in order to make the year agree with the course of the sun.
Leap year, consisting of 3636 days, and happening every fourth year, by the addition of a day in the month of February, which in that year consists of twenty-nine days.
BLACK ACRE and WHITE ACRE Fictitious names applied to pieces of land, and used as examples in the old books.
BLACK ACT. The statute 9 Geo. I. c. 22 so called because it was occasioned by the outages committed by persons with their times blacked or otherwise disguised, who appeared in Epping Forest, near Waltham, in Essex, and destroyed the deer there, and committed other offenses. Repealed by 7 & 8 Geo. IV. c. 27.
BLACK ACTS. Old Scotch statutes passed in the reigns of the Stuarts and down to the year 1586 or 1587, so called because printed in black letter. Bell
BLACK BOOK OF HEREFORD. In English law. An old record frequently re- [erred to by Clowell and other early writers.
BLACK BOOK OF THE ADMIRALTY. A book of the highest authority in admilralty matters, generally supposed to have been compiled during the reign of Edward III, with additions of a later date. It contains the laws of Oleron, a view of crimes and offenses cognizable in the admiralty, and many other matters. See DeLovio v. Bolt, 2 Gall. 404, Fed. Cas. No. 3,776.
BLACK BOOK 0F THE EXCHEQUER. The name of an ancient hook kept in the English exchequer, containing a collection of treaties, conventions, charters, etc.
BLACK CAP. The head-dress worn by the judge in pronouncing the sentence of death. it is part of the judicial full dress, ans is worn by the judges on occasions of especial state. Wharton.
BLACK CODE. A name given collectively to the body of laws, statutes, and rules in force in various southern states prior to 1865, which regulated the institution of slavery, and particularly those forbidding their reception at public inns and on public conveyances. Civil Rights Cases, 109 U.S 3, 3 Sup. Ct. 18, 27 L. Ed. 835.
BLACK GAME. In English law. Heath fowl. in contradistinction to red game, as grouse.
BLACK-LIST. A list of persons marked out for special avoidance, antagonism, or enmity on the part of those who prepare the list or those among whom it is intended to circulate; as where a trades-union "black-lists" workmen who refuse to conform to its rules, or where a list of insolvent or untrustworthy persons is published by a commercial agency or mercantile association. Masters v. Lee. 39 Neb. 574, 58 N. W. 222; Mattison v. Railway Co., 2 Ohio N. P. 279.
BLACK-MAIL. 1. In one of its original meanings, this term denoted a tribute paid by English dwellers along the Scottish border to influential chieftains of Scotland, as a condition of securing immunity from raids of marauders and border thieves.
2. It also designated rents payable in cattle, grain, work, and the like. were called "black-mail," (reditus nigri,) in distinction from white rents. (blanche firmes,) which were rents paid in silver.
3. The extortion of money by threats or overtures towards criminal prosecution or the destruction of a man's reputation or social standing.
In common parlance, the term is equivalent to, and synonymous with, "extortion."—the exaction of money, either for the performance of a duty, the prevention of an injury, or the exercise of an influence. It supposes the service to be unlawful, and the payment involuntary. Not infrequently it is extorted by threats, or by operating upon the fears or the credulity, or by promises to conceal, or offers to expose, the weaknesses, the follies, or the crimes of the victim. Edsall v. Brooks. 3 Rob. (N. Y.) 284. 17 Abb. Prac. 221; Life Ass'n v. Boogher. 3 Mo. App. 173; Hess v. Sparks. 44 Kan. 405. 24 Pac. 979. 21 Am. St. Rep. 300; People v. Thompson. 97 N. Y. 313: Utterback; v. State, 153 Ind. 545. 55 N. E. 420; Mitchell v. Sharon (C. C.) 51 Fed. 424.
BLACK MARIA. A closed wagon or van in which prisoners are carried to and from the jail, or between the court and the jall.
BLACK RENTS. in old English law. Rents reserved in work, grain, provisions. or baser money, in contradistinction to those which were reserved in white money or silver, which were termed "white rents." (reditus albi.) or blanch farms. Tomlins; Whishaw.
BLACK-ROD, GENTLEMAN USHER OF. In England, the title of a chief officer of the king, deriving his name from the Black Rod of office. on the top of which reposes a golden lion, which he carries.
BLACK WARD. A subvassal, who held ward of the king's vassal.
BLACKLEG. A person who gets his living by frequenting race-courses and places where games of chance are played, getting the best odds, and giving the least he can. but not necessarily cheating. That is not indictable either by statute or at common law. Barnett v. Allen, 3 Hurl. 8: N. 379.
