Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

ENDENZIE

420

"ENGINE"

right of suffrage. Anciently, the acquisition of freedom by a villein from his lord. The word is now used principally eithei of the manumission of slaves, {q. ©.,) of giving to a borough or other constituency a right to return a member or members to parliament, or of the conversion of copyhold into free hold. Mozley & Whitley. ENFRANCHISEMENT OF COPY HOLDS. In English law. The conversion of copyhold into freehold tenure, by a con veyance of the fee-simple of the property from the lord of the manor to the copy holder, or by a release from the lord of all seigniorial rights, etc., which destroys the customary descent, and also all rights and privileges annexed to the copyholder's es tate. 1 Watk. Copyh. 362; 2 Steph. Comm. 51. ENGAGEMENT. In French law. A contract. The obligation arising from a quasi contract. The terms "obligation" and "engagement" are said to be synonymous, (17 Toullier, no. 1;) but the Code seems specially to apply the term "engagement" to those obligations which the law imposes on a man without the intervention of any contract, either on the part of the obligor or the obligee, (article 1370.) An engagement to do or omit to do something amounts to a promise. 21 N". J. Law, 369. In English Practice. The term has been appropriated to denote a contract entered in to by a married woman with the intention of binding or charging her separate estate, or, with stricter accuracy, a promise which in the case of a person sui juris would be a con tract, but in the case of a married woman is not a contract, because she cannot bind her self personally, even in equity. Her engage ments, therefore, merely operate as disposi tions or appointments pro tanto of her sep arate estate. Sweet. "ENGINE." This is said to bea word of very general signification; and, when used in an act, its meaning must be sought out from the act itself, and the language which surrounds it, and also from other acts in pari materia, in which it occurs. Abbott. J., 6 Maule & S. 192. In a large sense, it ap plies to all utensils and tools which afford the means of carrying on a trade. But in a more limited sense it means a thing of con siderable dimensions, of a fixed or permanent nature, analogous to an erection or building. Id. 182.

ENDENZIE, or ENDENIZEN. make free; to enfranchise. ENDORSE. See INDORSE. ENDOWED SCHOOLS. In England, certain schools having endowments are dis tinctively known as "endowed schools;" and a series of acts of parliament regulating them are known as the "endowed schools acts." Mozley & Whitley. ENDOWMENT. 1. The assignment of dower; the setting off a woman's dower. 2 Bl. Comm. 135. 2. In appropriations of churches, (in En glish law,) the setting off a sufficient main tenance for the vicar in perpetuity. 1 Bl. Comm. 387. 3. The act of settling a fund, or permanent pecuniary provision, for the maintenance of a public institution, charity, college, etc. 4. A fund settled upon a public institu tion, etc., for its maintenance or use. The words "endowment" and "fund," in a stat ute exempting from taxation the real estate, the furniture and personal property, and the "endow ment or fund" of religious and educational corpo rations, are ejusdem generis, and intended to com prehend a class of property different from the other two, not real estate or chattels. The difference be tween the words is that" fund " is a general term, in cluding the endowment, while " endowment" means that particular fund, or part of the fund, of the in stitution, bestowed for its more permanent uses, and usually kept sacred for the purposes intended. The word "endowment" does not, in such an enact ment, include real estate. 82 N. J. Law, 360. ENDOWMENT POLICY In life insur ance. A policy which is payable when the insured reaches a given age, or upon his de cease, if that occurs earlier. ENEMY, in public law, signifies either the nation which is at war with another, or a citizen or subject of such nation. ENFEOFF. To invest with an estate by feoffment. To make a gift of any corporeal hereditaments to another. See FEOFFMENT. ENFEOFFMENT. The act of invest ing with any dignity or possession; also the instrument or deed by which a person is in vested with possessions. ENFRANCHISE. To make free; to in corporate a man in a society or body politic. ENFRANCHISEMENT. The act of making free; giving a franchise or freedom to; investiture with privileges or capacities of freedom, or municipal or political liberty. Admission to the freedom of a city; admis sion to political rights, and particularly the To

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