KFLCC Kingdom Law 2nd Ed.

486

FEASANCE

FEE

emotion. An evidence of guilt In certain cases. See Burrill, Circ. Ev. 476. FEASANCE. A doing; the doing of an act. See MALFEASANCE; MISFEASANCE; NON JXASANCE. A making; the making of an indenture, release, or obligation. Litt. § 371; Dyer, (Fr. Ed.) 566. The making of a statute. Keilw. 16. FEASANT. Doing, or making, as, In the term "damage feasant," (doing damage or injury,) spoken of cattle straying upon an other's land. estatute, makers of the statute. Dyer, 36. Also used in the compound term, "tort-feas or," one who commits or is guilty of a tort FEASTS. Certain established festivals or holidays in the ecclesiastical calendar. These days were anciently used as the dates of legal instruments, and in England the quar ter-days, for paying rent, are four feast-days. The terms of the courts, in England, before 1875, were fixed to begin on certain days determined with reference to the occurrence of four of the chief feasts. FECIAL IiAW. The nearest approach to a System of international law known to the ancient world. It was a branch of Roman Jurisprudence, concerned with- embassies, dec larations of war, and treaties of peace. It received this name from the feciales, (q. v.,) who were charged with its administration. FECIALES. Among the ancient Romans, that order of priests who discharged the du ties of ambassadors. Subsequently their du ties appear to have related more particular ly to the declaring war and peace. Calvin.; 1 Kent, Comm. 6. FEDERAL. In constitutional law. A term commonly used to express a league or compact between two or more states. In American law. Belonging to the gen eral government or union of the states. Founded on or organized under the constitu tion or laws of the United States. The United States has been generally styled, in American political and judicial writings, a "federal government." The term has not been imposed by any specific constitutional author ity, but only expresses the general sense and opinion upon the nature of the form of govern ment. In recent years, there is observable a disposition to employ the term "national" in speaking of the government of the Union. Nei ther word settles anything as to the nature or powers of the government. "Federal" is some what more appropriate if the government is considered a union of the states; "national" is preferable if the view is adopted that the state governments and the Union, are two dis tinct systems, each established by the people directly, one for local and the other for nation FEASOR. Doer; maker. Feasors del

al purposes. See United States v. Ouikshank, 92 U. S. 542, 23 L. Ed. 588; Abbott. —Federal courts. The courts of the United States. See COURTS OF THE UNITED STATES. —Federal government. The'System of gov ernment administered in a state formed by the union or confederation of several independent or quasi independent states; also the composite state so formed. In strict usage, there is a distinction between a confederation and a fed eral government. The former term denotes a league or permanent alliance between several states, each of which is fully sovereign and in dependent, and each of which retains its full dignity, organization, and sovereignty, though yielding to the central authority a controlling power for a few limited purposes, such as ex ternal and diplomatic relations. In this case, the component states are the units, with re spect to the confederation, and the central gov ernment acts upon them, not upon the individ ual citizens. In a federal government, on the other hand, the allied states form a union,— not, indeed, to such an extent as to destroy their separate organization or deprive them of quasi sovereignty with respect to the adminis tration of their purely local concerns, but so that the central power is erected into a true state or nation, possessing sovereignty both ex ternal and internal,—while the administration of national affairs is directed, and its effects felt, not by the separate states deliberating as units, but by the people of all, in their collec tive capacity, as citizens of the nation. The distinction is expressed, by the German writers, by the use of the two words " Staatenbund" and "Bundesstaat;" the former denoting a league or confederation of states, and the latter a federal government, or state formed by means of a league or confederation.—Federal ques tion. Cases arising under the constitution of the United States, acts of congress, or treaties, and involving their interpretation or applica tion, and of which jurisdiction is given to the federal courts, are commonly described by the legal profession as cases involving a "federal question." In re "Sievers (D. C.) 91 Fed. 372; U. S. v. Douglas, 113 N. C. 190, 18 S. E. 202 ; Williams v. Bruffy, 102 U. S. 248, 26 L. Ed. 135. FEE. 1. A freehold estate in lands, held of a superior lord, as a reward for services, and on condition of rendering some service in return for it. The true meaning of the word "fee" is the same as that of "feud" or "fief," and in its original sense it is taken in con tradistinction to "allodium," which latter is defined as a man's own land, which he pos sesses merely in his own right, without ow ing any rent or service to any superior. 2 Bl. Comm. 105. See Wendell v. Crandall, 1 N. Y. 491. In modern English tenures, "fee" signifies an estate of inheritance, being the highest and most extensive Interest which a man can have in a feud; and when the term is used simply, without any adjunct, or in the form "fee-simple," it imports an absolute inher itance clear of any condition, limitation, or restriction to particular heirs, but descend ible to the heirs general, male or female, lin eal or collateral. 2 Bl. Comm. 106. —Base fee. A determinable or qualified fee; an estate having the nature of a fee, but not a fee simple absolute.—Conditional fee. An estate restrained to some particular heirs, ex clusive of others, as to the heirs of a 'man's body, by which only his lineal descendants were