Its use as a title is simply a mark of intense or ignorant republican provincialism. ' Lord ' as a prefix to a manor owner's name was never used in England nor in the Province of New York." The manor was a very ancient institution in England, but by the statute of quia emptorvs, enacted in 1290, the erection of new manors in that kingdom was forever put to an end. The old English manors, founded in the Middle Ages, were of course based upon the feudal system, involving military service by the fief at the will of his lord, and, in general, the complete subjection of the fief. The whole feudal system of land tenure having been abolished by the statute of Charles II. in 1GG0, and the system of " free and common socage " (meaning the right to hold land unvexed by the obligation of feudal service) having been substituted in its stead, New York, both as a proprietary province under the Duke of York and subsequently as a royal province, never exhibited any traces of feudality in the matter of land tenures, but always had an absolutely free yeomanry. But it was never contemplated that New York or any of the other provinces in America should develop a characteristically democratic organization of government or basis of society. Titled persons were sent to rule over them, and, particularly in New York, there was a manifest tendency to render the general aspect of administration and social life as congenial as possible to people of high birth and elegant breeding. Moreover, there being no provision for the creation of an American titled aristocracy, it was deemed expedient to offer some encouragement to men of aristocratic desires, and the institu-