Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

STRICT SETTLEMENT

1127

STOWAGE

also said to be strangers to the covenant. Brown. STRATAGEM. A deception either by words or actions, in times of war, in order to obtain an advantage over an enemy. STRATOCRACY. A military govern ment; government by military chiefs of an army. STRATOR. In old English law. A surveyor of the highways. STRAW BAIL. Nominal or worthless bail. Irresponsible persons, or men of no property, who make a practice of going bail for any one who will pay them a fee there for. STRAY. See ESTRAY. STREAM. A current of water; a body of flowing water. The word, in its ordinary sense, includes rivers. But Callis defines a stream "a current of waters running over the level at random, and not kept in with banks or walls." Call. Sew. [83,] 133. STREAMING FOR TIN. The process of working tin in Cornwall and Devon. The right to stream must not be exeicised so as to interfere with the rights of other private individuals; e. g., either by withdrawing oi by polluting or choking up the water-courses or waters of others; and the statutes 23 Hen. VIII. c. 8, and 27 Hen. VIII. c. 23, impose a penalty of £20 for the offense. Brown. STREET. A public thoroughfare or highway in a city or village. It differs from a country highway. STREIGHTEN. In the old books. T* narrow or restrict. " The habendum should not streighten the devise." 1 Leon. 58. STREPITUS. In old records. Estrepe ment or strip; a species of waste or destruc tion of property. Spelman. STREPITUS JUDICIALIS. Turbu lent conduct in a court of justice. Jacob. STRICT CONSTRUCTION. Construc tion of a statute or other instrument accord ing to its letter, which recognizes nothing that is not expressed, takes the language used in its exact and technical meaning, and admits no equitable considerations or impli cations. STRICT SETTLEMENT. This phrase was formerly used to denote a settlement whereby land was limited to a parent foi life, and after his death to his first and othei

theft accompanied with violence to the per son, but of late years it has become the vox signata for forcible and masterful depreda tion within or near the dwelling-house; while robbery has been more particularly applied to violent depredation on the highway, or ac companied by house-breaking. Alis. Frin. Scotch Law, 227. S T O W A G E . In maritime law. The storing, packing, or arranging of the cargo in a ship, in such a manner as to protect the goods from friction, bruising, or damage from leakage. Money paid for a room where goods are laid; housage. Wharton. STOWE. In old English law. A valley. Co. Litt. 46. STRADDLE. In stock-brokers 1 parlance the term means the double privilege of a "put" and a "call," and secures to the holder the right to demand of the seller at a certain price within a certain time a certain number of shares of specified stock, or to require him to take, at the same price within the same time, the same shares of stock. 831ST. Y. 95. STRAMINEUS HOMO. A man of straw, one of no substance, put forward as bail or surety. STRAND. A shore or bank of the sea or a river. Cowell. STRANDING. In maritime law. The drifting, driving, or running aground of a ship on a shore or strand. Accidental strand ing takes place where the ship is driven on shore by the winds and waves. Volun tary stranding takes place where the ship is run on shore either to preserve her from a worse fate or for some fraudulent purpose. Marsh. Ins. bk. 1, c. 12, § 1. STRANGER IN BLOOD. Any person not within the consideration of natural love and affection arising from relationship. STRANGERS. By this term is intend ed third persons generally. Thus the per sons bound by a fine are parties, privies, and strangers; the parties are either the cogni zors or cognizees; the privies are such as are in any way related to those who levy the fine, and claim under them by any right of blood, or other right of representation; the stran gers are all other persons in the world, except only the parties and privies. In its general legal signification the term is opposed to the word "privy." Those who are in no way parties to a covenant, nor bound by it, are

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