Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume V.djvu/597

 CUSTINE CUSTOMS AND USAGES 593 properties of its light, soft wood, often used instead of cork for a variety of purposes. CUSTINE. I. Adam Philippe, count de, a French general, born in Metz, Feb. 4, 1740, guillotined in Paris, Aug. 29, 1793. He served with dis- tinction in the seven years' war, and in the American war of independence under Wash- ington. In 1789 he was elected by the nobility of Lorraine as deputy to the states general. He was a partisan of the revolution, but his noble birth and associations made him a con- stant object of suspicion to the republicans. In June, 1792, he was appointed commander- in-chief of the French army on the lower Rhine, and took possession of Landau, Weissenburg, Spire, Worms, Mentz, and Frankfort; but he suddenly evacuated the German towns, and withdrew to Alsace. This gave umbrage to the leaders of the convention ; but he succeeded in vindicating himself, and received the com- mand of the northern army. However, he was finally accused of treason, sentenced to death on Aug. 28, 1793, and guillotined on the following day, but asserted to the last his loy- alty to the principles of the revolution. A few months later, his son and aide-de-camp, RE- NAUD PHILIPPE, was doomed to the same fate. II. Astolphe, marquis de, grandson of Count Adam, born in Paris in 1798, died at his chateau of St. Gratien, near Pau, in September, 1857. He was the author of several novels, and of a tragedy, Beatrix Cenci, which failed on the stage. He travelled extensively on the con- tinent, and in England, and published three books of travels, of which that on Russia, La Russie en 1839, attracted general attention, and was translated into English and German. CFSTIS, George Washington Parke, the adopted son of George Washington, born at Mount Airy, Md., April 30, 1781, died at Arlington house, Fairfax co., Va., Oct. 10, 1857. He was the youngest child of John Parke Custis, a son of Mrs. Washington by her first husband, and an aide-de-camp to Gen. Washington at the siege of Yorktown. John Parke Custis died at Eltham, Md., of camp fever, just after the surrender of Cornwallis, leaving four chil- dren, the two youngest of whom were adopted by Washington. George Washington Parke Custis was brought up at Mount Vernon, sub- sequently pursued his classical studies at Princeton, and remained a member of Wash- ington's family until the death of Mrs. Wash- ington in 1802, when he went to reside at Arlington, an estate of 1,000 acres in the neighborhood of Washington, which he had inherited from his father. He erected Arling- ton house, and devoted his life to literary and agricultural pursuits. After 1852 he was the sole surviving member of Washington's family, and his residence was for years an attractive resort on account of its many interesting rel- ics of that family. Mr. Custis was the author of a number of remarkable orations, of seve- ral plays, and of " Recollections of Washing- ion," published at various times in the " Na- tional Intelligencer." He was fond of paint- ing, and in the latter part of his life executed a number of pictures of revolutionary battles. He was married in early life to Miss Mary Lee Fitzhugh of Virginia, and left a daughter, who married Robert E. Lee, from whom the Ar- lington estate was confiscated in the civil war, being now held as national property and the site of a Union soldiers' cemetery. CUSTOMS AND USAGES. The common law of every country is made up in great measure of customs which have come to be universally recognized and adopted, of which the courts take judicial notice, and by which they adjudi- cate the rights and liabilities of individuals. But besides these customs which constitute a part of the general law of the state, special customs also prevail, some of which are con- fined to particular localities, while others re- late to particular trades, professions, or occupa- tions. Thus, there are in England the custom of gavelkind, prevailing in Kent, under which all the sons inherit, instead of the eldest son alone ; the custom of borough English in some boroughs, by which the youngest son is favored in the inheritance ; and the custom of London, which among other things permits a married woman to engage in mercantile pursuits. These also are judicially noticed by the courts. The custom of merchants is often alluded to as if in a similar way it constituted an exception to the common law, but this is a mistake ; it is only one branch of that law which has grown up with commerce and expanded with the changes in the modes of transacting business and the necessities of trade. But there are also other customs which the common law per- mits to be established, but of which the courts can have no knowledge until informed by evi- dence, and which consequently must be proved in any case in which they are relied upon, and be found as facts by the jury. The proof con- sists in showing immemorial and uniform usage in accordance with the custom relied upon; and this furnishes the definition of custom, as being a usage which by common consent and uniform practice has become the law of the place, or of the subject matter to which it re- lates. Blackstone gives the several requisites of a good custom as follows: 1. It must have been used so long that the memory of man runneth not to the contrary. If this were strictly correct, it would preclude the estab- lishment of any new customs ; but in fact these are constantly being established and supported, and now when an immemorial usage is spoken of, all that is meant is a usage which has pre- vailed for a sufficient time to raise a reasonable presumption that parties in their dealings have adopted it as a rule of action. 2. It must have been continuous. 3. It must have been peaceable and acquiesced in, and not subject to contention and dispute. 4. It must be reason- able. 5. It must be certain. 6. It must be compulsory, and not left to the option of every man whether he will use it or no. 7. Cus-