Blacks Law Dict. 1st ed

PROMOTERS

PROLETARIATE

952

on a promise founded on a consideration. Ab bott. "Fictitious promises," sometimes called "implied promises," or "promises implied in law," occur in the case of those contract* which were invented to enable persons in certain cases to take advantage of the old rules of pleading peculiar to contracts, and which are not now of practical importance. Sweet. PROMISE OP MARRIAGE. A con tract mutually entered into by a man and » woman that they will marry each other. PROMISEE. One to whom a promise has been made. PROMISOR. One who makes a prom ise. PROMISSOR. Lat. In the civil law. A promiser; properly the party who under, took to do a thing in answer to the interior gation of the other party, who was called the "stipulator." PROMISSORY NOTE. A promise or engagement, in writing, to pay a specified sum at a time therein limited, or on demand, or at sight, to a person therein named, or to his order, or bearer. Byles, Bills, 1, 4; 5 Denio, 484. A promissory note is a written promise made by one or more to pay another, or order, or bearer, at a specified time, a specific amount of money, or other articles of value. Code Ga. 1882, $ 2774. A promissory note is an instrument negotiable in form, whereby the signer promises to pay a specified sum of money. Civil Code Cal. S 8244. An unconditional written promise, signed by the maker, to pay absolutely and at all events a sum certain in money, either to the bearer or to a per son therein designated or his order. Benj. Chalm. Bills & N. art. 271. PROMISSORY OATHS. Oaths which bind the party to observe a certain course of conduct, or to fulfill certain duties, in the future, or to demean himself thereafter in a stated manner with reference to specified objects or obligations; such, for example, as the oath taken by a high executive officer, a legislator, a judge, a person seeking nat uralization, an attorney at law. PROMOTERS. In the law relating to corporations, those persons are called the "promoters" of a company who first asso ciate themselves together for the purpose of organizing the company, issuing its pro spectus, procuring subscriptions to the stock* securing a charter, etc.

PROLETARIATE. The class of prole tarii; the lowest stratum of the people of a country, consisting mainly of the waste of other classes, or of those fractions of the pop ulation who, by their isolation and their pov erty, have no place in the established order of society. PROLETARIUS. Lat. In Roman law. A person of poor or mean condition; those among the common people whose fortunes were below a certain valuation; those who were so poor that they could not serve the state with money, but only with their chil dren, {proles.) Calvin.; Vicat. PROLICIDE. In medical jurisprudence. A word used to designate the destruction of the human offspring. Jurists divide the sub ject into foeticide, or the destruction of the foetus in utero, and infanticide, or the de struction of the sew-born infant. Ry. Med. Jur. 280. PROLIXITY. The unnecessary and su perfluous statement of facts in pleading or in evidence. This will be rejected as imperti nent. 7 Price, 278, note. PROLOCUTOR. In ecclesiastical law. The president or chairman of a convocation. PROLONGATION. Time added to the duration of something; an extension of the time limited for the performance of an agree ment. A prolongation of time accorded to the principal debtor will discharge the sure ty. PROLYTJS. Lat. In Roman law. A name given to students of law in the fifth year of their course; as being in advance of the Lytse, or students of the fourth year. Calvin. PROMATERTERA. Lat. In the civil law. A great maternal aunt; the sister of one's grandmother. PROMATERTERA MAGNA. Lat. In the civil law. A great-great-aunt. PROMISE. A declaration, verbal or written, made by one person to another for a good or valuable consideration in the nature of a covenant by which the promisor binds himself to do or forbear some act, and gives to the promisee a legal right to demand and enforce a fulfillment. "Promise" is to be distinguished, on the one hand, from a mere declaration of intention involv ing no engagement or assurance as to the future; and, on the other, from "agreement," which is an obligation arising upon reciprocal promises, or up

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