Reasons for the continuance of the common Assurance of Land by Fines.  
I. Fines are the common and the most ancient Assurances of this Nation, long before the Conquest: Plow. fol. 357.& 368. which puts an end to all Controversies in the Law, and against which there is no averment.  
II. They are the most short and concise of all Evidences, yet full and perfect, in so much that the Chirographer( for security) writes them twice over, to be kept in several places; proclaims them four times in open Court; And because all parties are by them barred, not claiming within five years, He enters them in several Rolls, every County by itself, to be sent into each particular County, and published at the Assizes, and all this for his Fee of five shillings, per Stat. 13 E. 1. 4 Hen. 7.23. Eliz.  
III. They are most in esteem and acceptation with the people, against which there was never any complaint: And in case the State should relinquish their Revenue thereby( which none complains against) amounting to twenty thousand pounds per annum at least) they would be as cheap Assurances, and as perfect Evidences as can be devised.  
IV. They are by the wisdom of former Parliaments so carefully provided for, in way of their acknowledgement, prosecution, and recording, as that they can neither be forged nor embezeled.  
V. Although divers persons inhabiting in several Counties should happen to have one joint estate in Lands, which lie in many Counties, yet may they all join and levy a Fine by Commission, and so pass away their Estates at their own several habitations, without further travel or trouble.  
VI. They bar a Feme Covert, which no other dead or Conveyance can do.  
VII. They may( as anciently usually they did) with much brevity declare their own uses, that the parties need no other dead.  
wherefore, seeing Fines are so concise, so ancient, so cheap; so much esteemed by all men, such perfect Assurances, and in regard they put an end to all Suits, bar all Claims, have so many Acts of Parliament approving and strengthening them, and take their rise long before the coming in of the Normans, and are part of the Common Law of England. It is humbly conceived, it will be most safe and acceptable to the people still to hold their Estates by this Assurance.