(421) and "the perils of the seas" employed in bills of lading, are convertible terms. 1 Abbotts' Adm. R. 348. An abbreviation of Data or Datum, in the clause at the end of the constitutions of the Roman emperors, showing the day and month when it was given, and in whose consulship. In other words, the date of the constitution. See the Code of Justinian, passim, and see infra, Date. An abbreviation of Data, or Datum, (qq. v.) in old instruments. The Magna Charta of 9 Hen. III. concludes thus: DAT' apud Westmon' undecimo die Februarii, anno regni nostri nono; GIVEN at Westminster, on the eleventh day of February, in the ninth year of our reign. Private instruments concluded in the same way. Dat London, tali die, anno supradicto. Fleta, lib. 2, c. 64, § 3. See Litt. sect. 371. XIII. Kal. Decemb. CP. Justino et Opilione Conss. DAT. Idib. Aug. Constantinop. Constantio II. et Constante Conss. See Cod. passim. The Novels were dated in a similar manner. The abbreviation was sometimes still further abbreviated to D. From this emphatic Latin word DATA (or datum,) the L. Fr. word date seems to have been immediately formed as a name for the whole clause, and afterwards adopted as an English word of more general application. That the earliest use of date was as a French word, appears from the following passages of Britton: Et pur ceo est bone cautele pur ceux que fount faire chartre, que date soit mys del jour, et del lieu, et del an; and therefore it is a good precaution for those who are about to make a charter, [deed,] that the date be put of the day, and of the place and of the year. Britt. c. 39. Par defaute de date est le brefe abatable et vicious; by defect of the date is the writ abatable and faulty. Id. c. 48. The first of these passages is also important as showing the time when dates in deeds began to come into use. The use of this datum clause, or date, was common to a great variety of instruments, public as well as private. See the date of Magna Charta, under Dat' and Data. And see Done, Donees. The style of the literal translation "Given," &c. is still preserved in public instruments requiring greater formality of style, such as proclamations of state: "Dated," &c. being appropriated to private writings. See Datum, Done.