Coram, means before, and by the writ coram vobis1 or coram nobis, from the King's bench, the record was brought before you, or before us, as the case might be, for the inspection of the King's Justices. Of course the writ had no application to such inferior courts as those of justices of the peace. Custos Rotulorum, meant Keeper of the Rolls; was the principal justice of the peace of a county and the custodian of the records.3 An Armiger was an armor-bearer, or Esquire, and the term was applied as a title of dignity to gentlemen bearing the arms. Sec. 7. Compromising slanders."Evans. . . . If Sir John Falstaff have committed disparagements unto you, I am of the church and will be glad to do my benevolence to make atonements and compremises between you."s Pope changes the word as used in the above lines to "compromises," but it is probable that the Poet intended. the word to be used as a blunder, as it is printed. The 1 Bl. Com. 406, note. 1 Archbold Pr. 234. 3 1 Bl. Com. 349; 4 Bl. Com. 272; 3 Stephen, Com. 37. În 2' Henry IV, in speaking of the contempt committed upon the person of the Chief Justice, by the Prince of Wales, the Chief Justice said: "Ch. Jus. . . in the administration of his law, Whiles I was busy for the commonwealth, (Act V, Scene II.) Saturninus, in Titus Andronicus, thus delivers himself: "Sat. Was ever seen, an emperor of Rome, thus o'er borne, Troubled, confronted thus: and, for the extent of equal justice, us'd in such contempt?" (Act IV, Scene IV.) Merry Wives of Windsor, Act I. Scene I. • Rolfe's Merry Wives of Windsor, 149, notes. thought is, that the Parson, as an act of benevolence or charity, on his part, will use his good offices to bring about a settlement between Shallow and Falstaff of all differences growing out of Falstaff's slandering the former. A compromise, is a legal contract whereby two parties by a mutual understanding settle and adjust a difference between themselves.1 Sec. 8. Right of Egress and Regress. "Host. My hand, bully; thou shalt have egress and regress; said I well; and thy name shall be Brook.” 2 This was a promise of the right to go out and return, vouchsafed to one holding, by covenant, the right of egress and regress, at common law. The right guaranteed by the use of the words, ingress, egress and regress, in common law leases of real property or of the mines or precious metals therein, preserved to the lessee the privilege of entering, going upon and returning from the lands demised in the lease. The words usually employed are ingress and egress, meaning the right to enter upon and go from the lands conveyed. The use of the words, in the sense used in the above verse, however, is not inappropriate, as they embrace the right to go from, as well as to return upon the premises. Lawson on Contracts (3d ed.). 2 Merry Wives of Windsor, Act II, Scene I. 3 Bouvier, Law Dict., Atk. Conv. 4 White, Mines and Mining Remedies, Sec. 124. Without a special reservation of the right of ingress and egress, in a lease of minerals, in land, this easement attaches as a necessary incident of the demise and the lessee would have a reasonable use of the surface and subsoil, as well as a right to enter upon and leave the premises to extract the minerals. Such casements would be held to be but incidental to the express grant in the lease. White, Mines & Mining Remedies, Sec. 124, p. 171. The duty of providing safe means of ingress and egress to and from mines, is held to be imposed by operation of law, on the cm. ployer operating a mine and by many states in the United States, now, statutes have been passed on this subject. White, Personal Injuries in Mines, Sec. 27 and citations. Sec. 9. Fee-simple-Fine and Recovery-Waste."Mrs. Page. The spirit of wantonness is, sure scared out of him; if the devil have him not in fee-simple, with fine and recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of waste, attempt us again." The thought here expressed is, that unless the devil himself owned Falstaff, by the highest estate known to the law, by acknowledgment of record, in court, his punishment had been sufficient to prevent, or dissuade him from his desire to commit further spoilation. A fee simple estate is defined to be "a freehold estate of inheritance, free from conditions and of indefinite duration." It is the highest estate known to the law and is absolute, so far as it is possible for one to possess an absolute right of property in lands.3 The common law proceeding by fine and recovery was an amicable proceeding in court, by which one of the parties litigant, acknowledged, of record, that the lands in controversy belonged absolutely to the other.* Waste is any unlawful act of spoilation or destruction done or permitted to lands or other corporeal hereditaments, to the prejudice of the reversioner or lawful owner. It may consist in either diminishing its value, in increasing its burdens, or in destroying or changing the evidences of title to the inheritance. Regarding the object of his passion, as the inheritance of her husband, it can not well be doubted that if Falstaff had accomplished his purpose, the value of such "inheritance" would have been correspondingly diminished; her burdens increased and the rights of the husband violated. 'Merry Wives of Windsor, Act IV, Scene III. Tiedeman, R. P. (3d ed.) 29; 2 Bl. Com. 106; 1 Preston, Est. 420; 1 Washburn, R. P. 51; Litt. Sec. 1. 3 Tiedeman, R. P. (3' ed.) Sec. 29; Plowd. 557; Atk. Conv. 183; 2 Bl. Com. 106. 'Bacon, Abr. Fine & Recoveries; Coke, Litt. 120; 2 Bl. Com. 349. 3 Tiedeman, R. P. (3' ed.) Sec. 60; 4 Kent's Comm. 316; Coke, Litt. 53b; Bacon, Abr. Waste; 2 Rolle, Abr. 817. 2 Bl. Com. 281; Huntley vs. Russell, 13 Q. B. 588. In Comedy of Errors, the following colloquy occurs between Dromio and Antipholus: "Dro... There's no time for a man to recover his hair, that grows bald by nature. Ant. May he not do it by fine and recovery? Dro. Yes, to pay a fine for a peruke, and recover the lost hair of another man." (Act II, Scene II.) Commenting on this verse, Mr. Cushman K. Davis, in his "Law in Shakespeare," has this to say: "This is a lawyer's pun and would never have occurred to anyone but a lawyer. There is also here a very abstruse quibble in the use of the words, 'recover the lost hair of another man,' for the effect of a fine and recovery was to bar not only the heirs upon whom the lands were entailed, but all the world." Davis' Law in Shakespeare (2nd ed.), p. 133. In King John (Act II, Scene I), Constance said to Elinor: "Draw those heaven-moving pearls from his poor eyes; which heaven shall take in nature of a fee." In Troilus and Cressida, Thersites speaks of the Fec-simple of the tetter, as follows: "Ther... incurable bond-ache, and the rivalled fee-simple of the tetter; take and take again, such preposterous discoveries." In delivering his curse upon Patroclus, Thersites intimates that he has the "tetter," or a disease of the skin, for life and as a hereditament, to transmit to his posterity, if he has any. In other words, he has such disease by the highest and best title, 1. e., by a fee-simple holding. (Act V, Scene I.) In Romeo and Juliet, Benvolio and Mercutio speak of the feesimple of the former's life, as follows: "Ben. An I were so apt to quarrel as thou art, any man should buy the fee-simple of my life, for an hour and a quarter. Mer. The fee-simple. O simple." (Act III, Scene I.) Kent advises the King, in King Lear: "Kill thy physician, and the fee bestow upon the foul disease." (Act I, Scene I.) The Captain tells Hamlet, in referring to the war to recover the land of Fortinbras: "Cap. We go to gain a little patch of ground, That hath in it no profit but the name. To pay five ducats, five, I would not farm it; A ranker rate, should it be sold in fee." (Act IV, Scene IV.) The maid described how she had given her lover the best she had, in A Lover's Complaint: "My woeful self, that did in freedom stand, And was my own fee-simple, not in part, What with his art in youth and youth in art, (143, 147.) |