notes by Jones, is in the library of Worcester College, Oxford. Mr. Walpole has given a catalogue of the principal buildings erected and decorated by this architect. In JONES (WILLIAM), in biography, a very eminent mathematician in the seventeenth and former part of the eighteenth century, was born in the parish of Llanfihangel trer Bard, at the foot of Bodavon mountain in the Isle of Anglesea, North Wales, in the year 1680. His parents were yeomen, or small farmers, on that island, and he there received the best education which they were able to afford; reading, writing, and accounts, in English, and the Latin grammar. Having, however, an extraordinary turn for mathematical studies, by the industrious exertion of vigorous intellectual powers, he supplied the defects of adequate instruction, and laid the foundation of his future fame and fortune. He began his career in life by teaching mathematics on board a man of war; and in this situation he attracted the notice, and obtained the friendship, of Lord Auson. his twenty-second year, Mr. Jones published "A New Compendium of the whole Art of Navigation," &c. 8vo., which is a a neat little piece, and was received with great approbation. He was present at the capture of Vigo, in the same year, and having joined his comrades in quest of pillage, he eagerly fixed upon a bookseller's shop as the object of his depredation; but finding in it no literary treasures, which were the sole plunder that he coveted, he contented himself with a pair of scissars, which he frequently exhibited to his friends as a trophy of his military success, relating the anecdote by which he gained it. After the return of the fleet to England, he immediately established himself as a teacher of mathematics in London, where, in the year 1706, he published his " Synopsis Palmariorum Matheseos ;" or, "A New Introduction to the Mathematics," &c. containing a perspicuous and useful compendium of all the mathematical sciences, and affording a decisive proof of his early and consummate proficiency in his favourite studies. The private character of Mr. Jones was respectable, his manners were agreeable and inviting; and those qualities not only contributed to enlarge the circle of his friends, whom his established reputation for science had attracted, but also to secure their attachment to him. Among others who honoured him with their esteem, was the great and virtuous Lord Hardwicke, whom he attended as a |