Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 9.djvu/73

F E D F E H 63 of federal government. The lieutenant-governors of the provinces are nominated by him ; and all local legislation is carried on by the provincial parliaments. The remark able confederation of the Dominion of Canada which has thus originated presents the unique feature of a federal union of provinces practically exercising sovereign rights in relation to all local self-government, and sustaining a constitutional autonomy, while cherishing the colonial relationship to Great Britain. History has no parallel to this novel fact of a free people, the occupants of vast re gions stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific, enjoying all constitutional rights, electing their own parliaments, organizing an armed militia, controlling customs, emigra tion, and all else that pertains to independent self- government, while they continue to cherish the tie which binds them to the mother country, and to render a loyal homage to the representative of the crown. The harmonious relations resulting from this application of the system of federal government to the British American provinces has suggested the extension of the same principle to the colonies of South Africa, and may be regarded as the basis of a colonial system by means of which the vast colonial dependencies of Great Britain may perpetuate their relations with the mother country, while enjoying all the blessings of its well-regulated freedom, or may be trained to emulate its example as independent states. (D. w.) FEDERICI, CAMILLO (1749-1802), Italian dramatist and actor, was born at Garessio, a small town in Piedmont, April 9, 1749. His real name was Giovanni Battista Viassolo, and that by which he is now known and which he transmitted to his children was taken from the title of one of his first pieces, Camilla e Federico. He was educated at Turin, and showed at an early age a great fondness for literature and especially for the theatre. The praises bestowed on his early attempts determined his choice of a career, and he obtained engagements with several companies both as writer and actor. He made a happy marriage in 1777, and soon after left the stage and devoted himself en tirely to composition. He settled at Padua, and the repu tation of his numerous comedies rapidly spread in Italy, and for a time seemed to eclipse that of his predecessors. Most of his pieces were of the melodramatic class, and lie too often resorted to the same means of exciting interest and curiosity. He caught, however, something of the new spirit which was manifesting itself in German dramatic literature in the works of Schiller, Iffland, and Kotzebue, and the moral tone of his plays is generally healthy. For tune did not smile upon him ; but he found a helpful friend in a wealthy merchant of Padua, Francis Barisan, for whose private theatre he wrote many pieces. He was attacked in 1791 with a dangerous malady which disabled him for several years ; and he had the misfortune to Bee his works, in the absence of any copyright law, published by others without his permission. At length, in 1802, he undertook to prepare a collected edition ; but of this four volumes only were completed when he was again attacked with illness, and died at Padua (December 23). The publication of his works was completed in 14 volumes in 1816. Another edition in 26 volumes was published at Florence in 1826-27. A biographical memoir of Federici by Neymar appeared at Venice in 1838. FEE (feodum), in English law, signifies an estate of in heritance (i.e., an estate descendable to the heirs of the grantee so long as there are any in existence), as opposed to an estate for life. In a more primary sense it means an estate by tenure (land holden of a lord) as opposed to land owned allodially. See Digby s History of the Law of Real Property, p. 50, and the article ESTATE. FEHMIC COURTS (FEHMOERICHTEOrVEHMGEKICHTE), celebrated secret tribunals which flourished in Germany from the end of the 12th century to the middle of the 16th, and which, from the extent of their organization and the mystery which surrounded their proceedings, inspired a feeling of dread in all who came within their jurisdiction. Their origin is uncertain. The traditional account is that they were instituted by Charlemagne and Pope Leo III. to prevent the Saxons from relapsing into paganism. It is more probable that they arose from the relics of the ancient Teutonic free courts. Their immediate cause, however, is to be found in the utter lawlessness and disregard of authority then prevailing in Germany, which obliged the weak and the peace-loving to band them selves together as protection against the outrages of the princes and nobles. The birthplace of the Fehmic courts was Westphalia, where they appeared shortly after the de position of Henry the Lion in 1179. The duchy was in consequence of this event annexed to the archbishopric of Cologne, and the archbishops appear to have had a good deal to do with the origination of the courts. Fehmic courts subsequently made their way into most other parts of Germany, but the institution never seems to have suc ceeded in gaining a firm footing outside the limits of Westphalia, or the Red Land, as it was called. Within this district, however, which included nearly the entire country between the Rhine and the Weser, they soon ac quired an immense power, which was at first used only in a beneficial and upright manner, supplying a means of re dress at a time when the public administration of justice was in abeyance. But in the end, as might have been an ticipated, the secrecy of their proceedings and the arbitrary nature of their rules converted them into an instrument of tyranny in the hands of the very persons whose lawless deeds they were designed to suppress. The emperors them selves, who had at first encouraged the Fehmic courts, finding them a useful means of keeping their feudal de pendants in check, were unable directly to resist their en croachments ; and it was only with the restoration of public order and the establishment of a regular judicature that the influence of the Fehmgerichte gradually waned. The last regular court is said to have been held at Celle, in Hanover, in 1568 ; but there are traces of the institu tion at a much later date ; and in the present century even, a relic of the once famous Fehmgerichte was to be found in Westphalia in the form of a society for the sup pression of vice. It was abolished by order of Jerome Bonaparte in 1811. It was necessary that a candidate for initiation into the Fehm should be born in wedlock, that he should be a Christian, and neither excommunicated nor outlawed, and that he should not be a party to any process before a Fehmic court. Originally only natives of Westphalia were admitted. At initiation the candidate took a solemn oath to support with his whole powers the Holy Fehm, to conceal its proceedings " from wife and child, father and mother, sister and brother, fire and wind, from all that the sun shines on and the rain wets, and from every being between heaven and earth," and to bring before the tribunal every thing within his knowledge that fell under its jurisdiction. He was then initiated into the signs by which the members recognized each other, and was presented with a rope and a knife, upon which were engraved the mystic letters S.S.G.G., whose signification is still involved in doubt, but which are supposed to mean Strick, Stein, Gras, Grein. The emperor was the nominal head of the Fehmic courts. Under him the supreme president was the archbishop of Cologne as duke of Westphalia. The whole country over which the jurisdiction of the Fehmic courts extended was divided into districts, in each of which there was at least one court, presided over by a judge called a Freigraf, or free count. Along with him sat an indefinite number of