in civil jurisprudence, is the acquisition of property in common by a number of persons.

In some countries they confound acquisition with conquest; but, according to the most general acceptation, acquisition is the gaining of unappropriated goods before the establishment of a community: whereas by the term conquest, is ordinarily intended whatever is acquired by a number of persons in community; or by some one for all the others. As it is more especially in the union of persons by marriage that a community of property takes place; so it is in reference to them that we frequently use the word conquest. There are nevertheless conquests also among other persons who are in a tacit communion or society; such as obtain by particular local customs. According to this sense of the word, it has been contended by several, that William I. claimed this kingdom; that Conquest, is not by right of arms, but by right of conquest or acquest; under promise of succession made by Edward the Confessor, and a contract entered into by Harold to support his pretensions to that succession; and by old writers, conquestus, acquisitio, and perquiritio, are frequently used as synonymous terms.

the law of nations, is the acquisition of sovereignty by force of arms, by some foreign prince who reduces the vanquished under his empire. The right of conquest is derived from the laws of war; and when a people is subjected, the conduct of the conqueror is regulated by four kinds of law. First, the law of nature, which dictates whatever tends to self-preservation; secondly, our reason, which teaches us to use others as we would be treated ourselves; thirdly, the laws of political society, to which nature has not assigned any precise boundary; lastly, the law which is derived from the particular circumstances attending the conquest. Thus, a state conquered by another will be treated in one of the four methods following: Either the conqueror will continue it under its own laws, and will only claim the exercise of civil and ecclesiastical sovereignty; or he will impose a new form of government; or he will destroy the frame of their society, and incorporate the inhabitants with others; or he will exterminate them.

Conrad II, elected emperor of Germany in 1024. He was obliged to take the field against most of the German dukes who had revolted from him; and he put Ernest duke of Swabia under the ban of the empire. This being one of the earliest instances of such a proscription, the formula is inserted here for its singularity. "We declare thy wife a widow, thy children orphans; and we send thee, in the name of the devil, to the four corners of the world." It was in the reign of this prince that the German fiefs became hereditary. He died in 1039.

Conrad III, emperor of Germany in 1138. The duke of Bavaria opposed his election; and being put under the ban of the empire, and deprived of the duchy, he could not survive his disgrace. The margrave of Austria was ordered by the emperor to take possession of Bavaria; but Welf, uncle to the deceased duke attacked him, and was defeated near the castle of Winsburgh; the battle fought upon this occasion is famous in history, as having given rise to the party names of Guelphs and Gibbelines, afterwards assumed in Italy. The parole of the day with the Bavarians was Welfiti, from the name of their general; that of the Imperialists Werblingen from a small village where Frederic duke of Swabia, their commander, had been nursed: by degrees these names served to distinguish the two parties; and the Italians, who could not accustom themselves to such rough words, formed from them their Guelphs and Gibbelines. He died in 1152.