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recovered by a sudden conception of differ- { 
ent openings upon the enemy, which could i 
only be. ascertained by a quick and ready 
etc, during the rapid movements of opposing 
• armies. J 
( OUPED, coupe, in heraldry, is used to 
express the head or any iimb of an animal 
cut oil from the trunk smooth ; distinguish- 
ing it from that which is called erased, that 
i', forcibly torn oil, and therefore is ragged 
and uneven. 
C ouped is also used to signify such cross- 
es, bars, bends, chevrons, Ac. as do not touch 
the sides or the escutcheon, but are, as it 
mere, cut off from them. 
CO l PLE-C LOSS, in heraldry, the fourth 
part of a chevron, never borne but in pairs, 
■except there is a chevron between them. 
C'Ot PL H E, in forlitication, are passages 
sometimes cut through the glacis, of about 12 
or 15 feet broad, in the re-entering angle of 
they covert-way, to facilitate the sallies of the 
besieged. They are sometimes made through 
the lower curtin, to let boats into a little 
haven built on the rentrant angle of the 
^counterscarp of the outworks. 
COO RAT, the modern name for a dis- 
temper very common in Java and other parts 
•ot the East Indies. It is a sort of herpes or 
itch on the arm-pits, groins, breast, and face: 
the itching is almost perpetual; and the 
scratching is followed by great pain and a 
discharge of matter, which makes the linen 
stick so to the skin as not easily to be sepa- 
rated without tearing off the crust. Com up 
is a general name for any sort of itch; but 
this distemper is thus called by way of emi- 
nence. It is so contagious that few escape 
it. For the cure, gentle and repeated pur- 
ging is used, and externally the ointment of 
nitrated quicksilver. 
COURSE, in navigation, the point of the 
compass or horizon which a ship steers on, 
•or the angle which the rhumb-line on which 
it sails makes with the meridian; being some- 
times reckoned in degrees, and sometimes in 
points of the compass. 
When a ship sails either due north or south, 
•she sails on a meridian, , makes no departure, 
and her distance and difference of latitude 
are the same. 
\Y hen she sails due east or west, her course 
makes right-angles with the meridian, and 
she sails either jupon the equator or a paral- 
lel to it ; in which case she makes no differ- 
ence of latitude, but her distance and depar- 
ture are the same. 
But when the ship sails between the car- 
dinal points, on a course making always the 
same oblique angle with the meridians, her 
path is then the loxodromic curve, being a 
spiral cutting all the meridians in the same 
jangle, and terminating in the pole. 
Course, in architecture, a continued 
■range of stones, level or of the same height 
throughout the whole length of the build- 
ing. 
COURSES, in a ship, the mainsail and 
foresail : when the ship sails under them 
only, without lacing on any bonnets, she is 
then said to go under a pair of courses. To 
sail under a main course and bonnets, is to 
sail under a mainsail and bonnet 
COURT. A court is defined to be a 
place appropriated to the judicial adminis- 
tration of justice. The law has appointed a 
-Qpnsiderabie number of court*, some with a' 
more limited, others with a more extensive, 
jurisdiction; some of these are appropriated 
to enquire only, others to hear and deter- 
mine; some to determine in the first in- 
stance, others upon appeal and by way of re- 
view. 
1 lie most general division of our courts is 
into such as are of record, Or not; those of 
record arc again divided into such as are su- 
preme, superior, or inferior. 
1 he supreme court ot this kingdom is the 
high court ot parliament, consisting of the 
king, lords, and commons, who are vested 
w ith a kind or omnipotence- in making new 
iaws, and repealing and reviving old ones ; and 
on tire right balance of these depends tire 
very being ot our constitution. 
Superior courts of record are again those 
that are more or less principal : the more 
principal ones are the lords’ house in parlia- 
ment, the chancery, king’s bench, common 
pleas, and exchequer : the less principal ones 
are such as are held by commission of gaoi- 
delivery, oyer and terminer, assize, nisiprius, 
Ac. by custom or charter, as the courts of 
the palatine of Lancaster, Chester, D urham ; 
or by virtue of acts of parliament, as the 
court of sewers, justices of the peace, Ac. 
i lie interior courts of record, as ordinarily 
so called, are corporation courts, courts-leet, 
and sheriff's torn, Ac. 
Courts not of record, are the courts-haron, 
county-courts, hundred-courts, Ac. Also the 
admiralty and ecclesiastical courts, winch are 
not courts of record, but derive their autho- 
rity from the crown, and are subject to the 
coutroul of the king’s temporal courts where 
they exceed their jurisdiction. All these are 
bounded and circumscribed by certain laws 
and stated rules, to which in all their pro- 
ceedings and judicial determinations they 
must square themselves. Hale’s An. 35. 
And here it may be proper to observe, 
that where a statute prohibits a thing, and 
appoints that the offence shall be heard and 
determined in any of the king’s courts of re- 
cord, it can be proceeded against only in 
one of the courts of Westminster-hali. Dver 
236. * ’ 
Every court of record is -the king’s court, 
(hough the profits may be another’s; if the 
judges of such courts err, a writ of error lies ; 
i the truth of its records shall be tried by the 
j records themselves, and there shall be no 
! averment against the truth of the matter re- 
! corded. Co. Lit. 17. All such courts are 
1 created by act of parliament, letters patent, 
i or prescription ; and every court, by having 
1 power given it to fine and imprison, is there- 
; by made a court of record, the proceedings 
ot which -'•an only be removed by writ of er- 
ror or certiorari. Co. Lit. 260. 
A court that is not a court of record, can- 
not impose any fine on an offender, nor 
. award a capias against him, nor hold pica of 
j debt or trespass, if the debt or damages 
I amount to 40,9.; nor of trespass done vi et ur- 
■mis, though the damages are laid to be under 
40.y. 
Court-baron, is a court which every 
lord of the manor (antiently called the ba- 
rons) has within his own precincts. This 
court is an inseparable ingredient of every' 
manor; and if the number of the suitors 
should so fail as not to leave sufficient to 
make a jury or homage, that is, two tenants 
at the least, the manor itself is lost. 2 Black 
90. ^ 
'J he court-baron is of two natures : the one 
is a customary court, appertaining to the 
copyholders or other customary tenants, ami 
of this the lord or his steward is the jud^e ; 
the other is a court of common law, and is 
before the freeholders who owe suit and ser- 
vice to the manor, the steward being rather 
register than judge. 
I he copy holders’ or customary court, is for 
grants and admittances upon surrenders and 
descents, on presentment of the homage or 
jury. The homage may enquire of the death 
of tenants after the last 'court, and who is the 
next heir; of fraudulent alienation of lands, 
to defeat the lord of his profits ; of rent or 
service withdrawn; of escheats and forfeit- 
ures ; of cutting down trees without licence 
or consent; of suit not performed at the lord’s 
mill; •of waste by tenant for life; of sur- 
charge of common; of trespass in corn, grass, 
meadow, woods, hedges ; of pond-breach ; of 
removing mere-stones and land-marks ; of 
by-laws not observed, and the like. The 
method of punishment is by amercement. 
Court of 'chancery. See Chancellor, 
and Chancery. <*/» 
Court of chivalry, otherwise called the 
marshal court, the judges of which were the 
lord constable of England and live earl mar- 
shal of England ; hut since the extinguish- 
ment ot the hereditary office of constable in 
■the reign of Henry VI 1 1. this court lias been 
holden before the earl marshal only; and if 
it exceed its jurisdiction, it may be prohibit - 
ed by the common law courts. " 2 Haw. 602. 
It seems at this day to have a jurisdiction as 
to disputes concerning precedency and points 
of honour and satisfaction therein ; and may 
proceed against persons for falsely assuming 
tiie name and arms of honourable persons? 
2 Haw. 1 1. This court is to be’ governed by 
its own usages, as far as they go, and in other 
cases by the civil law ; but since it is no 
court ot common law, no condemnation in it 
causes any forfeiture of lands or corruption 
or blood ; neither can an error in it be reme- 
died by a writ of error, but only by appeal 
to the king ; yet the judges of the common 
law take notice of its jurisdiction, and give 
credit to a certificate oi its judges. 
L ourt Christian, so called because, as in 
secular courts, the king’s law's sway and de- 
cide causes, so in ecclesiastical courts, the 
law's of Christ should rule and direct; for 
which cause the judges in these courts are 
divines, as archbishops, bishops, archdea- 
cons, Ac. 
Court of common picas. Sec Common 
Pleas. 
Court of delegates, is the highest court 
for civil affairs that concern the church. See 
Delegates. 
Courts, ecclesiastical, are those courts 
which are held by the king’s authority, as 
supreme governor of the church, for matters 
which chiefly concern religion. As to suits 
in spiritual or ecclesiastical courts, they are 
tor the reformation of manners ; as, for pu- 
nishing of heresy, defamation, laying violent 
hands on a clerk, and the like ; and some of 
their suits are to recover something demand- 
ed, as tithes, a legacy, contract of inarriage, 
Ac. ; and in cases of this nature, the court 
may give costs, but not damages. The pro- 
ceedings in the ecclesiastical courts are 
