1 8 00. On Manorial Claims. 3I 



ry ; then by what was called law, and now by cudom and 

 fervility ; manorial power has been enabled to affume, to the 

 utter difmay and abafemertt of an humble, ufeful, and pati- 

 ent yeomanry. 



6. Courts Ltety and Courts Baron, — to which all the male 

 inhabitants of a manor, with fome exceptions in favour of the 

 clergy, &c. are deemed liable to attend, upon fummons, for 

 the purpofe of paying rents or fines, performing fuit 5nd fer- 

 vice, homage, &c. inquiring into nuifances, &c. chufing ju- 

 ries, and for other matters pertaining to the manor, are ftill re- 

 gularly called in fome freehold, and generally and frequently 

 in copyhold manors, but at very diftant intervals, et pro format 

 in other freehold manors. But they are now of fo little im- 

 portance in themfelves, and have fo little power to do either 

 good or harm, that it is not worth while at prefent to dwell 

 on them, further than to Aiy, that their jurifdiclion and 

 powers are fo completely abforbed, by the Quarter-Seflions 

 and other courts of law, that their total extindlion would by 

 no means be felt as a lofs by any one, but the attorney- 

 fteward, who generally contrives to make the holding of ma- 

 norial courts produdlive of fome emolument to himfelf. 



After due reflection on thefe fubjefls, the reader will per- 

 ceive, that many things in the manorial, or feudal fyftem, 

 though, as parts of fuch a fyflem, they may have had their 

 ufe in former times, are now, if not intolerable, yet very in- 

 jurious abufes in many inftances, and in fome almoft deflruc- 

 tive of the common rights of the people. 



The power, almoft arbitrary, of the lords of manors to pre- 

 vent Enclofures ; the Tithes, with large quantities of land in 

 mortmain ; the Entails^ links of the fame chain, — all tend to 

 preferve the monopoly of the very foil from which we derive 

 our being, in the hands of a very limited number of proprie- 

 tors ; and thereby leave fo fmall a proportion of the lands in 

 the ifland in a (late poffible to be brought to market, though 

 ever fo defirabie to all parties, that the price of land, both iu 

 fee-fnnple, and in rent, has advanced, and is advancing fo 

 rapidly, as to b<? almoll out of the reach of the moftlaboricus 

 and patient induliry of the cultivator, and to banifli the mo(t 

 diftant hope of encouragement, from the polTibility of becom- 

 ing a freeholder in his turn \ a hope fo efftntial to be cherifli- 

 ed in every free ftate, " the cheap defence of nations," the 

 high reward of merit and ufeful induftry, that induilry by 

 which we all live and breathe. 



If the attention of the people were wifely turned to their 

 own concerns, means might be found quietly to remove all ab- 

 ufes, of whatever nature ; to eftablifii the facred rights of pro- 

 perty, on her ancient, genuine, and liberal foundations i to 



give 



