Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

520

FREIGHT

FREEDOM

FREEDOM. The state of being free; liberty; self-determination; absence of re Btraint; the opposite of slavery. The power of acting, in the character of a moral personality, according to the dictates of the will, without other check, hindiance, or prohibition than such as may be imposed by just and necessary laws and the duties of social life. The prevalence, in the government and constitution of a country, of such a system of laws and institutions as secure civil liberty to the individual citizen. FREEHOLD. - An estate in land or other real property, of uncertain duration; that is, either of inheritance or which may possibly last for the life of the tenant at the least, (as distinguished from a leasehold;) and held by a free tenure, (as distinguished from copy hold or villeinage.) Such an interest in lands of frank-tenement as may endure not only during the owner's life, but which is cast after his death upon the persons who successively represent him, according to certain rules elsewhere explained. Such persons are called " heirs," and he whom they thus represent, the " ancestor." When the interest extends beyond the ancestor's life, it is called a "freehold of inher itance, " and, when it only endures for the ances tor's life, it is a freehold not of inheritance. An estate to be a freehold must possess these two qualities: (1) Immobility, that is, the prop erty must be either land or some interest issuing out of or annexed to land; and (2) indeterminate duration, for, if the utmost period of time to which an estate can endure be fixed and determined, it cannot be a freehold. Wharton. FREEHOLD IN LAW. A freehold which has descended to a man, upon which he may enter at pleasure, but which he has not entered on. Termes de la Ley. FREEHOLD LAND SOCIETIES. Societies in England designed for the pur pose of enabling mechanics, artisans, and other working-men to purchase at the least possible price a piece of freehold land of a sufficient yearly value to entitle the owner to the elective franchise for the county in which the land is situateu, Wharton. FREEHOLDER. A person who pos sesses a freehold estate. FREEMAN. This word has had various meanings at different stages of history. In the Roman law, it denoted one who was either born free or emancipated, and was the opposite of "slave." In feudal law.it designated an allodial proprietor, as distin guished from a vassal or feudal tenant. In

old English law, the word described a free holder or tenant by free services; one who was not a villein. In modern legal phrase ology, it is the appellation of a member of a city or borough having the right of suffrage, or a member of any municipal corporation invested with full civic rights. A person in the possession and enjoyment of all the civil and political rights accorded to the people under a free government. FREEMAN'S ROLL. A list of persons admitted as burgesses or freemen for the purposes of the rights reserved by the mu nicipal corporation act, (5 & 6 Win. IV. c. 76.) Distinguished from the Burgess Roll. 3 Steph. Comm. 197. The term was used, in early colonial history, in some of the American colonies. FREIGHT. Freight is properly the price or compensation paid tor the traos portation of goods by a carrier, at sea, from port to port. But the term is also used to denote the hire paid for the carriage ot goods on land from place to place, (usually by a railroad company, not an express company,) or on inland streams or lakes. The name is also applied to the goods or merchandise transported by any of the above means. Property carried is called "freight;" the rewaid, if any, to be paid for its caniage is called "freightage;" the person who de livers the freight to the carrier is called the "consignor;" and the person to whom it is to be delivered is called the "consignee." Civil Code Cal. § 2110; XJivil Code Dak. § 1220. The term "freight" has several different mean ings, as the price to be paid for the carriage of goods, or for the hire of a vessel under a charter party or otherwise; and sometimes it designates goods carried, as "a freight of lime, " or the like. But, as a subject of insurance, it is used in one of the two former senses. 10 Gray, 109. The sum agreed on for the hire of a ship, en t.rely or in part, for the carriage of goods from one port to another. 13 East, 300. All rewards or compensation paid for the use of ship3. 1 Pet. Adm. 206 Freight is a compensation received for the trans portation of goods and merchandise from port to port; and is never claimable by the owner of the vessel until the voyage has been performed and terminated. 7 GUI & J. 300. "Dead freight" is money payable by a per son who has chartered a ship and only partly loaded her, in respect of the loss of freight caused to the ship-owner by the deficiency of cargo. L. R. 2 H. L. Sc. 128. Freight is the mother of wages. 2 Show. 283; 3 Kent, Comm. 196. Where a

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