Company and Companies

COMPOUND INTEREST. Compound interest is interest upon interest which is not paid. Upon current accounts a banker calculates the interest half-yearly and adds it to the principal, when it becomes part of
the principal, and upon that amount interest is forthwith charged or allowed as the case may be.
A ready way of ascertaining approximately the number of years in which a sum will double itself at compound interest, is to divide seventy by the rate per cent. (See Interest.)

COMPOUNDING A FELONY. If an official commits a felony, e.g., an embezzlement, and someone provides the bank \v-ith money or securities to cover tire defalcations, in order to prevent the institution of a pro-
secution, this is called compounding a felonv.

In’Whiimorc v. Fairley (1S80, 29 W.R. 825), Lush, L. J., in the course of his judgment, said :
—” It is as old as the law itself that compounding a felony is not merely an illegal, but a criminal act. It follows that every agreement by a prosecutor to forego a prosecution, in consideration of a benefit
to himself, is an illegal agreement which the law will not sanction. A person who is robbed cannot be compelled to prosecute.

No doubt it is his duty to society to do so, but it is an imperfect obligation. If, however, he does prosecute, he assumes the olfice of a public prosecutor, and prosecutes on behalf of the public. If he enters into a bargain not to prosecute, that is just as much void as if it was made after prosecution commenced. This is not confined to felony. The law is just the same with regard to cases of misdemeanour.”

COMPOUNDING WITH CREDITORS.
(See Composition with Creditors.)

CONTRA ENTRY. An entry made upon one side of an account to correct an entry which has been made in error upon the other side.

Where the value of the stock or marketable security-

Is 5 and does not exceed

exceeds

FARTHING. (From Feorth. fourth.) The
fourth part of a penny, a penny at one time
being actually divided into four parts, called
feorthlings or fourthings.

Its standard weight is 43-75 grains troy.
The coin is a mixed metal of copper, tin and
zinc.

Copper farthings were first issued in 1672.
FEE. The sum of money which is to be
paid for a service rendered.
The Anglo-Saxon word feoh (which is
practically our word fee) had the meaning
of money and cattle. In certain of the early
stages of society, cattle performed the
functions of money, hence the use of one
word to express both cattle and money.

FEE FARM RENT. Where a person
conveys land which he holds in fee simple
(that is, he is the absolute owner) to another
person in fee simple subject to the payment
of a perpetual yearly rent to the vendor and
his heirs, the rent is called a fee farm rent.

FEE SIMPLE. Where a person is the
absolute owner of an estate he is said to hold
it in ” fee simple,” and he can practically
do with it what he hkes. If he dies intestate
it goes to his heirs. A conveyance of a
freehold to a purchaser in fee simple contains
such words as ” To hold unto and to the use
of the purchaser in fee simple,” or, what has
the same effect, ” to the use of the purchaser
his heirs and assigns for ever.” Legally
all land is held directly or indirectly from
the King, but practica’ly that does not affect
the absolute ownership in a fee simple.
The greatest interest which can be had in
land is the fee simple, other interests, such
as a Hfe interest, or a lease, being estates less
than the fee simple. The holder of a fee
simple can create other estates out of it, but
so long as he does not dispose of the fee
simple it remains vested in him. In the
case of a lease, no matter for how long a
period, the fee simple is with the person who
grants the lease, though the person who
holds the lease or the assignment thereof
has the legal estate in the land. At the
expiration of a lease the land reverts to the
grantor, or person entitled to the fee simple.
In copvhold land the fee simple remains
with the lord of the manor.

FEE TAIL. An estate which is granted
to a person and the heirs of his body is an
estate tail or fee tail, usually called an
entailed estate. It is the opposite to a fee
simple (_q.v.). A fee simple is held to his
heirs, but a fee tail is hmited to the heirs
of his body. (See Est.\te T.\il.)

FEU CONTRACT. In Scotland, a contract between a superior and his vassal respecting the gix’ing of land in feu; feu being a tenure where the vassal holds lands from the superior and, instead of performing
militar_v service, makes an annual return in grain or money.
i In the Stamp Act, 1891, the reference to
the stamp duty is :
Feu Contract in Scotland. See Convey-ance ON Sale.
PL FA. A contraction of fieri facias (q.v.).

FICTITIOUS BILL. .\ name sometimes
given to an acconiniodatinu liill (i/.i’.

𒌚𒊺 (Addarum, “Adar, twelfth month”)