ADVERTISEMENT.
The following Lectures were delivered in the University of Dublin, and procured a very high Reputation to their Author. The Researches they contain into the Nature and History of the Feudal Laws, were esteemed extensive and ingenious; and the Description they exhibit of the English Constitution, will be allowed to be particularly interesting. These Advantages have occasioned their Publication. It was thought, that Papers, which had done so much Honour to Dr. Sullivan, when alive, ought to illustrate his Memory; and that they might prove of Use to the present Age, and to Posterity.
The Authorities assigned for Dr. Sullivan’s Opinions and Reasonings are furnished by the Editor. They are not, perhaps, in every Instance those to which he himself would have appealed. This could not have been expelled. They are such, notwithstanding, as will assist the Student; and the Preliminary Discourse, it is hoped, will not be thought an useless or improper Addition to his Lectures. It will be a Pleasure to the Editor to reflect that he has endeavoured to pay a Tribute of Respect to the Writings of a virtuous Man and an ingenious Lawyer, whom an immature Death had ravished from his Friends and from Society.
CONTENTS.
| [LECTURE I.] |
| The intention and purposes of political society—Customs and manners govern men before the enactment of positive laws—Arts and property the sources of legislation—Peculiarities attending the institutions of Lycurgus and those of Moses—In the infancy of a state, laws are few and plain—In times of civility and refinement, they are numerous and complicated—The liberty of the people, a great cause of the multiplicity of laws—The difficulty of the study of the English law—The methods which have been followed in the study of it. |
| [LECT. II.] |
| The plan of the present undertaking—The particulars in which it differs from that adopted by Mr Blackstone—The different situations of the Universities of Oxford and Dublin—The chief obstructions which occur to the student of the English laws—The methods which may be employed to remove them—The law of things more proper to introduce a system of jurisprudence than the law of persons—The law of things, or of real property in England, has its source in the feudal customs—The necessity of a general acquaintance with the principles of the feudal polity—The method in which it is proposed to treat of it. |
| [LECT. III.] |
| An enumeration and confutation of several opinions concerning the foundation of the feudal customs—The origin and rules of the feudal law to be deduced from the institution of the German nations before they invaded the Roman empire—The English indebted for this law to the Franks—A general description of this people, with an account of the several orders of men into which they were divided while they continued in Germany. |
| [LECT. IV.] |
| The companions of a German Prince—The constitution of a German kingdom—The condition of property in Germany—The methods followed there of distributing justice, and the nature of the punishments inflicted on criminals. |
| [LECT. V.] |
| The decline of the Roman empire—The invasions of the Northern nations—The manner in which they settled in the Roman provinces—The changes insensibly introduced among them in consequence of their new situation—The policy and condition of the Franks after they had settled in France—The rise of the feudal law—Estates beneficiary and temporary. |
| [LECT. VI.] |
| The introduction of estates for life into the feudal system—The nature and forms of investiture—The oath of fealty, and the obligations of Lord and tenant. |
| [LECT. VII.] |
| Improper feuds or benefices—Grants to the Church—Grants in which the oath of fealty was remitted—Grants to which a condition was annexed that enlarged or diminished the estate—Grants which reserved certain other services, beside military service—Grants implying some certain service, as rent, and not reserving military service—Grants reserving no services, but general fealty—Grand Serjeantry—Petty Serjeantry—Grants to women—Grants of things not corporeal—Feudum de Cavena—Feudum de Camera. |
| [LECT. VIII.] |
| Feudum Soldatæ—Feudum habitationis—Feudum Guardiæ—Feudum Gastaldiæ—Feudum mercedis—Incorporeal benefices in England—Advowsons—Presentative advowsons—Collative advowsons—Donatives. |
| [LECT. IX.] |
| Tithes—The voluntary contributions of the faithful, the original revenue of the Church—The establishment of regular payments—The appropriations of the Church—The history and general rules of tithes in England. |
| [LECT. X.] |
| The right of Seignory and its consequences—The right of Reversion—Rent seck—Rent charge—The nature of distress, as the remedy for recovering feudal duties. Observations on distresses in general. |
| [LECT. XI.] |
| The manner in which estates for life came to be enlarged into descendible estates—The nature of Reliefs—Feudal oppressions—The admission of allodial lands into the feudal policy—The extension of the feudal system in France. |
| [LECT. XII.] |
| Consequences attending the introduction of estates of inheritance—The incident of homage—Differences in England and the Continent, with regard to the ceremonies of homage and fealty—The fine of alienation—Attornment—Warranties—Wardship in chivalry. |
| [LECT. XIII.] |
| Wardship in Socage—The nature and history of the incident of marriage. |
| [LECT. XIV.] |
| The rules of descent in the old feudal law in regard to the sons of the last possessor—Representation and collateral succession—Feminine feuds. |
| [LECT. XV.] |
| The difference between allodial and feudal lands—The restrictions on the feudal law—The decay of these—The history of voluntary alienations. |
| [LECT. XVI.] |
| Involuntary alienations of feudal land—Talliage—Edward I. introduces the first involuntary attachment of lands—Statutes enacted for this purpose—Their effects—The origin of estates Tail. |
| [LECT. XVII.] |
| The consequences and history of estates Tail. |
| [LECT. XVIII.] |
| The constitution of a feudal monarchy—The dignity and revenues of the King—An examination of his power as to the raising of taxes and subsidies. |
| [LECT. XIX.] |
| The King’s power as to the making, repealing, altering, or dispensing with laws. |
| [LECT. XX.] |
| Lords of Parliament or Peers—Earls or Barons—The earlier state of Baronies in England—The Barones majores & minores—Barons by writ and by letters patent—The different ranks of Nobility. |
| [LECT. XXI.] |
| Earls or Counts as distinguished from Barons—The office of Counts—Their condition after the conquest—Counties Palatine in England—Counties Palatine in Ireland—Spiritual Peers—The trials of Noblemen. |
| [LECT. XXII.] |
| The share of the Commons in the Legislature—The Armigeri or Gentry—Knights Bannerets—The nature of Knighthood altered in the reign of James I.—Knights Baronets—Citizens and Burghers—The advancement of the power and reputation of the Commons. |
| [LECT. XXIII.] |
| The privilege of voting for Knights of the Shire—The business of the different branches of the Legislature, distinct and separate—The method of passing laws—The history and form of the legislature in Ireland. |
| [LECT. XXIV.] |
| Villenage—The Servi in Germany, mentioned by Cæsar and Tacitus, the predecessors of the Socmen or socage tenants in the feudal monarchy—Villeins in gross and villeins belonging to the land of the Lord—The condition of villeins—The different ways by which a man may become a villein—The means by which villenage or its effects may be suspended. |
| [LECT. XXV.] |
| The methods invented to destroy villenage—The bent of the law of England towards liberty—Copyhold tenants—Tenants in ancient demesne. |
| [LECT. XXVI.] |
| The condition and state of laws in England during the Saxon times—The military policy of the Saxons not so perfect as that of the Franks—Their Kings elective—The division of the kingdom into shires, hundreds, and tithings—The administration of justice—The county court—The hundred court and court leet—The court-baron—The curia regis—Method of trial in the Saxon courts—The ordeal—The waging of law—The trial by battle—Juries. |
| [LECT. XXVII.] |
| The punishment of public crimes and private wrongs among the Saxons—The ranks of men among the Saxons—The difficulty of ascertaining the nature of the Saxon estates, and the tenures by which they were held—Observations to prove, that the Saxon lands were in general allodial. |
| [LECT. XXVIII.] |
| The Saxons, though their lands in general were allodial, were not strangers to military benefices for life—The alterations introduced by William the Norman, as to the tenure of lands in England. |
| [LECT. XXIX.] |
| The alterations introduced by William, as to the administration of justice—The Judges of the Curia Regis are appointed from among the Normans—The county courts decline—The introduction of the Norman language—The distinction between courts of record, and not of record—The separation of the spiritual and temporal courts—The consequences of this measure. |
| [LECT. XXX.] |
| Robert Duke of Normandy, and William Rufus, dispute the succession to the Conqueror—The English prefer the latter—The forest laws—The cruelty and oppressions of William—The advancement of Henry, the Conqueror’s youngest son, to the crown of England—He grants a charter—The nature of this charter—His dispute with Anselm concerning Investitures—The celibacy of the clergy—State of the kingdom under Stephen. |
| [LECT. XXXI.] |
| Henry II. succeeds to the crown—The reformation of abuses—Alterations introduced into the English law—The commutation of services into money—Escuage or Scutage—Reliefs—Assizes of novel disseisin, and other assizes. |
| [LECT. XXXII.] |
| The institution of Judges itinerant, or Justices in Eyre—The advantages attending it—The jurisdiction of these Judges—Their circuits—The present form of transacting the county business—The division of the Curia Regis into four courts—The jurisdiction of the court of King’s Bench. |
| [LECT. XXXIII.] |
| The jurisdiction of the high court of Chancery—The chancellor, a very considerable officer in the Curia Regis—The repeal of letters patent, improvidently issued to the detriment of the King or the subject, a branch of the jurisdiction of the court of Chancery—The Chancery, assistant to the Exchequer in matters of the King’s revenue—Other branches of the business of this court. |
| [LECT. XXXIV.] |
| The court of Common Bench or Common Pleas—The jurisdiction of this court—Actions real, personal, or mixt—The court of Exchequer—The jurisdiction of this court—Exchequer chamber—The judicature of Parliament. |
| [LECT. XXXV.] |
| Henry II’s dispute with Becket—The constitutions of Clarendon—The murder of Becket. |
| [LECT. XXXVI.] |
| The rebellions of Henry’s sons—He is succeeded by Richard I.—The steps taken at this period towards settling the succession to the kingdom—The laws of Oleron—Accession of John—His cruelty and oppressions. |
| [LECT. XXXVII.] |
| John’s dispute with the court of Rome—Cardinal Langton promoted to be Archbishop of Canterbury—Pope Innocent lays the kingdom under an interdict—John is excommunicated—His submission to Innocent—The discontents of the Barons—Magna charta and charta de Foresta—An examination of the Question, Whether the rights and liberties, contained in these charters, are to be considered as the antient rights and liberties of the nation, or as the fruits of rebellion, and revocable by the successors of John? |
| [LECT. XXXVIII.] |
| The minority of Henry III.—Ecclesiastical grievances—The dispensing power—The canon law—Confirmation of Magna Charta—A commentary on Magna Charta, in so far as it relates to what now is law. |
| [LECT. XXXIX, XL, XLI, XLII, and XLIII.] |
| Continuation of the commentary on Magna Charta. |