R
R. In the signatures of royal persons, "R." is an abbreviation for "rex" (king) or "regina" (queen.) In descriptions of land,according to the divisions of the governmental survey, it stands for "range." Ottumwa, etc., R. Co. v. McWilliams, 71 Iowa, 164, 32 N. W. 315.
R. G. An abbreviation for Regula Generalis, a general rule or order of court; or for the plural of the same.
R. L. This abbreviation may stand either for "Revised Laws" or "Roman law."
R. S. An abbreviation for "Revised Statutes."
RACE. A tribe, people, or nation, be- longing or supposed to belong to the same stock or lineage. ‘Race, color, or previous condition of servitude." Const U. S., Am. xv.
RACE-WAY. An artificial canal dug in the earth; a channel cut in the ground. Wilder v. De Cou, 26 Minn. 17, 1 N. W. 48 The channel for the current that drives a water-wheel. Webster.
RACHAT. In French law. The right of repurchase which, in English and American law, the vendor may reserve to himself. It is also called "réméré." Brown.
RACHATER. L. Fr. To redeem; to repurchase, (or buy back.) Kelham.
RACHETUM. In Scotch law. Ransom; corresponding to Saxon "weregild," a pecun- lary composition for an offense. Skene; Jacob.
RACHIMBURGH. In the legal polity of the Salians and Ripuarians and other Germanie peoples, this name was given to the judges or assessors who sat with the count in his mallwm, (court,) and were gen- erally associated with him in other matters. Spelman.
RACK. An engine of torture anciently used in the inquisitorial method of examin- ing persons charged with crime, the office of which was to break the limbs or dislocate the joints.
RACE-RENT. A rent of the full value of the tenement, or near it. 2 Bl. Comm. 43.
RACK-VINTAGE. Wines drawn from the lees. Cowell.
RADICALS. A political party. The term arose in Eingland, in 1818, when the popular leaders, Hunt Cartwright, and oth- ers, sought to obtain a radical reform in the representative system of parliament. Bol- ingbroke (Disc. Parties, Let. 18) employs the term in its present accepted sense: "Such a remedy might have wrought a radical cure of the evil that threatens our constitution," etc. Wharton.
RADOUB. In French law. A term in- cluding the repairs made to a ship, and a fresh supply of furniture and victuals, muni- tions, and other provisions required for the voyage. 3 Pard. Droit Commer. § 602.
RAFFLE. A kind of lottery in which several persons pay, in shares, the value of something put up as a stake, and then deter- mine by chance (as by casting dice) which one of them shall become the sole possessor of it. Webster; Prendergast v. State, 41 Tex. Cr. R. 358, 57 8. W. 850; State vy. Ken- non, 21 Mo. 264; People v. American Art Union, 7 N. Y. 241.
A raffle may be described as a species of "adventure or hazard." but is held not to be a lottery. State v. Pinchback, 2 Mill, Const. (S. C.) 180.
RAGEMAN. A statute, so called, of jus- tices assigned by Edward I. and his coun- cil, to go a circuit through all England, and to hear and determine all complaints of in- juries done within five years next before Michaelmas, in the fourth year of his reign. Spelman.
Also a rule, form, regimen, or precedent.
RAGMAN’S ROLL, or RAGIMUND’S ROLL. A roll, called from one Ragimund or Ragimont, a legate in Scotland, who, sum- moning all the beneficed clergymen in that kingdom, caused them on oath to give in the true value of their benefices, according to which they were afterwards taxed by the court of Rome. Wharton.
RAILROAD. A road or way on which iron or steel] rails are laid for wheels to run on, for the conveyance of heavy loads in cars or carriages propelled by steam or other motive power. The word "railway" is of ex- actly equivalent import.
Whether or not this term includes roads operated by horse-power, electricity, cable- lines, etc., will generally depend upon the context of the statute in which it is found The decisions on this point are at variance. —Railroad commission. <A body of commis- sioners, appointed in several of the states, to reculate railway traffic within the state, with power, generally, to regulate and fix rates, see to the enforcement of police ordinances, and sometimes assess the property of railroads for taxation. See Southern Pac. Co. v. Board of Railroad Com’rs (C. C.) 78 Fed. 252.
RAILWAY. In law, this term is of exactly equivalent import to "railroad." See
