23 On Manorial Claims, Jan. 



** convinced the laity, how dangerous a pra£llce it was, for one 

 ** Chriftian man to hold another in bondage: fothat temporal 

 ** men, by little and little, by reafon of that terror in their con- 

 ** fcience, were glad to manumit all their villains. But the faid 

 *' lioly fathers, with the abbots and priors, did not in like fort 

 *' by theirs ; for they alfo had a fcruplc in confcience to im- 

 ** poverifh and defpoil the church fo much, as to manumit fuch 

 ** as were bound to their churches, or to the manors which 

 ** the church had gotten, and fo kept their villains ftill." Judge 

 Blackftone farther obferves, on the fubjeft of copyholders, that 

 their eftates, in ftriclnefs, remain fubjecl to the fame condi- 

 tions and forfeitures as before, though, in general, the villain 

 fervices are ufually commuted for a fmall pecuniary quit-rent. 



3. Aim Sokes now claim attention, under which the owner 

 of a mill claims the right of compelling all the inhabitants of a 

 manor to grind their corn at his own mill, to the entire exclu- 

 fion of any competitor ; thereby polTefling a monopoly of that 

 moft necelTary and lucrative operation, the grinding of corn, at 

 a price or multure in fome inftances almoli arbitrary ; for ap- 

 peals to courts of law are now, by one mean or other, fo ex- 

 penfive, asfcarcely to deferve the name of a remedy even when 

 fuccefsful. This foke has been feverely felt as a hardlhip, by 

 fome of the larger towns in particular, and involved the in- 

 habitants in tedious and expenfive litigations with the proprie- 

 tors of mills ; in which it has not unfrequently appeared, that, 

 by the increafe of population, and the negligence of the millers, 

 the people have been left without flour for many days together, 

 to the fcrious inconvenience of their fam.ilies, and under which 

 inconvenience whole townfhips have long laboured without re- 

 drefs. It is true, that thefe mills, like many other things which 

 are now juftly confidered as abufes, had originally their ufe ; 

 having been formerly erefted by the lord of the manor, for the 

 ufe of the inhabitants thereof, who, being then in general his 

 own tenants, may well be fuppofed to have been bound, and 

 that equitably, to make ufe of no other mill than his own. 



But the cafe is at this time materially altered in populous 

 towns and dillrifts, where the lord of the manor, for a valu- 

 able couHderation, having long fince alienated part or moft of 

 the lands to a great number of freeholders, may juftly and 

 reafonaWy be confidered as without any right to fuch a mono- 

 poly over men who are no more his tenants, or of granting 

 fuch a right to any other to whom he may convey his proper- 

 ty in the mill. This claim, or right, if it can deferve fuch an 

 appellation, hss long been, and ftill remains, moft fertile in 

 grievous inipofitions, and almoft intolerable abufes, in many 

 parts of the idand j and, in refpect to which, the very nature 



and 



