FEL 
npon petition. Tlie furtlier punishment of 
a felo de se is, to be buried in a highway, 
and a stake run through the body. This 
beiug never practised but upon the poor, is 
become merely an odious distinction. The 
law of the Romans seems more reasonable, 
which only forfeited the estate where the 
party killed himself to avoid punishment 
for a crime. 
FELONY, in the general acceptation of 
law, comprises every species of crime which 
occasions, at common law, the forfeiture of 
land or goods. The punishment of a per- 
son for felony, by our ancient books, is, 1st, 
to lose his life ; 2dly, to lose his blood, as 
to his ancestry, and so to have neither heir 
nor posterity ; 3dly, to lose his goods ; 
4thly, to lose his lands, and the Ring shall 
have year, day, and waste, to the intent 
that his wife and children be cast out of the 
house, his house pulled down, and all that 
he had for his comfort and delight destroy- 
ed. A felony, by statute, incidentally im- 
plies, that the offender shall be subject to 
the like attainder and forfeiture, &e., as is 
incident to a felon at common law. This 
is now the punishment in case of a capital 
felony only; but for some offences benefit 
of clergy is allowed, when the offence is pu- 
nished only with transportation, imprison- 
ment, &c. which are called felonies with 
benefit of clergy; but the goods and estate 
of the felon are forfeited as in cases of capi- 
tal felony. 
FELT, in commerce, a sort of stuff, de- 
riving all its consistence merely from being 
fulled, or wrought with lees and size, with- 
out either spinning or weaving. Felt is made 
either of wool alone, or of wool and hair. 
FELTING, the method of working up 
hair or wool into a species of cloth, inde- 
pendently of either spinning or weaving. A 
hatter separates the hairs from each other 
by striking the wool with the string of his 
bow, causing them to spring up in the air, 
which fall on the table in every direction, 
which is covered by the workman with 
cloth, pressing it with his hands, and mov- 
ing the hairs backwards and forwards in 
different directions. In this manner the 
hairs are brought against each other, and 
their points of contact considerably multi- 
plied, and the agitation gives each hair a 
progressive motion towards the root, in 
consequence of which the hairs become 
twisted together. As the mass becomes 
compact, the pressure should, be increased, 
in order to keep up the progressive motion 
and twisting of the hairs, which is then per- 
FEN 
formed with greater difficulty. The hair 
intended for the manufacturing of hats is 
always cut off with a sharp instrument, and 
not pulled out by the roots, because the 
bulb of the hair, which would come out 
with it in the latter case, would render the 
end which was fixed in the skin very ob- 
tuse, and nearly destroy its disposition to 
unite with the adjacent hairs. The hairs 
should not be straight like needles, for then 
there would be no compactness in the stuff'. 
The fibres of wool having naturally a crook- 
ed form, that substance is well adapted to 
the operation of felting. The hair of bea- 
vers, rabbits, hares, &c., being straight, can- 
not be used in felting, till it has been pre- 
pared for the purpose. 
FEMME covert, in law, a married wo- 
man, so called from being under the cover, 
protection, and influence of her husband. 
Femme sole, in law, a single or unmar- 
ried woman. 
Femme sole trader, a married woman 
who, by the custom of London, trades on 
her own account, independent of her hus- 
band $» who, by the same custom, is an- 
swerable for. her own debts, and may be 
made a bankrupt. 
FEMININE, in grammar, one of the 
genders of nouns. As there are but two 
sexes, so, in fact, there can be but two gen- 
ders. 
The feminine gender serves to intimate 
that the noun belongs to the female. In 
Latin, the feminine gender is most com- 
monly distinguished by the article heec, as 
it is in the Greek by the article h. In the 
French, the article la commonly denotes 
this gender; but we have no such distinc- 
tion by articles in the English language. 
FEMINEUS flos, a female flower. By 
this name Linnaeus denominates a flower 
which is furnished with the pistillum, or fe- 
male organ of generation, but wants the 
stamina or male organ. Female flowers 
may be produced apart from the male, ei- 
ther on the same root, or on distinct plants. 
The birch and mulberry are examples of 
the first case ; willow and poplar of the se- 
cond. Male and female flowers separated 
on the same plant, constitute the class Mo- 
noecia of Linna us ; separated on distinct 
roots, the class Dioecia. 
FEN, a place overflowed with water, or 
abounding with bogs ; the term is also ap- 
plied to such boggy lands as are naturally 
disposed to produce coarse vegetables from 
the. retention of water. In many parts of 
the kingdom since the introduction of a 
R 2 ✓ 
