nothing of the letter. His entreaties that they would give up the whole project and escape to Flanders were unavailing. After the arrest of Fawkes on the night of the 4th Tresham did not fly with the rest of the conspirators, but remained at court and offered his services for apprehending them. For some days he was not suspected, but he was arrested on the 12th. On the 13th he confessed his share in the plot, and on the 29th his participation and that of Father Garnet in the mission to Spain. Shortly afterwards he fell ill with a complaint from which he had long suffered. On the 5th of December a copy of the Treatise of Equivocation, in which the Jesuit doctrine on that subject was treated, was found amongst his papers by Sir Edward Coke (see Garnet, Henry). From the lessons learnt here he had evidently profited. On the 9th of December he declared he knew nothing about the book, and shortly before his death, with the desire of saving his friend, he withdrew his statement concerning Garnet’s complicity in the Spanish negotiations, and denied that he had seen him or communicated with him for 16 years. His death took place on the 22nd. His last transparent falsehoods had removed any thoughts of leniency in the government. He was now classed with the other conspirators, and though he had never been convicted of any crime or received sentence, his corpse was decapitated and he was attainted by act of parliament. Tresham had married Anne, daughter of Sir John Tufton of Holtfield in Kent, by whom he had two daughters. His estates passed, notwithstanding the attainder, to his brother, afterwards Sir Lewis Tresham, Bart.
TRESPASS (O. Fr. trespas, a crime, properly a stepping across, from Lat. trans, across, and passus, step, cf. "transgression," from transgredi, to step across), in law, any transgression of the law less than treason, felony or misprision of either. The term includes a great variety of torts committed to land, goods or person, distinguished generally by names drawn from the
writs once used as appropriate to the particular transgression,
such as vi et armis, quare clausum fregit de bonis asportatis, de uxore abducta cum bonis viri, quare filium et heredem rapuit, &c.
Up to 1694 the trespasser was regarded, nominally at any rate,
as a criminal, and was liable to a fine for the breach of the peace,
commuted for a small sum of money, for which 5 Will, and Mar.
c. 12 (1693) substituted a fee of 6s. 8d. recoverable as costs
against the defendant. Trespass is not now criminal except
by special statutory enactment, e.g. the old statutes against
forcible entry, the game acts, and the private acts of many
railway companies. When, however, trespass is carried suffi-
ciently far it may become criminal, and be prosecuted as assault
if to the person, as nuisance if to the land. At one time an
important distinction was drawn between trespass general
and trespass special or trespass on the case, for which see Tort.
The difference between trespass and case was sometimes a
very narrow one: the general rule was that where the injury was
directly caused by the act of the defendant the proper remedy
was trespass, where indirectly case. The difference is illustrated
by the action for false imprisonment: if the defendant
himself imprisoned the plaintiff the action was trespass; if a
third person did so on the information of the defendant it
was case. A close parallel is found in Roman law in the
actio directa under the lex Aquilia for injury caused directly,
the actio utilis for that caused indirectly. One of the reasons
for the rapid extension of the action on the case, especially that
form of it called assumpsit, was no doubt the fact that in the
action on the case the defendant was not allowed to wage his
law (see Wager).
In its more restricted sense trespass is generally used for entry on land without lawful authority by either a man, his servants or his cattle. To maintain an action for such trespass the plaintiff must have possession of the premises. The quantum of possession necessary to enable him to bring the action is often a question difficult to decide. In most instances the tenant can bring trespass, the reversioner only case. Remedies for trespass are either judicial or extra-judicial. The most minute invasion of private right is trespass, though the damages may be nominal if the injury was trivial. On the other hand, they may be exemplary if circumstances of aggravation were present. Pleading in the old action of trespass was of a very technical nature, but the old-fashioned terms alia enormia, replication de injuria, new assignment, &c, once of such frequent occurrence in the reports, are of merely historical interest since the introduction of a simpler system of pleading, unless in those American states where the old pleading has not been reformed. The venue in trespass was formerly local, in case transitory. In addition to damages for trespass, an injunction may be granted by the court. The principal instances of extra-judicial remedies are distress damage feasant of cattle trespassing, and removal of a trespasser without unnecessary violence, expressed in the terms of Latin pleading by molliter manus imposuit.
Trespass may be justified by exercise of a legal right, as to serve the process of the law, or by invitation or license of the owner, or may be excused by accident or inevitable necessity, as deviation from a highway out of repair. Where a man abuses an authority given by the law, his wrongful act relates back to his entry, and he becomes a trespasser ab initio, that is, liable to be treated as a trespasser for the whole time of his being on the land. Mere breach of contract, such as refusal to pay for wine in a tavern which a person has lawfully entered, does not constitute him a trespasser ab initio. A trespass of a permanent nature is called a continuing trespass; such would be the permitting of one's cattle to feed on another's land without authority.
In Scots law trespass is used only for torts to land. By the Trespass (Scotland) Act 1865 trespassers are liable on summary conviction to fine and imprisonment for encamping, lighting fires, &c, on land without the consent and permission of the owner.
TRES TABERNAE (Three Taverns), an ancient village of Latium, Italy, a post station on the Via Appia, at the point where the main road was crossed by a branch from Antium. It is by some fixed some 3 m. S.E. of the modern village of Cisterna just before the Via Appia enters the Pontine marshes, at a point where the modern road to Nihfa and Norba diverges to the north-east, where a few ruins still exist (Grotte di Nottola), $s m - from Rome. It is, however, more probable
that it stood at Cisterna itself, where a branch road running from Antium by way of Satricum actually joins the Via Appia. Ulubrae, mentioned as a typical desert village by Roman writers, lay in the plain between Cisterna and Sermoneta. Tres Tabernae is best known as the point to which St Paul's friends came to meet him on his journey to Rome (Acts xxviii. 15). It became an episcopal see, but this was united with that of Velletri in 592 owing to the desertion of the place.
The name occurs twice in other parts of Italy as the name of post stations.
TRESVIRI, or Triumviri, in Roman antiquities, a board
of three, either ordinary magistrates or extraordinary commissioners.
1. Tresviri capitales, whose duty it was to assist the higher officials in their judicial functions, especially criminal, were first appointed about 289 B.C., unless they are to be identified with the tresviri nocturni (Livy ix. 46, 3), who were in existence in 304. They possessed no criminal jurisdiction or jus prensionis (right of arrest) in their own right, but acted as the representatives of others. They kept watch over prisoners
and carried out the death sentence (e.g. the Catilinarian conspirators were strangled by them in the Career Tullianurn); took accused or suspected persons into custody; and exercised general control over the city police. They went the rounds by night to maintain order, and had to be present at outbreaks of fire. Amongst other things they assisted the aediles in burning forbidden books. It is possible that they were entrusted by the praetor with the settlement of certain civil processes of a semi-criminal nature, in which private citizens acted as prosecutors (see G. Gotz in Rheinisches Museum, xxx, 162). They also had to collect the sacramenta (deposit forfeited by the losing party in a suit) and examined the plea of exemption put forward by those who refused to act as jurymen. Caesar increased their number to four, but Augustus reverted to three. In imperial times most of their functions passed into the hands of the praefectus vigilum.
