(such as gavelkind and borough English), customs of a particular manor, &c. The word custom is also generally employed for the usage of a particular trade or market; for a trade custom to be established to the satisfaction of the law it must be a uniform and universal practice so well defined and recognized that contracting parties must be assumed to have had it in their minds when they contracted (Russell, C. J., Fox-Bourne v. Vernon, 10 Times Rep. 649).
In the history of France the term “custom” was given to those special usages of different districts which had grown up into a body of local law, as the “custom of Paris,” the “custom of Normandy” (see France: Law and Institutions).
CUSTOMARY FREEHOLD, in English law, a species of tenure which may be described as a variety of copyhold. It is also
termed privileged copyhold or copyhold of frank tenure. It is
a tenure by copy of court roll, but not expressed to be at the
will of the lord. It is, in fact, only a superior kind of copyhold,
and the freehold is in the lord. It is subject to the general law
of copyholds, except where the law may be varied by the custom
of the particular manor. (See Copyhold.)
CUSTOM-HOUSE, the house or office appointed by a government
where the taxes or duties (if any) are collected upon the
importation and exportation of commodities; where duties,
bounties or drawbacks payable or receivable upon exportation
or importation are paid or received, and where vessels are entered
and cleared. In the United Kingdom there is usually a custom-house
established at every port or harbour to which any considerable
amount of shipping resorts, the officer in charge being called
“collector of customs”; in the minor ports the officer is usually
termed “superintendent of customs” or “principal coast
officer.”
CUSTOMS DUTIES, the name given to taxes on the import
and export of commodities. They rank among the most ancient,
as they continue to prevail as one of the most common modes, in
all countries, of levying revenue for public purposes. In an
insular country like the United Kingdom customs duties came
in process of time to be levied only or chiefly in the seaports, and
thus applied only to the foreign commerce, where they may be
brought under the control of fair and reasonable principles of
taxation. But this simplification of customs duties was only
reached by degrees; and during a long period special customs
were levied on goods passing between England and Scotland;
and the trade of Ireland with Great Britain and with foreign
countries was subjected to fiscal regulations which could not
now stand in the light of public reason. The taxes levied, on
warrant of some ancient grant or privilege, upon cattle or goods
at a bridge or a ferry or other point of passage from one county
or province to another, of which there are some lingering remains
even in the United Kingdom, and those levied at the gates of
cities on the produce of the immediate country—a not uncommon
form of municipal taxation on the European continent—are all
of the nature of customs dues. It is from the universality of this
practice that the English term “customs” appears to have been
derived.
See Taxation; Protection; Tariff.
CUSTOS ROTULORUM, the keeper of the English county
records, and by virtue of that office the highest civil officer in
the county. The appointment until 1545 lay with the lord
chancellor, but is now exercised by the crown under the royal
sign-manual, and is usually held by a person of rank, most
frequently the lord-lieutenant of the county. He is one of the
justices of the peace. In practice the records are in the custody
of the clerk of the peace. This latter official was, until 1888,
appointed by the custos rotulorum, but since the passing of the
Local Government Act of that year, the appointment is made
by the standing joint-committee of the county council. Lambarde
described the custos rotulorum as a “man for the most part
especially picked out either for wisdom, countenance or credit.”
CUSTOZZA, a village of Italy, in the province of Verona,
11 m. S.W. of Verona, famous as the scene of two battles between
the Austrians and the Italians in the struggle for Italian unity.
The first battle of Custozza was fought on the 23rd-25th of July
1848, the Austrians commanded by Field-Marshal Radetzky
being victorious over the Piedmontese army under King Charles
Albert. The second battle was fought on the 24th of June 1866,
and resulted in the complete victory of the Austrians under the
archduke Albert, over the Italian army of King Victor Emmanuel
I. (See Italian Wars, 1848–1870.)
CÜSTRIN, or Küstrin, a town of Germany, in the kingdom of
Prussia, a fortress of the first rank, at the confluence of the Oder
and Warthe, 18 m. N.E. from Frankfort-on-Oder and 51 m. N.E.
of Berlin by rail. Pop. (1900) 16,473 (including the garrison).
It consists of the town proper within the strong fortifications,
a suburb on the left bank of the Oder, and one on the right bank
of the Warthe. There are three Evangelical churches and one
Roman Catholic, and a handsome town hall. There are bridges
over both rivers. Cüstrin has some manufactories of potato-meal,
machinery, pianos, furniture, cigars, &c., and there is a
considerable river trade.
About 1250 a town was erected on the site of Cüstrin, where a fishing village originally stood. From 1535 till 1571 it was the residence of John, margrave of Brandenburg-Cüstrin, who died without male heirs in 1571. Cüstrin was the prison of Frederick the Great when crown-prince, and the scene of the execution of his friend Hans Hermann von Katte on the 6th of November 1730.
CUTCH, or Kach, a native state of India within the Gujarat
division of Bombay, with an area of 7616 sq. m. It is a peninsular
tract of land, enclosed towards the W. by the eastern branch of
the Indus, on the S. by the Indian Ocean and the Gulf of Cutch,
and on the N. and E. towards the interior, by the great northern
Runn, a salt morass or lake. The interior of Cutch is studded
with hills of considerable elevation, and a range of mountains
runs through it from east to west, many of them of the most
fantastic shapes, with large isolated masses of rock scattered
in all directions. The general appearance of Cutch is barren and
uninteresting. The greater part is a rock destitute of soil, and
presenting the wildest aspect; the ground is cold, poor and
sterile; and the whole face of the country bears marks of volcanic
action. From the violence of tyranny, and the rapine of a disorderly
banditti, by which this district long suffered, as well as
from shocks of earthquakes, the villages have a ruinous and dilapidated
appearance; and, with the exception of a few fields in their
neighbourhood, the country presents a rocky and sandy waste,
with in many places scarcely a show of vegetation. Water is
scarce and brackish, and is chiefly found at the bottom of low
ranges of hills, which abound in some parts; and the inhabitants
of the extensive sandy tracts suffer greatly from the want of it.
Owing to the uncertainty of the periodical rains in Cutch, the
country is liable to severe famines, and it has suffered greatly
from plague.
The temperature of Cutch during the hot season is high, the thermometer frequently rising to 100° or 105° F.; and in the months of April and May clouds of dust and sand, blown about by hurricanes, envelop the houses, the glass windows scarcely affording any protection. The influence of the monsoon is greatly moderated before it reaches this region, and the rains sometimes fail altogether. Bhuj, the capital of the state, is situated inland, and is surrounded by an amphitheatre of hills, some of which approach within 3 or 4 m. of the city. The hill of Bhuja, on which the fort is situated, rises to the height of 500 ft. in the middle of the plain, and is detached from other high ground. The residency is 4 m. distant in a westerly direction. There are many mountain streams, but no navigable rivers. They contain scarcely any water except in the rainy season, when they are very full and rapid, and discharge themselves into the Runn, all along the coast of which the wells and springs are more or less impregnated with common salt and other saline ingredients.
Various causes have contributed to thin the population of this country. In 1813 it was ravaged by a famine and pestilence, which destroyed a great proportion of its inhabitants,—according to some accounts, nearly one-half. This, joined to the tyranny and violence of the government until the year 1819, and subsequently to a succession of unfavourable seasons, forced many
