A criminal; one prosecuted for a crime. Wharton. CONTRACT (Lat. contractus, from con, with, and traho, to draw. Contractus ultro utroque obligatio est quam Græci συναλλαγμα vocant. Fr. contrał). An agreement between two or more parties to do or not to do a particular thing. Taney, C. J., 11 Pet. 420, 572. An agreement in which a party undertakes to do or not to do a particular thing. Mar- shall, C. J., 4 Wheat. 197. An agreement between two or more parties for the doing or not doing of some specified thing. 1 Pars. Com. 5. It has been also defined as follows: A compact between two or more parties. 6 Cra. 87, 186. An agreement ent or covenant between two or more per- sons, in which each party binds himself to do or forbear some act, and each acquires a right to what the other promises. Encyc. Amer.; Webster. A contract or agreement is where a promise is made on one side and assented to on the other; or where two or more persons enter into an engagement with each other by a promise on either side. 2 Steph. Com. 108, 109. An agreement upon sufficient consideration to do or not to do a particular thing. 2 Bla. Com. 446; 2 Kent 449. A covenant or agreement between two parties with a lawful consideration or cause. West, Sym- bol. lib. 1. §10: Cowel Blount. A deliberate engagement between competent parties upon a legal consideration to do or to ab- stain from doing some act. Story, Contr. $1. An agreement by which two parties reciprocally promise and engage, or one of them singly promises and engages to the other, to give some particular thing or to do or abstain from doing some partic- ular act. Pothier, Conts. Pt. 1, c. 1, §1; 36 Ch. D. 695. A mutual promise upon lawful consideration or cause which binds the parties to a performance. The writing which contains the agreement of parties with the terms and conditions, and which serves as a proof of the obligation. The last is a distinct signification. 2 Hill. N. Y. 551. A voluntary and lawful agreement by competent parties, for a good consideration, to do or not to do a specified thing. 9 Cal. 83. An agreement enforceable at law, made between two or more persons, by which rights are acquired by one or both to acts or forbearances on the part of the other. Anson, Contr. 9. A learned writer has said. in discussing the prop- er definition of contract, cont that "if we seek to build up a definition of the term 'contract which shall in- clude all things that have been called contracts and shall exclude all things that have been held not to be contracts, the task is evidently impossible. Any definition of contract therefore must be either arbitrary or inexact." Harriman, Contr. 4. The consideration is not properly included in the definition of contract, because it does not seem to be essential to a contract, although it may be neces- sary to its enforcement. See CONSIDERATION. Pars. Contr. 7. Mr. Stephen, whose definition of contract is given above, thus criticizes the definition of Blackstone. which has been adopted by Chancellor Kent and other high authorities. First, that the word agrer- ment itself requires definition as much as contract. Second, that the existence of a consideration, though essential to the validity of a parol contract, forms properly no part of the idea. Third, that the defini- tion takes no sufficient notice of the mutuality which properly distinguishes a contract from a promise. 2 Steph. Com. 109. The use of the word agreement (aggregatio men- tium) seems to have the authority of the best writers in ancient and modern times (see above) as a part of the definition of contract. It is probably a translation of the civil-law conventio (con and venio), a coming together. to which (being derived from ad and grez) it seems nearly equivalent. We do not think the objection that it is a synonym (or nearly so) a valid one. Some word of the kind is necessary as a basis of the definition. No two