The first volume of the " Chetham Society's Publications" for
the year 1899-1900 is The Chartulary of Cockersand Abbey, trans- cribed and edited by William Ferrer, VoL II., containing more than a hundred documents and covering a period of more than two centuries. It would be an interesting task to tra:e out the relation between these documents and present tenures. We find, for instance, the Abbey extinguishing the common right of an individual by granting him sixteen acres of freehold. Another point of view is suggested by the frequent occurrence of the words "pro salute alli11103." No doctrine ever had such wide- reaching secular effect as that of the efficscy of prayers for the dead. We may hold it as a pious opinion, and it seems harsh to object, but if it is formalised into a tenet there is no more powerful engine of superstition.
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