Legal Term: WAGER OF BATTEL.

Definition: A superstitious mode of trial which till lately disgraced the English law.

2. The last case of this kind was commenced in the year 1817, but not procceded in to judgment, and at the next session of the British parliament an act was passed to abolish appeals of murder, treason, felony or other offences, and wager of battel, or joining issue or trial by battel in writs of right. 59 Geo. III. c. 46. For the history of this species of trial the reader is referred to 4 Bl. Com. 347, 3 Bl. Com. 337, Encyclopedie, Gage de Bataille, Steph. Pl. 122, and App. note 35.

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