cos^ 
are registered, and when called upon by the 
government, are obliged to join the aimy 
on any service. 
CONSEQUENCE, iu logic, the conclu- 
sion, or what results from reason or argu- 
ment. 
CONSEQUENT of a ratio, in mathe- 
matics, the latter of the two terms of a ra- 
tio, or that to which the antecedent is^ com- 
pared ; thus is »n : n, or tn to », m is the 
consequent, and m the antecedent. 
CONSERVATOR, an officer ordained 
for the security and preservation of the pri- 
vileges of some cities and communities, hav- 
ing a commission to judge of and deter- 
mine the differences among them. 
Conservator of the peace, in our an- 
cient customs, a person who had a special 
charge to keep the king’s peace. Till the 
appointment of justices of the peace by 
Edward III., there were several persons, 
who, by common law, were interested in 
keeping the same : some having that charge 
ias incident to other offices, and others called 
conservators of the peace. Those that were 
so by virtue of their office still continue, 
but the latter are superseded by the modern 
justices. Tlie chamberlain of Chester is 
still a conservator in that county ; and petty 
constables are, by the common law, con- 
servators, &c. of the kiiig;s peace. The 
king's majesty is, by his office and dignity 
royal, the principal conservator of the peace 
within all his dominions, and may give 
authority to any other to see the peace kept, 
and to punish such as break it, hence it is 
Hsuallv called the king’s peace. 
CONSERVATORY, a term sometimes 
used for a green-house, or ice-house. 
CONSERVE, a form of medicine. See 
Pharmacy. 
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, work performed for 
wa'ms. 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 law, the deposit- 
ing any sum of money, bills, papers, or 
commodities in good hands ; either by ap- 
pointment of a court of justice, in order to 
CON 
be delivered to the pei'sons to whom they 
are adjudged ; or voluntary, in order to 
their being remitted to the persons they be- 
long to, or sent to the places they are <le- 
signed for. Consigned goods are supposed 
in general, to be the property of him by 
whom they were consigned, but to be at tho 
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 chancellor 
or commissary in his cathedral church, or 
other convenient place of his diocese, for 
ecclesiastical causes. From the bishop s 
court the appeal is to the archbishop ; 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 ; wliich mingling in the 
air in a certain proportion, occasion an ac- 
cord 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 ; the double are x and z, the 
rest are all single ; and these are again di- 
vided into mutes, and liquids, eleven 
mutes, b, c, d, f, v, g, j, h, p, q, t ; and 
four liquids, I, m, n, r. But the most natu- 
ral division of consonants, is that ot the He- 
brew grammarians, who have been imitated 
by the grammarians of other Oriental lan- 
guages. These divide the consonants into 
five classes, witli regard to the five princi- 
pal organs of the voice, which all contribute, 
it is true, but one more notably than the 
rest, to certain modifications, which make 
five general kinds of consonants. Each 
class comprehends several 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, palate, tongue, teeth, lips, whence 
the five classes of consonants are denomi- 
nated 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 inno- 
cent 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 indict 
persons, or falsely to maintain pleas. 
From this and the former article it seems 
to follow, that not only those who actually 
