Lord High Constable, an ancient officer of the crowns both of England and France, whose authority was so very extensive, that the office has been laid aside in both kingdoms, except upon particular occasions. cations, such as the king's coronation. The constable of France had his person privileged, and, during the king's minority, was named next to the princes of the blood. The army obeyed him next the king: he managed all that belonged to war, either for punishment of delinquents, distribution of booty, surrender of places, &c. The jurisdiction and functions of this office are now in the marshals of France.

The function of the constable of England consisted in the care of the common peace of the land, in deeds of arms and matters of war. By a law of Richard II., the constable of England has the determination of things concerning wars and blazonry of arms, which cannot be discussed by the common law. The first constable was created by the Conqueror: the office continued hereditary till the thirteenth of Henry VIII., when it was laid aside, as being too powerful as to become troublesome to the king. We have also constables denominated from particular places, as constable of the Tower, of Dover castle, of Windsor-castle, of the castle of Caernarvon, and many other of the castles of Wales, whose office is the same with that of the castellani, or governors of castles.

**Constable of Scotland.** See Scots Law, title, Of inferior judges.

**Constables to justices of the peace,** in Scots law, are the proper officers for executing their orders. They have powers to suppress tumults, and to apprehend delinquents and those who can give no good account of themselves, and carry them to the next justice.

**Constance,** a city of Swabia, in Germany, situated on the western shore of a lake to which it gives name, in $9^\circ 12'$ E. lon. and $47^\circ 37'$ N. lat.

It is the see of a bishop, who is a prince of the German empire.

**Constantina,** the capital of a province of the same name, in the kingdom of Algiers, in Africa: E. long. $7^\circ$, and N. lat. $35^\circ 30'$.

**Constantinople,** the metropolis of the Turkish empire, called by the Turks themselves Stamboul, and by many Europeans the Port, being one of the best harbours in Europe: E. long. $29^\circ 15'$, and N. lat. $41^\circ 30'$.

It is built on the western shore of the Bosporus, in the form of a triangle; the feraglio, or palace, occupying that angle which runs out between the Propontis and harbour; and underneath the palace are the gardens, which extend to the water-side.

**Constellation,** in astronomy. See Vol. I. p. 486.

**Constipation,** in medicine, a hardness of the belly, with great costiveness.

**Constituent part,** in physiology, an essential part in the composition of any thing, differing little from what is otherwise called element or principle.

**Constitution,** in matters of policy, signifies the form of government established in any country or kingdom.

**Constitution** also denotes an ordinance, decision, regulation, or law, made by authority of any superior, ecclesiastical or civil.

**Apostolical Constitutions,** a collection of regulations attributed to the apostles, and supposed to have been collected by St Clement, whose name they likewise bear.

It is the general opinion, however, that they are spurious, and that St Clement had no hand in them. They appeared first in the IVth age, but have been much changed and corrupted since that time. They are divided into eight books, consisting of a great number of rules and precepts, relating to the duties of Christians, and particularly the ceremonies and discipline of the church. Mr Whiston, in opposition to the general opinion, asserts them to be a part of the sacred writings, dictated by the apostles in their meetings, and wrote down from their own mouth by St Clement, and intended as a supplement to the New Testament, or rather as a system of Christian faith and polity. The reason why the Constitutions are suspected by the orthodox, and, perhaps, the reason also why their genuineness is defended by Mr Whiston, is, that they seem to favour Arianism.

**Constitution,** in a physical sense, signifies the particular temperature of the body.

**Constrictor,** an appellation given to several muscles on account of their constringing or closing some of the orifices of the body. See Anatomy.

**Construction of equations,** in Algebra. See Algebra.

**Construction,** in grammar, the connecting the words of a sentence according to the rules of the language.

**Consualia,** in Roman antiquity, a festival instituted by Romulus, who, at the time of the rape of the Sabine virgins, found an altar under ground dedicated to the god Consus, that is, Neptune. They were introduced with a magnificent cavalcade; and during the celebration, the horses and asses were crowned with flowers, and a mule was sacrificed to that god.

**Consustantiation,** a tenet of the Lutheran church with regard to the manner of the change made in the bread and wine in the eucharist.

The divines of that profession maintain, that after consecration, the body and blood of our Saviour are substantially present, together with the substance of the bread and wine, which is called consubstantiation, or impanation.

**Consul,** the chief magistrate of the Roman commonwealth. They were two in number, chosen every year in the Campus Martius, by the people assembled in the comitia centuriata. In the first times of the commonwealth, no man could pretend to this dignity, but such as were of a patrician family; but afterwards the people obtained, that one of the consuls should be chosen from among them. A consul was commonly chosen at forty-three years of age, but this was not always observed: besides, it was requisite he should have exercised other offices, as that of quaestor, aedile, and praetor: and yet this condition was no better observed than the first; for Pompey had never been praetor nor quaestor when he obtained the consulship. Their authority and power was of very great extent, so long as the commonwealth subsisted. They were the head of the senate: they commanded the armies, and were supreme judges of the differences between the citizens; but as they had made some abuse of this power, it was allowed by the Valerian law for the party aggrieved to appeal from their tribunal to the people, especially in cases where the life of a citizen was concerned. Under the emperors, consul was little more than an honourable title, and at last it became absolutely extinct in the time of Justinian. From the establishment of the republic to the consulate of Basil, that is, from the year of Rome 244, to the year of Rome 1294, the years are accounted by the consuls; but after that period, the time was computed by the years of the emperors' reigns and the indictions.

Consul, at present, is an officer established by virtue of a commission from the king and other princes, in all foreign countries of any considerable trade, to facilitate and dispatch business, and protect the merchants of the nation. The consuls are to keep up a correspondence with the ministers of England residing in the courts wherein their consulate depends. They are to support the commerce and the interest of the nation; to dispose of the sums given and the presents made to the lords and principals of places, to obtain their protection, and prevent the insults of the natives on the merchants of the nation.