Provision

In commercial law. Funds remitted by the drawer of a bill of exchange to the drawee in order to meet the bill, or property remaining in the drawee's hands or due from him to the drawee, and appropriated to that purpose.

In ecclesiastical law. A provision was a nomination by the pope to an English benefice before it became void, though the term was afterwards indiscriminately applied to any right of patronage exerted or usurped by the pope.

In French law. Provision is an allowance or alimony granted by a judge to one of the parties in a cause for his or her maintenance until a definite judgment is rendered. Dalloz. In English history. A name given to certain statutes or acts of parliament, particularly those intended to curb the arbitrary or usurped power of the sovereign, and also to certain other ordinances or declarations having the force of law. See infra.

— Provisions of Merton. Another name for the statute of Merton. See Merton, Statute OF.

— Provisions of Oxford. Certain provisions made in the Parliament of Oxford, 1258, for the purpose of securing the execution of the provisions of Magna Charta, against the invasions thereof by Henry III. The government of the country was in effect committed by these provisions to a standing committee of twenty-four, whose chief merit consisted in their representative character, and their real desire to effect an improvement in the king's government. Brown.

— Provisions of Westminster. A name given to certain ordinances or declarations promulgated by the barons in A. D. 1259, for the reform of various abuses.