50 ON THK INFLUENCE Of FEUDALISM. 



used, \'iz. feoffment — a name equally indicative of the same source* 

 The law oi primogeniture, or descent to the eldest son or male next- 

 of-kin in exclusion of all the rest of the family, is likewise attrihutable 

 to the feudal system, under which was continued the mode of inhe- 

 ritance by entails or estates tail (by the statute de donis 13 Edw. I.), 

 and by which tenure, or law, the domains of our old nobility and the 

 gentry have been so long transmitted unimpaired to their present 

 possessors ; the right of the husband, as tenant by the curtesy for 

 his life to his deceased wife, and of the assignment or setting out of 

 the widow's dower by the heir of her deceased husband's freeholds. 

 These, and a number of other incidents, might be quoted, all leading 

 further to confirm the truth of my assertion — that the influence of 

 feudalism is still discernible in most of the institutions of the 

 country. 



And our copyhold tenures do even more strongly confirm this. 

 Copyhold land is the remnant of the old tenure hy [villeinage — a 

 species of tenure not strictly and exclusively feudal, but partly so, 

 and so called from the state of villeinage or slavery in which many 

 of the people, both under the Saxons and Normans, were held. 

 Manumitted in process of time, their lands held originally at the 

 will of the Lord of the manor, and ultimately by them absolutely, but 

 apparently at his will, according to the custom of the manor, and 

 most of them vested in inheritance — these poor serfs have trans- 

 mitted to us the tenure of copyhold, or land held by copy of court 

 roll, whereby many of the estates in this kingdom are now held. 

 These are called either copyhold free, or in bondage ; free — that is 

 of inheritance, with merely nominal fines annexed to their transfer 

 or descent; or in bondage (i.e. subject to heavy fines or manorial 

 pajnneuts upon their alienation or descent, and subject, also, to 

 heavy disadvantages in the legal disability to fell timber, excavate 

 minerals, pull down buildings, or commit waste — burdens which in 

 some manors are exceedingly onerous.) They all are held by the 

 custom of a manor, are transferred or conveyed in the court baron 

 or customary court of the manor, before a jury of copyholders or 

 tenants, called the homage jury ; and this transfer is effected by a 

 surrender into the hands of the lord to the use of the purchaser, who 



