CALLING THE PLAINTIFF, practice. When a plaintiff perceives that he has not given evidence to maintain his issue, and intends to become nonsuited, he withdraws himself, when the cryer is ordered to call the plaintiff, and on his failing to appear, he becomes nonsuited. 3 Bl. Com. 376.

CALUMNIATORS, civil law. Persons who accuse others, whom they know to be innocent, of having committed crimes. Code 9, 46, 9.

CAMBIST. A person skilled in exchange; one who deals or trades in promissory notes or bills of exchange.

CAMERA STELLATA, Eng. law. The court of the Star Chamber¹, now abolished.

CAMPARTUM. A part or portion of a larger field or ground, which would otherwise be in gross or common. Vide Champerty.

CANAL. A trench² dug for leading water in a particular direction, and confin- ing it.

2. Public canals are generally protected by the law which authorizes³ their being made. Various points have arisen under numerous laws authorizing⁴ the construction of canals, which have been decided⁵ in cases reported in 1 Yeates, 430; 1 Binn. 70; 1 Pennsyl. 462; 2 Pennsyl. 517; 7 Mass. 169; 1 Sumu. 46; 20 Johns. 103, 735; 2 Johns. 283; 7 John. Ch. 315; 1 Wend. 474; 5 Wend. 166; 8 Wend. 469; 4 Wend. 667; 6 Cowen, 698; 7 Cowen, 526 4 Hamm. 253; 5 Hamm. 141, 391; 6 Hamm. 126; 1 N. H. Rep. 339; See River.

CANCELLARIA CURIA. The name formerly⁶ given to the court of chancery.

CANCELLATION⁷. Its general acceptation, is the act of crossing a writing; it is used sometimes to signify the manual operation of tearing or destroying the instrument itself. Hyde v. Hyde, 1 Eq. Cas. Abr. 409; Rob. on Wills, 367, n.

2. Cancelling a will, animo revocandi, is a revocation⁸ of it, and it is unnecessary to show a complete destruction or obliteration⁹. 2 B. & B. 650; 3 B. & A. 489; 2 Bl. R. 1043; 2 Nott & M'Cord, 272; Whart. Dig. Wills, c.; 4 Mass. 462. When a duplicate has been cancelled, animo revocandi, it is the cancellation of both parts. 2 Lee, Ecc. R. 532.

3. But the mere¹⁰ act of cancelling a will is nothing, unless it be done animo revocandi, and evidence is admissible to show, quo animo, the testator cancelled it., 7 Johns. 394 2 Dall. 266; S. C. 2 Yeates, 170; 4 Serg. & Rawle, 297; cited 2 Dall. 267, n.; 3 Hen. & Munf. 502; Rob. on Wills, 365; Lovel, 178; Toll¹¹. on Ex'rs, Index, h. t.; 3 Stark¹². Ev. 1714; 1 Adams' Rep. 529 Mass. 307; 5 Conn. 262; 4 Wend. 474; 4 Wend. 585; 1 Harr. & M'H. 162; 4 Conn. 550; 8 Verm. 373; 1 N. H. Rep. 1; 4 N. H. Rep. 191; 2 Eccl. Rep. 23.

4. As to the effect of cancelling a deed, which has not been recorded, see 1 Adams' Rep. 1; Palm. 403; Latch¹³. 226; Gilb. Law, Ev. 109, 110; 2 H . Bl. 263: 2 Johns. 87 1 Greenl. R. 78; 10 Mass. 403; 9 Pick. 105; 4 N. H. Rep. 191; Greenl. Ev. 265; 5 Conn. 262; 4 Conn. 450; 5 Conn. 86; 2 John. R. 84; 4 Yerg. 375; 6 Mass. 24; 11 Mass. 337; 2 Curt¹⁴. Ecc. R. 458.

5. As to when a court of equity¹⁵ will order an agreement or other instrument to be cancelled and delivered up, see 4 Bouv. Inst. n. 3917-22.

CANDIDATE. One who offers himself or is offered by others for an office.

CANON, eccl. law. This word is taken from the Greek, and signifies a rule or law. In ecelesiastical law, it is also used to designate an order of religious persons. Francis Duaren says, the reason why the ecclesiastics¹⁶ called the rules they established canons or rules, (canones id est regulas) and not laws, was modesty¹⁷. They did not dare to call them (leges) laws, lest they should seem to arrogate¹⁸ to themselves the authority of princes and magistrates¹⁹. De Sacris Ecclesiae Ministeriis, p. 2, in pref. See Law, Canon.