is a word which denotes a kind of jurisdiction or territory, the possessor whereof has the administration of justice, both in alto and basso; or of what is called, in the Scots law, a power of pit and gallows, i.e. a power of drowning and hanging. In some ancient writers, ambacht is particularly used for the jurisdiction, government, or chief magistracy of a city. The word is very ancient, though used originally in a sense somewhat different. Ennius calls a mercenary, or slave hired for money, ambactus; and Caesar gives the same appellation to a kind of dependents among the Gauls, who, without being slaves, were attached to the service of great lords.