Village

Any small assemblage of houses for dwelling or business, or both whether incorporated or not, 76 Minn. 469; 79 N. W. 510, or whether situated upon regularly laid out streets or not. 71 111. 569; 27 111. 49. The word "village" has different meanings, and the sense in which it is employed must be determined from the context. 273 111. 180. "Towns" will include "villages," 125 Ga. 559; 54 S. E. 539, but the terms are not synonymous within the meaning of the law. 197 111. 452. Villages are auxiliaries of the government in the important business of municipal rule, 17 Wall. 328; agencies in the administration of civil government; public corporations partaking of the nature of municipal corporations in their incidents. 77 Me. 530; 1 Atl. 689, 690.

Any small assemblage of houses for dwellings or business, or both, in the country, whether they are situated upon regularly laid out streets and alleys, or not. Toledo, W. & W. R. Co. v. Spangler, 71 111. 569. See Russell v. Ins. Co., 80 Mich. 410, 45 N. W. 356, 35 L. R. A. 396, n. The fabric ofc. the village community, or, to speak more generally and correctly, of the township community, is substantially organic. It grows, and is not based on agreement, people cannot accede to it or recede from it without being admitted, by some natural process, birth, marriage, adoption, to the union of the holdings, and, theoretically, it is the holdings in their unconscious and unwilling combination which form the group and define its aims. External forces — the action of the king, the intrusion of foreign conquerors, the misdeeds of a magnate may cut through this customary combination and modify it; it may grow and send out offshoots, but all these facts will not be the results of any artificial agreement binding only those who have entered in under certain conditions: the reclaiming of new fields, the extension of the original unit and its shrinking through colonization are events which proceed from the organic whole or from outward pressure and not from passing agreements of certain joint owners. Vinogradoff, Growth of the Manor 325. See Hamlet; Town; Township; Vill.

Any small assemblage of houses, for dwelling or business, or both, in the country, whether situated upon regularly laid out streets and alleys or not. * See Town. VILLEIl Sr or VILLAIN.s Under the Saxon government, villeins were a class of people employed at the most servile work, and belonging, with their children and effects, to the lord of the soil, like the cattle upon it. They held the folk-land, from which they were removable at the lord's pleasure. It is probable that the Romans admitted them to the oath of fealty, which raised them to an estate superior to downright slavery but inferior 4o every other condition. This they called villeinage, and the tenants villeins. Villeins " regardant " were annexed to the manor or land; villeins " in gross," to the person of the laud, and transferable by deed. They could be enfranchised by manumission; which was express when by deed. 1 38 Cent. Law J. 43r, 439, 436-40 (1888), cases; Close V. Samm, 27 Iowa, 607 (1869); 93 Am. Dec. 342-46, cases. '' Richards v. Burden, S9 Iowa. 756 (1882). s See 3 Bl. Com. 188; 93 U. S. 98; 3 Cranoh, C: C. 463; 17F. R. 185; 19 id. 63; 30 id. 911; 66 Ga. 517; 34 La. An. 58; 8 Allen, 138; 12 id. 28; 77 Mo. 336; 55 Pa. 69; 68 id. 177; 60 id. 133. ■1 [Illinois Central E. Co. v. Williams, 57 ni. 49 0861), Caton, C. J;; Toledo, &c. R. Co. v. Spangler, 71 id. 669 (1874); 25 Minn. 404, 413. and implied when the lord dealt with a villein as a freeman. See Feud.*

Any small assemblage of houses for dwellings or business, or both, in the country, whether they are situated upon regularly laid out streets and alleys or not, constitutes a village, within the rule that a railroad company is not bound to fence its track within the limits of a village. Illinois Central R. R. Co. w. Williams, 27 lU. 48. A place where there is a station-house, a warehouse, a store, a blacksmith-shop, a post-office, and five or six dwelling-houses, whether they are situated upon regularly laid out streets and alleys or not, comes fully up to the requirements of the word village, for the purpose of excusing a railroad company from fencing its track within the limits thereof. Toledo, &o. Railway Co. V. Spangler, 71 III. 568.