assignment (as in ment)

[ The only thing that maketh any place public is the public a ignment thereof unto such duties. Hooker . 3. That which has been a igned, as a particu lar task or duty.-4. Specifically, in law: (a) The transference of a right or an interest. See a ign, v., 6 (a). (b) A pointing out or setting forth: as, the a ignment of error.-5. The writing by which an interest is transferred.61. An allotment, allowance, or pension; a sum allowed.-7. Formerly, in Australia, the allotting of convicts as unpaid servants to colonists, in order to relieve the authorities of the expense of the convict establishments. The expense of the Australian convict establishments was enormous, and some change in system was inevitable. These were the conditions that brought about the plan of a ignments , in other words, of freely lending the convicts to any one who would relieve the authorities of the burdensome charge. Encyc. Brit ., XIX. 750. A ignment of dower. See a ign, v.- A ignment of errors. See error. - General a ignment (more fully, a ignment for benefit of creditors), an a ignment of all the a ignor's property not exempt from execution, in trust to pay his creditors. - New a ignment, a method of pleading at common law to which the plaintiff was obliged to resort in his replication, for the purpose of setting the defendant right where the latter, through misapprehension of the real cause of complaint as stated in the declaration, had been led to apply his plea to a different matter from that which the plaintiff had in view. Stephen. Also called novel a ignment.