FESTUBEBT 125 FEUDAL SYSTEM N. H., Oct 16, 1806; was graduated at Bowdoin College in 1823 and admitted to the bar in 1827. He entered politics and soon acquired a national reputation as a lawyer and a Whig. He was elected to the United States Senate in 1854, and a week after he took his seat made a speech against the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, which placed him in the front rank of senatorial orators. During the Civil War he was conspicuous for his efforts to sustain the national credit. He was made Secretary of the Treasury in 1864, and, having placed it on a firm basis, re- signed in 1865 to return to his seat in the Senate. He died in Portland, Me., Sept. 8, 1869. FESTUBEBT, a small town in north- ern France, three miles S. of Neuve Cha- pelle, the center of intensive fighting be- tween the British forces and the Ger- mans in the early part of the World War. From it was named the Battle of Festubert, which was a forward movement undertaken by the British during May, 1915, with the object of preventing the Germans from sending re-enforcements to Lens, where the French were being hard pressed. The battle proper began on the morning of May 9, 1915, the British offensive extend- hig from Armentieres to La Bassee. The attack lasted several days, but ended in failure, demonstrating the superiority of the Germans in heavy artillery at that time. FESTUS, PORCITJS, pro-Consul and Governor of Judaea, before whom St. Paul was accused by the Jews; but the apostle appealing to the emperor, Festus sent him to Rome. Also, a celebrated Latin grammarian who lived between the 2d and 4th centuries. FETICHISM, or FETICISM, the worshiping of a fetich. The word fetich is said to be derived from the Portuguese word fetiso, bewitched, and was applied originally to the objects worshiped by the negroes of Africa. The term is ap- plied to anything in nature or art to which a magical power is ascribed, as stones, carved images, etc. Fetichism is the worship of material substances, and prevails very extensively among barbar- ous nations. Among them, tribes, fam- ilies, and individuals have their I'espec- tive fetiches; which are often objects casually selected, as stones, weapons, ves- sels, plants, etc., and the rude worshiper does not hesitate to chastise, or even throw away or destroy his fetich, if it does not seem to gratify his desires. FEUDAL SYSTEM, that constitu- tional system which was introduced into Europe by the N. nations after the fall Vol. IV — Cyc— I of the Roman power^ and which has left important traces of its existence in most European countries. The constitution of feuds had its origin in the military I- jlicy of the Goths, Huns, Vandals, and other N. nations, who overran Europe at the declension of the Roman empire. The term feud is of very doubtful deri- vation, but most probably it is formed from the Teutonic fee or feh, wages or pay for service, and odh, or od, property or possession; a feud, then, being the property or possession given as wages for service. In order to secure their newly acquired possessions, and at the same time to reward their deserving fol- lowers, the conquering generals were wont to allot large districts, or parcels of land, to the superior officers of the army, and these were by them again dealt out in smaller allotments or parcels, to the inferior officers and soldiers. According to this system, every re- ceiver of land, or feudatory, was bound, when called on, to serve his immediate lord or superior, and to do all in his power to defend him. Such lord or su- perior was likewise subordinate to, and under the command of, a higher su- perior or lord; and so on upward to the prince or general himself. The several lords wei'e also reciprocally bound in their respective gradations to protect the possessions they had given. Thus the connection between lord and vassal was made to wear all the appearance of a mutual interchange of benefits — of bounty and protection on the one hand, and of gratitude and service on the other. In this way the feudal connec- tion was established, and an army was always at command, ready to fight in de- fense of the whole or of any part of the newly-acquired territory. Thus the feu- dal constitution, or doctrine of tenure, extended itself over all the W. world; and the feudal laws drove out the Roman, which had hitherto universally prevailed. This system was adopted in most coun- tries of Europe from the 9th to the end of the 13th century; but it differed in various particulars in the different coun- tries. Though there can be no doubt that feudal principles prevailed to a considerable extent in the polity of the Saxons in England, yet it was only when that country was conquered by the Nor- mans that it was regularly established. A country, under the feudal law, was divided into knights' fees, the tenant of each of which appears to have been obliged to keep the field at his own ex- pense for 40 days, whenever his lord chose to call on him. For smaller portions of land, smaller periods of service were due. Every great tenant exercised a jurisdiction, civil and criminal, over his
