COPULA. 



COPYHOLD. 



. o 



writing* ; and that only few occur, fur which equivalent* uiight nut 

 be found among the genuine Coptic word*. 



It U welt known that the ancient Egyptian*, betide* the hierogly- 

 phic*, possessed an alphabet or nyllabie sy*tem of writing of their own. 

 In the modern Coptic we find the Greek alphabet employed, with eight 

 new letter* added to it, to express certain articulation* peculiar to the 

 Copt*. It U unoertain at what period the Qreek alphabet came 

 into uae. 



Athananui, bishop of Koiui, in an Arabic treatise on the grammar of 

 the Coptic language, a manuacript of which is preferred in the Royal 

 Library at I'ari*, inform* u* that there were three dialecto of Coptic ; 

 namely, the dialect of Miar or Upper Egypt, commonly called the 

 Sahidic ; the Bahiric, ao denominated from Bahirah, or Lower Egypt, 

 and usually called the Memphitic ; and the Baahmuric, spoken in the 

 district of Baahmur, in the Delta. In the Bahiric, or Memphitii- 

 dialect, a* well a* in the Sahidic, we posses* manuscripts of nearly 

 the whole of the Bible and of the service* of the Coptic church, 

 betide* some other leas important works; but in the Bashmuric 

 dialect only a few fragment* have hitherto been discovered and 

 published. The character common to all these dialects i* that of 

 a language which, having lost its original power of expressing by 

 grammatical inflection the relations of notions in sentence*, has, 

 uke most other modern languages, resorted to particles and auxiliary 

 words to supply that deficiency. The precision with which these 

 auxiliary words are employed, and the extent to which they can be 

 combined in forming derivative words, are remarkable, and may well 

 be compared with the use of letters and other symbols in an alge- 

 braical formula. The plural of nouns is distinguished from the 

 singular by a monosyllabic prefix; the genders of substantives are 

 seldom marked by a peculiar termination, but are determined either by 

 the article, or by the addition of a word implying " mole " and " female." 

 There are no terminations of case ; and all changes of declension nnwt 

 be expressed by means of particles. There is a definite and an in- 

 definite article. The definite article has in the singular distinct forms 

 for the masculine and feminine genders, but does not distinguish the 

 gender in the plural ; the indefinite article admits of a distinction of 

 number only. The degrees of comparison are expressed by subjoining 

 auxiliary words to the adjective, which is unalterable. The personal 

 pronouns are almost the only part of speech that has preserved 

 some traces of inflection : besides these, the Coptic has separate 

 forms for the possessive, demonstrative, the relative, and the interro- 

 gative pronouns, and has pronominal suffixes and insertions (infixes) 

 which are applied to nominal and verbal inflexions. Ordinal numbers 

 are formed by prefixing various auxiliary words to the cardinal 

 numbers. The verb boa only an active voice, and the passive must be 

 expressed by circumlocution, usually by the third person of the plural 

 (as in Latin,/<run< = fcrtur, or in English, they tay = it it said.) The 

 imperative generally exhibits the root of the verb in its pure state. 

 The conjugation of verbs is accomplished by adding pronominal pre- 

 fixes to the root, which vary to a certain extent in the different 

 tenses ; if a verb in the third person singular is preceded by a relative 

 pronoun, its pronominal prefix is usually dropped; there are no 

 participles in the strict sense of that term. The number of prepo- 

 sitions in the Coptic language is considerable. 



Of the three dialects, the Memphitic, Sahidic, and Bashmuric, the 

 first appears to be the most polished. The Sahidic has admitted a 

 greater number of Greek expressions. Words which in Memphitic 

 end in i, have in Sahidic e for their termination. The Sahidic substi- 

 tute* the sound h for the Memphitic l-k, and the tenuex r, it, T, for the 

 aspirate *, x, $. also sometimes oo for a, and tit for j. The Bashmuric 

 agrees with the Sahidic in preferring the temies it, K, T, to the cor- 

 responding aspirate, and h to kh ; moreover, it substitutes the vowel a 

 for the Memphitic o, and for the Memphitic a, ei often for ', ait for 

 ov, b for /, and particularly I for r. 



(Henry Tuttam, A Compendioui Grammar of the Egyptian LanyvM'ie, 

 London, 1830, 8vo, and Lesicon JS .yptiato- Latin nm, Oxford, 1835, 

 8vo; Am. Peyron, Lexicon Lingitte (Jojitictt, Turin, 1835, 4to; Quatre- 

 mere, Rti-herche.* Critique! el Hutoriquei tur la Lan'iue et la l.iMrature 

 de rEyi/ptr, Paris, 1808, 8vo ; Dr. G. Parthey, Vocaljutarinm Coptico- 

 Latinum et Latino-Cojiticum e Peyroni et Tattami Lexiat, Berlin,-1844.) 



COPULA, a name given in logic to the affirmation it, or the denial 

 it not, by which the subject and predicate of a proposition are' con- 

 nected, as in " Man it mortal," " Every man it not perfect." In the 

 usual system of logic no other copula is permitted : thus, " Man hat 

 reason,' would be expressed a* " Man it a being having reason." 

 [Pnoposmox; RELATION.] 



COPYHOLD, a term in English law applied to lands held by what 

 is called tenure by copy of court roll, the nature of which in thus 

 described by Littleton ( 73, 4, 5), " Tenant by copy of court roll is 

 M if a man be seued of a manor, within which manor there is a custom 

 which hath been ued time out of mind of man, that certain tenant* 

 within the same manor have used to have land* and tenement* to hold 

 to them and their heirs in fee-simple or fee-tail, or for term of life, at 

 the will of the lord, according to the custom of the tame manor. And 

 *uch a tenant may not alien his land by deed, for then the lord may 

 enter as into a thing forfeited unto him. But if he will alien hU land 

 to another, it behoveth him after the custom to lurrendur the tene- 

 ment* in court into the hand* of the lord, to the use of him that shall 



have the estate. And these tenant* are called tenant* by copy of 

 court roll, because they have no other evidence concerning their tene- 

 ment*, but only the copies of court rolls," From this it appear* that 

 tin- title to copyhold lands is not only modified but altogether coniti- 

 tutd by custom ; subject to the estates in them which the custom 

 confers they are held by the lord under the common Uw a* part of the 

 demesnes of hi* manor. For these customary estate* were in their 

 origin mere tenancies at will, though by long indulgence they have in 

 many instance* acquired the character of a permanent inheritance 

 descendible (except where otherwise modified by custom) according to 

 the rules of the common law ; and as tenancies at will they continue to 

 be considered, in all questions relating to the legal, as distinguished 

 from the customary property in the land. 



The origin of copyholds is involved in great obscurity. The opinion 

 generally adopted among our lawyer* and antiquarians, and supported 

 by the authority of Littleton, Coke, Sir Martin Wright, and Mr. .hi -tiro 

 Blackstone, is, that copyholders have p-.ylu.Uly arisen out of the vill> in- 

 or tenants in villeinage who composed the ma** of the agricultural 

 population of England for some centuries after the Norman conquest, 

 through the commutation of base services into specific rent* either in 

 money or money'*-worth. (' Co. Litt.,' 58a 61a ; Blackstone's ' Com.,' 

 ii., p. 89, Dr. Kerr's ed. ; Wright, ' On Tenures,' 3rd edit., p. 215 ; 

 Hallam's ' Middle Ages,' voL iii., p. 254.) [Viu.EiNA.aK.] 



Although the revolution in the condition of these classes of persons 

 was accomplished gradually, it seems in the middle of the 13th century 

 to have begun to assume a more decided character. There are proofs 

 of as early a date as the reign of Henry III. of a limitation of the 

 service* of villeins to certain specified acts which were recorded in the 

 lord's book. The descendants of persons so privileged began to claim a 

 customary right to be entered on the court roll on the same terms ax 

 their predecessors, and, in process of time, prevailed so far as to obtain 

 a copy of the roll for their security. It is said in the year-book of the 

 42nd of Edw. III. to be " admitted for clear law that if the customary 

 tenant or copyholder did not perform his services, the lord might seize 

 his land as forfeited ;" which seems to imply a permanent interest in 

 the copyholder, so long as he performed the services. This view of the 

 law is confirmed by Britten in a passage cited by Lord Coke (' Co. Litt.,' 

 61a), and was adopted by the judges in Edward IV. V time, who held 

 that a copyholder might maintain an action of trespass against the lord 

 for dispossession. 



The two great essentials of copyhold tenure, according to Blackstone, 

 are : 1. That the lands be parcel of and situate within that manor 

 under which they are held ; and, 2. That they have been demised or 

 demisable by copy of court roll immemorial!}*. " For immemorial 

 custom," says that author, ii., p. 94 (Dr. Kerr's Ed.), " is the life of all 

 tenures by copy ; so that no new copyhold can, strictly speaking, be 

 granted at this day." 



The burdens to which a copyhold tenure is liable, in common with 

 free tenures, ore fealty, services, reliefs, and escheats ; besides which it 

 has certain liabilities peculiar to itself in the shape of heriots and fines. 

 A heriot is the render of the best beast or other chattel (as the custom 

 may be) to tbe lord on the death of a tenant. 



Of fines, some are due on the death of a tenant, and others on the 

 alienation of the land ; they are sometimes fixed by the custom, some- 

 times arbitrary ; but in the latter cose it is an established rule of law 

 that the lord cannot demand by way of fine upon the descent or alien- 

 ation of the land more than the amount of two years' improved value 

 of the property, after deduction of the quit-rents to which it is li;iMc. 

 The ordinary mode of alienating a copyhold estate in fee-simple is by 

 /IT and admittance, which is effected in the following manner : 

 The copyholder appears in court, and professes to surrender or deliver 

 up his land to the lord (either in person or, which is more usual, OK 

 represented by his steward), expressing the surrender to be to the use 

 of A, and his heirs; and thereupon A is admitted tenant of tin- land to 

 hold it to him and his heirs at the will of the Im-d according to the 

 custom of the manor. He then pays a fine, and also (if required) does 

 fe.Mty. All these circumstances, or at least the surrender and ad- 

 mittance, are entered on the court rolls; and the new tenant, paying 

 his fees to the steward, receives a copy of this fundamental document 

 of his title. Surrenders are made in various forms, as by the delivery 

 of a rod, glove, or other symbol, to the steward or other person taking 

 the surrender. Surrender* may also be made to the lord in per.- 

 of court; to the steward; and by special custom to the lord's bailiff; 

 to two or three copyholders, or into the hands of a tennnt in the pre- 

 sence of other persons. When a surrender is taken out of court, it 

 may be, and formerly must have been, presented by the homage or 

 jury of copyholders at the next general court, except where a , 

 custom authorised a presentment at some other court ; but by a recent 

 statute, 4 & 5 Viet., c. 35, s. 90, presentment is now no longer essen- 

 tial. Admittances also may be made out of court, and even out of the 

 manor. 



Tin- words in the admittance, " to hold at the will of the lord," are 

 characteristic of those customary estates to which the term c) 

 in in ordinary legal language exclusively appropriated, in > 

 distinction to what are sometimes called " customary freeholds" (\\liii h 

 estates are very common in the north of England), and ancient demesne 

 lands. These are all included under the term copyhold in the Statute 

 12 Car. II. c. 24, which abolished all the old tenures in England 



