COUNTERVOTE, v. a.

vote. To vote against; to outvote. The law in our minds being countervoted by the law in our members. Scott.

COUNTERWEIGH, v. n. From counter and weigh. To weigh equal with; to weigh against.

If Wright had ten fellowships of St. John's, it would not counterweigh with the loss of this occasion.

Ascham.

COUNTERWHEEL, v. a. & n. s. From counter and wheel. To wheel in an opposite direction; to wheel so as to oppose other movements. The movement made for that purpose.

Whose shoots the wary Heron beat With a well counterwheeled retreat. Lovelace. COUNTERWIND, n. s. A contrary wind. Is met of many a counterwinde and tyde.

Spenser. To COUNTERWORK, v. a. From counter and work. To counteract; to hinder any effect by contrary operations.

But heaven's great view is one, and that the whole : That counterworks each folly and caprice; That disappoints th' effect of every vice.

Pope.

common

They were then only passengers' in a vehicle. They were then carried along with the general motion of religion in the community, and, without being aware of it, partook of its influence. In that situation, at worst, their nature was left free to counterwork their principles. Burke.

COUNTRY, n. s. & adj.) Fr. contrée; It.

COUNTRYMAN, N. S. COUNTRIFIED, adj.

contrada; Dutch, kontreye; low Lat.

contrata. A region; the parts of a region distant from cities and courts; the place of a man's residence or birth; the inhabitants of any region. As an adjective, country signifies rustic; rural; of an interest in opposition to that of the court; peculiar to a region or people; rude; untaught. Countryman denotes, one born in the same country; a rustic; a husbandman. See COUNTRY-DANCE. Countrified, which means rustic, country-like, is a word of recent introduction into our language, and is not yet used in elegant composition or conversation.

She laughing the cruel tyrant to scorn, spake in her country language. 2 Maccabees vii. 27.

And wedded the freshe quene Ipolita,
And brought hire home with him to his contree
With mechel glorie and great solempnitee.
Chaucer. Cant. Tales.

Full many countreyes they did overrunne,
From the uprising to the setting sun.

Spenser. Faerie Queene.
Yet was she certes but a country lasse,
Yet she all other country lasses farre did passe. Id.
Send out more horses, skirre the country round,
Hang those that talk of fear. Shakspeare. Macbeth.
See, who comes here?

Id.

Selden. They require to be examined concerning the descriptions of those countries of which they would be informed. Spratt.

A countryman took a boar in his eorn. L'Estrange. Homer, great bard! so fate ordained, arose; And, bold as were his countrymen in fight, Snatched their fair actions from degrading prose, And set their battles in eternal light. Prior.

I see them hurry from country to town, and then from the town back again into the country. Spectator. I never meant any other, than that Mr. Trot should confine himself to country-dances. Id.

To live deprived of one's country is intolerable. Is it so? how comes it then to pass that such numbers of men live out of their countries by choice. Bolingbroke.

I fancy the proper means of increasing the love we bear our native country, is to reside some time in a foreign one. Shenstone.

We may have the same geographical situation, but another country; as we may have the same country in another soil. The place that determines our duty to Burke. our country is a social, civil relation.

In a free country, every violation of law is an attack upon the public liberty. The laws of God and our country are our best and only security against oppression; and therefore liberty can exist amongst as no longer than while those laws are obeyed.

Beattie.

Can he love the whole, Who loves no part? He be à nation's friend, Who is in truth the friend of no man there? Can he be strenuous in his country's cause, Who slights the charities, for whose dear sake That country, if at all, must be beloved? Cowper. Or should the vulgar grumble now and then, The Prompter might translate for country gentlemen. Sheridan.

Did not the Italian Musico Cazzani Sing at my heart six months at least in vain? Did not his countryman, Count Corniani, Call me the only virtuous wife in Spain? Byron. Don Juan. COUNTRY DANCE, Fr. from contre, against, or opposite, a dance of English origin, though now transplanted into almost all the countries and courts of Europe. There is no established rule for the composition of tunes to this dance, because there is in music no kind of time whatever which may not be measured by the motions common in dancing; and there are few song tunes of any note within the last century, that have not been applied to country dances.

COUNTY, n. s. Old Fr. counté; mod. Fr. comté; Lat. comitatus. A shire, says Cowell, is a circuit or portion of the realm, into which the whole land is divided, for the administration of justice; so that there is no part of the kingdom but what lieth within some county. See COUNT. Discharge your powers unto their several counties, As we will ours. Shakspeare. Henry IV. He caught his death the last county sessions, where he would go to see justice done to a poor widowwoman, and her fatherless children.

Addison's Spectator.

Leaving far behind him even Lord Camelford's generous design of bestowing Old Sarum on the bank of England, Mr. Benfield has thrown in the borough of Cricklade to reinforce the county representation.

As petty-foggers' dirty wiles Set John a Nokes on Tom a Stiles, To prove, by desperate course of law, His title to a barley straw; Reckless of a whole county's curses, So they can drain the loobies' purses.

Burke.

Huddesford. COUNTY, in geography, originally signified the territory of a count or earl, but now it is used in the same sense with shire. For the execution of the laws in the several counties, excepting Cumberland, Westmoreland, and Durham, sheriffs are appointed every Michaelmas. Other officers of counties are, a lord lieutenant, who has the command of the militia; custodes rotulorum, justices of peace, bailiffs, high constable, and coroner. See SHERIFF.

COUNTY CORPORATE is a title given to several cities, or ancient boroughs, on which our monarchs have thought fit to bestow extraordinary privileges; annexing to them a particular territory, land, or jurisdiction; and making them counties of themselves, to be governed by their own sheriffs and magistrates.

COUNTY COURT, in English law, is a court incident to the jurisdiction of the sheriff. It is not a court of record, but may hold pleas of debt or damages under the value of 40s. Over some of which causes these inferior courts have, by the express words of the statute of Gloucester, a jurisdiction totally exclusive of the king's superior courts. For in order to be entitled to sue an action of trespass for goods before the king's justiciaries, the plaintiff is directed to make affidavit, that the cause of action does really and bona fide amount to 40s. which affidavit is now, however, disused, except in the court of exchequer. The statute also of 43 Eliz. c. 6. which gives the judges in many personal actions, where the jury assess less damages than 40s. a power to certify the same, and abridge the plaintiff of his full costs, was also meant to prevent vexation by litigious plaintiffs; who, for purposes of mere oppression, might be inclinable to institute such suits in the superior courts for injuries of a trifling value. The county court may also hold plea of many real actions, and of all personal actions to any amount, by virtue of a special writ called justicies; which is a writ empowering the sheriff for the sake of despatch to do the same justice in his county court, as might otherwise be had at Westminster. The freeholders of the county are the real judges in this court, and the sheriff is the ministerial officer. The great conflux of freeholders, which are supposed always to attend at the county court (which Spelman calls forum plebeia justitiæ et theatrum comitivæ potestatis), is the reason why all acts of parliament at the end of every session were wont to be there published by the sheriff; why all outlawries of absconding offenders are there proclaimed; and why all popular elections, which the freeholders are to make, as formerly of sheriffs and conservators of the peace, and still of coroners, verderers,

and knights of the shire, must ever be made in pleno comitatu, or in full county court. By the statute 2 Edw. VI. c. 25, no county court shall be adjourned longer than for one month, consisting of twenty-eight days. And this was also the ancient usage, as appears from the laws of king Edward the elder: prepositus (that is the sheriff) ad quartam circiter septimanam frequentem popali concionem celebrato; cuique jus dicito; litesque singulas dirimito. In those times the county court was a court of great dignity and splendor, the bishop and the ealdorman, or earl, with the principal men of the shire, sitting there to administer justice both in lay and ecclesiastical causes. But its dignity was much impaired, when the bishop was prohibited, and the earl neglected to attend it. And, in modern times, as proceedings are removeable from hence into the king's superior courts, by writ of pone or recordare, in the same manner as from hundred courts and courts baron; and as the same writ of false judgment may be had, in nature of a writ of error; actions are rarely brought there.

COUNTY PALATINE. Of all the counties palatine Durham alone remains in the hands of a subject; for the earldom of Chester was united to the crown by Henry III. and has ever since given title to the king's eldest son. And the county-palatine or duchy of Lancaster, in the reign of Henry IV. was, by act of parliament, vested in the king and his heirs, kings of England, for ever. 1. Blackst. 118. There is a court of chancery in the counties palatine of Durham and Lancaster, over which there are chancellors; that of the latter is called chancellor of the duchy; and there is a court of exchequer at Chester, of a mixed nature, for law and equity, of which the chamberlain of Chester is judge. There is also a chief justice of Chester, and the other counties palatine have their justices, to determine civil actions and pleas of the crown. In none of these are the king's ordinary writs of any force; and the judges of assize, who sit within these franchises, sit by virtue of a special commission under the great seal of England. 3 Blackst. 79.

COUNTY-RATE. By the 12th Geo. II. c. 29, the justices at their general or quarter sessions, or the greater part of them (and by the 13th Geo. II. c. 18, justices of liberties and franchises not subject to county commissioners) shall have power to make one general county-rate, to answer all former distinct rates, which shall be assessed on every parish, &c. and collected and paid by the high constables of hundreds to treasurers appointed by the justices, which money shall be deemed the public stock, &c.; but appeal lies by the church-wardens and overseers against the rate of any particular parish, 22 Geo. III. c. 17. This rate is to be applied for the repairing of bridges and highways thereto adjoining, and to salaries for, the surveyors of bridges; for building and repairing county gaols; for repairing shire-halls; for the salary of the master of the house of correction, and relieving the weak and sick in his custody; for the relief of the prisoners in the king's bench and marshalsea prisons, and of poor hospitals in the county, and of those who shall sustain losses by fire, water, the sea, or other casualties, and other charitable purposes for e

relief of the poor, as the justices in sessions shall think fit; for the relief of the prisoners in the county gaol; for the preservation of the health of the prisoners; for the salary of the chaplain of the county gaol; for setting prisoners to work; for salaries of persons making returns of the prices of corn; for charges attending the removal of any of the said general county-rates by certiorari; for money for purchasing lands at the ends of county bridges; for charges of rebuilding or repairing houses of correction, and for fitting up and furnishing the same, and employing the persons sent thither; for charges of apprehending, conveying, and maintaining, rogues and vagabonds; for charges of soldiers' carriages over and above the officer's pay for the same, by the several yearly acts against mutiny and desertion, and by the militia act; for the coroner's fee of 9d. per mile for travelling to take an inquisition, and 20s. for taking it; for charges of carrying persons to the gaol or house of correction; for the gaoler's fees for persons acquitted of felony or discharged by proclamation; for charges of prosecuting and convicting felons; for charges of prosecuting and convicting persons plundering shipwrecked goods; for charges of maintaining the militia-men's families by the several militia acts; for the charges of bringing insolvent debtors to the assizes, in order to their discharge, if themselves are not able to pay; for the charges of transporting felons, or conveying them to the places of labor and confinement; for charges of carrying parish apprentices, bound to the sea service, to the port to which the master belongeth.

By the 12th Geo. II. c. 29, the church wardens and overseers shall, in thirty days after demand made, out of the money collected for the poor, pay the sums so assessed on each parish and place; and if they shall neglect or refuse so to pay, the high constable shall levy the same by distress and sale of their goods, by warrant of two or more justices residing in or near such parish or place. Where there is no poor-rate, the justices, in their general or quarter sessions, shall by their order, direct the sum assessed on such parish, township, or place, to be rated and levied by the petty-constable, or other peace-officer, as money for the relief of the poor is by law to be rated or levied. The high constables, at or before the next session respectively after they have received the money, shall pay the same to the treasurer; and the money so paid shall be deemed the public stock: and the said high constables shall deliver in a true account on oath, if required, of the money by them received, before the said justices at their general or quarter sessions. The treasurer shall pay so much of the money in his hands to such persons, as the justices in session shall from time to time appoint, for any uses and purposes to which the public stock of any county, city, division, or liberty, is or shall be applicable; and shall deliver in a true account on oath, if required, of his receipts and disbursements to the justices at every general or quarter session, and also of the proper vouchers for the same, to be kept amongst the records of the sessions: and the discharge of the said justices, by their order at the general or quarter session, shall be a sufficient discharge to the

treasurer: and no new rate shall be made until it appears by the treasurer's accounts or otherwise, that three-fourths of the money collected have been expended for the purposes aforesaid. If the church-wardens and overseers of any parish or place shall think such parish or place is over-rated, they may appeal to the next general or quarter sessions. A subsequent statute, 52 Geo. III. c. 110, amends 12 Geo. II. c. 29, and remedies defects in the laws relating to the repairing of county bridges, &c. By this the quarter sessions are empowered to appoint, annually at Easter, &c. two or more justices to superintend the repairs of bridges; who may incur any expenditure not exceeding £20 for such repairs, which shall be paid by the sessions on certificate of the justices. Justices at sessions may also contract with commissioners of turnpike roads for repair of bridges, &c. for any term not exceeding seven years.

Justices are also empowered, by, 43 Geo. III. c. 59, amended by 54 Geo. III. c. 90, and 55 Geo. III. c. 143, to purchase land, houses, &c. for the widening, altering, and improving of county bridges; and also of bridges repaired by hundreds or general divisions of counties.

By 55 Geo. III. c. 51, additional provisions are made for the more equally and effectually making and levying the county rates. By this act, justices in general or quarter sessions are empowered to make a fair and equal county-rate in any county, whenever circumstances appear to require it. For this purpose they may require church-wardens and overseers of the several parishes to make returns to the justices of the respective divisions in petty sessions, of the annual value of all rateable property, which such justices must certify to the quarter sessions, who may make the county-rate thereon. By this act the treasurers of counties are required to publish an abstract of their receipts and expenditure yearly, as audited by the justices. And the high-constable employed in levying the rates, may be required by the quarter sessions to give security; and if he fails, the rates shall be paid directly to the treasurer. By 56 Geo. III. c. 49, extra parochial places are made rateable, and the sessions are empowered to ascertain boundaries, &c; 57 Geo. III. c. 94, regulates the mode of appeal against rates, which are to remain in force until quashed on such appeal, &c.

COVOLO, a fortress and village of the Tyrol, formerly an important pass in the road from Germany to Italy. Here Buonaparte defeated the Austrians under general Wurmser, September 8th, 1796. It lies near the Brenta, on the borders of the Veronese, twenty miles north of Vicenza, and twenty-three east of Trent.

COVORDEN. See COEVORDEN.

COUP-DE-MAIN, Fr. In military affairs, a sudden and violent attack, for the purpose of carrying a post. The phrase is applied to any prompt measure.

COUP-D'ŒIL, n. s. The first view; the first glance. In military affairs, a general who can instantly see in what manner the peculiarities of the ground may be turned to advantage is said to have a good coup-d'œil. Napoleon possessed this quality in perfection.

COUPED, in heraldry, is used to express the head, or limb, of an animal, cut out from the trunk, smooth, as in the diagram: distinguishing it from that which is called erased, that is, forcibly torn off, and therefore is ragged and uneven, it is also applied to such crosses, bars, bends, chevrons,

&c. as do not touch the sides of the escutcheon, but are, as it were, cut off from them.

COUPE'E, n. s. Fr. A motion in dancing, when one leg is a little bent and suspended from the ground, and with the other a motion is made forwards.

COUPLE, v.a., v.n., &n.s.`
COUPLEMENT, n. s.

Co'UPLABLE, adj.

Co'UPLING, n. s.

Fr. coupler, accoupler; Ital. accopiare; Lat. copulare. To Co'UPLE-BEGGAR, N. S. link together; Co'UPLET, n. s. to conjoin; to join in wedlock; to unite sexually. Couple signifies a chain by which dogs are held together; a pair; male and his female. Couplable is fit to be coupled with. Couplement is union; but both these words are disused; junction, sexual union, are the meanings of coupling. A couplebeggar is one who marries beggars. A couplet denotes a pair of rhymes; a pair, as of doves. Put the taches into the loops, and couple the tent together that it may be one. Exodus xxvi. 11. To the artificers and builders gave they it, to buy hewn stone, and timber for couplings.

2 Chron. xxxiv. 11. They behold your chaste conversation coupled with fear. 1 Peter iii. 2. Love that yhuittith lawe and companie, And couplis doth in vertue for to dwel. Chaucer. Troilus and Creseide. There myght I see how ver hed every blossome kent,

And eke the new betrothed byrdes y coupled how they went.

Surrey.

I have read of a feigned commonwealth, where the married couple are permitted, before they contract, to see one another naked. Id. New Atlantis.

That great variety of brutes in Africa, is by reason of the meeting together of brutes of several species at water, and the promiscuous couplings of males and females of several species. Hale's Origin of Mankind.

By adding one to one, we have the complex idea of couple. Locke.

a It is in some sort with friends as it is with dogs in couples; they should be of the same size and humour. L'Estrange. After this alliance, Let tigers match with hinds, and wolves with sheep, And every creature couple with his foe.

Dryden's Spanish Friar, He said the careful couple join their tears, And then invoke the gods with pious prayers.

Id.

Beside his mistress in some soft abode, Palace, or garden, paradise, or cavern, Which serves the happy couple for a tavern. Byron. Don Juan. COURAGE, v. a. & n. s. Old Fr. corage; COURAGEOUS, adj. mod. Fr. courage; COURAGEOUSLY, adv. It. coraggio; Sp. COURAGEOUSNESS, n. s. corage; low Lat. coragium, from cor, the heart. The verb, which has the same meaning with to encourage, is, as Mr. Todd truly observes, unjustly slighted and forgotten. The noun signifies, bravery; active fortitude; spirit of enterprise; and formerly it was used in the sense of heart or mind. Shakspeare ludicrously uses the word courageous ia the sense of outrageous.