DECKER

decker, pierre de (1812-1891), belgian statesman and author, was educated at a jesuit school, studied law at paris, and became a journalist on the staff of the _revue de bruxelles_. in 1839 he was elected to the belgian lower chamber, where he gained a great reputation for oratory. in 1855 he became minister of the interior and prime minister, and attempted, by a combination of the moderate elements of the catholic and liberal parties, the impossible task of effecting a settlement of the educational and other questions by which belgium was distracted. in 1866 he retired from politics and went into business, with disastrous results. he became involved in financial speculations which lost him his good name as well as the greater part of his fortune; and, though he was never proved to have been more than the victim of clever operators, when in 1871 he was appointed by the catholic cabinet governor of limburg, the outcry was so great that he resigned the appointment and retired definitively into private life. he died on the 4th of january 1891. decker, who was a member of the belgian academy, wrote several historical and other works of value, of which the most notable are _etudes historiques et critiques sur les monts-de-piete en belgique_ (brussels, 1844); _de l'influence du libre arbitre de l'homme sur les faits sociaux_ (1848); _l'esprit de parti et l'esprit national_ (1852); _etude politique sur le vicomte ch. vilain xiiii_ (1879); _episodes de l'hist. de l'art en belgique_ (1883); _biographie de h. conscience_ (1885). declaration (from lat. _declarare_, to make fully clear, _clarus_), formerly, in an action at english law, the first step in pleading--the precise statement of the matter in respect of which the plaintiff sued. it was divided into counts, in each of which a specific cause of action was alleged, in wide and general terms, and the same acts or omissions might be stated in several counts as different causes of actions. under the system of pleading established by the judicature act 1875, the declaration has been superseded by a statement of claim setting forth the facts on which the plaintiff relies. declarations are now in use only in the mayor's court of london and certain local courts of record, and in those of the united states and the british colonies in which the common law system of pleading survives. in the united states a declaration is termed a "complaint," which is the first pleading in an action. it is divided into parts,--the _title_ of the court and term; the _venue_ or county in which the facts are alleged to have occurred; the _commencement_, which contains a statement of the names of the parties and the character in which they appear; the _statement_ of the cause of action; and the _conclusion_ or claim for relief. (see pleading.) the term is also used in other english legal connexions; e.g. the declaration of insolvency which, when filed in the bankruptcy court by any person unable to pay his debts, amounts to an act of bankruptcy (see bankruptcy); the declaration of title, for which, when a person apprehends an invasion of his title to land, he may, by the declaration of title act 1862, petition the court of chancery (see land registration); or the declaration of trust, whereby a person acknowledges that property, the title of which he holds, belongs to another, for whose use he holds it; by the statute of frauds, declarations of trust of land must be evidenced in writing and signed by the party declaring the trust. (see trusts.) by the statutory declarations act 1835 (which was an act to make provision for the abolition of unnecessary oaths, and to repeal a previous act of the same session on the same subject), various cases were specified in which a solemn declaration was, or might be, substituted for an affidavit. in nearly all civilized countries an affirmation is now permitted to those who object to take an oath or upon whose conscience an oath is not binding. (see affidavit; oath.) an exceptional position in law is accorded to a dying or deathbed declaration. as a general rule, hearsay evidence is excluded on a criminal charge, but where the charge is one of homicide it is the practice to admit dying declarations of the deceased with respect to the cause of his death. but before such declarations can be admitted in evidence against a prisoner, it must be proved that the deceased when making the declaration had given up all hope of recovery. unsworn declarations as to family matters, e.g. as to pedigree, may also be admitted as evidence, as well as declarations made by deceased persons in the course of their duty. (see evidence.)