{71e} The French word "gree," for agreement or composition, is familiar among our early poets and writers, and occurs in the old statutes. {72a} In this and in several other passages of this document, "myne " is used for mineral or ore. {72b} This word and its variations is technical, and is nearly equivalent to a prohibition or injunction. {72c} This general liberty of mining, without apparent restriction as to surface ownership, is to be found in the earliest charters of the Stannaries, and was and still is extensively prevalent in Germany and elsewhere. The authorities are collected in Mr. Smirke's volume already referred to. It was this remarkable liberty that Lord Nelson noticed when visiting the Forest in 1802. {72d} In very early times the smith ranked very high among artificers, and was honoured in proportion. {72e} Probably carbon, old iron cinders, are still found at these places. {72f} The gate being the spot where justice was administered, in accordance with remote practice. {73a} Or Court of the Mine held in the castle. {73b} "Tertia manu," with a third hand; that is, with three witnesses or compurgators. {73c} In allusion to this rude and arbitrary process of distress, Mr. Smirke states that it is abundantly countenanced by ancient usage, especially in the Hartz Mines. Haltaus says--"Olim pignoris captio ex debitoris rebus moventibus diu privatorum arbitrio permissa." {73d} The "cattle" here must not be understood as exclusively applicable to live stock, it refers to all personal "chattels" or goods. {74a} However whimsical this claim may appear, observes Mr. Smirke, it is almost exactly paralleled in the law ascribed to Rob. I. of Scotland:--"Si debitor per vim a parte creditoris namos abstulerit, creditor cum secta vel huesis persequatur ablatorem." {74b} A copy of the Holy Gospels was eventually used on such occasions. {74c} This phrase, "to enquire the myne," Mr. Smirke considers of Latin origin, "libertatim inquirendi mineam"--in which language he thinks the whole of the document was probably first composed. {75a} The German miners, Mr. Smirke says, enjoyed a similar liberty. See former liberty on this head. {75b} According to Mr. Smirke, the corresponding demand made upon the Bergmeister, by the German miners, is equally imperative, unless conflicting claims are put in, when the first finder and not the first claimant is entitled to preference. {75c} Mr. Smirke has discovered that a like obligation was imposed on the Irons, or Iron Miners, of the forests in the ancient Earldom of Namur. He very plausibly suggests that the appellation, "Verus," by which the Dean Forest Miners designate each other, is derived from the word Firon. {75d} Mr. Smirke has traced the giving of similar doles in the ancient constitutions of the Miners of Bohemia, Saxony, and the Hartz.