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292 CONVERSANO CONVOCATION trial Dec. 11 ; condemned him to death by a majority of 26 out of 721 votes, Jan. 16, 1793; established the revolutionary tribunal, March 10 ; decreed the formation of the com- mittee of public safety, April 6; allowed the arrest of 21 Girondists, June 2 ; completed a new constitution, Aug. 10; decreed a uni- versal levy for the national defence, Aug. 23 ; condemned Marie Antoinette, Oct. 16 ; ap- pointed a committee with Sieyes at its head to frame a second constitution, April 19, 1794; received and adopted this constitution, June 23 ; ordered the arrest of Robespierre, July 27 ; prohibited the affiliation of clubs, Oct. 16 ; sup- pressed the Jacobins, Nov. 12 ; was successfully defended by Bonaparte against the sections of Paris, Oct. 5, 1795; decreed the abolition of capital punishment, handed over the govern- ment to the directory and the council of 500, and finally adjourned, Oct. 26, after having been in session three years and 35 days, and passed 8,370 decrees. At present the term convention is applied in the United States not only to delegated bodies specially assembled by legislative authority, but to voluntary as- semblies of delegates having some change of legislation or policy in view. It is also ap- plied to bodies assembled as the representa- tives of parties, to make nominations to office or settle principles of action. The great quad- rennial conventions of the respective par- ties have since 1836 played a very important part in politics ; for though they have no legal T OT constitutional sanction, they nominate the president and vice president, and by their plat- forms or declarations -of principles determine the policy of the country for the next four years. Their meetings are attended by great crowds, and their proceedings, which general- ly take two or three days, are watched with universal interest throughout the country. (See CONSTITUTIONAL CONVENTION.) CONVERSING, a town of S. Italy, in the prov- ince and 18m. S. E. of the city of Bari ; pop. about 10,000. It is the seat of a bishop, and contains a castle, a fine cathedral, a Benedictine nunnery, and several convents. In the middle ages it was for some time the capital of the Norman conquerors of southern Italy. CONVEYANCE, a term formerly equivalent to voluntary alienation, and including all modes of transferring real estate by the act of the owner, whether by feoffment and livery of seisin, which was a delivery of the possession of the lands themselves in the presence of wit- nesses ; or by an instrument in writing, signed and sealed by the person making the sale, which instrument was commonly called a deed ; or by matter of record, as in the cases of fines and common recoveries, which in form were ju- dicial proceedings, but were in fact modes of voluntary alienation ; or lastly, by will, which, although like the deed it was an instrument in writing, and required the signature of the tes- tator (but not a seal), did not take effect till after the death of the party executing. Most of the old English forms of conveyance have become obsolete. The deed of bargain and sale, which is more used than any other in England for the ordinary transfer of the fee of lands, is founded upon the statute 27 Henry VIII., called the statute of uses. (See BARGAIN AND SALE, and COMMON LAW.) This last mode of conveying real estate became the basis of the forms of deeds used in this country ; but in most of the states a still simpler form has been adopted, corresponding more nearly with the grant or common law conveyance of incor- poreal estates. In several of the states the form of deed is prescribed by statute ; and va- rious provisions have been enacted in relation to its legal effect, as that no covenant shall be implied, and what words employed shall con- stitute covenants, and the legal effect thereof. CONVOCATION (Lat. convocare, to call to- gether), in the church of England, the assembly of the clergy by their representatives to con- sult on ecclesiastical matters, under the au- thority of a royal writ directed to the arch- bishop of each province. Assemblies of in- ferior clergy, at the call of their respective prelates, have been common from the earliest times; but, besides such councils, there were two other kinds peculiar to England, from which the present convocation is supposed to be derived. The first was the meeting of bishops and laity to legislate for the whole kingdom; the second was the assembling of the clergy t6 assess taxes on their own body at a period when they claimed to be exempt from taxation by parliament. With this latter purpose, convocations had been occasionally held in Saxon times, when the subsidies granted by the church to the crown bore the name of benevolences ; but in the reign of Edward I. the practice was more definitively arranged. After the surrender of the right of self-taxa- tion in 1665 had deprived the convocation of its political character, it continued to be held nominally for ecclesiastical purposes, though its real power was lost at the reformation. An act was passed under Henry VIII. which restrained it from making any canon or ordi- nance opposed to the royal prerogative, or to the laws, customs, and statutes of the realm. The king's consent became necessary, not only to give validity to its acts, but to enable it to proceed to business. The provinces of Can- terbury and York have each their convocation, though the latter is very rarely called. There is an upper and lower house, the former com- posed of the bishops, the latter of the inferior clergy, represented by all the deans and arch- deacons, one proctor for every chapter, and two for the clergy of every diocese. The con- vocation has authority to examine and censure heretical and schismatical books and persons, but an appeal lies from its decisions to the king in council or his delegates, nor can it exe- cute its laws and canons except under many restrictions. The clergy in convocation have the same privileges as members of parliament.