all matters laid to his charge, we might | to agreements about something which is suppose that appeal lay from him only to to be done, which in England are genethe king and council. But since the erec- rally called contracts, or to something tion of the Court of Session, in 1532, he that is done, some transfer of property, has been regarded as an inferior judge, which is generally done by the act which and his court as an inferior court, which is called a deed. it is accordingly considered by Erskine in his Institutes,' b. i. tit. 4, sec. 32. In the case of Hoy v. Tenant, June 27, 1760, the Court of Session went still further, and held itself as the forum originis of all Scotsmen, to have a cumulative jurisdiction with the conservator. CONSIDERATION. This is a Latin word, "consideratio," which, as well as the verb "considero," was used by Cicero and others to express "careful observation," or "reflection," or "deliberation before action." It has nothing to do with looking at the stars, as the Latin grammarian Festus states; but it implies something which is nearer to the business of common life than star-gazing: it implies the sitting down of a man in a place alone or with others. The word " consideration" means 'deliberation' in the English language of common life. But consideration has also a legal and technical meaning, which seems to flow naturally from its primary and vulgar meaning. A consideration is something which enters into all contracts, and is a part of all transfers of property, except they are made by will or testament. The following are examples of expressed considerations, from which examples the technical meaning of consideration may be collected:-If a man agrees to sell his land to another for 100l., the 1007. is the consideration for which he agrees to part with his land; or if a man promises to give 1000l. to another man if he will marry his daughter, the man is entitled to the 1000l. if he does marry the daughter. There is an implied consideration in many cases where none is expressed. A man may undertake to do a piece of work for another without any express bargain that he shall be paid; but if he does the work according to his agreement, the other man may be compelled to pay him. The implied consideration here is the implied promise to pay if the work is done. The word consideration applies either Contracts cannot be enforced if there is no consideration. A man may promise to give another 1000l., but the promise cannot be enforced unless there is a consideration, which has been defined to be a reason which moves the contracting party to enter into the contract. This is not a very good definition, but it will do: the meaning is, there must be a motive which the law considers a sufficient motive. A consideration must of course be a thing lawful. Considerations are sometimes divided into valuable considerations and good considerations. Marriage, as in the instance just given, that is a marriage intended, and afterwards carried into effect, is a valuable consideration; money, and any other thing which is of the nature of property, and has a money value, are valuable considerations. Therefore, if a man parts with his estate for a valuable consideration, the transaction is valid, and he who gets the estate has, so far as the consideration is concerned, a good title. A good consideration is the consideration of natural affection between blood relations, and a man may give his estate to another for such a consideration. But this kind of consideration is not sufficient to maintain the validity of a conveyance of property against the claim of a subsequent purchaser for valuable consideration. Thus if a man after his marriage settles an estate upon his wife and children in consideration of his natural affection, and then sells the estate for money, the purchaser will have the estate, and not the wife and children. (Hill E. Bishop of Exeter, 2 Taunt. 69.) Such a settlement after marriage is called voluntary or gratuitous. A settlement of property made in consideration of a future marriage, which afterwards takes place, is a settlement for valuable consideration. The actual settlement may be made after marriage, if it is made pursuant to a written agreement entered into before marriage. It appears from these instances that the legal notion of consideration is this:the fact of there being a good consideration is evidence that there is no fraud, and the absence of it is a presumption of fraud. The doctrine of consideration is intended to protect either the giver or grantor, or other persons whom he may wish to defraud by disposing of his property. In the statute 13 Eliz. c. 5, the object | that makes no difference; his purchase is of which is to prevent persons from valid against such conveyance. heating their creditors by disposing of heir real or personal property, it is declared that the provisions of the act lo not extend to estates or interests nade or conveyed "upon good conideration and bonâ fide," and the good consideration here means money, or noney's worth, or a marriage which is hen intended and afterwards takes effect. Good consideration here is therefore equivalent to what has been above defined to be a valuable consideration. Every deed therefore or instrument by which property is conveyed ought to show some consideration for which the The acts 27 Eliz. c. 4, and 30 Eliz. 18, § 3, make void, as against sub-person conveys the property to another; sequent purchasers, all conveyances, &c. for though a deed is valid between the of real property which are made for the parties to it, when no consideration is purposes of defrauding such purchasers, expressed, it may be invalid with respect unless" upon or for good consideration and to other persons who are not parties to bona fide." This statute has received a sin- it. There is no absolute amount of congular interpretation, for it has been de- sideration which can be legally required, cided that it makes void a previous con- but a very small amount of consideration veyance, though not made with the intent might in some cases raise a presumption of to defraud any one, if the consideration is fraud; and, indeed, even if the amount of not such as the statute intends; and accord- consideration should be the full value of ingly, as in the case just stated, if a man the thing conveyed, it may be necessary settles his land after marriage on his in some cases to inquire whether the conwife and children, and then sells it, the sideration expressed was actually paid. prior settlement is void as a fraudulent conveyance. A voluntary conveyance then by a man who is at the time insolvent, is not valid against his creditors; but if a man is not insolvent at the time, a vo luntary conveyance, that is, one where there is no valuable consideration, is valid against future creditors (13 Eliz. c. 5). A conveyance for valuable consideration, such as marriage, is a valid conveyance, even if a man be insolvent at the time. An insolvent man may therefore cheat his creditors by settling his property on a woman with a view to marriage, and then marrying her; but in certain cases, such settlements are not valid against creditors when made by a person who is subject to the bankrupt laws. A voluntary conveyance is not valid against a future purchaser for good consideration: it is a fraudulent transaction according to the construction of the 27th of Eliz., and as such is declared void against the purchaser. If the purchaser knew that there was such a voluntary prior conveyance, In the case of a contract or agreement to give or settle property, the necessity for a consideration is obvious, both for the protection of the giver, and of others to whom he is indebted, or whom it is his moral duty to provide for. No contract to give can be enforced unless there is a sufficient legal consideration. An agreement to settle property on a lawful child is such consideration: an agreement to settle property on an illegitimate child is not such a consideration. Many curious legal questions have arisen on the doctrine of consideration, such for instance as the case of one man promising to pay the debt of another man. The general principle is, as already stated, that there must be some advantage to the person promising, either certain or prospective, which shall be a reasonable and sufficient inducement for him to promise. If a man were to give his physician a bond which should bind his executors to pay the physician a certain sum after his death, a case which has happened, the validity of the bond might be disputed if the circumstances under which it was given were such as to raise a suspicion of fraud; for instance, if no person was privy to the transaction except the man and his physician, and if the sum should be very large, and the services of the physician altogether disproportionate to the amount. CONSISTORIUM. [CARDINAL, p. 455.] CONSISTORY is the court Christian, or spiritual court, formerly held in the nave of the cathedral church, or in some chapel, aisle, or portico belonging to it, in which the bishop presided, and had some of his clergy for assessors and assistants. But this court is now held by the bishop's chancellor or commissary, and by archdeacons or their officials, either in the cathedral church or other convenient place in the diocese, for the hearing and determining of matters of ecclesiastical cognizance happening within that diocese. (Burn's Ecclesiastical Law, tit. "Consistory.") The consistory courts grant probates of wills for the goods and chattels of a deceased person which are within their jurisdiction: but if the deceased has bona notabilia in two dioceses, the probate must be granted by the prerogative court of the province. The officers of a consistory court usually consist of a judge, deputy-judge, registrar, deputy - registrar, and apparitor. By stat. 24 Hen. VIII. c. 12, an appeal lies from this court to the court of the archbishop of the province. CONSOLS. [ÑATIONAL DEBT.] CONSPIRACY. Every conspiracy to do an unlawful act which is injurious to individuals or to the public, is a misdemeanor by the common law of England. Many frauds affecting individuals, which cannot be made the subject of prosecution as such, become indictable when they are effected by the co-operation of several confederates. Thus if several persons agree by indirect means to impoverish a third person, as by circulating calumnies injurious to his character or credit, the offence is punishable as a conspiracy, though the concerted acts alone, when committed by individuals, could only have formed the subject of a civil action by the injured party. Another instance of this is the case of a conspiracy among journeymen or servants to raise the price of wages by refusing to work under a certain price. [COMBINATION LAWS.] In former times persons convicted of conspiracy at the suit of the king (the nature of which offence is very doubtful) were liable to receive what was called villanous judgment, by which they were rendered incapable of acting as jurors or witnesses, their lands and goods were forfeited for life, and their bodies committed to prison. This judgment was never, however, inflicted upon persons convicted of conspi racies of a less aggravated kind at the suit of the party; and in modern times the villanous judgment having become obsolete by long disuse, the punishment of conspiracy has been by fine, imprison ment, and sureties for good behaviour, at the discretion of the court. (Russell, On Crimes and Misdemean ors, vol. ii.) CONSTABLE. This word is sup posed by Ducange, Spelman, Cowell, and other legal writers, to be corrupted from comes stabuli, which was another name for the tribunus stabuli, or praepositus equorum, a kind of master of the horse frequently mentioned as an officer of state in the middle ages. (Ducange, Glossary ad vocem Comes Stabuli.) Sir Edwar Coke, Selden, and several other writers insist upon another etymology-from tw Saxon words, koning, a king, and stape or stabel, a stay or support-quasi col men regis. Both these derivations are equally remote from the description the office of our modern constable; b the former appears to be far the more probable; and, in accordance with it, th Constable of France was an important officer of the highest rank in that country who had the chief command of the army and had cognizance of military offences it was also his duty to regulate all mist ters of chivalry, such as tilts, tour ments, and feats of arms. This off was suppressed in France by an edict i the year 1607: it was revived by Nape leon, and constituted one of the six gran dignities under the French empire; and was finally abolished upon the restors tion of the Bourbon dynasty, in 1814. Immediately after the Norman con feited to the crown. Since that time the office of high constable has never been granted to any subject, excepting for some special occasion, such as the king's coronation or trials of peers. "Out of this high office," says Lambard, in his 'Duties of Constables,' "the lower constableship was first drawn and fetched, and is (as it were) a verie finger of that hand; for the statute of Winchester, which was made in the time of Edward I., and by which the lower constables of hundreds and franchises were first ordained, doth, amongst other things, appoint that, for the better keeping of the peace, two constables in every hundred and franchise should make the view of armour." He then concludes, in justification of his etymology of the term, that "the name of a constable in a hundred or franchise doth mean that he is an quest we find in England an officer of the crown called the lord high constable, whose duties, powers, and jurisdiction were in most respects like those of the Constable of France. The office was one of great dignity and power, both in war and peace, the constable having the command of the army and the regulation of all military affairs. He was the supreme judge of the court of chivalry, in which character his encroachments upon other courts were so heavy a grievance, that the stat. 13 Rich. II. c. 2, was passed to restrict his jurisdiction to "contracts and deeds of arms and things which touch war, and which cannot be discussed or determined by the common law." The office, for several centuries after the Conquest, passed by inheritance in the line of the Bohuns, earls of Hereford and Essex, and afterwards in the line of their heirs-general, the Staffords, dukes of Buck-officer that supporteth the king's majesty ingham, in right of certain manors held by them by the feudal service of being constables of England. The fees of the office were extremely burdensome to the crown; and the possession by a subject of the hereditary right to command the militia of the realm, independently of any royal appointment, was an unusual and frequently a dangerous power; and on this account Henry VIII., in the early part of his reign (1514), consulted the judges respecting the means of abolishing the tenure. He was advised by them, that as the individuals holding the manors were only compellable to exercise the office ad voluntatem regis, he had the power of discharging the feudal service altogether; and acting upon this opinion, the king abolished the office, by disclaiming to have the services any longer executed. (Dyer, Reports, p. 285 b.) The effect of this was, that Edward Stanley, the last duke of Buckingham in that line, the hereditary high constable of England at the time of this resolution, held the manors after this period discharged of the service of being constable. All doubt which might have been suggested respecting the legal extinction of the office by this means was removed eight years afterwards by the attainder of the duke of Buckingham for high treason, upon which even the manors in question were for in the maintenance of his peace." This derivation of the office of a common constable seems very improbable, especially as it is the better opinion that these officers were known to the common law before the statute of Winchester. (Hawkins, Pleas of the Crown, book ii. cap. 10.) Chief Justice Fineux, in the reign of Henry VII., gives a more reasonable account of the matter. He says that when the superintendence of the peace of a county was found too great a task for the sheriff, hundreds were formed, and a conservator of the peace, under the sheriff, appointed in each, who was called a constable. This was the high constable, or constable of the hundred. As population increased and owns sprung up, it was found expedient to make a further subdivision for the preservation of the peace, and accordingly conservators were appointed for manors, vills, and tithings, who were then called petty constables. (Year-Book, 12 Henry VII. pl. 18.) Constables, in the usual acceptation of the term at the present day, are of two kinds: constables of hundreds, who are still called high constables; and constables of vills or tithings, who are called either petty constables or tithingmen. Both high and petty constables were formerly chosen by the jury at a court leet, and were sworn in and admitted there by the lord or his steward; but until recently | 1 & 2 Wm. IV. c. 41, to appoint special the high constables were usually chosen constables; and by the 83rd section of by the magistrates at quarter-sessions. the Municipal Reform Act magistrates The petty constables are still often chosen in boroughs are authorized to swear in as by the homage at the court-leet; but by many inhabitants as they think fit to act the stat. 13 & 14 Car. II. c. 12, § 15, it is as special constables when called upon. enacted, that if any constable shall die or The act 5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 43, and 1 & go out of the parish, any two justices shall 2 Vict. c. 80, enlarged the provisions of make and swear a new constable, until 1 & 2 Wm. IV. c. 41, by enabling justices the lord of the manor shall hold a court, to appoint persons to act as special conor until the next quarter-sessions, who stables in other places than where they shall approve of them or appoint others. resided, and to pay constables engaged to By virtue of this statute, and by reason suppress outrages by labourers and others of the frequent disuse of courts-leet in engaged on railways and other public modern times, the duty of nominating and works. swearing the constables is now generally discharged by the justices of the peace. By the Metropolitan Police Acts, 10 Geo. IV. c. 44, and 2 & 3 Vict. c. 47, the police force are appointed by direction of the Secretary of State, and sworn in as constables by the commissioners; and in boroughs affected by the provisions of the Municipal Reform Act (5 & 6 Wm. IV. c. 76), constables are now appointed by the Watch Committee, under the authority of the 76th section of that statute. County and district constables (rural police) may be appointed by the justices at quarter-sessions, under 2 & 3 Vict. c. 93, and 3 & 4 Vict. c. 88; constables (a police) for the protection of property on canals and rivers, by justices in counties, and by the Watch Committee in boroughs, under 3 & 4 Vict. c. 50. By these acts the duties of the office of constable are altered, as well as the mode of appointment. By 5 & 6 Vict. c. 109, parish constables may be appointed by the justices from the lists to be returned by the vestries, and vestries may unite to appoint a permanent and salaried constable for a union of parishes. These recent modifications of the ancient office of constable are noticed under POLICE. The office of constable at common law is a yearly appointment, and if any officer has served longer than a year, the justices at quartersessions will, upon his application, discharge him, and appoint another officer in his stead. Besides these general constables, two or more justices of the peace, upon information that disturbances exist or are apprehended, are authorized by the stat. By 7 & 8 Vict. c. 33, an act was passed for "relieving high constables from attendance at quarter-sessions, in certain cases, and from certain other duties." It was formerly the duty of the high constable to collect and pay the county rates to the county treasurer, but the duty is transferred to the Boards of Guardians: and in parishes which are not in any union, it devolves upon the overseers. High constables for each division are to be appointed at the special sessions held for hearing appeals against the rates, and not at the quarter-sessions, as hereto fore. In general all the permanent inhabit ants within a district, borough, parish, or place, are liable to serve as constables; but they must be persons of good charac ter and of competent ability; and the lord or steward of the manor at the leet, or the justices, may exercise a discretion 25 to the appointment of proper persons. It is obligatory upon a constable who has been legally appointed to serve the office, unless he can show some lawful exemp tion; and if he refuses to serve, he may be fined or punished by indictment. The following persons are exempt from serv ing the office; namely, members of the colleges of physicians and surgeons, and the Apothecaries' Company in London, practising barristers, attorneys, dissenti ministers following no trade or other enployment except that of a schoolmaster, schoolmasters, parish-clerks, clerks of guardians in poor-law unions, masters of workhouses, churchwardens, overseers and relieving-officers, registrars and superintendent - registrars; and game |