that it has at leaſt the ſame force and effect with a feoffment, in the conveying and aſſuring of lands: though it is one of thoſe methods of transferring eſtates of freehold by the common law, in which livery of ſeiſin is not neceſſary to be actually given; the ſuppoſition and acknowlegement thereof in a court of record, however fictitious, inducing an equal notoriety. But, more particularly, a fine may be deſcribed to be an amicable compoſition or agreement of a ſuit, either actual or fictitious, by leave of the king or his juſtices; whereby the lands in queſtion become, or are acknowleged to be, the right of one of the parties[1]. In it's original it was founded on an actual ſuit, commenced at law for recovery of the poſſeſſion of land; and the poſſeſſion thus gained by ſuch compoſition was found to be ſo ſure and effectual, that fictitious actions were, and continue to be, every day commenced, for the ſake of obtaining the ſame ſecurity.
A fine is ſo called becauſe it puts an end, not only to the ſuit thus commenced, but alſo to all other ſuits and controverſies concerning the ſame matter. Or, as it is expreſſed in an antient record of parliament[2], 18 Edw. I. "non in regno Angliae providetur, vel eſt, aliqua ſecuritas major vel ſolennior, per quam aliquis ſtatum certiorem habere poſſit, neque ad ſtatum ſuum verificandum aliquod ſolennius teſtimonium producere, quam finem in curia domini regis levatum: qui quidem finis ſic vocatur, eo quod finis et conſummatio omnium placitorum eſſe debet, et hac de cauſa providebatur." Fines indeed are of equal antiquity with the firſt rudiments of the law itſelf; are ſpoken of by Glanvil[3] and Bracton[4] in the reigns of Henry II, and Henry III, as things then well known and long eſtabliſhed; and inſtances have been produced of them even before the Norman invaſion[5]. So that the ſtatute 18 Edw. I. called modus levandi fines, did not give them original, but only declared and regulated the manner in which they ſhould be levied, or carried on. And that is as follows:
