BALÆNA. A large fish, called by Blackstone a "whale." Of this the king had the head and the queen the tail as a perquisite whenever one was taken on the coast of England. 1 Bl. Comm. 222.
BALANCE. The amount remaining due from one person to another on a settlement of the accounts involving their mutual dealings; the difference between the two sides (debit and credit) of an account.
A balance is the conclusion or result of the debit and credit sides or an account. It implies mutual dealings, and the existence of debt and credit, without which there could be no balance. Loeb v. Keyes, 156 N. Y. 529, 51 N. E 285; McWilliams v. Allan, 45 Mo. 574; Thillman v. Shadrick, 69 Md. 528, 16 Atl. 138.
The term is also frequently used in the sense of residue or remainder; as when a will speaks of "the balance of my estate." Lopez v. Lopez, 23 S. C. 269; Brooks v. Brooks, 65 Ill. App. 331; Lynch v. Spicer, 53 W. Va. 426, 44 S. E. 255.
—Balance-sheet. When it is desired to ascertain the exact state of a merchant's business, or other commercial enterprise, at a given time, all the ledger accounts are closed up to date and balances struck; and these balances, when exhibited together on a single page, and so grouped and arranged as to close into each other and be summed up in one general result, constitute the "balance-sheet." Eyre v. Harmon, 92 Cal. 580, 28 Pac. 779.
BALCANIFER, or BALDAKINIFER. The standard-bearer of the Knights Templar.
BALCONIES. Small galleries of wood or stone on the outside of houses. The erection of them is regulated in London by the building acts.
BALDIO. In Spanish law. Waste land; land that is neither arable nor pasture. White New Recop. b. 2, tit. 1, c. 6, § 4, and note. Unappropriated public domain, not set apart for the support of municipalities. Sheldon v. Milmo, 90 Tex. 1, 36 S. W. 415.
BALE. A pack or certain quantity of goods or merchandise, wrapped or packed up in cloth and corded round very tightly, marked and numbered with figures corresponding to those in the bills of lading for the purpose of identification. Wharton.
A bale of cotton is a certain quantity of that commodity compressed into a cubical form, so as to occupy less room than when in bags. 2 Car. & P. 525. Penrice v. Cocks, 2 Miss. 229. But see Bonham v. Railroad Co., 16 S. C. 634.
BALISE. Fr. In French marine law. A buoy.
BALIUS. In the civil law. A teacher; one who has the care of youth; a tutor; a guardian. Du Cange; Spelman.
BALIVA. L. Lat. In old English law. A bailiwick, or jurisdiction.
BALLAST. In marine insurance. There is considerable analogy between ballast and dunnage. The former is used for trimming the ship, and bringing it down to a draft of water proper and safe for sailing. Dunnage is placed under the cargo to keep it from being wetted by water getting into the hold, or between the different parcels to keep them from bruising and injuring each other. Great Western Ins. Co. v. Thwing, 13 Wall. 674, 20 L. Ed. 607.
BALLASTAGE. A toll paid for the privilege of taking up ballast from the bottom of a port or harbor.
BALLIVO AMOVENDO. An ancient writ to remove a bailiff from his office for want of sufficient land in the bailiwick. Reg. Orig. 78.
BALLOT. In the law of elections. A slip of paper bearing the names of the offices to be filled at the particular election and the names of the candidates for whom the elector desires to vote; it may be printed, or written, or partly printed and partly written, and is deposited by the voter in a "ballot-box" which is in the custody of the officers holding the election. Opinion of Justices, 19 R. I. 729, 36 Atl. 716, 36 L. R. A. 547; Brisbin v. Cleary, 26 Minn. 107, 1 N. W. 825; State v. Timothy, 147 Mo. 532, 49 S. W. 500; Taylor v. Bleakley, 55 Kan. 1, 39 Pac. 1045, 28 L. R. A. 683, 49 Ann. St. Rep. 233.
Also the act of voting by balls or tickets.
A ballot is a ticket folded in such a manner that nothing written or printed thereon can be seen. Pol. Code Cal. § 1186.
A bullet is defined to be "a paper ticket containing the names of the persons for whom the elector intends to vote and designating the office to which each person so named is intended by him to be chosen." Thus a ballot, or a ticket, is a single piece of paper containing the names of the candidates and the offices for which they are running. If the elector were to write the names of the candidates upon his ticket twice or three or more times, he does not thereby make it more than one ticket. People v. Holden, 28 Cal. 186.
—Joint ballot. In parliamentary practice, a joint ballot is an election or vote by ballot participated in by the members of both houses of a legislative assembly sitting together as one body, the result being determined by a majority of the votes cast by the joint assembly thus constituted, instead of by concurrent majorities of the two houses. See State v. Shaw, 9 S. C. 144.
BALLOT-BOX. A case made of wood for receiving ballots.
BALLOTTEMENT. Fr. In medical jurisprudence. A test for pregnancy by palpation with the finger inserted in the vagina to the mouth of the uterus. The tip of the finger being quickly jerked upward, the
