Note 133 — Chapter II
Reading edition
A most curious pleading based on the conceptions of Glanville occurs in a Cor. Rege case of 10 Henry III, which was pointed out to me by F. Maitland. See App. IV. Mr. York Powell suggests that the limitation may have originated in the fact, that in early times a man could no more give away a slave from his family estate without the consent of the family than he could give away the estate itself or part of it. There was no reason for such limitation in the case of a slave that had been bought with one's private money. Hence the necessity of selling a slave in order to emancipate him. The conjecture seems a very probable one, but the question remains, how such ancient practice could have left a trace in the feudal period. The explanation in the text may possibly account for the tenacity of the notion.