BAR, in law, a plea of a defendant, which is said to be sufficient to destroy the plaintiff's action. It is divided into bar special, bar to common intendment, bar temporal, and bar perpetual. Bar special, falls out upon some special cir cumstances of the case in question, as where an executor, being sued for his tes tator's debt, pleads that he had no goods in his hands at the day on which the writ was sued out. Bar to common intend ment, is a general bar, which commonly disables the plaintiff's declaration. Bar temporary, is such as is good for the pre sent, but may afterwards fail ; and bar perpetual, is that which overthrows the plaintiff's action for ever. In personal actions, once barred, and ever so, is the general rule ; but it is intended, where a bar is to the right of the cause, not where a wrong action is brought. In criminal cases, there are especially four pleas in bar, which go to the merits of the indict ment, and give reason why the prisoner ought not to answer it, nor be tried upon. it ; as, a former acquittal, a former convit tion, although no judgment were given, a former attainder, and a pardon.
BAR, in heraldry, an ordinary in form of the fesse, but much less.
It differs from the fesse only in its nar rowness, and in this, that the bar may be placed in any part of the field, whereas the fesse is confined to a single place.
BAR, in music, a stroke drawn perpen dicularly across the lines of a piece of music,including between each two a cer tain quantity or measure of time, which is various, as the time of the music is either triple or common. In common time, be tween each two bars is included the mea sure of four crotchets ; in triple, three. The principal use of bars is, to regulate the beating of time in a concert.
BAR, double, consists of two parallel straight lines, somewhat broader than a common bar, drawn near each other, and passing perpendicularly through the stave. The double bar divides the differ ent strains of a movement. If two or more dots are placed on one of its sides, they imply that the strain of the move ment, or the same side with the dots, is to be performed twice ; and if the dots are placed on each side of the double bar, the repetition extends to the strains on each side of the double bar.
BAR, in hydrography, denotes a bank of sand, or other matter, whereby the mouth of ariver is in amanner choked up.
The term bar is also used for a strong beam, wherewith the entrance of an har bour is secured ; this is more commonly called boorri,