Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

258

CONSTITUTIO

CONSTABLE

CONSTABLEWICK. In English law. The territorial jurisdiction of a constable; at bailiwick is of a bailiff or sheriff. 5 Nor. & M. 261. CONSTABULARIUS. An officer of horse; an officer having charge of foot or horse; a naval commander; an officer having charge of military affairs generally. Spel man. CONSTAT. It is clear or evident; it ap pears; it is certain; there is no doubt. Non constat, it does not appear. A certificate which the clerk of the pipe and auditors of the exchequer made, at the request of any person who intended to plead or move in that court, for the discharge of any thing. The effect of it was the ceitifying what appears (constat) upon record, touch ing the matter in question. Wharton. CONSTAT D'HUISSIER. In French law. An affidavit made by a huissier, set ting forth the appearance, form, quality, color, etc., of any article upon which a suit depends. Arg. Fr. Merc. Law, 554. CONSTATE. To establish, constitute, or ordain. "Constating instruments" of a corporation are its charter, organic law, or the grant of powers to it. See examples of the use of the term, Green's Brice, Ultra Vires, p. 39; 37 N. J. Eq. 363. CONSTITUENT. A word used as a correlative to "attorney," to denote one who constitutes another his agent or invests the other with authority to act for him. It is also used in the language of politics, as a correlative to "representative," the con stituents of a legislator being those whom he represents and whose interests he is to care for in public affairs; usually the electors of his district. CONSTITUERE. To appoint, consti tute, establish, oidain, or undertake. Used principally in ancient powers of attorney, and now supplanted by the English word "consti tute." CONSTITUIMUS. A Latin term, signi fying we constitute or appoint. CONSTITUTED AUTHORITIES. Officers properly appointed under the consti tion for the government of the people. CONSTITUTIO. In the civil law. An imperial ordinance or constitution, distin guished from Lex, Senatus-Consultum, and other kinds of law and having its effect from the sole will of the emperor.

Jurisdiction. He was also charged with the conservation of the peace of the nation t Th us there was a "Constable of France" and a "Lord High Constable of England." In English law. A public civil officer, #hose proper and general duty is to keep the peace within his district, though he is fre quently charged with additional duties. 1 Bl. Comm. 356. High constables, in England, are officers ap pointed in every hundred or franchise, whose proper duty seems to be to keep the king's peace within their respective hundreds. 1 BL Comm. 856, 3 Steph. Comm 47. Petty constables are inferior officers in every town and parish, subordinate to the high consta ble of the hundred, whose principal duty is the preservation of the peace, though they also have other particular duties assigned to them by act of parliament, particularly the service of the sum monses and the execution of the warrants of jus tices of the peace. 1 BL Comm. 856; 3 Steph. Comm. 47,48. Special constables are persons appointed (with or without their consent) by the magistrates to Bxecute warrants on particular occasions, as in the case of riots, etc. In American law. An officer of a mu nicipal corporation (usually elected) whose duties are similar to those ot the sheriff, though his powers are less and his junsdic diction smaller. He is to preserve the pub lic peace, execute the process of magistrates' couits, and of some other tribunals, serve wiits, attend the sessions of the criminal courts, have the custody of juries, and dis charge other functions sometimes assigned to him by the local law or by statute. CONSTABLE OP A CASTLE. In En glish law. An officer having charge of a castle; a warden, or keeper; otherwise called a "castellain." CONSTABLE OF ENGLAND. (Called, *lso, "Marshal.") His office consisted in the care of the common peace of the realm in deeds of arms and matters of war. Lamb. Const. 4. CONSTABLE OF SCOTLAND. An uflicer who was formerly entitled to command all the king's armies in the absence of the king, and to take cognizance of all crimes committed within four miles of the king's person or of parliament, the privy council, or any general convention of the states of the kingdom. The office was hereditary in the family of Erroi, and was abolished by the 20 Geo. III. c. 43. Bell.; Ersk. Inst. 1,3, 37. CONSTABLE OF THE EXCHEQ UER. An officer mentioned in Fleta, lib. 2. c 31.

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