FINGER-BOARD. 



FIR, ECONOMICAL USES, 



enabling parties whose titles are defective to strengthen them by any 

 means analogous to a fine and nouclaim. (2 Bl. ' Corn.' ; Cruise, ' On 

 Fines.' 



This mode of conveyance, which was in use from the earliest periods 

 of English history of which we possess any authentic judicial records, 

 has been recently abolished by the stat. 3 & 4 Wm. IV. c. 74 ; yet the 

 rules by which it was governed form a very considerable branch of real 

 property law, and it is therefore desirable briefly to describe its nature 

 and effect. Fines were of four kinds : 1. A fine " sur conusance de 

 ilruit, come ceo qu'il ad de son done ; " that is, upon acknowledgment 

 of the right of the coguizee, as that which he (one of the parties to the 

 fine) had of the gift of the cognizor (the other party to the fine). This 

 was the best and surest kind of fine, for thereby the cognizor (the per- 

 son in possession, also called the deforeiant from keeping the coguizee 

 out of possession), in order to make good his covenant with the cog- 

 nizee (the plaintiff), of conveying to him the lands in question, and at 

 the same time to avoid the formality of an actual feoffment and livery, 

 acknowledged in court a former feoffment, or gift in possession, to have 

 been made by him to the plaintiff. This fine is therefore said to have 

 been a feoffment of record, the livery thus acknowledged in court being 

 equivalent to an actual livery ; so that this conveyance was rather a 

 confession of a former conveyance than a conveyance then originally 

 made. 2. A fine "sur conusance de droit tantum," or upon the acknow- 

 ledgment of the right merely ; and not with the circumstance of a 

 preceding gift from the cognizor. This was commonly used to pass a 

 reversionary interest ; for of such there could be no feoffment with 

 livery supposed, as the possession during the preceding, or, as it is 

 technically called, particular estate, belonged to a third person. 

 [FEOFFMENT.] This kind of fine was worded in this manner : " that 

 the cognizor acknowledges the right to be in the cognizee, and grants 

 for himself and his heirs that the reversion after the particular estate 

 determines shall go to the cognizee." 3. A fine " sur concessit," which 

 was where the cognizor, in order to make an end of disputes, though 

 he acknowledged no precedent right, yet granted to the cognizee an 

 estate usually for life, or for years, by way of supposed composition. 

 And this might be done reserving a rent or the like, for it operated as 

 a new grant. 4. A fine " sur done, grant, et render," which was a 

 double fine, comprehended the fine " sur conusance de droit come ceo," 

 &c., and the fine " sur concessit." This might be used to create par- 

 ticular limitations of estate, whereas the fine " sur conusance de droit 

 come ceo," tc., conveyed nothing but an absolute estate of inheritance, 

 or at least of freehold. In this last species of fine, the cognizee, after 

 the right was acknowledged to be in him, granted back again, or ren- 

 dered to the cognizor, or perhaps to a stranger, some other estate in 

 the premises. But in general, the first species of fine, " sur conusance 

 de droit come ceo," &c., was the most used, as it conveyed a clear and 

 absolute freehold, and gave the cognizee a seisin in law, without any 

 actual livery, and it was therefore called a fine executed, whereas the 

 others were but executory. 



Fines of all four kinds were thus levied, to use the technical term : 

 First, the party to whom the land was to be conveyed commenced an 

 action or suit at law against the party who was to convey, by suing out 

 a writ or prcecipe, called a writ of covenant. The action was founded 

 upon the breach of a supposed agreement or covenant, that the one 

 should convey the lands to the other. On this writ a fine, called a 

 primer fine, amounting to about one-tenth of the annual value of the 

 land, became due to the king. The suit being thus commenced, then 

 followed, Secondly, the " licentia concordandi," or leave to compro- 

 mise the suit, upon which also another fine, called the king's silver, or 

 sometimes the post fine, became due to the king, amounting to about 

 three-twentieths of the annual value of the land. Thirdly, came the 

 concord or agreement itself, which was required to be made either 

 openly in the Court of Common Pleas or before the lord-chief-justice, 

 or one of the judges of that court, or two or more commissioners in 

 the county specially authorised ; all of whom were bound by stat. 

 18 Ed. I. a. 4, to take care that the cognizors were of full age, sound 

 memory, and out of prison. If a married woman was a coguizor she 

 was privately examined by the parties before whom her acknowledgment 

 wag taken, whether she did it freely and willingly, or by compulsion of 

 her husband. A fine was the only way in which a married woman 

 could convey her freehold interest in lands. 



By these several acts the essential parts of the fine were completed, 

 and even if the cognizor died, still the fine might be carried on in all 

 its remaining parts, of which the next was -Fourthly, the note of the 

 fine, which was simply an abstract of the writ of covenant and the 

 concord ; naming the parties, the parcels of land, and the agreement, 

 for the purpose of enrolment of record in the proper office. The Fifth 

 and lat part was the foot of the fine, which included the whole matter, 

 reciting the parties, day, year, and place, and before whom it was 

 acknowledged or levied. Of this indentures were made or engrossed at 

 the chirographer's office, and delivered to the cognizor and the cog- 

 nizee, usually beginning thus : " hscc eat finalis concordia " (" this 

 in the final agreement "), and then reciting the whole proceeding at 

 length. 



l-'INfJER-BOARD, the whole range of keys, white and black, of a 

 piano-forte or of an organ. 



KINGERINU, in music, in the art of so applying the fingers to a 

 musical instrument, the piano-forte and organ especially, as to accom- 



ABT8 AND 8CL DIV. VOL. IV. 



plish the objects in view in the easiest and most effective manner. A 

 proper notice of the art of fingering, accompanied by the necessary 

 examples, would require many pages ; we shall therefore only remark 

 in this place that, as a system, dementi's is the best that we are 

 acquainted with ; though some few modern improvements have been 

 made in its details. 



FINIAL, a term used to designate the knob of foliage, or the floral 

 ornament which crowns the apex of pinnacles, pediments, canopies, 

 low spires, and occasionally gables, pointed dripstones, &c. in Gothic 

 buildings. Formerly, pinnacles were frequently called finials, but the 

 term is now limited to the top ornament. [GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE.] 



FININGS. In brewing, and other manufacturing operations, a 

 process of clarifying or clearing is required, for which some substance 

 is employed under the name of fining. Some of these finings are made 

 by the persons who are to use them ; while others are purchased 

 from the makers. Isinglass is made into finings by mixing it with 

 beer or cyder, stirring until the isinglass is dissolved, straining through 

 a sieve, and finally bringing it to a liquid state by mixing with the 

 same kind of beverage as that which is to be fined. This is a fining 

 much used by brewers. Distillers or rectifiers, in clarifying gin and 

 cordials, use a fining composed of alum mixed either with carbonate of 

 soda or salt of tartar and hot water. 



It is a disputed point whether finings are really necessary in well- 

 brewed malt liquors in good condition. Mr. Cooley and Dr. Ure decide 

 this in the negative. The former observes : " Good liquors, either 

 fermented or spirituous, need no artificial fining, as they always clarify 

 themselves by repose. With those, however, which are out of con- 

 dition, or of inferior quality, it is often necessary ; as without such a 

 proceeding they remain unsaleable. This is particularly the case with 

 malt liquors." " Attempts to clarify it in the cask," says Ure, " seldom 

 fail to do harm. The only thing that can be used with advantage for 

 fining foul or muddy beer is isinglass. The disadvantages resulting 

 from the artificial clarification of fermented liquors are, that the liquors 

 do not afterwards stand well on draught ; that much of the conservative 

 astringent matter which they contain is precipitated with the finings ; 

 that their piquancy and flavour are more or less diminished ; and that 

 they are more than usually liable to become flat and vapid, whether in 

 cask or in bottle. The larger the proportion of finings used, the more 

 marked are their injurious effects, and the shorter the interval which 

 elapses before the accession of the several symptoms referred to. We 

 have seen the most disastrous consequences follow the injudicious use 

 of finings, more especially in respect to those liquors in which a certain 

 amount of piquancy, astringency, and briskness is an essential condi- 

 tion. In one instance which came under our notice, upwards of thirty 

 barrels of ' underground,' a very strong old ale, was thus reduced in 

 value to less than one-third of its original cost ; and in another, a large 

 bottled stock of the finest old Burton was found to be utterly unsale- 

 able. In both cases, the spoiled liquor was got rid of by mixing it in, 

 and selling it with, Zd, and 4rf. ale." 



FINITE (in Mathematics), having a boundary, used as opposed to 

 INFINITE. 



FIR, ECONOMICAL USES. In giving a brief notice of some of 

 the remarkable and numerous uses of the fir-tree, we shall include at 

 the same time the pine, which is so nearly allied to it as to have been 

 placed by some botanists in the same genus. 



The timber of the fir and pine is, perhaps, all things considered, 

 more generally useful than that of any other tree. It is far excelled in 

 strength and toughness by the timber of the oak, elm, beech, &c. ; but 

 it is more easily worked, and is durable enough for a large number of 

 purposes. Some kinds are useful for the masts of ships ; others for 

 parts of the hull ; others for flooring-boards. What Michaux says of the 

 use of the white pine in North America will serve as well as anything 

 else to denote the wide range of usefulness possessed by this timber : 

 " The ornamental work of the outer door, the cornices of apartments, 

 and the mouldings of fire-places, all of which in America are elegantly 

 wrought, are of this wood. It receives gilding well, and is therefore 

 selected for looking-glasses and picture-frames. Carvers employ it 

 exclusively for the images that adorn the bows of vessels, for which 

 they prefer the kind called the pumpkin ping. At Boston, and in 

 other towns of the Northern States, the inside of mahogany furniture 

 and of trunks, the bottoms of Windsor-chairs of an inferior quality, 

 water-pails, a great part of the boxes used for packing goods, the 

 shelves for shops, and an endless variety of other objects, are made of 

 white pine. In the district of Maine it is employed for barrels to 

 contain salted fish, especially the kind called the sapling pine, which is of 

 a stronger consistence. For the magnificent wooden bridges over the 

 Schuylkill at Philadelphia, and the Delaware at Trenton, and for those 

 which unite Cambridge and Charlestown with Boston, of which tho 

 first is 1500, and the second is 3000 feet in length, the white pine has 

 been chosen for its durability. It serves exclusively for the masts of 

 the numerous vessels constructed in the northern and middle states ; 

 and for this purpose it would be difficult to replace it in North 

 America." If Michaux had lived to the present day, he would not 

 liave failed to notice the vast use of pine and fir timber in railway 

 construction. In the newly-cleared regions of America, and in many 

 [arts of Russia, corduroy roads, as they are called, are made of 

 irunks of pine and fir, slightly dressed, and laid transversely to the 

 ength of the road. 



