As the _Chore-Convent_ in each Chore is, so to say, its first board of Administration, so there is a supreme board over all the Chores, and thus, to a certain degree, over the whole body of students. It constitutes the highest court of honour of the students. It is composed of the whole _Chargirten_ of the whole Chores. Each Chore possesses, in alphabetical rotation, the presidency; and the _Convents_, or meetings, held at the _Kneipe_-room of that Chore which at that time is in power. The presidency changes monthly, so that, as the court is held four times in each month, it falls four times in each Chore, which has to defray the cost of the beer that is therein drunk. The _Senior_ of this Chore is president, the _Consenior_ vice-president, and the _Dritte-Chargirte_ secretary. Under the jurisdiction of this court fall general affairs, those which affect the interests of all students; and it passes all the resolutions, to which the whole student-body of the university must submit itself. It keeps what students call _Allgemeine Comment_, that is, the student code of laws. It addresses itself, to protect their rights from all encroachments. It hurls the terrors of its _Bannstrahl_, that is, of its power of excommunication, upon students or citizens, upon individuals or large bodies. When a burger of the university city, or of the vicinity, whose trade derives benefit from the students--for example, an innkeeper, or a shopkeeper--treats a student harshly or unjustly, the complaint must lay his charge before this court. His memorial to the S. C. must be drawn up in due form, according to the nature of its contents, and established custom, and must bear the signature of one of the Seniors. The S. C. now makes inquiry into the guilt or innocence of the accused. If he be found guilty, it decrees the punishment, which consists in proscription, for a longer or shorter period. This state of proscription, or being under the bann, is very exactly determined in years, months, weeks, and days; and during this period no student, be he in Chore or not in Chore, dare to purchase any thing from the condemned, or enter his house, otherwise he exposes himself to the certain danger of being also laid under the bann, and the Chores regularly send their people to see whether any violation of their edict take place. For instance, should a proscribed innkeeper have a ball or dance in his house, the Chore emissaries will be there to see whether any student shows himself at it. The student falls under similar punishment who is accused and found guilty of refusing to give satisfaction by duel to another that he has insulted. Yet is no one compelled to the duel by this regulation. If a student will not fight, whether from a principle against it, or any other cause, he must, once for all, announce this fact to the S. C, and he stands exempt, only, he cannot be allowed to make any exception to the rule which he has himself thus laid down. If he commits assault or aggression against any student or students, having thus sheltered himself from the necessity of the duel, though he be no longer amenable to this particular law of the student world, he is still amenable to the laws of his country, and may be summoned before the amtmann to answer for his offence. Should he meanly avail himself of such a declaration against fighting, and yet permit himself to insult or annoy his fellow-students, so cunningly as not to come within the operation of any civil statute, and yet to be offensive and obnoxious to the rules and maxims of social life, he will be shunned and despised by the students, and will find himself pretty much in the same situation as he who is actually under the bann. The bann is chiefly launched against students for such offences as are considered to amount to loss of honour--such as one student giving another a box on the ear, or a student committing a theft; and therefore to him who lies under the _Verruf_, or proscription, on such account, there remains scarcely an alternative but to quit the university, where every channel of intercourse would be closed against him, and where he would be shunned by all. Whole university cities have at times been laid under the bann, examples of which we shall give as we proceed.