Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

FOSSATORUM OPERATIO

514

FOX'S LIBEL ACT

pairing the moat or ditch round a fortified town. FOSSATOBUM OPEBATIO. In old English law. Fosse-work; or the service of laboring, done by inhabitants and adjoining tenants, for the repair and maintenance of the ditches round a city or .town, for which some paid a contribution, called "fossa gium." Co well. FOSSATUM. A dyke, ditch, or trench; a place inclosed by a ditch; a moat; a canal. FOSSE-WAT, or FOSSE. One of the four ancient Roman ways through England. Spelman. FOSSELLUM. A small ditch. Cowell. FOSTERING. An ancient custom in Ireland, in which persons put away their children to fosterers. Fostering was held to be a stronger alliance than blood, and the foster children participated in the fortunes of their foster fathers. Mozley & Whitley. FOSTERLAND. Land given, assigned, or allotted to the finding of food or victuals for any person or persons; as in monasteries for the monks, etc. Cowell; Blount. FOSTERLEAN. The remuneration fixed for the rearing of a foster child; also the jointure of a wife. Jacob. FOUJDAR. In Hindu law. Under the Mogul government a magistrate of the police over a large district, who took cognizance of all criminal matters within his jurisdiction, and sometimes was employed as receiver gen eral of the revenues. Wharton. FOUJDARRY COURT. In Hindu law. A tribunal for administering criminal law. FOUNDATION. The founding or build ing of a college or hospital. The incorpora tion or endowment of a college or hospital is the foundation; and he who endows it with land or other property is the founder. FOUNDER. The person who endows an eleemosynary corporation or institution, or supplies the funds for its establishment. FOUNDEROSA. Founderous; out of repair, as a road. Cro. Car. 366. FOUNDLING. A deserted or exposed infant; a child found without a parent or guardian, its relatives being unknown. It has a settlement in the district where found. FOUNDLING HOSPITALS. Charita ble institutions which exist in most countries

for taking caie of infants forsaken by their parents, such being generally the offspring of illegal connections. The foundling hospital act in England is the 13 Geo. II. c. 29. FOUR. In old French law. An oven or bake-house. Four banal, an oven, owned by the seignior of the estate, to which the tenants were obliged to bring their bread for baking. Also the proprietary right to main tain such an oven. FOUR CORNERS. The face of a writ ten instrument. That which is contained on the face of a deed (without any aid from the knowledge of the circumstances under which it is made) is said to be within its four cor ners, because every deed is still supposed to be written on one entire skin, and so to have but four corners. To look at the four corners of an instru ment is to examine the whole of it, so as to construe it as a whole, without reference to any one part more than another. 2 Smith, Lead. Cas. 295. FOUR SEAS. The seas surrounding England. These were divided into the West ern, including the Scotch and Irish; the Northern, or Noith sea; the Eastern, being the Get man ocean; the Southern, being the British channel. FOURCHER. Fr. To fork. This was a method of delaying an action anciently re sorted to by defendants when two of them were joined in the suit. Instead of appear ing together, each would appear in turn and cast an essoin for the other, thus postponing the trial. FOURCHING. The act of delaying le gal proceedings. Termes de la Ley. FOURIERISM. A form of socialism. See 1 Mill, Pol. Ec. 260. FOWLS OF WARREN. Such fowls as are preserved under the game laws in war rens. According to Man wood, these are partridges and pheasants. According to Coke, they are partridges, rails, quails, wood cocks, pheasants, mallards, and herons. Co. Litt. 233. FOX'S LIBEL ACT. In English law. This was the statute 52 Geo. III. c. 60, which secured to juries, upon the trial of indict ments for libel, the right of pronouncing a general verdict of guilty or not guilty upon the whole matter in issue, and no longer bound them to find a verdict of guilty on proof of the publication of the paper charged

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