CON 
rated by supposing a right line fixed in a 
point, on high, but conceived to be capable 
of being extended more or less on occasion, 
and moved round the periphery of a circle. 
CONFECTION. See Pharmacy. 
CONFEDERACY, is when two or more 
confederate, to do any damage or injury to 
another, or to commit any unlawful act. 
And though a writ of confederacy do not 
lie if the party be not indicted, and in a law- 
ful manner acquitted, yet false confederacy 
between divers persons shall be punished, 
though nothing be put in execution. 
CONFERVA, in botany, river weed, a 
genus of the Cryptogaraia Algae. JEssential 
character: unequal tubercles, in very long 
capillary filaments. Twenty-one species 
are recited in Linnaeus’s system of vegeta- 
bles. These are all inhabitants of the w'a- 
ter, some in fresh, but more in salt water. 
A singular instance of irratibility has been 
observed in the Conferva corallina, upon 
its being immersed into fresh water, after it 
has been in a few minutes, several fibres 
were observed to move in an horizontal di- 
rection with a quick convulsive twitch, and 
then to stop suddenly : this they continued 
to do for some length of time, and the same 
effect may be produced several times, pro- 
vided the plant be fresh. The experiment 
does not succeed in salt water. 
CONFESSION of an offence, is when 
a prisoner is arraigned, and his indictment 
being read, either he confesses the offence, 
or pleads not guilty. Confession is express 
or implicit. Express, is where one in open 
court confesses the crime, is the most satis- 
factory ground of conviction. Implied, is 
where the defendant, in a case not capital, 
yields to the king’s mercy, and desires to 
submit to a small fine; which the court 
may accept without requiring a direct con- 
fession. The presumption of guilt in this 
ease is so strong, that the defendant cannot 
afterwards in a civil action deny the tres- 
pass. 
Confession, previous to trial, before a 
justice, &c. may also be given in evidence 
afterwards, as against the individual con- 
fessing ; but it must be voluntary, not upon 
promise or threats, and must be taken in 
time. After confession the party may take 
advantage of errors in the indictment in 
arrest of judgment. Confession may also 
be in a civil action, and is commonly on a 
warrant of attorney for that purpose, which 
being after accompanied with a bond is 
vulgarly called a bond and judgment. 
CONFIRMATION, is a conveyance of 
CON 
an actual, not a reversionary estate or right, 
which one has to lands, &c. to another hav- 
ing the possession of or in being, an estate 
in them whereby that estate is increased, 
the possession made perfect, or if voidable, 
it is rendered secure. It does not regularly 
create an estate, but may be connected with 
words which create a further estate. It is 
necessary that the one party should have an 
estate in possession by right or wrong, and 
the other an estate on right from which the 
confirmation may come, and the one estate 
must continue till the other operates. 
Confirmation, in rhetoric, the third 
part of an oration, wherein the orator under- 
takes to prove the truth of the proposition 
advanced in his narration ; and is eitlier di- 
rect or indirect. Direct, confirms what he 
has to urge for strengthening his own cause. 
Indirect, properly called confutation, tends 
to refute the arguments of his adversaries. 
CONFISCATE, from co/iflscase, and that 
from ^sc!W, the emperor’s treasure. Any 
goods which being disclaimed by another, as 
a felon upon trial, comes to the king, al- 
though they are the felon’s own. Those 
which he claims, as his own, are, upon con- 
viction, not confiscate, but forfeited to the 
king. 
CONFUSION of tongues, a memorable 
event which happened, according to the 
Hebrew chronology, one hundred and one 
years after the flood, at the overthrow of 
Babel, and which was providentially brought 
about to fiicilitate the dispersion of man- 
kind, and the population of tlie earth. 
Hitherto there had been but one common 
language, which formed a bond of union, 
that prevented the separation of man- 
kind into distinct nations, and some have 
imagined that the tower of Babel was 
erected as a kind of fortress, by which the 
people intended to defend themselves against 
that separation, which Noah had projected. 
CONGE D’ESLIRE. The king’s per- 
mission royal to a dean and chapter, in 
time of vacation of the see, to choose or 
elect a bishop. See Bishop. 
CONGELATION, may be defined the 
transition of a liquid into a solid state, in 
consequence of an abstraction of heat: thus 
metals, oil, water, &c. are said to congeal 
when they pass from a fluid into a solid 
state. With regard to fluids, congelation 
and freezing meaning the same thing. Wa- 
ter congeals at 32°, and there are few 
liquids that will not congeal, if the tem- 
perature be brought sufficiently low. The 
only difficulty is to obtain a temperature 
