CON 
duty, or the laws or customs of the place. 
Tlje penalties imposed in cases of contra- 
vention only pass for comminatory. 
■ Contravention, in a more limited 
sense, signifies the non-execution of an or- 
dinance or edict. It is supposed to be the 
effect of negligence or ignorance. 
CONTRAYERVA. See Materia Me- 
DICA. 
CONTRE, in heraldry, an appellation 
given to several bearings, on account of 
their cutting the shield contrary and oppo- 
site ways : thus we meet with contre-hend, 
contre-chevron, contre-pale, &c. when 
there are two ordinaries of the same nature 
opposite to each other, so as colour may be 
opposed to metal, and metal to colour. 
CONTRIBUTION, in a general sense, 
the payment of each person’s quota, or the 
share he bears in some imposition or com- 
mon expense. Contributions are either 
voluntary, as those of expenses for carrying 
on some undertaking for the public interest ; 
or involuntary, as those of taxes and im- 
posts. 
Contribution, in a military sense, an im- 
position or tax paid by frontier countries 
to an enemy, to prevent their being plun- 
dered and ruined by him. 
CONTROLLER, an oflacer appointed 
to control or oversee the accounts of other 
officers, and, on occasion, to certify whe- 
ther or no things have been controlled or 
examined. In England we have several of- 
ficers of this name, controller of the King’s 
house, controller of the navy, controller of 
tlie customs, controller 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 belonging to the King 
and other officers, for the same, and so 
charge the clerk of the hanaper with them. 
Controller of the pipe, an officer of 
tlie Exchequer, that makes out a summons 
twice every year, to levy the farms and 
debts of the pipe. 
Controllers of tlie pells, two officers 
of the Exchequer, who are the Chamber- 
lain’s clerks, and keep a control of tlie 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 orders of 
a court, having power to punish such of- 
fence. 
CON 
CONTUSION. See Medicine and 
Surgery. 
CONVALLARIA, in botany, lily of the 
Halley, a genus of the Hexandria Monogy- 
nia class and order. Natural order of Sar- 
mentacse. Asparagi, Jussieu. Essential 
character : corolla six-cleft ; berry spotted, 
three-celled. There are eleven species, of 
which C. maialis, sweet-scented lily of the 
valley, has a perennial root, with nume- 
rous fibres transversely wrinkled, 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 alter- 
nate purplish scales; flowers from six to 
eight, in a raceme, nodding; white and fra- 
grant peduncles, bending, one-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. 
CONVENTICLE, a private assembly or 
meeting, for the exercise of religion. The 
word was first attributed as an appellation 
of reproach, to the religious assemblies of 
Wickliffe in this nation, in the reigns of Ed- 
ward III. and Richard II. and is now ap- 
plied to illegal meetings of non-conformists. 
There were several statutes made in former 
reigns, for the suppression of conventicles ; 
but by 1 Will, and Mary, it is ordered, that 
dissenters may assemble for the perform- 
ance of religious worship, provided their 
doors be not locked, barred, or bolted. 
Conventicle, in strict propriety, denotes 
an unlawful assembly, and cannot, tliere- 
fore, be justly applied to the legal assem- 
bling of persons in places of worship certi- 
fied, or licensed, according to the requisi- 
tions 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 man- 
ners, produces a natural obligation, and 
makes the performance a point of con- 
science. Every convention has either a 
name and a cause of consideration, or it 
has none ; in the first case it obliges civilly 
and naturally, in the latter only naturally. 
Convention is also a name given to an 
extraordinary assembly of parliament, or 
the states of the realm, held without the 
