COUNTRY

The portion of the earth's surface occupied by an independent nation or people; or the inhabitants of such territory. In its primary meaning "country" signifies "place;" and, in a larger sense, the territory or dominions occupied by a community; or even waste and unpeopled sections or regions of the earth. But its metaphorical meaning is no le definite ·and well understood; and in common parlance, in historical and. geographical writmgs, in diplomacy, legislation, treaties, and international codes, the word is employed to denote the population the nation, the state, or 1 the government, havmg po e ion and dominion over a territory. Stairs v. Peaslee, 18 How. 1121, 15 L. IDd. 47"!.i. U. S. v. Recorder, 1 Blatcbf. 218, 225, 5 l'I, Y. Leg. Ops. 286, Fed. Cas. No. 16,129. In pleading and practice, The inhabitants of a district from which a jury 1s to be summoned; pals; a jury. S Bl. Comm. 849; Steph. l'l.' 78, 78, 230•. [s. 288]