QUEAN. A worthless woman a strumpet. The meaning of this word, which is now seldom used, is said not to be well ascertained¹. 2 Roll. Ab. 296 Bac. Ab. Stander, U 3.

QUEEN. There are several kinds of queens in some countries. 1. Queen regnant, is a woman who possesses in her own right the executive power of the country.

2. Queen consort², is the wife of a king.

3. Queen dowager is the widow of a king. In the United States there is no one with this title.

QUERELA. An action preferred in any court of justice, in which the plaintiff was called querens or complainant, and his brief, complaint, or declaration, was called querela. Jacob's Diet. h. t.

QUESTION, punishment, crm. law. A means sometimes employed, in some countries, by means of torture, to compel supposed great criminals to disclose their accomplices³, or to acknowledge their crimes.

2. This torture is called question, because, as the unfortunate person accused is made to suffer pain, he is asked questions as to his supposed crime or accomplices. The same as torture. This is unknown in the United States. See Poth. Procedure Criminelle, sect⁴. 5, art. 2, 3.

QUESTION, evidence. An interrogation put to a witness, requesting him to declare the truth of certain facts as far as he knows them.

2. Questions are either general or leading. By a general question is meant such an one as requires the witness to state all be knows without any suggestion being made to him, as who gave the blow?

3. A leading question is one which leads the mind of the witness to the answer, or suggests it to him, as did A B give the blow?

4. The Romans called a question by which the fact or supposed fact which the interrogator⁵ expected, or wished to find asserted, in and by the answer made to the proposed respondent, a suggestive interrogation, as, is not your name A B? Vide Leading Question.