CON 



CON 



CONSIDERATION, in law, the mate- 

 rial cause or ground of a contract, with- 

 out which the party contracting would not 

 be bound. Consideration in contracts, is 

 something given in exchange, something 

 that is mutual and reciprocal ; as money 

 given for goods sold, \vork performed for 

 wages. And a consideration of some sort 

 or other is so absolutely necessary to the 

 forming a contract, that a nudum pactum, 

 or agreement to do or pay any thing on one 

 side, without any compensation on the 

 other, is totally void in law ; and a man 

 cannot be compelled to perform it. A con- 

 sideration is necessary to create a debt. 



CONSIGNMENT, in Jaw, the deposit- 

 ing any sum of money, bills, papers, or 

 commodities, in good hands ; either by ap- 

 pointment of aconrt of justice, in order to 

 be delivered to ihe person to whom they 

 are adjudged ; or voluntary, in order to 

 their being remitted to the persons they 

 belong to, or sent to the places they are 

 designed for. Consigned goods are sup- 

 posed, in general, to be the property of 

 him by whom they were consigned, but 

 to be at the disposal of him to whom they 

 are consigned. 



CONSISTORY, a tribunal; every arch- 

 bishop and bishop of every diocese hath a 

 consistory court, held before his chancel- 

 lor or commissary in his cathedral church, 

 or other convenient place of his diocese, 

 for ecclesiastical causes. From the bi- 

 shop's court the appeal is to the arch- 

 bishop ; from the archbishop's court to 

 the delegates. 



CONSONANCE, in music, is ordinarily 

 used in the same sense with concord, viz. 

 for the union or agreement of two sounds 

 produced at the same time, the one grave, 

 and the other acute ; which, mingling in 

 the air in a certain proportion, occasion 

 an accord agreeable to the ear. 



CONSONANT, a letter that cannot be 

 sounded without some single or double 

 vowel before or after it. 



Consonants are first divided into single 

 and double - r the double are x and z, the 

 rest are all single : and these are again di- 

 vided into mutes and liquids, eleven 

 mutes, 6, c, J, /, , g, j, k, p, q, t , and 

 four liquids, /, m, n, r. But the most natu- 

 ral division of consonants is that of the 

 Hebrew grammarians, who hare beenimi- 

 tated by the grammarians of other Orien- 

 tal languages. These divide the conso- 

 nants into five classes, with regard to the 

 five principal organs of the voice, which 

 all contribute, it is true, but one more no- 

 tably than the rest, to certain modifica- 

 ti-ns, which make five general kinds of 



consonants. Each class comprehends se. 

 veral consonants, which result from the 

 different degrees of the same modification, 

 or from the different motions of the same 

 organs : these organs are, the throat, pa- 

 late, tongue, teeth, lips, whence the five 

 classes of consonants are denominated 

 guttural, palatal, lingual, dental, and labial. 



CONSPIRACY, in law, signifies an 

 agreement between two or more, falsely 

 to indict, or procure to be indicted, an in- 

 nocent person of felony. 



CONSPIRATORS are, by statute, de- 

 fined to be such as bind themselves by 

 oath, covenant, or other alliance, to assist 

 one another, falsely and maliciously to in- 

 dict persons, or falsely to maintain pleas. 



From this and the former article it seems 

 to follow, that not only those who actually 

 cause an innocent man to be indicted, and 

 also to be tried upon the indictment, where- 

 upon he is lawfully acquitted, are properly 

 conspirators ; but that those also are guil- 

 ty of this offence, who basely conspire to 

 indict a man falsely and maliciously, 

 whether they do any act in prosecution of 

 such confederacy or not. For this offence 

 the conspirators may be indicted at the 

 suit of the king, and may be sentenced 

 to fine, imprisonment, and pillory. 



CONSTABLE. Lord high constable, an 

 ancient officer of the crowns both of Eng- 

 land and France, whose authority was so 

 very extensive, that the office has been 

 laid aside in both kingdoms, except upon 

 particular occasions, such as the king's 

 corona-tion. 



The function of the constable of Eng- 

 land consisted in the care of the common 

 peace of the land, in deeds of arms and 

 matters of war. By a law of Richard II. the 

 constable of England has the determina- 

 tion of things concerning wars and bla- 

 zonry of arms, which cannot be discussed 

 by the common law. The first constable 

 was created by the Conqueror : the office 

 continued hereditary till the 13th of Hen- 

 ry VIII. when it was laid aside, as being 

 so powerful as to become troublesome to 

 the king. We have also constables deno- 

 minated from particular places, as consta- 

 ble of the Tower, of Dover Castle, of 

 Windsor Castle, of the castle of Caernar- 

 von, and many other of the castles of 

 Wales, whose office is the same with 

 that of the castellani, or governors of 

 castles. 



From the Lord high constable are de- 

 rived those inferior ones, since called the 

 constables of hundreds or franchises, who 

 were first ordained in the thirteenth of 

 Edward I. by the statute of Winchester, 



