BAILIFF AND BAILIE.) The "provosts of the marshals of France," mentioned above, were non-legal officials (officiers de la robe courte) forming part of the body of the marechaussee which was under the ancien regime what the gendarmerie was after the Revolution. Their original function was to judge offences committed by persons fol lowing the army, but in the course of the 14th and 15th centuries they acquired the right of judging certain crimes and misdemean ours, by whomsoever committed. They became stationary, with fixed spheres of authority, and the offences falling within their competency came to be called cas prevotaux. These were the worst crimes of violence, and all crimes and misdemeanours com mitted by old offenders (repris de justice), who were familiarly known as the gibier des prevots des marechaux (J. P. E.) PROXY (short for "procuracy"), a term denoting either (I) a person who is authorized to stand in place of another; (2) the legal instrument by which the authority is conferred. Proxies are now principally employed for certain voting purposes. A proxy may in law be either general or special. A general proxy authorizes the person to whom it is entrusted to exercise a general discretion throughout the matter in hand, while a special proxy limits the authority to some special proposal or resolution. Formerly a peer could give his vote in the British parliament by proxy, by getting another peer to vote for him in his absence, temporal peers only voting for temporal and spiritual peers for spiritual. However, on March 31, 1868, on the recommendation of a committee, a new standing order was adopted by which the practice of calling for proxies on a division was discontinued. In English and American
bankruptcy proceedings creditors may vote by proxy, and every instrument of proxy, which may be either general or special, is issued either by the official receiver or trustee. Under the English Bankruptcy Act of 1914 and the American Bankruptcy Act of 1898 a creditor may still vote by proxy in the manner prescribed. A shareholder in a limited liability company may vote by proxy, and regulations to that effect prescribing the requirements are usually embodied in the articles of association. In England a proxy to vote at a meeting must bear a revenue stamp. (See PROCURA TION.) In the early practice of the admiralty courts a proxy was the authority by which the proctor or advocate appeared for either party to a suit. In the ecclesiastical courts a proxy is the warrant empowering a proctor to act for the party to a suit. Two proxies are usually executed, one authorizing the proctor to insti tute, the other to withdraw, proceedings. They are signed by the parties, attested by two witnessed, and deposited in the registry of the court (Phillimore, Ecclesiastical Law). In the convocations of the Church of England those who are absent are allowed to vote by proxy. (See also PROCURATION.) Marriage by proxy or deputy was a custom recognized either for reasons of State or ceremonial. The extension of the doctrine to ordinary mar riages was recognized in a few wartime cases in the United States.