There could be no
doubt that all these ceremonies and parleyings were necessary in those
days, but it does not follow that we should carry them out in our times.
Were any person now, to surround his residence with a deep and broad
ditch, and observe those ceremonies when a visitor called upon him, we
would call him insane; yet, that is precisely what we do with regard to
the transfer of real estate, observing still the tortuous roundabout
methods of conveying, resorted to in those days for the purpose of
evading the oppressions of feudalism. Nay, the analogy is so strong,
that in our Law Courts, and Deeds we still use the same barbarous Norman
French jargon in which the parley was in those ancient days held at the
gate of the baronial residence. (Hear, and applause.) It is perhaps
presumptuous of a person who has not received a legal education, to
address his mind to this question; seeing, however, that the persons
who, by ability, and education, are best fit to cope with the subject,
are not willing, or, at least have not done so, I have taken the task
upon myself.
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