Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

778

MILITARY COMMISSIONS

MICHAELMAS

who has passed an examination and it a candidate for promotion to the rank of lieu tenant. MIDSUMMER-DAY. The summer sol stice, which is on the 24th day of June, and the feast of St. John the Baptist, a festival first mentioned by Maximus Tauricensis, A. D. 400. It is generally a quarter-day for the payment of rents, etc. Wharton. MIDWIFE. In medical jurisprudence. A woman who practices midwifery; an ao coucheuse. MIESES. In Spanish law. Crops of grain. White, New Recop. b. 1, tit. 7, c. 5, §2. Migrans jura amittat ao privilegia et immunitates domicilii prioris. One who emigrates will lose the rights, privileges, and immunities of his former domicile. Voet, Com. ad Pand. torn. i. 347; 1 Kent, Comm. 76. MILE. A measure of length or distance, containing 3 furlongs, or 1,760 yards, or 5,280 feet. MILEAGE. A payment or charge, at a fixed rate per mile, allowed as a compensa tion for traveling expenses to members of leg islative bodies, witnesses, sheriffs, and bail iffs. MILES. In the civil law. A soldier. In old English, law. A knight, because military service was part of the feudal ten ure. Also a tenant by military service, not a knight. 1 Bl. Comm. 404; Seld. Tit. Hon. 334. MILITARE. To be knighted. MILITARY. Pertaining to war or to the army; concerned with war. Also the whole body of soldiers; an army. MILITARY BOUNTY LAND. Land granted by various laws of the United States, by way of bounty, to soldiers for services rendered in the army; being given in lieu of a money payment. MILITARY CAUSES. In English law. Causes of action or injuries cognizable in the court military, or court of chivalry. 3 Bl. Comm. 103. MILITARY COMMISSIONS. Courts whose procedure and composition are modeled upon courts-martial, being the tribunals by which alleged violations of martial law are tried and determined. The membership of

MICHAELMAS. The feast of the Arch angel Michael, celebrated in England on the 29th of September, and one of the usual quarter days. MICHAELMAS HEAD COURT. A meeting of the heritors of Scotland, at which the roll of freeholders used to be revised. See Bell. MICHAELMAS TERM. One of the four terms of the English courts of common law, beginning on the 2d day of November and ending on the 25th. 3 Steph. Comm. 662. MICHE, or MICH. O. Eng. To prac tice crimes requiring concealment or secrecy; to pilfer articles secretly. Micher, one who practices secret crime. Webster. MICHEL-GEMOT. One of the names of Ihe general council immemorially held in England. The Witenagemote. One of the great councils of king and noblemen in Saxon times. Jacob. MICHEL-STNOTE Great council. One of the names of the general council of the kingdom in the times of the Saxons. 1 Bl. Comm. 147. MICHERY. Theft; cheating. MIDDLE TERM. A phrase used in log ic to denote the term which occurs in both of the premises in the syllogism, being the means of bringing together the two terms in the conclusion. MIDDLE THREAD. The middle thread of a stream is an imaginary line drawn length wise through the middle of its current. MIDDLEMAN. An agent between two parties, an intermediary who performs the office of a broker or factor between seller and buyer, producer and consumer, land-owner and tenant, etc. A middleman, in Ireland, is a person who takes land in large tracts from the proprie tors, and then rents it out to the peasantry in •mall portions at a greatly enhanced price. Wharton. MIDDLESEX, BILL OF. See BILL OF MIDDLESEX. MIDSHIPMAN. In ships of war, a kind of naval cadet, whose business is to second or transmit the orders of the superior officers and assist in the necessary business of the vessel, but understood to be in training for a commission. A passed midshipman is one

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