Assize

6 Originally, an assembly me for the purpose of ascertaining somethitij judicially: a jury, or court; a session or sit ting; then the place where, as also the tim ■when, the session was held, the writ unde which it convened, the finding or resolution and the proceedings as a whole. Hence — i regulation, an ordinance, a statute, — some thing determined and established; a tax o tribute of a definite amount; also, the reduc ing a thing to certainty — in number, quan tity, quality, weight, measure, time, place. At first, the jury who tried a cause, " sitting tc gether" for that purpose.

Then, by a figure, th 1 Dudley v. Easton, 104 U. S. 103 (1881), Waite, C. J ' 1 Greenl. Ev. §§ 190, 172. 3 L. assistere, to approach; ad-stare, to stand by. < Terrell v. Allison, 21 Wall. 291 (1874), cases.

Field, J. Howard v. Milwaukee, &c. E. Co., 101 U. S. 849 (18791 Boyd V. United States, 116 id. 625 (1886). •2 Jones, Mort. § 1663; Watkins v. Jerman, 36 Ear 467 (1887), cases. « P. assise, assembly— of judges; decree; impost court or jurisdiction w Mch summoned the jury by a commission of assize. Hence, the judicial assemblage held by the king's commission in the various counties were (and still are) termed, in common speech, '^the assizes." By still another figure, an action for recovering possession of lands — because the sheriff summons a jui'y or assize.^ Designates the court, thp place, or the time where the judges of the superior courts of Westminster try questions of fact, issuing out of those comis, ready for trial by jury. "The assizes" are the sittings of the judges at the various places they visit on their circuits, four times a year in vacation. "Assize " also sometimes denotes a jury, and sometimes a writ.' ' ' Assizes "is the word most in use in modem books. It often signifies a single court,