socage, and not in capite, nor by knight service, yielding and rendering of and for the same, yearly and every year, forty beaver skins when they shall be demanded, or within ninety days thereafter." This meant simply that there was to be no feudal tenure of lands under its provisions (all feudal tenures having, in fact, been abolished throughout English dominions by act of Parliament four years previously), but that the system introduced should be strictly allodial, patterned, moreover, upon that prevailing in " our Manor of East Greenwich in the County of Kent," " the object being to give to the new possessions in America the most favorable tenure then known to the English law." The basis of the ancient and effete feudal system was the complete subjection of the vassal to his lord, the vassal being bound to perform military and other personal services and to be judged at law by his lord, and the lord guaranteeing him, in consideration of his fealty, security in the possession of his lands and general protection. On the other hand, allodial tenure, or " free and common socage," was " a free tenure, the land being a freehold, and the holder a freeman, because he, as well as the land, was entirely free from all exactions, and from all rents and services except those specified in his grant. £o long as these last were paid or performed, no lord or other power could deprive him of his land, and he could devise it by will, and in case of his death intestate it could be divided among his sons equally." Thus iu its very origin, English rule in what is now the State of New York had for its basic principle an absolutely free yeomanry. The erection of " manors," presided over by so-called " lords," did not affect in the least this elementary free status; the manors being only larger estates, and their lords wealthy proprietors with certain incidental aristocratic functions and dignities which violated in no manner the principle of perfectly free land tenure, New York, under this patent from Charles II., assumed at once the character of a " proprietary province " -- that is, a province owned absolutely by the beneficiary, James, Duke of York, and ruled exclusively by him through his subordinates, subject to the general laws of England.