CON 



CON 



tify whether or no things have been con- 

 trolled or examined. In England we 

 have several officers of this name, con- 

 troller of the King's house, controller of 

 the navy, controller of the customs, con- 

 troller of the mint, &c. 



CONTROLLER of the hanaper, an officer 

 that attends the Lord Chancellor daily, 

 in term and in seal-time, to take all 

 things, sealed in leather bags, from the 

 clerks of the hanaper, and to mark the 

 number and effect thereof, and enter 

 them in a book, with all the duties be- 

 longing to the King, and other officers, 

 for the same, and so charge the clerk of 

 the hanaper wiih them. 



CONTROLLER of the pipe, an officer of the 

 Exchequer, that makes out a summons 

 twice every year, to levy the farms and 

 debts of the pipe. 



CONTROLLERS of the pells, two officers of 

 the Exchequer, who are the Chamber- 

 lain's clerks, and keep a control of the 

 pell of receipts, and goings out. 



CONTUMACY, in law, a refusal to ap- 

 pear in court, when legally summoned ; 

 or the disobedience to the rules and or- 

 ders of a court, having power to punish 

 such offence. 



CONTUSION. See MEDICINE and 

 SURGE ur. 



CONVALLARIA, in botany, lily of the 

 valley, a genus of the Hexandria Mono- 



fynia class and order. Natural order of 

 armentacae. Asparagi, Jussieu. Essen- 

 tial character : corolla six-cleft ; berry 

 spotted, three-celled. There are eleven 

 species, of which C. maialis, sweet-scent- 

 ed lily of the valley, has a perennial root, 

 with numerous fibres transversely wrink- 

 led, creeping horizontally, just below the 

 surface, to a considerable distance. The 

 whole plant is smooth, the base of the 

 leaves and stalk are bound together, 

 with four or five alternate purplish scales ; 

 flowers from six to eight, in a raceme, 

 nodding; white and fragrant peduncles, 

 bending, oire-flowered, round filiform, 

 corolla contracted at the mouth. Native 

 of Europe, from Lapland to Italy. The 

 lily of the valley claims our notice as an 

 ornamental plant ; few are held in greater 

 estimation ; indeed few flowers can boast 

 such delicacy with so much fragrance. 

 When dried they have a narcotic scent, 

 and if reduced to powder excite sneezing. 

 The genus has been divided into three, 

 viz. Convallaria, Smilacina, and Maianthe- 

 mum, by Desfontaines. 



CONVENTICLE, a private assembly 

 or meeting, for the exercise of religion. 



The word was first attributed as an ap- 

 pellation of reproach to the religious as- 

 semblies of Wickliffe in this nation, in the 

 reigns of Edward III. and Richard II. and 

 is now applied to illegal meetings of non- 

 conformists. There were several statutes 

 made in former reigns, for the suppres- 

 sion of conventicles ; but by 1 Will, and 

 Mary, it is ordered, that dissenters may 

 assemble for the performance of religious 

 worship, provided their doors be not 

 locked, barred, or bolted. Conventicle, 

 in strict propriety, denotes an unlaw- 

 ful assembly, and cannot, therefore, be 

 justly applied to the legal assembling of 

 persons in places of worship, certified or 

 licensed according to the requisitions of 

 law. 



CONVENTION, a treaty, contract, or 

 agreement, between two or more parties. 

 Every convention among men, provided 

 it be not contrary to honesty and good 

 manners, produces a natural obligation, 

 and makes the performance a point of 

 conscience. Every convention has either 

 a name aiul a cause of consideration, OP 

 it has none ; in the first case it obliges 

 civilly and naturally, in the latter only na- 

 turally. 



CONVENTION is also a name given to an 

 extraordinary assembly of parliament, or 

 the states of the realm, held without the 

 King's writ ; as was the convention of es- 

 tates, who, upon the retreat of James II. 

 came to a conclusion that he had abdicat- 

 ed the throne, and that the right of suc- 

 cession devolved to King William and 

 Queen Mary ; whereupon their assembly 

 expired as a convention, and was convert- 

 ed into a parliament. 



CONVERGING, or CONVERGENT lines, 

 in geometry, are such as continually ap- 

 proach nearer one another ; or whosx; 

 distance becomes still less and less. 

 These are opposed to divergent lines, the 

 distance of which become continually 

 greater : those lines which converge one 

 way diverge the other. 



CONVERGING hyperbola, is one whose 

 concave legs bend in towards one ano- 

 ther, and run both the same way. 



CONVERGING rays, in optics, those rays, 

 that, issuing from divers points of an ob- 

 ject, incline towards one another, till, at 

 last, they meet and cross, and then be- 

 come diverging rays. See OPTICS. 



CONVERSING series. See SERIES. 



CONVERSE, in mathematics. One 

 proposition is called the converse of 

 another, when, after a conclusion is 

 drawn from something supposed in the 

 converse proposition, that conclusion i4 



