Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/307

* BOND. 271 BONDI. the obligee may either sue upon the bond or enforce the payment from tlie security. A simi- lar usage prevail;; in the Scotch and Knglish law : in the former, the mortgage of real estate being commonly termed a bond. See Mortoagk. Bonds issued by corporations and by goveni- mcnts are evidences of indebtedness which ditVer in form but little from those used in legal transactions by individuals. Corporations are generally empowered by their charters to bor- row money by the issue of bonds. These bonds have a definite period to run and bear a fixed rate of interest. The entire bond issue is fre- quently reinforced by a mortgage upon the prop- erty of the corporation, under which the bond- holders may, upon default of payment of prin- cipal or interest, foreclose ipon the property in satisfaction of their claims. This right greatly enhances the value of the security in the case of first mortgage bonds, but is of little prac- tical value in the second and subsequent mort- gage bonds so frequently issued by railroad cor- porations. The number of bonds issued by cer- tain corporations is bewildering. Some depart ■xery widely from the first mortgage bond, and are bonds only in name, and in the fixed rate of interest which they bear. Any obligations issued in a group by corporations are called bonds when they bear a fixed rate of interest. The entire bond issvie is divided into part ob- ligations each of which is a bond. They are usually issued in sums of .flOOO each, though bonds of .$500 and $100 are sometimes issued. In form they ai-e either registered c«V coupon bonds. In the former case they are issued to individual owners, who in case of sale must authorize the transfer on the books of the corpo- ration or its trustee to the purchaser. Coupon bonds are payable to bearer, and provide for the payment of interest by a series of notes (cou- pons) attached to the bond, which promise the payment of the interest, usuallj- expressed as a specific sum of money, at the several interest periods. As they fall due they are cut from the bond and presented directly or through a bank for payment. They may be payable at the com- pany's offices or at banking institutions named on the coupons. Bonds issued by governments are in form simi- lar to those issued by corporations, being regis- tered or coupon bonds. They are not, however, supported by any mortgage, as no citizen can enforce a claim against the State. For their security they rest, therefore, upon the confidence of the purchaser in the ability and good inten- tions of llie issuing government to meet its obli- gations. In the ca.se of some of the minor gov- ernments this confidence has been sometimes sadly misplaced. In the case of refusal by the government to pay the debt or interest the holder is without redress. In some of the States of the Union the issie of bonds by the State govern- ments is hedged about by constitutional restric- tions, which have a certain value in preventing excessive bond issues. The same is true of the bonds issued by the minor civil subdivisions of the States, counties, school districts, towns, and cities. Sec articles Debt, Plblic; Repldia- TION. Consult: Cook. Trenti.ie on Stock and Stock- hnhhrs (3 ed., Chicago, 18!)4) ; Short, Jjow of liailicay Bonds and Mortr/af/e (Boston. 1897) ; Hainer, Modern Law of Municipal Securities (Indianapolis, 1S98) ; Dillon, Laio of Municipa} Bonds (Saint Louis, 1876) ; Throop, Treatise on the Lair Bclfitiiir/ to Public Officers and Sure- tics in Official Bonds (New York. 1892). Also the authorities referred to under the articles FoRECLosuiu;; JIortgage; Trust; Municipal- ity. BOND, Edward Augustus, Sir (1815-98). An English librarian and scholar, born at Hanwcll. In lSfi7 he became Keeper of the Manuscript Department of the British Museum, and from 1878 to 1888 he was principal libra- rian of the Museum. In 1870 he founded (with E. il. Thompson) the Palteogi-aphical Society, of which he was long pi-esident. It was he who brought about the printing of the British Mu- seum catalogue. He edited Statutes of the Colldivs of Oxford (185,3) : Speeches in the Trial of Warren Hastings (1859-01); the Travels of Jerome Horsey (for the Hakluyt Society), and Facsimiles of Ancient Manuscripts for the Pa- la?ographical Society, 5 vols. (1873-88). BOND, George Pnnxips (182.5-65). An American astronomer, the son of William Cranch Bond (q.v.). He was his father's assistant in the Hai-vard Obser-atory. succeeding to full charge in 1859. He published a Treatise on the Construction of the Rings of Saturn; Elements of the Orbits of JJypcrion and the Satellite of ^'eptune; The Method of Least Squares: and Mathematical Memoirs upon Mechanical Quad- rations. For a work on Donati's comet he re- ceived a gold medal from the Royal Astronomi- cal Society. BOND, William Cranch (1789-18.59). An American astronomer, born in Portland, Maine. He was self-educated, and had a private observa- tory at Dorchester, Mass., where his discoveries attracted much attention. In 1838 he was chos- en by the United States Government to make observations for the use of the Wilkes ex- ploring expedition to the South Pacific, and in 1839 he supervised the construction of the ob- servatory at Harvard, and became its director. He was the inventor of a method of measuring time to a very small fraction of a second, and among the first to employ photography in stellar observations. BONDAGE (JJ.at. bondagium, inferior ten- ure, held liy a husbandman, from bondus, AS. bonda. householder, husbandman). A form of rural tenure which obtains in Scotland, based upon an obligation of the tenant, called a bonda- ger. to render agricultural services to his land- lord. It is a survival, in modified form, of the base (enure of villeinage, which prevailed in the early history of feudalism (q.v.). See Copyhold. BONDER, bond'er (Norw. bonde) . In Nor- way and Sweden, the landowners or farmers, llnder the ancient kings of Norway they were a powerful class, and often forced important con- cessions from their rulers, or deposed them. They correspond nearly to burgesses and barons in England. BONDI, bon'd^, Clemente (1742-J[821). An Italian |)oet, born at Mezzano, near Parma. He was educated by the Jesuits and when still very young was appointed to deliver lectures in rhetoric in the royal sennnary at Parma. Here he produced his first work, Oiornata vil-