Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

RAILWAY COMMISSIONED

892

R. B, In the signatures of royal persons, "R." is an abbreviation for "rex" (king) or "regina" (queen.) R. G. An abbreviation for Regula Qen eralis, a general rule or order of court; or for the plural of the same. R. L. This abbreviation may stand either for "Revised Laws" or "Roman law." R. S. An abbreviation for "Revised Stat utes." RACE. A tribe, people, or nation, be longing or supposed to belong to the same stock or lineage. " Race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Const. U. S., Am. xy. RACE-WAY. An artificial canal dug in the earth; a channel cut in the ground. 26 Minn. 17, 1 N. W. Rep. 48. The channel for the current that drives a water-wheel. Webster. RACHAT. In French law. The right of repurchase which, in English and Amer ican law, the vendor may reserve to himself. It is also called "remeri." Brown. RACHATER. L. Fr. To redeem; to repurchase, (or buy back.) Kelham. RACHETUM. In Scotch law. Ransom; corresponding to Saxon "weregild," a pecun iary composition for an offense. Skene; Jacob. RACHIMBTJRGII. In the legal polity of the Sahans and Ripuarians and other Ger manic peoples, this name was given to the judges or assessors who sat with the count in his mallum, (court,) and were generally as sociated with him in other matters. Spelman. SACK. An engine of torture anciently used in the inquisitorial method of examin ing peisons charged with crime, the office of which was to break the limbs or dislocate the joints. RACK-RENT. A rent of the full value «f the tenement, or near it. 2 Bl. Comin. 43. RACK-VINTAGE. Wines drawn from tiie lees. Cowell. RADICALS. A political party. The term arose in England, in 1818, when the popular leaders, Hunt, Cartwright, and oth

ers, sought to obtain a radical reform In th» representative system of parliament. Boling broke (Disc. Parties, Let. 18) employs the term in its present accepted sense: "Such a remedy might have wrought a radical cure of the evil that threatens our constitution," etc. Wharton. RADOUB. In French law. A term in cluding the repairs made to a ship, and a fresh supply of furniture and victuals, muni tions, and other provisions required for the voyage. 8 Pard. Droit Commer. § 602. RAFFLE. A kind of lottery in which several persons pay, in shares, the value of something put up as a stake, and then deter mine by chance (as by casting dice) which one of them shall become the sole possessor of it. Webster. A raffle may be described as a species of "adventure or hazard," but is held not to be a lottery. 2 Mill, Const. 130. RAGEMAN. A statute, so called, of justices assigned by Edward I. and his coun cil, to go a circuit through all England, and to hear and determine all complaints of in juries done within five years next before Michaelmas, in the fourth year of his reign. Spelman. Also a rule, form, regimen, or precedent. RAGMAN'S ROLL, or RAGI MUND'S ROLL. A roll, called from one Ragimund, or Ragimont, a legate in Scot land, who, summoning all the beneficed cler gymen in that kingdom, caused them on oath to give in the tiue value of their benefices, according to which they were afterwards taxed by the court of Rome. Wharton. RAILROAD. A road or way on which iron or steel rails are laid for wheels to run on, for the conveyance of heavy loads in cars or carriages propelled by steam or other motive power. Whether or not this term includes roads operated by horse-power, electricity, cable lines, etc., will generally depend upon the context of the statute in which it is found. The decisions on this point are at variance. RAILWAY COMMISSIONERS. A body of three commissioners appointed under the English regulation of railways act, 1873. principally to enforce the provisions of the

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