149 



COSERVATORS OF THE PEACE. 



CONSIDERATION. 



with regard to numerous objects which they usually consecrate, as 

 church bells, candles, water, oil, crosses, pictures, &c. ; but with respect 

 to the consecration of the eucharistic bread and wine, they maintain 

 that a complete change is effected in the thing consecrated. the body 

 and the blood of Jesus Christ, by the change of the bread into his 

 body, and of the wine into his blood, being believed to be really present 

 >>y virtue of the words of consecration. This is what is termed tran- 



ntiation. (Bruuet, ' Parallele des Religions,' 4to, 1792, tome iii., 

 p. 31 ; ' Exposition de la doctrine de 1'Eglise Catholique,' par Bo?suet.) 

 The consecration of animals was very common in ancient Egypt, 

 where birds, beasts, and reptiles were privileged, as in modern India, 

 to live unmolested, and even to receive adoration. Athenasus and 

 .Elian speak of sacred fishes, adorned with necklaces ; so the sacred 

 crocodile in Egypt was decorated with ear-rings. (Herodotus, ii 69.) 

 Consecration is a name given to the apotheosis of the Roman emperors, 

 and coins and medals commemorating the?e events have the inscription 

 " Consecratio." See an account of these funeral honours in the article 

 APOTHEOSIS, and the medal with the legend " Consecratio " in the 

 article AI'REI.IUS, in BIOG. Drv. 



CONSERVATORS OF THE PEACE, before the comparatively 

 modern institution of justices of the peace, were officers who by the 

 common law of England were appointed for the preservation of the 

 jUiblic peace. These conservators, whose powers were far inferior to 



of modern justices of the peace, consisting almost entirely of 

 the authority to take sureties for the peace and for good behaviour. 

 were of several kinds. In the first place, certain high functionaries 

 were general conservators by virtue of their offices. Thus the king, 

 the lord chancellor or lord keeper, the judges of the court of King's 

 Kench. and the master of the rolls, were intrusted by the common law 

 with the general conservancy of the peace throughout the realm, as 

 incidental to their several offices. Other officers again were conser- 



only hi special places ; thus the judges of the common pleas and 

 ifl of the exchequer were conservators of the peace only within 

 the precincts of their several courts. In like manner, judges of 



sol-delivery within the places limited by their commissions; 



rs and sheriffs within their several counties, and constables and 

 tithingmen within their hundreds or tithings, were all conservators of 

 the peace at conim-m law , and all the officers above enumerated retain 

 their authority at the present day. But besides these official conser- 

 there were others who were expressly intrusted with the 

 charge of the peace, either by prescription, election, or tenure. Thus 

 it is said that the owner of a manor might have prescribed that he and 

 his ancestors, whose estate he had, were entitled to be conservators of 

 the peace within such manor. So also as sheriffs were formerly elected, 

 and as coroners still are elected, by the freeholders of the county, 

 certain persons were, before the reign of Edward III., elected con- 

 servators of the peace in different counties. There were also instances 

 in which lands were granted by the king to hold of him by knight's 

 service, and also by discharging the duties of conservation of the peace 

 within the county where the lands lie. Besides these, there were con- 

 servators of the peace appointed by letters patent from the crown, in 

 cases of emergency, to defend particular districts, where breaches of 

 the peace were apprehended in consequence of foreign invasion or 

 intestine tumult. All the different kinds of conservators of the peace 



noticed, excepting those who have the duty cast upon them as 



incidental to other offices, were entirely superseded upon the establish- 



f the system of justices of the peace in the early part of the 



<>f Edward III. [JUSTICES OF THK PEACE.] (See also full details 



upon this subject in Laitil>;ird' ', book i., cap. 3.) 



CONSERVATOR OK THK STAPLE, in the law of Scotland, an 

 officer in the nature of a foreign consul, resident at Catopvere, in* the 

 X. tin rlainls. See the Act 1503, c. 81. The office has long been obsolete. 

 CONSERVATORY. The names given to the garden buildings 

 employed for preserving plants in an artificial climate, are applied with 

 so little precision, that it is almost a matter of indifference which to 

 select for the purpose of xplaining the principles that ought to be 

 observed in the construction and management of such houses. We 

 shall therefore reserve for the article GKEKX-HOCSE what we have to 

 ay upon that head, and briefly dismiss the others as their names occur. 

 In illustration of this remark we may observe that the term conser- 



. which, as its meaning shows, was originally intended for build- 

 ings in which plants were preserved during winter, lias come to be 

 used, firstly for glass-houses in which plants are cultivated by growing 

 tin-in in the open border, and subsequently for all such glazed buildings 



"ver. A conservatory, properly so called, is a brick building 

 heated by artificial means, having its whole southern part closed by 



lazed sashes, which may be opened or shut at pleasure. Its 



generally "f stone, and a part of it is occupied by a stage on 



plants in pots can lie placed. One of these buildings, but in a 

 ruinous slatfl, may be seen in the physic garden at Chelsea ; oth 

 :n>n in gardens that were laid out forty or fifty yr,< 

 but they arc fast falling into neglect and disuse in our opinion un- 

 deservedly. Such a conservatory was intended to preserve during the 



^range-trees, myrtles, American aloes, and similar plants, which 



urumer will flourish in the open air, but which require in 



itected against the inclemency, or, to speak more 



exactly, against the cold and wet of the English climate. Such plants 



are torpid during winter ; their rest begins with that of our trees, and 



it is easy to prevent a renewal of their growth at too early a time ; to 

 preserve them against too much wet and from severe cold, especially in 

 the spring, is all that is requisite for them, and these objects tliu old 

 conservatory answered perfectly well. It had moreover the advantages 

 of being spacious without being excessively costly ; of being easily 

 heated, and of requiring the smallest possible amount of labour for the 

 plants preserved in it. Persons however, gradually forgetting the 

 original object of a conservatory added to it numerous species reqxuring 

 a very different treatment in winter from those it was contrived for ; 

 and what was far worse, they attempted by humidity and high tempera- 

 ture to keep the plants in a growing state through the winter. The 

 necessary consequence of this was, that those plants which formerly 

 succeeded in the conservatory became unhealthy, the new comers 

 disappointed the expectations of their cultivators, and the class of 

 building itself fell into discredit. The reason of this is sufficiently 

 obvious. Plants when in a growing state require an abundant supply 

 of light : a conservatory is particularly ill calculated, on account of its 

 solid roof and sides, for the admission of light, and consequently a con- 

 servatory is not suitable for plants in a growing state ; but plants when 

 torpid, as in their winter season, require a very moderate supply of 

 light, and this a true conservatory is sufficiently calculated to admit. 



A house of this kind is best suited for gardens of considerable 

 extent, where a large number of plants is required during the summer 

 for the ornament of the flower garden and shrubbery Under such 

 circumstances we strongly recommend the erection of conservatories as 

 the cheapest, the most efficient, and the most ornamental mode of 

 preserving in a healthy state during winter not only oranges, myrtles, 

 and similar plants, but in general all the species which are natives of 

 countries that, without experiencing severe frost, are cold enough 

 during winter to suspend the vital energies of vegetation. It will be 

 perfectly within the gardener's power to keep the earth iu which con- 

 servatory plants grow sufficiently damp during winter to enable them 

 to accumulate by the return of spring an abundant supply of new sap ; 

 and this is all that he need be particularly reminded of, if he under- 

 stands his business scientifically ; if he does not, advice to him would 

 be only a waste of words. [GREEN-HOUSE.] 



CONSERVES differ from confections in minor details only. They 

 are formed of flowers, herbs, roots, fruits, and seeds, all recent an ! 

 fresh, beaten up with powdered sugar to the consistence of a stift" 

 paste, as a means of preserving the distinctive qualities of the plant in 

 a fresh state. The range of substances thus treated is very extensive. 



CONSIDERATION. This is a Latin word, ei'imidi ratio, which, as 

 well as the verb considero, was used by Cicero and others to express 

 "careful observation," or "reflection," or "deliberation before action." 

 It has nothing to do with looking at the stars, as the Latin grammarian 

 Festus states ; but it implies something which is nearer to the business 

 of common life than star-gazing : it implies the sitting down of a man 

 in a place alone or with others. The word consideration means 

 " deliberation " in the English language of common life. 



But the term consideration has also a legal and technical meaning, 

 independently of its primary and common meaning ; namely, the 

 recompense which a party who enters into a contract gets for making, 

 or the motive or inducement which he has to make, the contract in 

 question ; and such consideration may be either express or implied. 

 The following are examples of express consideration : If a man agrees 

 to sell his Land to another for 10(M., the 1007. is the consideration for 

 which he, the former, agrees to part with his land ; or if a man 

 promises to give lOOOi. to another if he will marry his daughter, the 

 fact of the latter marrying the daughter is the consideration for the 

 agreement of the former to pay the lOOOi. But there may be an 

 ///<//<'>/ consideration in many cases where none is expressed: for 

 example, a man may undertake to do a piece of work for another with- 

 out any express bargain that he shall be paid ; but if he does the work 

 according to his agreement, the other man may be compelled to pay 

 him, because the law implies a promise on his part to pay if the work 

 is done ; and the implied consideration for this promise is the under- 

 taking of the workman to do the work in question. 



Contracts not under seal cannot be enforced if made without a 

 consideration. A man may promise verbally or in writing to give 

 another 1000J. ; but the promise cannot be enforced unless there is a 

 consideration for it ; that is, some cause or reason which moved the con- 

 tracting party to enter into the contract. But with regard to contracts 

 under seal, the rule is different ; for the law assumes such a contract 

 to have been entered into with due deliberation, and binds the con- 

 tractor to his engagement, whether he received a consideration for it 

 or not. 



Considerations are sometimes divided into valuable considerations 

 and ffood considerations. Marriage is a valuable consideration ; money, 

 or any other thing which is of the nature of property, and has a com- 

 mon value, is a valuable consideration. If a man parts with his estate 

 for a valuable consideration, the transaction is valid, and he who gets 

 the estate has, so far as the consideration is concerned, a good title. A 

 good consideration, on the other hand, is not sufficient to maintain the 

 validity of a conveyance of property against the claim of a subsequent 

 purchaser for a valuable consideration. Thus, if a man after his 

 marriage settles an estate upon his wife and children in consideration 

 of natural affection, and then sells the estate for money, the purchaser 

 will have the estate, and not the wife and children (Hill r. Bishop of 



