Latin: In the civil law. An engagement or undertaking; particularly such as was made in the form of an answer to a formal interrogatory by the other party. Calvin. An engagement to pay a certain sum of money to the successful party in a cause. Calvin. Sponsio judicialis. In Roman law. A judicial wager corresponding; in some respects to the "feigned issue" of modern practice. … [Read more...]

Those profits which a bishop receives in his ecclesiastical character, as the dues arising from his ordaining and instituting priests, and such like, In contradistinction to those profits which he acquires in his temporal capacity as a baron and lord of parliament, and which are termed his "temporalities," consisting of certain lands, revenues, and lay fees, etc. Cowell. … [Read more...]

In international law. Agreements or engagements made by certain public officers (as generals or admirals In time of war) in behalf of their governments, either without authority or in excess of the authority under which they purport to be made, and which therefore require an express or tacit ratification. … [Read more...]

1. Coin of the precious metals, of a certain weight and fineness, and bearing the stamp of the government, denoting its value as currency. Trebilcock Wilson, 12 Wall. 695, 20 L. Ed. 460; Walkup v. Houston, 65 N. C. 501; Henry v. Bank of Salina, 5 Hill (N. Y.) 536. 2. When spoken of a contract the expression "performance in specie91 means strictly, or according to the exact … [Read more...]

A formal discourse in public. 2. The liberty of speech is guarantied to members of the legislature, to counsel in court in debate. 3. The reduction of a speech to writing and its publication is a libel, if the matter contained in it is libelous; and the repetition of it upon occasions not warranted by law, when the matter is slanderous, will be slander and the character of the … [Read more...]