Category: C

The criminal department of the court of king’s bench; the civil department or branch being called the “plea side.” 4 Bl. Comm. 205

An engine of correction for .common scolds, which in the Saxon language is said to signify the scolding-stool, though now it is frequently corrupted into ducking-stool, because the judgment was that, when the woman was placed therein, she should be plunged in the water for her punishment. It was also variously called a “trebucket,” “tumbrel,” or “castiga- tory.” 3 Inst. 219; 4 Bl. Comm. 1G9; Brown. James v. Comm., 12 Serg. & R. (Pa.) 220.

In England, the solicitor to the treasury acts, in state prosecutions, as solicitor for the crown in preparing the prosecution. In Ireland there are officers called “crown solicitors” attached to each circuit, whose duty it is to get up every case for the crown in criminal prosecutions. They are paid by salaries. There is no such system in England, where prosecutions are conducted by solicitors appointed by the parish, or other persons bound over to prosecute by the magistrates on each committal; but in Scotland the still better plan exists of a crown prosecutor (called the “procurator-fiscal,” and being a subordinate of the lord-advocate) in every county, who prepares every criminal prosecution. Wharton.

In old Scotch law. Coroner ; a coroner. “Crowner’s quest,” a coroner’s inquest.

In old English law. Marsh land. Blount.

In old English law. Signed or marked with a cross. Pilgrims to the holy land, or crusaders; so called because they wore the sign of the cross upon their garments. Spelman.

See PUNISHMENT.

The Intentional and malicious infliction of physical suffering upon living creatures, particularly human beings; or, as applied to the latter, the wanton, malicious, and unnecessary infliction of pain upon the body, or the feelings and emotions; abusive treatment; inhumanity; outrage. Chiefly used in the law of divorce, in such phrases as “cruel and abusive treatment,” “cruel and barbarous treatment,” or “cruel and inhuman treatment,” as to the meaning of which, and of “cruelty” in this sense, see May v. May, 62 Pa. 206; Waldron v. Waldron, 85 Cal. 251, 24 Pac. 049, 9 L. R. A. 48T; Ring v. Ring, 118 Ga. 183, 44 S. E. 801, 62 L. R. A. 878; Sharp v. Sharp, 16 111. App. 348; Myrick v. Myrick, 67 Ga. 771; Shell v. Shell, 2 Sneed (Tenn.) 716; Vignos v. Vignos, 15 III. 180; Poor v. Poor, 8 N. II. 307, 29 Am. Dec. 604; Goodrich v. Goodrich, 44 Ala. 670; Bailey v. Bailey, 97 Mass. 373; Close v. Close, 25 N. J. Eq. 520; Cole v. Cole, 23 Iowa. 433; Turner v. Turner. 122 Iowa, 113. 97 N. W. 997; Levin v. Levin, 68 S. C. 123, 40 S. E. 945. As between husband and wife. Those acts which affect the life, the health, or even the comfort, of the party aggrieved and give a reasonable apprehension of bodily hurt, are called “cruelty.” What merely wounds the feelings is seldom admitted to be cruelty, unless the act be accompanied with bodily injury, either actual or menaced. Mere austerity of temper, petulance of manners, rudeness of language, a want of civil attention and accommodation, even occasional sallies of passion, will not amount to legal cruelty; a fortiori, the denial of little indulgences and particular accommodations, which the delicacy of the world is apt to number among its necessaries, is not cruelty. The negative descriptions of cruelty are perhaps the best, under the infinite variety of cases that may occur, by showing what is not cruelty. Evans v. Evans, 1 Hagg. Const. 35; Westmeath v. Westmeath, 4 Eng. Ecc. 238, 311. 312. Cruelty includes both willfulness and malicious temper of mind with which an act is done, as well as a high degree of pain inflicted. Acts merely accidental, though they inflict great pain, are not “cruel,” in the sense of the word as used in statutes against cruelty. Comm. v. Me- Clellan, 101 Mass. 34.

The infliction of physical pain, suffering, or death upon an animal, when not necessary for purposes of training or discipline or (in the case of death) to procure food or to release the animal from incurable suffering, but done wantonly, for mere sport, for the indulgence of a cruel and vindictive temper, or with reckless indifference to its pain. Com. v. Lufkiu, 7 Allen (Mass.) 5S1; State v. Avery, 44 N. H. 302; Paine v. Bergh, 1 City CL R. (N. Y.) 100; State v. Porter, 112 N. C. 887, 10 S. E. 915; State v. Bosworth, 54 Conn. 1, 4 Atl. 248; McKinney v. State, 81 Ga. 1G4, 9 S. E. 1091; Waters v. People, 23 Colo. 33, 40 Pac. 112, 33 L. R. A. 830, 58 Am. St. Rep. 215.

A voyage undertaken for a given purpose; a voyage for the purpose of making captures jure belli. The Brutus, 2 Gall. 538, Fed. Cas. No. 2,060. A voyage or expedition in quest of vessels or fleets of the enemy which may be expected to sail in any particular track at a certain season of the year. The region in which these cruises are performed is usually termed the “rendezvous,” or “cruising latitude.” Bouvier. Imports a definite place, as well as time of commencement and termination, unless such construction is repelled by the context. When not otherwise specially agreed, a cruise begins and ends in the country to which a ship belongs, and from which she derives her commission. The Brutus, 2 Gall. 526, Fed. Cas. No. 2,000.