BLOCK. A square or portion of a city or town inclosed by streets, whether partially or wholly occupied by buildings or containing only vacant lots. Ottawa v. Barney, 10 Kan. 270; Fraser v. Ott, 95 Cal. 661, 30 Pac. 793; State v. Deffes, 44 La. Ann. 164, 10 South. 597; Todd v. Railroad Co., 78 Ill. 530; Harrison v. People, 195 Ill. 466, 63 N. E. 191.
BLOCK OF SURVEYS. In Pennsylvania land law. Any considerable body of contiguous tracts surveyed in the name of the same warrantee, without regard to the manner in which they were originally located; a body of contiguous tracts located by exterior lines, but not separated from each other by interior lines. Morrison v. Seaman, 183 Pa. 74, 38 Atl. 710; Ferguson v. Bloom, 144 Pa. 549, 23 Atl. 49.
BLOCKADE. In international law. A marine investment or beleaguering of a town or harbor. A sort of circumvallation round a place by which all foreign connection and correspondence is, as far as human power can effect it, to be cut off. 1 C. Rob. Adm. 151. It is not necessary. however, that the place should be invested by land, as well as by sea, in order to constitute a legal blockade; and, if a place be blockaded by sea only, it is no violation of belligerent rights for the neutral to carry on commerce with it by inland communications. 1 Kent, Comm. 147.
The actual investment of a port or place by a hostile force fully competent, under ordinary circumstances, to cut off all communication therewith, so arranged or disposed as to be able to apply its force to every point of practicable access or approach to the port or place so invested. Bouvier; The Olinde Rodrigues (D. C.) 91 Fed. 274; Id., 174 U. S. 510, 19 Sup. Ct. 851, 43 L. Ed. 1065; U. S. v. The William Arthur, 28 Fed. Cas. 624; The Peterhoff, 5 Wall. 50, 18 L. Ed. 564; Grinnan v. Edwards, 21 W. Va. 347.
It is called a "blockade de facto" when the usual notice of the blockade has not been given to the neutral powers by the government causing the investment, in consequence of which the blockading squadron has to warn off all approaching vessels.
—Paper blockade. The state of a line of coast proclaimed to be under blockade in time of war, when the naval force on watch is not sufficient to repel a real attempt to enter.—Public blockade. A blockade which is not only established in fact, but is notified, by the government directing it, to other governments; as distinguished from a simple blockade, which may be established by a naval officer acting upon his own discretion or under direction of superiors, without governmental notification. The Circassian, 2 Wall. 150, 17 L. Ed. 796.—Simple blockade. One established by a naval commander acting on his own discretion and responsibility, or under the direction of a superior officer, but without governmental orders or notification. The Circassian, 2 Wall. 150, 17 L. Ed. 796.
BLOOD. Kindred; consanguinity; family relationship; relation by descent from a common ancestor. One person is "of the blood" of another when they are related by lineal descent or collateral kinship. Miller v. Spear, 38 N. J. Eq. 572; Delaplaine v. Jones, 8 N. J. Law, 346; Leigh v. Leigh, 15 Ves. 108; Cummings v. Cummings, 146 Mass. 501, 16 N. E. 401; Swasey v. Jaques, 144 Mass. 135, 10 N. E. 758, 59 Am. Rep. 65.
—Half-blood. A term denoting the degree of relationship which exists between those who have the same father or the same mother, but not both parents in common.—Mixed blood. A person is "of mixed blood" who is descended from ancestors of different races or nationalities; but particularly, in the United States, the term denotes a person one of whose parents (or more remote ancestors) was a negro. See Hopkins v. Bowers, 111 N. C. 175, 16 S. E. 1.—Whole blood. Kinship by descent from the same father and mother; as distinguished from half blood, which is the relationship of those who have one parent in common, but not both.
BLOOD MONEY. A weregild, or pecuniary mulct paid by a slayer to the relatives of his victim.
Also used, in a popular sense, as descriptive of money paid by way of reward for the apprehension and conviction of a person charged with a capital crime.
BLOOD STAINS, TESTS FOR. See Precipitin Test.
BLOODWIT. An amercement for bloodshed. Cowell.
The privilege of taking such amercements. Skene.
A privilege or exemption from paying a fine or amercement assessed for bloodshed. Cowell.
BLOODY HAND. In forest law. The having the hands or other parts bloody, which, in a person caught trespassing in the forest against venison, was due of the four kinds of circumstantial evidence of his having killed deer, although he was not found in the act of chasing or hunting. Manwood.
BLUE LAWS. A supposititious code of severe laws for the regulation of religious and personal conduct in the colonies of Connecticut and New Haven; hence any rigid Sunday laws or religious regulations. The assertion by some writers of the existence of the blue laws has no other basis than the adoption, by the first authorities of the New Haven colony, of the Scriptures as their code of law and government, and their strict application of Mosaic principles. Century Dict.
BOARD. A committee of persons organized under authority of law in order to exercise certain authorities, have oversight or control of certain matters, or discharge certain functions of a magisterial, representative, or fiduciary character. Thus, "board
