FORFEITURE OF LANDS was originally a penalty of the feudal law, incurred on account of some act by the tenant inferring disloyalty to his overlord. The acts infer ring forfeiture might be of either a civil or a criminal nature. Forfeiture for crimes was incurred by treason or felony. See FORFEITURE AND CORRUPTION OF BLOOD.
Civil forfeiture may be incurred in England in three ways—viz., by tortious by wrongful disclaimer, and by alienation in mortmain; the first two of these modes were incidents of the feudal tenure, the latter was introduced by statute. It must be observed that, according to the earliest feudal customs, a gift of lands was always made in favor of a particular person, and that alienation, without consent of the overlord, involved a forfeiture of the fee. But this strictness having by degrees ceased to be observed, forfeiture was only incurred in case of a tortious alienation. Tortious alienation was where the owner of a particular estate conveyed by common-law convey ance, as feoffment, fine, or recovery, a greater estate than that to which he was himself entitled, as where a tenant-for-life made a feoffment in fee. The immediate effect of this act was the forfeiture of the land to the remainder man or reversioner. By 3 and 4 Will. IV. c. 74, abolishing fines and recoveries, ctnd 8 and 9 Viet. c. 109, s. 4, declaring that a feoffment should not have a tortious operation, forfeiture by tortious alienation has ceased to have a practical importance. Forfeiture by wrongful disclaimer was where a tenant holding under a superior lord, on being summoned in any court of record, either disclaims his allegiance, or does any act amounts to a disclaimer. Since the aboli tion by the statute of quia emptores, of subinfeudation, this species of forfeiture can only arise in lands held of the crown. Forfeiture by alienation in mortmain is incurred by the conveyance of lands or tenements in favor of any corporation (q.v.). sole or aggregate, eccle siastical or temporal. As by vesting the land in a tenant of this description, the over lord was deprived of all the duties and services due by his vassal, this net was declared by various acts of parliament to infer the forfeiture of the lands. See MonTmairt. Forfeiture of copyholds was incurred by committing waste, and by other acts of a wrongful kind inconsistent with the fealty due to the lord. See Blackstone, Com. ii. 284. Forfeiture on breach of condition subsequent, is where an estate is held upon a condition contained in the grant itself. On failure of the condition, the granter or his heirs may enter upon the lands.
In Scotland, civil forfeiture may arise either from statutory enactment, at common law, or by agreement. By 1597 c. 246, it is enacted that vassals failing to pay their feu duties for two years shall forfeit their right. This forfeiture must be established by an action to recover the feu-duties in arrear, and may be avoided by payment at the bar.
At common law, a vassal forfeited his land by disclamation or purpresture. The former is analogous to the English disclaimer, and consists in the denial by a vassal of his law ful superior. Purpresture was incurred by the vassal's encroachment on the streets, Highways, or commonties belonging to the crown or other superior. These forms of forfeiture are fallen into disuse. Forfeiture on special agreement depends wholly upon the terms of 'the condition inserted in the titles to the land. The condition must be for tified by irritant and resolutive clauses, and must enter the saline, in order that it may , be effectual against purchasers- of the lands (Erskine, H. 3, s. 13). Of this kind of forfeiture are breaches of entails (q.v.).
The process of hammering red-hot iron or steel into any required shape is called forging, and the workshop in which the operation is performed, a forge. The principal tools of a. doininen sthith'd forge are the or heattli, with its bel lows, the anvil, and the various hammers, swages, etc. For large work, an air-furnace, blown by steam-bellows, supplies the place of the simple hearth of pow. erful cranes swing the work to its place on the anvil,, and a steam-hammer (see IIAmmErt) strikes the blows that squeeze the red-hot mass into shape. Besides these, there are portable forges of various sizes and forms, used for military and other purposes. They usually consist of an iron frame, to,whieh a bellows, worked by the foot, is attached; and above the bellows is an iron tray. with a hearth, etc., upon which the fire is made; and the anvil is either attached to this frame, or has a separate stand.
Under CUTLERY, the general method of forging small work is described. For the largest work to which hand-hammers are still applied, such as anchor-forging, two gangs of from six to twelve hammermen are employed; they swing the large hammers with such wonderful precision and regularity, that the instant one hammer is with drawn, another falls upon the same place. A foreman, with a wand, directs the ham mering. The two gangs relieve each other alternately, on account of the great severity of the labor. Shovels, spades, mattocks, and many other tools and implements, are partly forged under the tilt-hammer. See Iumx.
In all processes of forging, it is of primary importance to obtain the greatest possi ble rapidity in the succession of the blows. There is a double reason for this: first, and simply, that the work is cooling, and the more slowly it is forged, the more frequently it must be reheated; and secondly, that percussion generates actual heat, and if the blows are sufficiently heavy and rapid, the temperature of the work may be fully main tained out of the fire for it considerable length of time. The hammer used for tilting steel not only maintains the heat of the bar, but raises it from a dull to a bright red heat.