is almost exactly paralleled in the law ascribed to Rob. I. of
Scotland:--"Si debitor per vim a parte creditoris namos abstulerit,
creditor cum secta vel huesis persequatur ablatorem."

{74b} A copy of the Holy Gospels was eventually used on such occasions.

{74c} This phrase, "to enquire the myne," Mr. Smirke considers of Latin
origin, "libertatim inquirendi mineam"--in which language he thinks the
whole of the document was probably first composed.

{75a} The German miners, Mr. Smirke says, enjoyed a similar liberty.
See former liberty on this head.

{75b} According to Mr. Smirke, the corresponding demand made upon the
Bergmeister, by the German miners, is equally imperative, unless
conflicting claims are put in, when the first finder and not the first
claimant is entitled to preference.

{75c} Mr. Smirke has discovered that a like obligation was imposed on
the Irons, or Iron Miners, of the forests in the ancient Earldom of
Namur. He very plausibly suggests that the appellation, "Verus," by
which the Dean Forest Miners designate each other, is derived from the
word Firon.

{75d} Mr. Smirke has traced the giving of similar doles in the ancient
constitutions of the Miners of Bohemia, Saxony, and the Hartz.

{76a} The proportion of Profit to the Crown is found to vary in
different places, sometimes being no more than a tenth part or even a
twentieth or less. These provisions respecting the right of the lord of
the soil, whether king or subject, have their counterparts in the old
summary laws, which regulate the participation of the landowner in the
discovery and working of mines; the _droit de partage_, or "mit-bauhalf,"
&c. of the German miners.

{76b} See the Regard of 10 Edw. I., &c., which contains a similar
specification.

{77} The occurrence of these pre-Reformation terms, more especially the
latter, proves the original of this document to be of earlier date than
that event. The portion of the day, as thus defined, would seem to
answer to our forenoon.

{78} An expression that indicates a Latin original--"judicium firmum et
stabile remanebit in perpetuum absque ulla appellatione." No appeal or
"calling" lies further. This appeal to successive inquests is
remarkable. It resembles the process of reversing a verdict of twelve
jurors by a verdict of twenty-four by the old writ of attaint. (See
Blackst. Com, vol. iii.)

{79a} The German Miners Mr. Smirke found to possess these rights also