(who were really a very remarkable body of men) distrusted democratic government; that their Sedition Law was outrageous in itself, and (as well as the Alien Law) bad as a party measure; that in disputes with Great Britain they were true English Tories when contrasted with the friendly attitude toward America held by many English Liberals; and that they persisted in New England as a pro-British, aristocratic social-cult long after they lost effective political influence. In short, the country was already thoroughly democratic in spirit, while Federalism stood for obsolescent social ideas and was infected with political “Toryism” fatally against the times.
Besides the standard general histories see O. G. Libby, Geographical Distribution of the Vote of the Thirteen States on the Federal Constitution, 1787–1788 (Madison, Wis., 1894); the Memoirs of Oliver Wolcott (ed. by Gibbs); C. D. Hazen, Contemporary American Opinion of the French Revolution (“J.H.U. Studies,” Baltimore, 1897); Henry Adams, Documents relating to New England Federalism, 1800–1815 (Boston, 1878); A. E. Morse, The Federalist Party in Massachusetts (Princeton, N.J., 1909); and the biographies and writings of George Cabot, Fisher Ames, Gouverneur Morris, John Jay, Rufus King, Timothy Pickering, Theodore Sedgwick, C. C. Pinckney and J. A. Bayard.
FEDERICI, CAMILLO (1749–1802), Italian dramatist and
actor, was born at Garessio, a small town in Piedmont, on the
9th of April 1749. His real name was Giovanni Battista Viassolo,
and that by which he is now known and which he transmitted
to his children was taken from the title of one of his first pieces,
Camillo e Federico. He was educated at Turin, and showed
at an early age a great fondness for literature and especially
for the theatre. The praises bestowed on his early attempts
determined his choice of a career, and he obtained engagements
with several companies both as writer and actor. He made a
happy marriage in 1777, and soon after left the stage and
devoted himself entirely to composition. He settled at Padua,
and the reputation of his numerous comedies rapidly spread in
Italy, and for a time seemed to eclipse that of his predecessors.
Most of his pieces were of the melodramatic class, and he too
often resorted to the same means of exciting interest and curiosity.
He caught, however, something of the new spirit which was
manifesting itself in German dramatic literature in the works
of Schiller, Iffland and Kotzebue, and the moral tone of his
plays is generally healthy. Fortune did not smile upon him;
but he found a helpful friend in a wealthy merchant of Padua,
Francis Barisan, for whose private theatre he wrote many pieces.
He was attacked in 1791 with a dangerous malady which disabled
him for several years; and he had the misfortune to see
his works, in the absence of any copyright law, published by
others without his permission. At length, in 1802, he undertook
to prepare a collected edition; but of this four volumes only
were completed when he was again attacked with illness, and
died at Padua (December 23).
The publication of his works was completed in 14 volumes in 1816. Another edition in 26 volumes was published at Florence in 1826–1827. A biographical memoir of Federici by Neymar appeared at Venice in 1838.
FEE, an estate in land held of a superior lord on condition
of the performance of homage or service (see Feudalism). In
English law “fee” signifies an estate of inheritance (i.e. an
estate descendable to the heirs of the grantee so long as there
are any in existence) as opposed to an estate for life. It is
divisible into three species: (1) fee simple; (2) conditional fee;
(3) fee tail. (See Estate.) A fee farm rent is the rent reserved
on granting a fee farm, i.e. land in fee simple, to be held by the
tenant and his heirs at a yearly rent. It is generally at least
one-fourth of the value of the land at the time of its reservation.
(See Rent.)
The word “fee” has also the sense of remuneration for services, especially the honorarium paid to a doctor, lawyer or member of any other profession. It is also used of a fixed sum paid for the right to enter for an examination, or on admission to membership of a university or other society. This sense of the word is taken by the New English Dictionary to be due to a use of “fee” in its feudal sense, and to represent a sum paid to the holder of an office “in fee.”
The etymology of the Med. Lat. feudum, feodum or feum, of its French equivalent fief, and English “fee,” in Scots law “feu” (q.v.), is extremely obscure. (See the New English Dictionary, s.v. “Fee.”) There is a common Teutonic word represented in Old English as feoh or féo, in Old High German as fehu, meaning property in the shape of cattle (cf. modern Ger. Vieh, Dutch vee). The old Aryan péku gives Sanskrit paçu, Lat. pecus, cattle, whence pecunia, money. The O. Eng. feoh, in the sense of money, possibly survives in “fee,” honorarium, though this is not the view of the New English Dictionary. The common explanation of the Med. Lat. feudum or feodum, of which Ducange (Glossarium, s.v.) gives an example from a constitution of the emperor Charles the Fat of the year 884, is that it is formed from the Teutonic fehu, property, and ôd, wealth (cf. Allodium and Udal). This would apparently restrict the original meaning to movable property, while the early applications of feudum are to the enjoyment of something granted in return for service (beneficium). Another theory takes the origin to be fehu alone, in a particular sense of wages, payment for services. This leaves the d- of feudum unexplained. Some have taken the origin to be a verbal form feudare = feum dare. Another theory finds the source in the O. High Ger. fehôn, to eat, feed upon, “take for one’s enjoyment.”
FEHLING, HERMANN VON (1812–1885), German chemist,
was born at Lübeck on the 9th of June 1812. With the intention
of taking up pharmacy he entered Heidelberg University about
1835, and after graduating went to Giessen as préparateur to
Liebig, with whom he elucidated the composition of paraldehyde
and metaldehyde. In 1839 on Liebig’s recommendation he was
appointed to the chair of chemistry in the polytechnic at Stuttgart,
and held it till within three years of his death, which
happened at Stuttgart on the 1st of July 1885. His earlier
work included an investigation of succinic acid, and the preparation
of phenyl cyanide (benzonitrile), the simplest nitrile
of the aromatic series; but later his time was mainly occupied
with questions of technology and public health rather than with
pure chemistry. Among the analytical methods worked up by
him the best known is that for the estimation of sugars by
“Fehling’s solution,” which consists of a solution of cupric
sulphate mixed with alkali and potassium-sodium tartrate
(Rochelle salt). He was a contributor to the Handwörterbuch
of Liebig, Wöhler and Poggendorff, and to the Graham-Otto
Textbook of Chemistry, and for many years was a member of the
committee of revision of the Pharmacopoeia Germanica.
FEHMARN, an island of Germany, belonging to the Prussian
province of Schleswig-Holstein, in the Baltic, separated from
the north-east corner of Holstein by a strait known as the
Fehmarn-Sund, less than a quarter of a mile in breadth. It is
a gently undulating tract of country, about 120 sq. m. in area,
bare of forest but containing excellent pasture-land, and rears
cattle in considerable numbers. Pop. 10,000.
FEHMIC COURTS (Ger. Femgerichte, or Vehmgerichte, of
disputed origin, but probably, according to J. Grimm, from
O. High Ger. feme or feime, a court of justice), certain tribunals
which, during the middle ages, exercised a powerful and sometimes
sinister jurisdiction in Germany, and more especially in
Westphalia. Their origin is uncertain, but is traceable to the
time of Charlemagne and in all probability to the old Teutonic
free courts. They were, indeed, also known as free courts
(Freigerichte), a name due to the fact that all free-born men
were eligible for membership and also to the fact that they
claimed certain exceptional liberties. Their jurisdiction they
owed to the emperor, from whom they received the power of
life and death (Blutbann) which they exercised in his name.
The sessions were often held in secret, whence the names of
secret court (heimliches Gericht, Stillgericht, &c.); and these
the uninitiated were forbidden to attend, on pain of death,
which led to the designation forbidden courts (verbotene Gerichte).
Legend and romance have combined to exaggerate the sinister
reputation of the Fehmic courts; but modern historical research
has largely discounted this, proving that they never employed
torture, that their sittings were only sometimes secret, and that
