Business Principles

powers, and privileges were then habitually referred. 'It was felt that if a clear case of devolution from I a superior could be made out, the right claimed [ was thereby established ; and any claim which : could not be brought to rest on such an act, or constructive act, of devolution was felt to be in J a precarious case. The superior from whom rights, whether of ownership or otherwise, devolved held his powers by a tenure of prowess fortified by usage ; the inferior upon whom given rights and powers devolved held what fell to his lot by a tenure of service and fealty sanctioned by use and wont. The relation was essentially a personal one, a relation of status, of authority and subservience. Hereditary standing gave a presumption of ownership, rather than conversely. I In the last resort the chain of devolution by virtue of which all rights and powers of the comiaon man pertained to him was to be traced back ; through a sequence of superiors to the highest, ' sovereign secular authority, through whom in turn it ran hack to God. But neither in the case of the temporal sovereign nor in that of the divine sovereign was it felt that their competence to delegate or devolve powers and rights rested on a workmanlike or creative efiiciency. It was not 80 much by virtue of His office as creator as it was by virtue of His office as suzerain that the Deity was felt to be the source and arbiter of