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the proprietor, or lord; being he who retained the dominion or ultimate property of the feud or fee: and the grantee, who had only the afe and poffeffion, according to the terms of the grant, was ftyled the feudatory or vaffal, which was only another name for the tenant or holder of the lands; though, on account of the prejudices we have juftly conceived against the doctrines that were afterwards grafted on this fyftem, we now ufe the word vaffal opprobriously, as fynonymous to flave or bondman. The manner of the grant was by words of gratuitous and pure donation, dedi et conceffi; which are still the operative words in our modern infeodations, or deeds of feoffment. This was perfected by the ceremony of corporal inveftiture, or open and notorious delivery of poffeffion in the prefence of the other vaffals, which perpetuated among them the aera of the new acquifition, at a time when the art of writing was very little known: and there. fore the evidence of property was repofed in the memory of the neighbourhood; who, in cafe of a difputed title, were afterwards called upon to decide the difference, not only according to external proofs, adduced by the parties litigant, but also by the internal teftimony of their own private knowledge.

Befides an oath of fealty, or profeffion of faith to the lord, which was the parent of our oath of allegiance, the vaffal or tenant upon inveftiture did ufually homage to his lord; openly and humbly kneeling, being ungirt, uncovered, and holding up his hands both together between thofe of the lord,

who fate before him; and there profeffing that he did become

his man, from that day forth, "of life and limb and earthly ho"nour:" and then he received a kifs from his lord. Which ceremony was denominated homagium, or manhood, by the feudifts, from the ftated form of words, devenie vefter bomo.

When the tenant had thus profeffed himself to be the man of his fuperior or lord, the next confideration was concerning the fervice, which, as fuch, he was bound to render, in recompence for the land he held. This, in pure, proper, and original feuds, was only twofold: to follow, or do fuit to, the lord in his courts in time of peace; and in his armies or warlike, retinue, when neceffity called him to the field. The lord was, in early times, the legiflator and judge over all his feudatories: and therefore the vaffals of the inferior lords were bound by their fealty to attend their domeftic courts baron, (which were inftituted in every manor or barony, for doing speedy and effectual juftice to all the te nants) in order as well to answer fuch complaints as might be alledged against themfelves, as to form a jury or homage for the trial of their fellow.tenants; and upon this account, in all the feodal in fitutions both here and on the continent, they are diftinguished by the appellation of the peers of the court; pares curtis, or pares curiae. In like manner the barons themselves, or lords of inferior districts, were denominated peers of the king's court, and were bound to attend him upon fummons, to hear caufes of greater confequence in the king's pre

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fence and under the direction of his grand jufticiary: till in many countries the power of that officer was broken and diftributed into other courts of judicature, the peers of the king's court ftill referving to themfelves (in almoft every feodal government) the right of appeal from thofe fubordinate courts in the laft refort. The military branch of fervice confifted in attending the lord to the wars, if called upon, with fuch a retinue, and for fuch a number of days, as were ftipulated at the firft donation, in proportion to the quantity of the land."

At the first introduction of feuds, as they were gratuitous, fo alfo they were precarious, and held at the will of the lord, who was the fole judge whether his vaffal performed his fervices faithfully. Then they became certain, for one or more years. Among the ancient Germans they continued only from year to year; an annual diftribution of lands being made by their leaders in their general councils or affemblies. This was profeffedly done, left their thoughts fhould be diverted from war to agriculture; left the ftrong fhould encroach upon the poffeffions of the weak; and left luxury and avarice fhould be encouraged by the erection of permanent houses, and too curious an attention to convenience and the elegant fuperfluities of life. But, when the general migration was pretty well over, and a peaceable poffeffion of their new acquired fettlements had introduced new cuftoms and manners; when the fertility of the foil had encouraged the study of husbandry, and an affection for the fpots they had culVol. X.

tivated began naturally to arife in the tillers: a more permanent degree of property was introduced, and feuds began now to be granted for the life of the feudatory. But ftill feuds were not yet hereditary; though frequently granted, by the favour of the lord to the children of the former poffeffor; till in procefs of time it became unufual, and was therefore thought hard, to reject the heir, if he were capable to perform the fervices: and therefore infants, women, and profeffed monks, who were incapable of bearing arms, were alfo incapable of fucceeding to a genuine feud. But the heir, when admited to the feud which his ancestor poffeffed, ufed generally to pay a fine of acknowledgment to the lord, in horfes, arms, money, and the like, for fuch renewal of the feud: which was called a relief, because it re-eftablished the inheritance, or, in the words of the feodal writers, "certam et caducam heriditatem re"levebat." This relief was af terwards, when feuds became abfolutely hereditary, continued on the death of the tenant, though the original foundation of it had ceafed.

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For in procefs of time feuds came by degrees to be univerfally extended, beyond the life of the firit vaffal, to his fons, or perhaps to fuch one of them as the lord fhould name; and in this cafe the form of the donation was ftrictly obferved: for if a feud was given to a man and his fons, all his fons fucceeded him in equal portions; and as they died off, their fhares reverted to the lord, and did not defcend to their children, or even to their furviving bro

X

thers,

hers, as not being specified in the donation. But when fuch a feud was given to a man and his heirs, in general terms, then a more extended rule of fucceffion took place and when a feudatory died, his male defcendents in infinitum were admitted to the fucceffion. When any fuch defcendent, who thus had fucceeded, died, his male defcendents were alfo admitted in the first place: and, in defect of them, fuch of his male collateral kindred, as were of the blood or lineage of the firft feudatory, but no others. For this was an unalterable maxim in feodal fucceffion, that, " none was capable of in"heriting a feud, but fuch as was "of the blood of, that is, lineally "defcended from, the firft feuda"tory." And the defcent, being thus confined to males, originally extended to all the males alike; all the fons, without any diftinction of primogeniture, fucceeding to equal portions of the father's feud. But this being found, upon many accounts, inconvenient, (particularly, by dividing the fervices, and thereby weakening the strength of the feodal union) and honorary feuds (or titles of nobility) being now introduced, which were not of a divifible nuture, but could only be inherited by the eldeft fon: in imitation of thefe, military feuds (or those we are now defcribing) began alfo in moft countries to defcend according to the fame rule of primogeniture, to the eldeft fon, in exclufion of all the reft.

Other qualities of feuds were, that the feudatory could not aliene or difpofe of his feud; neither could he exchange, nor yet mortgage, nor even devife it, by will,

without the confent of the lord. For, the reafon of conferring the feud being the perfonal abilites of the feudatory to ferve in was, it was not fit he fhould be at liberty to transfer this gift, either from himfelf, or his pofterity, who were prefumed to inherit his valour, to others who might prove lefs able. And, as the feodal obligation was looked upon as reciprocal, the feudatory being entitled to the lord's protection, in return for his own fealty and fervice; therefore the lord could no more transfer his feignory or protection without the confent of his vassal, than the vassal could his feud without confent of his lord: it being equally unrea. fonable, that the lord fhould extend his protection to a perfon to whom he had exceptions, and that the vafal fhould owe fubjection to a fuperior not of his own chufing.

Thefe were the principal, and very fimple qualities of the genuine or original feuds; being then all of a military nature, and in the hands of military perfons: though the feudatories being under frequent incapacities of cul. tivating and manuring their own lands, foon found it neceflary to commit part of them to inferior tenants; obliging them to fuch returns in fervice, corn, cat. tle, or money, as might enable the chief feudatories to attend their military duties without diftraction: which returns, or reditus, were the original of rents. And by this means the feodal polity was greatly extended; these inferior feudato. ries (who held what are called in the Scots law rere fiefs') being under fimilar obligations of fealty, to do fuit of court, to answer the ftipulated renders or rent fervice,

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and to promote the welfare of their Immediate fuperiors or lords. But this at the fame time demolished the ancient fimplicity of feuds; and an inroad being once made upon their conftitution, it fub-jected them, in a courfe of time, to great varieties and innovations. Feuds came to be bought and fold, and deviations were made from the old fundamental rules of tenure ⚫ and fucceffion; which were held no longer facred, when the feuds themfelves no longer continued to be purely military. Hence these • tenures began now to be divided into feoda propria et impropria, proper and improper feuds; under -the former of which divifions were -comprehended fuch, and fuch only, of which we have before fpoken; and under that of improper or derivative feuds were comprized all fuch as do not fall within the other defeription: fuch, for instance, as were originally bartered and -fold to the feudatory for a price; fuch as were held upon bafe or lefs -honourable fervices, or upon a rent, in lieu of military fervice; fuch as were in themfelves alienable, without mutual license; and fuch as might defeend indifferently either to males or females. But, where a difference was not ex-, preffed in the creation, fuch new created feuds did in all other refpects follow the nature of an original, genuine, and proper feud.

But as foon as the feodal fyftem came to be confidered in the light of a civil establishment, rather than as a military plan, the ingenuity of the fame ages, which perplexed all theology with the - fubtilty of fcholaftic difquifitions, and bewildered philosophy in the

1

mazes of metaphyfical jargon, began alfo to exert its influence on this copious and fruitful fubject : in purfuance of which, the most refined and oppreffive confequences were drawn from what originally was a plan of fimplicity and liberty, equally beneficial to both lord and tenant, and prudently calculated for their mutual protection and defence. From this one foundation, in different countries of Europe, very different fuperftructures have been raised: what effect it has produced on the landed property of England, will appear in the following chapters.

An Effy on the Hiftory of Civil Society, by Adam Ferguson, L. S. D. Profeffor of Moral Philofophy in the University of Edinburgh. In one volume quarto.

know him felf well, and he is at

T concerns man fo much to

the fame time fo various a being,
that he cannot be exhibited to him-
felf, by too many obfervers, and in
too many fituations. There is not
indeed any condition, whether of
riches or poverty, figure or ob-
fcurity, fociety or folitarinefs, ci-
vilization or rudeness, in which
fomething useful may not be glean-
ed towards the improvement and
exertion, we may even fay the dif-
covery of those powers with which
nature has fo liberally endowed
him. Nor is there any obferver,
(and we are all obfervers of one
another) from the fedentary her-
mit, to the giddieft of the multi-
tude, who has not, perhaps, made
fome obfervation which was before
unnoticed. The fubject is fo ex-
tenfive that it can never be ex-

X 2

hausted,

haufted, and the reelufe himself may hit upon fome peculiarity in the human frame, by an acquaintance with which the rest of mankind may be greatly benefited.

Civil fociety is now, whatever it might have been originally, the general state of man; fo that it is the most interesting fituation, that he can poffibly be confidered in. There is a peculiar propriety, in this confideration's becoming the object of a moral philofopher's difcuffion. No one can be more fitly calculated for examining thoroughly into, and defcribing, expreffively, man in that ftate, than he who is chofen by a learned body, as the most fit to point out and enforce thofe moral duties, of which the focial form fo principal a part. The learned author has accordingly, handled this fubject in the most masterly manner; the work abounds with fubtle thought, ingenious fentiment, and extenfive knowledge, and is written with a force, perfpicuity, and elegance, which is feldom met with in modern performances.

Strong as this teftimony in favour of the fubject before us, and this prejudice in favour of the author who has handled it, may appear; the reading of a very few pages of the work will, we think, fufficiently juftify our opinion. Mr. Ferguson has given us almost every thing relative to this fubject, which has been already advanced by others, (except their whims and caprices) in fuch a light as to make it almost en tirely his own. He has added many things, originally his own, which would alone be fufficient to entitle him to the praife of a very deep and fubtle inveftigator of the human mind. The ftyle, with

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out any facrifice from method, is fuch as was due to the dignity of the subject, and might have been expected from his rank in the re public of letters.

The work is divided into fix parts, each of which branches into feveral fections. The first paft treats of the general characterific of human nature; the fecond, of the hiftory of rude nations; the third, of the hiftory of policy and arts; the fourth, of coufequences that refult from the advancement of civil and commercial arts; the fifth, of the decline of nations; the fixth, of corruption and po litical flavery. The propriety of this divifion is too obvious to require its being pointed out; and that of the feveral parts into fec tions does not yield to it.

Many of the authors who have written on man, and thofe too fome of the most ingenious, have fet out by confidering him as an animal, folitary by nature; and others, not fatisfied with this blindness to what we read and fee of his condition, in almost all ages and countries, have no lefs pre. pofterously made him a mifchiev ous one. Nay, one in particulat, has thrown out doubts of his having been originally a monkey or baboon. VI76) 976

Mr. Fergufon, instead of adopt. ing either of those capital mistakes, (by which we mean the two frt, the laft being too ridiculous for fe rious animadverfion) has refuted them both in the moft masterly manner; by which he has at chieved more for the dignity of human nature, as well as for the interefts of mankind, than had been done by all the writers who had gone before him in this walk.

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