preme criminal court, or high court of
justiciary, form also three separate circuit courts, consisting of two
judges each; and the country, with the exception of the Lothians, is
divided into corresponding districts, called the Northern, Western and
Southern circuits. On the Northern circuit, courts are held at
Inverness, Perth, Dundee and Aberdeen; on the Western, at Glasgow,
Stirling and Inveraray; and on the Southern, at Dumfries, Jedburgh and
Ayr.

Ireland is divided into the North-East and the North-West circuits, and
those of Leinster, Connaught and Munster.

CIRCULAR NOTE, a documentary request by a bank to its foreign
correspondents to pay a specified sum of money to a named person. The
person in whose favour a circular note is issued is furnished with a
letter (containing the signature of an official of the bank and the
person named) called a letter of indication, which is usually referred
to in the circular note, and must be produced on presentation of the
note. Circular notes are generally issued against a payment of cash to
the amount of the notes, but the notes need not necessarily be cashed,
but may be returned to the banker in exchange for the amount for which
they were originally issued. A forged signature on a circular note
conveys no right, and as it is the duty of the payer to see that payment
is made to the proper person, he cannot recover the amount of a forged
note from the banker who issued the note. (See also LETTER OF CREDIT.)

CIRCULUS IN PROBANDO (Lat. for "circle in proving"), in logic, a phrase
used to describe a form of argument in which the very fact which one
seeks to demonstrate is used as a premise, i.e. as part of the evidence
on which the conclusion is based. This argument is one form of the
fallacy known as _petitio principii_, "begging the question." It is most
common in lengthy arguments, the complicated character of which enables
the speaker to make his hearers forget the data from which he began.
(See FALLACY.)

CIRCUMCISION (Lat. _circum_, round, and _caedere_, to cut), the cutting
off of the foreskin. This surgical operation, which is commonly
prescribed for purely medical reasons, is also an initiation or
religious ceremony among Jews and Mahommedans, and is a widespread
institution in many Semitic races. It remains, with Jews, a necessary
preliminary to the admission of proselytes, except in some Reformed
communities. The origin of the rite among the Jew