("Middle Ages," ii., 386, 481), extolling the
condition of "the free socage tenants, or English yeomanry, as the class
whose independence has stamped with peculiar features both our
constitution and our national character," gives two derivations for the
name; one "the Saxon _soe_, which signifies a franchise, especially one
of jurisdiction;" and the other, that adopted by Bracton, and which he
himself prefers, "the French word _soc_, a ploughshare."]

[Footnote 114: Lord Colchester's "Diary," i., 68, mentions that the
officiating clergyman was Mr. Burt, of Twickenham, who received L500 for
his services. Lord John Russell ("Memorials and Correspondence of Fox,"
ii., 284-389) agrees in stating that the marriage was performed in the
manner prescribed by the Common Prayer-book. Mr. Jesse, in his "Life of
George III.," ii., 506, gathering, as the present writer can say from
personal knowledge, his information from some papers left behind him by
the late J.W. Croker, says: "The ceremony was performed by a Protestant
clergyman, though in part, apparently, according to the rites of the
Roman Catholic Church." Lord John Russell avoids discussing the question
whether the marriage involved the forfeiture of the inheritance of the
crown, an avoidance which many will interpret as a proof that in his
opinion it did. Mr. Massey's language ("History of England," iii., 327)
clearly intimates that he holds the same opinion.]

[Footnote 115: Russell's "Life of Fox," ii., 187.]

[Footnote 116: Fox's private correspondence is full of anticipations
that the Regent's first act will be to dismiss Pitt, and to make him
minister. In a letter of December 15 he even fixes a fortnight as the
time by which he expects to be installed; while Lord Loughborough, who
was eager to possess himself of the Great Seal--an expectation in which,
though well-founded, he would, as it proved, have found himself
disappointed--was led by his hopes to give the Prince counsel of so
extraordinary a nature that it is said that the ministers, to whose
knowledge it had come, were prepared, if any attempt had been made to
act upon it, or even openly to avow it, to send the learned lord to the
Tower. ("Diary of Lord Colchester," i., 28.) In an elaborate paper which
he drew up and read to the Prince at Windsor, he assured his Royal
Highness, speaking as a lawyer, that "the administration of government
devolved to him of right. He was bound by every duty to assume it, and
h