Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

281

COSS

CORRESPONDENCE

CORSNED. In Saxon law. The morsel of execration. A species of ordeal in use among the Saxons, performed by eating a piece of bread over which the priest had pronounced a certain imprecation. If the accused ate it freely, he was pronounced in nocent; but, if it stuck in his throat, it was considered as a proof of his guilt. Crabb, Eng. Law, 30; 1 Reeve, Eng. Law, 21; 4 Bl. Comm. 345. CORTES. The name of the legislative assemblies, the parliament or congress, of Spam and Portugal. CORTEX. The bark of a tree; the outer covering of anything. CORTIS. A court or yard before a house. Blount. CORTULARIUM, or CORTARIUM. In old records. A yard adjoining a country farm. CORVEE. In French law. Gratuitous labor exacted from the villages or commu nities, especially for repairing roads, con structing bridges, etc. COSA JUZGADA. In Spanish law. A cause or matter adjudged, (res judicata.) White, New Recop. b. 3, tit. 8, note. COSDUNA. In feudal law. A custom or tribute. COSEN, COZEN. In old English law. To cheat. "A cosening knave." 3 Leon. 171. COSENAGE. In old English law. Kin dred; cousinship. Also a writ that lay for the heir where the tresail, i. e., the father of the besail, or great-grandfather, was seised of lands in fee at his death, and a stranger entered upon the land and abated. Fitzh. Nat. Brev. 221. COSENING. In old English law. An offense, mentioned in the old books, where anything was done deceitfully, whether be longing to contracts or not, which could not be properly termed by any special name. The same as the stellionatus of the civil law. Cowell. COSHERING. In oldEnglish law. A feudal prerogative or custom for lords to lie and feast themselves at their tenants' houses. Cowell. COSMUS. Clean. Blount. COSS. A term used by Europeans In In dia to denote a road-measure of about two

istence of the other. Father and son are correlative terms. Right and duty are cor relative terms. CORRESPONDENCE. Interchange of written communications. The letters writ ten by a person and the answers written by the one to whom they are addressed. CORROBORATE. To strengthen; to add weight or credibility to a thing by addi tional and confirming facts or evidence. The expression "corroborating circumstances" clearly does not mean facts which, independent of a confession, will warrant a conviction; for then the verdict would stand not on the confession, but upon those independent circumstances. To cor roborate is to strengthen, to confirm by additional security, to add strength. The testimony of a witness is said to be corroborated when it is shown to correspond with the representation of some oth er witness, or to comport with some facts other wise known or established. Corroborating cir cumstances, then, used in reference to a confes sion, are such as serv* to strengthen it, to render it more probable; such, in short, as may serve to impress a jury with a belief in its truth. 10 N. J. Law, 163. Corruptio optimi est pessima. Corrup tion of the best is worst. CORRUPTION. Illegality; a vicious and fraudulent intention to evade the prohi bitions of the law. The act of an official or fiduciary person who unlawfully and wrongfully uses his sta- •ion or character to procure some benefit for himself or for another person, contrary to duty and the rights of others. CORRUPTION OP BLOOD. In En glish law. This was the consequence of at tainder. It meant that the attainted person could neither inherit lands or other heredita ments from his ancestor, nor retain those he already had, nor transmit them by descent to any heir, because his blood was considered in law to be corrupted. This was abolished by St. 3 & 4 Wm. IT. c. 106, and 33 & 34 Yict. c 23; and is unknown in America. Const. U. S. art. 3, § 3. CORSELET. Ancient armor which covered the body. CORSE-PRESENT. A mortuary, thus termed because, when a mortuary became due on the death of a man, the best or sec ond-best beast was, according to custom, offered or presented to the priest, and carried with the corpse. In Wales a corse-present was due upon the death of a clergyman to the bishop of the diocese, till abolished by 12 Anne St. 2, c 6. 2 Bl. Comm. 426.

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