Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

139

BLADARJUS

BLACK ACT

BLACK ACT. The statute 9 Geo. I. c 22, so called because it was occasioned by the outrages committed by persons with their faces blacked or otherwise disguised, who appeared in Epping Forest, near Waltham, in Essex, and destroyed the deer there, and committed other offenses. Repealed by 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c 27. BLACK ACTS. Old Scotch statutes passed in the reigns of the Stuarts and down to the year 1586 or 1587, so called because printed in black letter. Bell. BLACK BOOK OP HEREFORD. In English law. An old record frequently re ferred to by Cowell and other early writers. BLACK BOOK OF THE ADMIRAL TY. A book of the highest authority in ad miralty matters, generally supposed to have been compiled during the reign of Edward III. with additions of a later date. It contains the laws of Oleron, a view of crimes and of fenses cognizable in the admiralty, and many other matters. See 2 Gall. 404. BLACK BOOK OF THE EXCHEQ UER. The name of an ancient book kept in the English exchequer, containing a collection of treaties, conventions, charters, etc BLACK CAP. It is a vulgar error that the head-dress worn by the judge in pronoun cing the sentence of death is assumed as an emblem of the sentence. It is part of the ju dicial full dress, and is worn by the judges on occasions of especial state. Wharton. BLACK GAME. In English law. Heath fowl, in contradistinction to red game, u grouse. BLACK-LIST. A list of persons marked out for special avoidance, antagonism, or en mity on the part of those who prepare the list or those among whom it is intended to circulate; as where a trades-union "black lists" workmen who refuse to conform to its rules, or where a list of insolvent or untrust worthy persons is published by a commercial agency or mercantile association. BLACK-MAIL. 1. In one of its origi nal meanings, this term denoted a tribute paid by English dwellers along the Scottish border to influential chieftains of Scotland, RS a condition of securing immunity from raids of marauders and border thieves. 2. It also designated rents payable in cat tle, grain, work, and the like. Such rents

were called "black-mail," (reditus nigrt,) in distinction from white rents, (blanchefirme*,) which were rents paid in silver. 3. The extortion of money by threats or overtures towards criminal prosecution or the destruction of a man's reputation or social standing. In common parlance, the term is equivalent to, and synonymous with, "extortion, "—the exaction of money, either for the performance of a duty, the prevention of an injury, or the exercise of an influence. It supposes the service to be unlawful, and the payment involuntary. Not infrequently it is extorted by threats, or by operating upon the fears or the credulity, or by promises to conceal, or offers to expose, the weaknesses, the follies, or the crimes of the victim. 26 How. Fr. 431; 17 Abb. Pr. 226. BLACK MARIA. A closed wagon or van in which prisoners are carried to and from the jail, or between the court and the jail. BLACK RENTS. In old English law. Bents reserved in work, grain, provisions, or baser money, in contradistinction to those which were reserved in white money or sil ver, which were termed "white rents," (reditus albi,) or blanch farms. Tomlins; Whishaw. BLACK-ROD, GENTLEMAN USH ER OF. In England, the title of a chief officer of the queen, deriving his name from the Black Rod of office, on the top of which reposes a golden lion, which he carries. BLACK WARD. A subvassal, who held ward of the king's vassal. "BLACKLEG." "The word • blackleg» has been used long enough to be understood, not only by experts in slang, but by the pub lic at large, and therefore it was for the judge to expound its meaning. I have always un derstood the word • blackleg' to mean a per son who gets his living by frequenting race courses and places where games of chance are played, getting the best odds, and giving the least he can, but not necessarily cheating. That is not indictable either by statute or at common law." Pollock, C B., 3 Hurl. & N. 379. BLADA. In old English law. Growing crops of grain of any kind. Spelman. All manner of annual grain. Cowell. Harvested grain. Bract. 2176; Reg. Orig. 946,95. BLADARIUS. In old English law. A corn-monger; meal-man or corn-chandler; a bladier, or engrosser of corn or grain. Blount.

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