was formerly given, yet still it may be supposed that inconveniences would frequently arise, either from the loss of the charter itself, or from the difficulty of proving it after a lapse of years.
   "These circumstances probably induced men to look out for some other species of assurance which should be more solemn, more lasting, and more easy to' be proved than a charter of feoffment.
   "Experience must soon have discovered that no title could be so secure and notorious as, that which had been questioned by an adverse party, and ratified by the determination of a court of justice; and the ingenuity of mankind soon found out the method of drawing the same advantages from a fictitious process. "To effect this purpose, the following plan was adopted; a suit was commenced concerning the lands intended to be conveyed, and when the writ was sued out, and the parties appeared in court, a composition of the suit was entered into, with the consent of the judges, whereby the lands in question were acknowledged to be the right
of one of the contending parties.¹
   "This agreement, being reduced into writing, was enrolled among the records of the Court, where it was preserved by the public officer, by which means it was not so liable to be lost or defaced as a Charter of Feoffment, and would at all times prove itself; and, being substituted in place of the sentence which would have been given in case the suit had not been compounded, it was to be held of equal force with the judgment of a court of justice."
   Such is the perspicuous account which Cruise has given of the nature and origin of the legal process of  "levying a fine," as cited by Mr. Hunter in his learned preface to the "Pedes Finium" edited by him under the direction of the Commissioners of the Public Records.