note of the fine ſhall be openly read in the court of common pleas, at two ſeveral days in one week, and during ſuch reading, all pleas ſhall ceaſe. By 5 Hen. IV. c. 14. and 23 Eliz. c. 3. all the proceedings on fines either at the time of acknowlegement, or previous, or ſubſequent thereto, ſhall be enrolled of record in the common court of pleas. By 1 Ric. III. c. 7. confirmed and enforced by 4 Hen. VII. c. 24. the fine, after engroſſment, ſhall be openly read and proclaimed in court ſixteen times; viz. four times in the term in which it is made, and four times in each of the three ſucceeding terms; during which time all pleas ſhall ceaſe: but this is reduced to once in each term by 31 Eliz. c. 2. and theſe proclamations are endorſed on the back of the record[1]. It is alſo enacted by 23 Eliz. c. 3. that the chirographer of fines ſhall every term write out a table of the fines levied in each county in that term, and ſhall affix them in ſome open part of the court of common pleas all the next term: and ſhall alſo deliver the contents of ſuch table to the ſheriff of every county, who ſhall at the next aſſiſes fix the ſame in ſome open place in the court, for the more public notoriety of the fine.
2. Fines, thus levied, are of four kinds, 1. What in our law French is called a fine "ſur cognizance de droit, com ceo que il ad de ſon done;" or, a fine upon acknowlegement of the right of the cognizee, as that which he hath of the gift of the cognizor[2]. This is the beſt and ſureſt kind of fine; for thereby the deforciant, in order to keep his covenant with the plaintiff, of conveying to him the lands in queſtion, and at the ſame time to avoid the formality of an annual feoffment and livery, acknowleges in court a former feoffment, or gift in poſſeſſion, to have been made by him to the plaintiff. This fine is therefore ſaid to be a feoffment of record; the livery thus acknowleged in court, being equivalent to an actual livery: ſo that this aſſurance is rather a confeſſion of a former conveyance, than a conveyance now originally made; for the deforciant, or cognizor, acknowleges,
