Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

PLACITA

899

PIRATE

standard is in England called "pixing" it; and there are occasions on which resort is had for this purpose to an ancient mode of inqui sition called the "trial of the pix," before a jury of members of the Goldsmiths' Company. 2 Steph. Comm. 540, note. PIX JURY. A jury consisting of the members of the corporation of the goldsmiths of the city of London, assembled upon an inquisition of very ancient date, called the " trial of the pix." See Pix. PLACARD. An edict; a declaration; a manifesto. Also an ad vertisement or public notification. PLACE. An old form of the word u pleas." Thus the " Court of Common Pleas " was sometimes called the "Court of Common Place." PLACE. This word is a very indefinite term. It is applied to any locality, limited by boundaries, however large or however small. It may be used to designate a coun try, state, county, town, or a very small por tion of a town. The extent of the locality designated by it must generally be deter mined by the connection in which it is used. 46 Vt. 432. PLACE OF CONTRACT. The place (country or state) in which a contract is made, and whose law must determine ques tions affecting the execution, validity, and construction of the contract. 91 U. S. 412. PLACE OF DELIVERY. The place where delivery is to be made of goods sold. If no place is specified in the contract, the articles sold must, in general, be delivered at the place where they are at the time of the sale. 100 U. S. 134. PLACE WHERE. A phrase used in the older reports, being a literal translation of locus in quo, (q. v.) PLACEMAN. One who exercises a pub lic employment, or fills a public station. PLACIT, or PLACITUM. Decree; de termination. PLACITA. In old English law. The public assemblies of all degrees of men where the sovereign presided, who usually consult ed upon the great affairs of the kingdom. AI30 pleas, pleadings, or debates, and trials at law; sometimes penalties, fines, mulcts, oi emendations; also the style of the court at the beginning of the record at nisi prius, but this is now omitted. Cowell.

life and sinking their ships. Ridley, Civil & Ecc. Law, pt. 2, c, 1, § 3. A pirate is one who acts solely on his own au thority, without any commission or authority from a sovereign state, seizing by force, and appropri ating to himself without discrimination, every ves sel he meets with. Robbery on the high seas is piracy; but to constitute the offense the taking must be felonious. Consequently the quo animo may be inquired into. 2 Paine, 324. Pirates are common sea-rovers, without any fixed place of residence, who acknowledge no sovereign and no law, and support themselves by pillage and depredations at sea; but there are instances where in the word u pirata n has been formerly taken for a sea-captain. Spelman. PIBATICAL. "Where the act uses the word'piratical,'it does so in a general sense; Importing that the aggression is unauthorized by the law of nations, hostile in its character, wanton and criminal in its commission, and utterly without any sanction from any public authority or sovereign power. In short, it means that the act belongs to the class of of fenses which pirates are in the habit of perpe trating, whether they do it for purposes of plunder, or for purposes of hatred, revenge, or wanton abuse of power." 2 How. 232. PIRATIC ALLY. Atechnical word which must always be used in an indictment for piracy. 3 Inst. 112. PISCARY. The right or privilege of fishing. Thus, common of piscary is the right of fishing in waters belonging to an other person. PISTAREEN. A small Spanish coin. It is not made current by the laws of the United States. 10 Pet. 618. PIT. In old Scotch law. An excavation or cavity in the earth in which women who were under sentence of death were drowned. PIT AND GALLOWS. In Scotch law. A privilege of inflicting capital punishment for theft, given by King Malcolm, by which a woman could be drowned in a pit, (fossa,) or a man hanged on a gallows, {/urea.) Bell. PITCHING-PENCE. In old English law. Money, commonly a penny, paid for pitching or setting down every bag of corn or pack of goods in a fair or market. Cowell. PITTANCE. A slight repast or refec tion of fish or flesh more than the common allowance; and the pittancer was the officer who distributed this at certain appointed festivals. Cowell. PIX. A mode of testing coin. The as certaining whether coin is of the proper

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