Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

COURSE OP THE V0YAGJ5

286

COUNTY BRIDGE

the charge and care of persons and estates coming within legal guardianship, a limited criminal jurisdiction, appellate jurisdiction over justices of the peace, etc COUNTY PALATINE. A term be stowed upon certain counties in England, the lords of which in former times enjoyed especial privileges. They might pardon treasons, murders, and felonies. All writs and indictments ran in their names, as in other counties in the king's; and all offenses were said to be done against their peace, and not, as in other places, contra pacem domini regis. But these privileges have in modern times nearly disappeared. COUNTY RATE. In English law. An imposition levied on the occupiers of lands, and applied to many miscellaneous purposes, among which the most important are those of defraying the expenses connected with prisons, reimbursing to private parties the costs they have incurred in prosecuting pub lic offenders, and defraying the expenses of the county police. See 15 & 16 Viet. c. 8L COUNTY-SEAT. A county-seat or county-town is the chief town of a county, where the county buildings and courts are located and the county business transacted. COUNTY SESSIONS. In England, the court of general quarter sessions of the peace held in every county once in every quarter of a year. Mozley & Whitley. COUPONS. Interest and dividend cer tificates; also those parts of a commercial in strument which are to be cut, and which are evidence of something connected with the contract mentioned in the instrument. They are generally attached to certificates of loan, where the interest is payable at particular periods, and, when the interest is paid, they are cut off and delivered to the payer. Whar ton. COUR DE CASSATION. The supreme judicial tribunal of France, having appellate jurisdiction only. Tor an account of its com position and powers, see Jones, French Bar, 22; Guyot, Repert. Univ. COURIER. An express messenger of haste. COURSE. A term used in surveying, meaning the direction of a line with refer ence to a meridian. COURSE OF THE VOYAGE. By this term is understood the regular and customary

and judicial purposes. The etymology of the word shows it to have been the dis trict anciently governed by a count or earl. In modern use, the word may denote either the territory marked off to form a county, or the citizens resident within such territory, taken collectively and considered as invested with political rights, or the county regarded as a municipal corporation possessing subordinate governmental powers, or ari organized jural society invested with specific rights and duties. COUNTY BRIDGE. A bridge of the larger class, erected by the county, and which the county is liable to keep in repair. 40 Iowa, 295. COUNTY COMMISSIONERS. Offi cers of a county charged with a variety of administrative and executive duties, but principally with the management of the financial affairs of the county, its police regulations, and its corporate business. Sometimes the local laws give them limited judicial powers. In some states they are called "supervisors." COUNTY CORPORATE. A city or town, with more or less territory annexed, having the privilege to be a county of it self, and not to be comprised in any other county; such as London, York, Bristol, Nor wich, and other cities in England. 1 Bl. Comm. 120. COUNTY COURT. A court of high antiquity in England, incident to the juris diction of the sheriff. It is not a court of record, but may hold pleas of debt or dam ages, under the value of forty shillings. The freeholders of the county (anciently termed the "suitors" of the court) are the real judges in this court, and the sheriff is the ministerial officer. See 3 Bl. Comm. 35, 86; 3 Steph. Comm. 395. But in modern English law the name is appropriated to a system of tribunals estab lished by the statute 9 & 10 Viet. c. 95, hav ing a limited jurisdiction, principally for the recovery of small debts. It. is also the name of certain tribunals of limited jurisdiction in the county of Middle sex, established under the statute 22 Geo. II. c. 33. In American law. The name is used in many of the states to designate the ordinary courts of record having jurisdiction for trials at nisi prius. Their powers gener ally comprise ordinary civil jurisdiction, also

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