Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

BEACON

124

BATAILLE

the crime either of adultery or of fornication. See 4 Mo. 216. BAWDY-HOUSE. A house of prostitu tion; a brothel. A house or dwelling main tained for the convenience and resort of per sons desiring unlawful sexual connection. BAY. A pond-head made of a great height to keep in water for the supply of a mill, etc., so that the wheel of the mill may be turned by the water rushing thence, through a passage or flood-gate. St. 27 Eliz. c. 19. Also an arm of the sea surrounded by land except at the entrance. In admiralty law and marine insurance. A bending or curving of the shore of the sea or of a lake. 14 If. H. 477. An opening into the land, where the water is shut in on all sides except at the entrance. 13 Amer. Jur. 286. BAYLEY. In old English law. Bailiff. This term is used in the laws of the colony of New Plymouth, Mass., A. D. 1670, 1671. Burrill. BAYOU. A species of creek or stream common in Louisiana and Texas. An out let from a swamp, pond, or lagoon, to a river, or the sea. See 8 How. 48, 70. BEACH. This term, in its ordinary sig nification, when applied to a place on tide waters, means the space between ordinary high and low water mark, or the space over which the tide usually ebbs and flows. It is a term not more significant of a sea margin than "shore." 13 Gray, 257. The term designates land washed by the sea and its waves; is synonymous with "shore." 28 Me. 180. When used in reference to places near the sea, beach means the land between the lines of high, water and low water, over which the tide ebbs and flows. 48 Me. 68. Beach means the 3hore or strand. 15 Me. 237. Beach, when used in reference to places any where in the vicinity of the sea, means the terri tory lying between the lines of high water and low water, over which the tide ebbs and flows. It is in this respect synonymous with "shore," "strand, n or "flats." 5 Gray, 828, 335. Beach generally denotes land between high and low water mark. 6 Hun, 257. To "beach" a ship is to run it upon th» beach or shore; this is frequently found nec essary in case of fire, a leak, etc. BEACON. A light-house, or sea-mark, formerly used to alarm the country, in case of the approach of an enemy, but now used for the guidance of ships at sea, by night, a» well as by day.

BATAILLE. In old English law. tel; the trial by combat or duellum. BATH, KNIGHTS OP THE. In En glish law. A military order of knighthood, in stituted by Richard II. The order was newly regulated by notifications in the London Ga zette of 25th May, 1847, and 16th August, 1850. Wharton. BATIMENT. In French marine law. A vessel or ship. BATONNIER. The chief of the French bar in its various centres, who presides in the council of discipline. Arg. Fr. Merc. Law, 546. BATTEL. Trial by combat; wager of battel. BATTEL, WAGER OF. En old English law. A form of trial anciently used in mili tary cases, arising in the court of chivalry and honor, in appeals of felony, in criminal cases, and in the obsolete real action called a "writ of action." The question at issue was decided by the result of a personal combat between the parties, or, in the case of a writ of right, between their champions. BATTERY. Any unlawful beating, or other wrongful physical violence or con straint, inflicted on a human being without his consent. 2 Bish. Crim. Law, § 71. A battery is a willful and unlawful use of force or violence upon the person of another* Pen. Code Cal. § 242; Pen. Code Dak. § 306. The actual offer to use force to the injury of an other person is assault; the use of it is battery; hence the two terms are commonly combined in the term "assault and battery." BATTURE. In Louisiana. A marine term used to denote a bottom of sand, stone, or rock mixed together and rising towards the surface of the water; an elevation of the bed of a river under the surface of the water, since it is rising towards it; sometimes, how ever, used to denote the same elevation of the bank when it has risen above the surface of the water, or is as high as the land on the outside of the bank. In this latter sense it is synonymous with "alluvion." It means, in common-law language, land formed by ac cretion. 2 Amer. & Eng. Enc. Law, 157. See 6 Mart. (La.) 216; 3 Woods, 117. BAWD. One who procures opportunities for persons of opposite sexes to cohabit in an illicit manner; who may be, while exercising the trade of a bawd, perfectly innocent of committing in his or her own proper person Bat

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