GAGARIN, gil-ga'ren. A princely family of Russia. Some of its most prominent members were Matvei Petrovitch, Governor of Siberia, who suffered death in 1721 by order of Peter the Great on suspicion of aspiring to an independent sov ereignty. Alexander Ivanovitch (died 1857) was a distinguished soldier of the Crimean War, and was assassinated by the Prince of Suanethi, whose province he was about to annex to Rus sia. Pavel Pavlovitch (1789-1872) was a mem-' ber of the council of emancipation of the serfs, and from 1864 to 1865 president of the Council of Ministers. Ivan Sergeyevitch (1814-82) was secretary to the Russian Embassy at Paris, turned Catholic in 1843, and became a Jesuit missionary. He was the author of many ecclesiastical books and pamphlets, among them Les staroveres, l'eglise russe et le pape (1857); Les hymns de l'eglise russe (1868).
GAGE (Fr. gager, from Lat. vadium, a pawn or pledge). An old term of English law, signify ing a pledge or pawn of property as security for the performance of a legal obligation. It has lost its independent position in our legal system, and is now found only in the combination mort gage (mort gage, dead pledge).
Estates in gage were of two kinds—vivum vadium, and mortuum vadium, the live pledge and the dead pledge. Vivum vadium was where an estate in lands was given in security for a debt, on condition that the estate 'should remain with the lender until he had made good the sum lent out of the profits of the land. Mor tuum, radium was a pledge of land or goods to be held by the pledgee until the debt be paid or the obligation performed by the pledgor. See MORTGAGE ; PLEDGE.